Originally started in the 1940’s as a blacksmith shop by Ferdinand Nicholas Zaunbrecher, Ferdie did regular iron work for the family farm which would require building a small shop to get the work done for the estate. As with all innovative ideas, necessity demands the development of products or machinery needed to address the problems at hand which insists that creativity lends itself over to action giving form to the inventions which comes from applying effort.
A Problem presenting itself to the Agriculture Industry was the fact that combine grain concaves wear out due to the abrasive nature of threshing, forcing upon the industry a demand to recondition the concaves granting to them up to 4 times the life expectancy due to hardfacing and grinding, or buy new ones at over twice the price.
In November of 1952 Ferdie would file a provisional patent application with the US Patents Office for patent protection to preserve his invention of the first concave grinder to recondition them. Even with today’s technology and invention of AR Series plates (Abrasion Resistance) now being brought in to address the wearing of combine concaves, they are still no match for the time proven hardfacing methods involved with building up worn metal with hardsurface welding procedures to toughening up metals. The problem presenting itself after hardfacing was to make a machine which could accurately and consistently grind now exceedingly tough concaves back to their original dimensions.
Almost 4 years after filing for his patent would Ferdie be awarded a patent for the “Grain Combine Concave Reconditioner”
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2761262A/en
Years later, Ferdie would move the shop further up the road closer to town and the business would be passed on to his two sons, Reginald and Malcom, and later named as “Zaunbrecher Iron Works”. Eventually the name would be registered with the state and Malcom “Bubba” Zaunbrecher would become the sole owner.
Primarily established as agriculture repair shop for many decades with concave reconditioning and auger repair being the major work type, Zaunbrecher’s Iron Works would become recognized by many of the surrounding parishes as a quality fabricating shop, reaching up to and gaining customers from the upper part of the state establishing relations that still exist today.
In 1992 Zaunbrecher’s Iron Works would be sold by Bubba Zaunbrecher to his first cousin, Ray Hebert, bringing about another name change to, “Hebert’s Machine Shop”. Ray would bring in municipal and agriculture pump work to the fabricating shop and would purchase lathes and mills adding machining capabilities to the fab shop. Years later, the oil and gas industry was targeted to diversify the work flow through different markets, but after being established for 4 generations in one location, the roots of agriculture remain firmly planted all the while still serving the newer markets.
With Ray retiring in 2017, two of his sons would each open their own business names within the same work location, “Hebert’s Machine Services, LLC” owned and operated by Phil Hebert, and “Hebert’s Quality Welding & Fabrication, LLC” owned and operated by Matt Hebert.
The knowledge and experience that both Phil and Matt bring to the shop in each of their own fields compliments the offsets between shops that are either just fab or machine shops. We do the work ourselves, so when you call for a job that you need done, you will be talking with the ones actually doing the work. With our knowledge and experience, we can handle just about any job, and it’s going to get done the right way.
Hebert's Quality Welding & Fabrication 