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Celebrating 60 Years

Following WWII, John Mulder and his high school friend, Wally Reed, started a metal finishing business in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Wally was the salesman, selling metal finishing equipment and supplies to metal manufacturing firms. John led the metal finishing job shop side of the business. Several years later, in 1959, they dissolved their partnership. Wally set up his own equipment supply sales business and John Mulder establishing Master Finish Co. as a metal finishing job shop providing deburring and burnishing services to metal manufacturing firms. John remained president of Master Finish until his retirement in 1985 when he turned the reins over to his sons, Dale and Mike, and his nephew, Doug. Dale led the company until 2018 when his sons, John and Aaron, purchased Dale’s equity.

John and Aaron had been raised in a family encouraging
their entrepreneurial spirit. After earning their engineering degrees, both
started their careers at manufacturing businesses outside of Master Finish,
gaining business and technical experience. After 10 years working outside the
family business, they were ready to join Master Finish Company, bringing their
education, experience and entrepreneurial spirit to direct the company’s future
success. Following EOS Business Model, John acts as the company “visionary”
serving as President. And Aaron’s role as “integrator” puts him in charge of
all day-to-day operations as our CEO.

Master Finish is a third-generation family business founded in 1959 by John Mulder. Over the last 60 years, we have seen many great technological changes to the industry. Chrome plated parts now last longer retaining their original brilliance improving life cycles of the products we plate. Chemical improvements allow better appearance and corrosion protection than any time in the past. Automated controls improve the accuracy and repeatability of the finishes we now provide. Our 60 years in serving metal manufacturers’ plating needs have kept up our solid reputation as a high-quality metal finisher. The last decade has been one of options in finishing. Chrome plating in today’s world offers a host of different appearances with available satin nickels and dark trivalent chrome options. The future of Master Finish certainly looks to be full of great finishing opportunities for our broad customer base. We are thrilled to be able to serve you with your finishing needs!

An Interview with John Mulder, Master Finish

BY SCOTT FRANCIS Editor-In-Chief, Gardner Business Media John Mulder, president of Master Finish of Grand Rapids, Mich., discusses his company’s experience with trivalent chromium and offers advice for those thinking of transitioning their current hexavalent chromium...

Decoding Chrome Plating: A Guide to Decorative vs. Industrial Chrome Plating

Welcome to the Master Finish Company's Plating Blog – your go-to source for unraveling the mysteries of chrome plating! If you're in the market for enhancing the durability and aesthetics of your products, you've likely encountered the dilemma of choosing between...

Understanding the Difference Between Electroless and Electrolytic Nickel Plating

When it comes to metal plating, nickel is one of the most commonly used materials due to its excellent corrosion resistance and versatile properties. However, there are different techniques for applying nickel plating, with two primary methods being electroless and...

Proven Process

Master Finish has been on a journey using EOS (Entrepreneur Operating System) to manage all the critical elements of our business.  We started on this Journey in 2016 and have found it instrumental to our success in so many ways.  It helps set a framework in...

Streamlining Success

How Master Finish Implemented Automation to Improve Production and Boost Customer Satisfaction As companies in the manufacturing industry face increasing challenges with production labor, it is becoming more critical to automate tedious tasks that are currently being...

Automation

Automation   Automation vs. Manual Processing for data and traceability. Machine data available from automated plating lines helps the team at Master Finish diagnose and correct plating issues on the fly to reduce scrap. The data on each motion in the plating...

Cyclemaster Remastered

Cyclemaster Remastered   Master Finish’s new plating line is now ready for business. Back before the pandemic swept the country and production plating demands were at an all time high Master Finish invested into a new state of the art automated rack plating line...

Hungry for More Innovation

Industry 4.0 makes manufacturers nimble during pandemic, hungry for more innovation BY JAYSON BUSSASunday, January 16, 2022 06:30pm John Mulder recently noticed that an inordinate amount of his staff’s time was being used to field calls from clients inquiring...

Master Finish Receives MacDermid Enthone DecoKlad License

This license makes the Michigan shop the first DecoKlad applicator in the Americas and the fourth to be certified globally in the program. Master Finish Co. has been awarded a license from MacDermid Enthone that makes it the first DecoKlad applicator in the Americas...

Welcome to the Team!

Please join us in welcoming Galvano to the Master Finish team. He plays an important role at Master Finish. He is our newest addition that demonstrates the quality of the plant wastewater Master Finish sends back to the city of Grand Rapids POTW. Galvano is named...