Still Building America: Vvolfy Metalworks and the circus, Part I

Here is a tale, in two parts, of two welders who ran away with the circus. Well, they didn’t actually run away with the circus, but they do build custom circus equipment. For master welder Tim Omspach, all roads led to welding. For Mitch Kraemer, the path to welding was a bit more winding, but eventually their routes intersected, and now they operate Vvolfy Metalworks out of Denver and Detroit. Read part II here.

Tim Omspach—a Talented Young Welder with BMX Dreams

“I’ve been welding for 15 years,” Omspach said. “I started in my high school’s vocational program at Monroe Tech Center in Leesburg, Virginia. My high school welding instructor Damon Putman had a huge influence on me. He was an excellent instructor, made things fun, and gave me a great learning experience. Always making artsy stuff, he inspired me to get creative with metal.

"When I graduated in 2003, Mr. Putnam had a job lined up for me, but I didn’t take it because I was really into riding BMX bikes at the time. I was gonna be a pro BMX biker. I played around with that for a bit, but not much came of it. I knew I had to do something else, so I wandered back to welding.”

Back to School as a Student . . . and a Teacher

In 2007 after attending and graduating from Tulsa Welding School in Jacksonville, Fla., Omspach endeavored to find his welding niche. Welding on everything from lawnmowers to bridge girders to Navy nuclear submarines, Omspach landed in Fort Collins, Colo., in 2011 and found himself working in the oil industry.

Around that same time a friend showed him some circus equipment that she had bought. Intrigued by the design and fabrication—and seeing how much she paid for the equipment—he thought, “I could do this.” And thus, the door to building circus equipment had been cracked open for him.

The oil industry grew tiresome for Omspach, the hours and shifts fluctuated drastically, and he had no life outside of work. Wanting to see what else was out there, he ran across an ad for a welding teacher in Denver.

“Teaching. That had been the retirement plan,” Omspach said. “I would be the old grumpy welding teacher guy. I was only 30 years old, but it was time for a change. So I taught for three years, and it was great. I bought a Harbor Freight roller and was rolling shapes for aerial circus equipment in the school shop on the weekends. The students loved it. The administration loved it, too, because it got students excited about welding and fabrication. I was receiving monthly awards for being the student’s favorite teacher.

“I loved teaching, but ultimately I got fired. It was a for-profit school, and I constantly made a stink about issues that put students at a disadvantage, such as limiting welding coupons to only three per process. Just because they nailed it on the third try didn’t mean that they had it down. You have to be able to repeat the process, do it over and over. So with me being a punk and fighting administration, we parted ways.”

Becoming the Ringmaster

At the same time, more circus equipment orders were rolling in. Not wanting to work for someone else again, Omspach went all in, starting Vvolfy Metal Works.

“The name comes from when I was a kid and played soccer with slicked-back hair. People would call me wolf boy, little wolfman, Eddie Munster. It wasn’t a nickname that stuck, but it came back to me while creating the business, and I took some liberty with the spelling.

Tim Omspach and Mitch Kraemer started Vvolfy Metalworks to fabricate and weld custom equipment for the circus industry while operating out of Denver and Detroit. Images: Vvolfy Metalworks

And now I get to say that I build custom circus equipment, which is crazy. It still trips me up when I say it. It’s been a wild ride, and I never thought it would be what it is now. In the past five to10 years, I’ve seen such an increased interest in circus sports.”

The aerial circus arts are popular as ever, from circus and dance schools to acrobats, aerialists, gymnasts, and extensive live acts like Cirque Du Soleil and pop star Pink.

“When it comes to crafting the equipment, there is a handful of people doing it in America,” Omspach said. “I see more people trying to get into it. I’m lucky to have gotten into it when I did. It's been very successful and we now have two shops creating circus equipment.”

When Omspach began to build a name for himself, an aerial artist named Ludwig Goppenhammer caught wind of his work and called upon him to help with the most crucial welds on his design, “The Ludwig.” When Goppenhammer retired, he sold his popular design and well-established business to Omspach.

Vvolfy Metal Works began to offer custom lyras, apparatii, mobis, and silk kits along with the Ludwig aerial quad rig.

Making Art for Other Artists and Keeping Safety No. 1

Primarily working with mild steel applications, the shop workhorse is a Hobart IronMan MIG machine. According to Omspach, using the MIG process keeps costs down. “We are making art for other artists who often don’t have a lot of money sitting around, so we try to keep our prices fair,” he explained.

On top of fair costs, safety is the number one priority with Vvolfy products.

“I don’t have an engineering background, but my experience in critical submarine and bridgework is taken into account when designing and building the circus equipment. And if I ever have questions about structural integrity, I will reach out to private engineering firms. Some are happy to help, and others want nothing to do with it.

"The circus arts are tough to regulate. It’s still the wild west in the U.S. In other countries like Germany, there are regulations for circus equipment, where every two years you have to retire it no matter the condition. But we keep safety and integrity number one. The performers are often hanging 30 feet in the air. We never want to see anyone get hurt. I developed a precise welding and fabrication process that assures the integrity and safety of our product.”

That specific process has been the key to Vvolfy’s success and expansion.

Vvolfy Metalworks logo.

A Few Clowns Short of a Circus

As orders accumulated, Tim knew he needed to bring on another fabricator.

“One night, my friend Mitch [Kraemer] asked about metalwork, and I told him if I ever needed help that I would call him up. And as it turned out, I needed it.”

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