When you search metal fabrication near me, you’re usually looking for one of two things: a custom part that doesn’t exist off the shelf, or someone who can build a broken one back better than new. Ames Hydraulics does both. We’re a full fabrication shop at 210 Freel Dr in Ames, working steel and aluminum every day for farms, trucking outfits, contractors, and manufacturers across Central Iowa. If you can bring us a drawing, a sketch on a napkin, or the broken original, we can build it.
What a Real Metal Fabrication Shop Does
Fabrication isn’t just welding — it’s cutting, forming, drilling, and joining raw stock into a finished part that fits and carries load. Our shop runs the saws, presses, plasma, and welders to take a job from raw plate and tube all the way to a painted, bolt-on part. When people look for metal fabrication near me and end up at a shop that only does simple welds, they’re back to square one. Here you get design help, material selection, and a build that’s engineered to hold up.
Custom Parts and One-Offs
Most of our fabrication work is one-of-a-kind: a bracket that’s no longer made, a mount for a piece of equipment that was modified years ago, a guard to keep an operator safe, or a plate to reinforce a frame that keeps cracking. Bring us the broken piece and we’ll reverse-engineer it. No print, no problem — measuring and building from a sample is everyday metal fabrication work for us.
Steel and Aluminum — Both Under One Roof
A lot of shops will quote steel all day but go quiet the moment aluminum comes up. Aluminum fabrication takes different equipment, different technique, and real experience to do right. We fabricate in both. Whether it’s a heavy structural steel weldment or an aluminum tank, ramp, or bracket, it’s the same shop and the same quote. That’s a big reason customers searching metal fabrication near me drive past a dozen shops to get to us.
What We Build and Fabricate
- Brackets, mounts, plates, gussets, and guards — built to spec or from a sample
- Structural steel weldments and frame reinforcement
- Aluminum tanks, toolboxes, ramps, and custom enclosures
- Equipment and implement modifications, extensions, and repairs
- Short production runs of a part you need more than one of
- Custom bumpers, racks, hitches, and truck accessories
Built From a Drawing or a Broken Sample
You don’t need engineering prints to get quality metal fabrication. Half of what comes through the door is a part someone is holding in two pieces. We figure out the material, the thickness, and the load path, then build it to outlast the original — often reinforced where the old one failed. If you do have a drawing or a CAD file, even better; we’ll build straight to it.
Who We Fabricate For
Farmers who need an implement bracket by planting season. Trucking outfits that need a mount or a custom bumper fabricated and back on the road. Contractors with a bent or broken piece of equipment. Manufacturers who need a short run of a part. Central Iowa runs on custom steel and aluminum, and a dependable fabrication shop keeps all of it moving. When you need metal fabrication near me, that’s the role we fill.
Free Pickup Within 60 Miles
If the equipment that needs fabrication work can’t easily come to us, we’ll come to it. Pickup and delivery are free within 60 miles of Ames. Start with a photo — text a picture of the part or the problem to 515-292-2599 and we’ll tell you the same day whether it’s a straightforward build, a repair, or a full fabrication job, and roughly what it’ll cost.
Fabrication Done Right the First Time
The difference between a cheap weld-up and real metal fabrication shows up six months later. A part that isn’t fabricated to the load will crack again in the same place, and now you’re paying twice and losing the equipment twice. We take the time up front — pick the right material and thickness, prep clean joints, weld the full load path, and reinforce the failure points — so the part you get back does its job and stays out of the shop. That’s what people are really after when they search metal fabrication near me: not just someone with a welder, but a shop that builds it once and builds it right.
Why Central Iowa Chooses Ames Hydraulics
We’ve been the go-to fabrication shop for farms, fleets, and contractors around Ames for years because we do the work others turn away — aluminum, heavy structural, and the odd one-off that no catalog sells. We’re not a production plant that only wants long runs, and we’re not a hobby welder in a garage. We’re a working metal fabrication shop staffed to quote fast, build to spec, and turn jobs around so your equipment isn’t sitting idle. When downtime is costing you money, a shop that answers the phone and gets it done matters as much as the weld itself.
Get Your Part Built
Whether it’s one bracket or a short run, a repair or a build-from-scratch, our welding and metal fabrication shop can make it. Custom truck work is a specialty too — see our custom truck bumpers. Call or text 515-292-2599, or stop by 210 Freel Dr in Ames. We’re open Monday through Friday, 7AM to 5PM.
Written by Josiah Ragsdale
Owner, Ames Hydraulics — Ames, Iowa
Josiah owns and operates Ames Hydraulics. He has worked on hydraulic and heavy equipment since he was 18, and every hydraulic cylinder his shop rebuilds is pressure tested before it ships back to the customer. More about Josiah →
Got something broken? Call or text 515-292-2599