“I’ve always had this passion, and I can’t say that it was so much for metal, but everywhere I went I would end up welding.”  Stan Neighbors started welding as a kid, with the assistance of the welder who tended his family’s roping arena in New Mexico. Later as a young man, he did some iron work and potash mining. “We would cut, drill and blast – old school. For three years I worked in the potash mines operating the Under Cutter (a thirteen foot chainsaw). It gave me a long time to think about what I wanted to do,” says Stan.   Eventually he worked maintenance and repair with a four man underground welding crew. By the winter of 1981 Stan broke free of the mines. He headed to Colorado where he found work in Boulder with a jeweler and later at a sheet metal shop.   “I fell in love with all the metal and different welds,” says Stan. Once he felt comfortable with his skills he took small weld jobs on the side. Over the next few years Stan worked at several other companies. As Supervisor for Midwest Machine Products, he often thought about having his own weld shop. Fortunately Stan received an offer to help out at night at a weld shop where he could save for some of his own equipment.   By 1992 Stan was ready to put some money down on small shop in Lafayette where he had the bare minimum of weld equipment – he was also the only employee. He hired his first welder in 1994. That same year Stan’s wife, Deanne, joined him in the shop to take over running the business end of things. “She became the backbone I needed to take the weld shop to the next level,” says Stan.   With Stan’s welding skills and expanding business it didn’t take long to outgrow the first location. Advanced Alloys moved to Longmont in 1995 where it currently operates. Quickly becoming a family business, Stan’s son Kelly joined on in 2009, serving as Advanced Alloys' Machinist and Curator. Stan’s son Cory also welded with him for a short time before heading to college.   On any given day at Advanced Alloys you can find Stan, Deanne, Kelly,and Eston doing what they do best – working metal with exquisite skill. Looking back, Stan says even he is impressed and proud of how far they’ve all come.