Seetin Design
Our process

Sketch to steel, in one house

Design, modeling, detailing, engineering, fabrication, finish and install. No hand-offs between companies, so nothing gets lost between the drawing and the building.

Press brake and fit-up table in the shop
  1. 01

    The idea

    We start where the architect's sketch ends. Bob trained at Parsons and still draws every job before it is cut. We read the set, ask the questions, and come back with a number and a way to build it.

  2. 02

    The model

    Every piece is modeled in SolidWorks: plates, bends, welds, hardware. The model is the job. It tells us the weight, the flat patterns and what fights the tooling before any steel moves.

  3. 03

    The drawings

    Shop drawings come out of SDS/2 in a standard detailing set: piece views, assemblies, erection drawings and weld callouts on 24 x 36 sheets. Architects get drawings they can check, and the shop gets drawings it can build.

  4. 04

    The engineering

    When a stair or a platform needs calculations, our professional engineer reviews and stamps them. Delegated design stays in the same house as the drawings.

  5. 05

    Cut

    CNC plasma cuts plate up to an inch thick. The ironworker punches and shears, and the saws handle tube and bar.

  6. 06

    Form

    Curved stringers are bump-formed on the press brake, one hit at a time, until the plate takes the radius. The section roller and tube bender handle rings, rails and arcs.

  7. 07

    Weld and fit

    MIG, TIG and stick, on modular fixture tables that hold a stair true while it is welded. Stainless is TIG-welded on pure argon.

  8. 08

    Finish

    Grinding, mirror polishing, brushing, blackening and powder coat, done in the shop so the finish is ours too.

  9. 09

    Install

    Our own crew sets the work. The people who built the stair are the people who bolt it to the building.

The shop floor

What's on the floor

The shop →
ModelSolidWorks, 15+ years
DetailSDS/2 shop drawings, 24 x 36 sets
EngineerPE-stamped calculations
CutCNC plasma to 1", Geka ironworker, saws
FormPress brake bump-forming, section roller, tube bending
WeldMIG, TIG (Miller Dynasty), stick
FixtureModular Siegmund and Bluco fixture tables
MachineBridgeport mill
LiftFull bridge crane, 18 ft under the beam
FinishPolish, brush, blacken, powder coat
WoodWoodshop for treads and millwork
Prototype3D printer for mockups
Shop and field

In the shop, on the site

Bumping a curved plate
Grinding a frame on the table
JACX steel fins by the press brake
Grid frames on the fixture table
Rolling flat bar
Welded stringer plates
Setting a helical stair
Craning steel to a townhouse roof
Installing steel and glass partitions
Brass canopy on a facade
Cut metal address letters
New steel framing a floor opening
Philosophy

Give more than we take

For thirty years the way we win work has been the same: beautiful shop drawings and a detailed bid before we take any money. We educate the client about their own project. They walk away with a real price and real drawings whether or not they hire us.

Open steel stair with glass guard
Built for