When Billy Masten fell off a roof, he wasn’t sure what to do next. The 25-foot fall broke eight ribs, collapsed one lung and fractured his pelvis. He didn’t want to renovate homes anymore. 

On paper, Billy wasn’t a perfect job candidate—he’d been in prison.

Go back 10 years. Jason Tatum struggled to start a new life as a recovering addict. Getting a company to take a chance on him after prison was hard. He asked Jenfab Cleaning Solutions to give him a shot. 

After Billy’s accident, he called his friend, Jason, and asked if he knew of any available jobs. Jason was now Jenfab’s senior shift supervisor. He put in a good word for Billy.

Two second chances made all the difference. 

Hired By A Second-Chance Employer

Jenfab Cleaning Solutions is a second-chance employer. We hire people with prior felonies and past experiences with addiction. Starting over is tough. Closed doors make the journey even harder. 

It’s not easy to find second-chance jobs for felons, but everyone deserves the  opportunity to do more than survive. Everyone should have the chance to be financially independent, support their families, reach their goals, and move forward. 

Billy started his role as an industrial electrician two years ago, and the team at Jenfab has never looked at him differently. 

“The first thing I noticed is how well they took care of people,” says Billy. 

He gave an example of how our company shows we care about people. The company held a free gas refueling event in the summer of 2022.

“They brought a gas truck up here and gave us gas during the peak time after the pandemic when gas prices were super high,” says Billy. “I didn’t hear of anybody else doing that. They [another company] could offer me a $50-an-hour job, and I wouldn’t go there because I’d never get the same kind of treatment.” 

New Possibilities to Grow & Make Good Money

Billy started working at the shop, where he wires, paints and welds machines. 

Since his first day, his responsibilities have grown. He now goes on the road for installations. He meets with customers to install machines in the field once they’ve been shipped. 

“It’s a cool experience to see what our equipment is doing in the field. You get a new perspective on what the customer is going to be looking for, and I really just try to represent our company when I’m out there,” he says. 

“I’m sure they probably look at me and go, ‘he’s pretty rough around the edges,’” he continues, “but I just work my butt off and try to make them happy. By the time it’s all said and done, we leave pretty well friends.

We recognized Billy as the Culture Champion of the Month in September 2022. He always goes the extra mile, helping customers and doing what needs to be done. Everyone at Jenfab is a leader. Leading is not about titles; it is about action. Billy is quickly emerging as a leader on our team. 

Learning New Skills

At Jenfab, Billy has had several opportunities to learn new skills, from taking courses to training with his team. He went through PLC training and took hydraulics classes. He’s now taking blueprint reading classes to learn about the mechanical side of building machines.

With help from his team, he’s also practiced something he’s always wanted to master—welding. Knowing how to weld and fabricate are skills that will always be needed in our workforce. 

“I had a plan whenever I was locked up. I really wanted to go into welding, but I just couldn’t afford it,” he says. “Getting started here, even if I started out wiring machines, I’ve had the guys show me how to weld on their time. I’ve picked it up and practiced and got better at it.”

Finding Good Role Models 

Billy’s dad wasn’t around when he was growing up. He didn’t have a good idea of how a role model or leader should act. That changed when he started at Jenfab and saw people in recovery in leadership positions.

Leadership is action. It is also how you care for, teach and encourage others. Billy describes many people at the company as coaches or father figures. 

Everyone at Jenfab takes on the company’s bias for action to become leaders in their roles and tasks. Everyone is a leader, even if you’re only in charge of yourself. As such, you choose how to carry yourself and lift others.

Our company’s One Team mindset means we have your back. We create a comfortable environment for sharing feedback and challenges as we work toward our shared vision. If one team member needs something, others pitch in to keep the ship afloat. We all help steer us in the right direction. You’re never on your own. 

“This is like my second—well, basically, this is my family. It’s not a second family. I couldn’t put one in front of the other at this point,” says Billy. 

Second-Chance Hiring Opens Doors

Today, Billy drives a new car—a Camaro Super Sport. He’s preparing to buy a house. He makes a good living and keeps up with passion projects, like building and painting cars. He’s helping his parents out with extra money, and he can give his daughter the things she needs.

“I grew up dirt poor. I couldn’t afford college. All the money I ever had I just worked for,” he says. “To have an opportunity to be at a job where you can grow and make decent money and be a part of something, it’s huge. It’s kept me from going back and doing the wrong things to survive.”

Starting fresh is like walking down a hallway, CEO and President Jim Chew describes. You’re between two doors: the one in front of you and the one behind you. The hallway represents the shift from one chapter of life to the next.

“He’s [Billy] closed the door on the bad part of his life, and he’s in that hallway transitioning. We open a door to go to hydraulic training or open a door to go learn about PLCs,” says Jim. “We help folks be the best version of themselves tomorrow. Tomorrow can always be better than today. If everyone goes home feeling that way, then we’ve done something.”

Tomorrow can always be better. Your future is yours. 

Your Journey Starts Here: Find Second-Chance Jobs for Felons

As a second-chance employer, Jenfab Cleaning Solutions offers the support you need to start fresh and build your career. You’ll make a great living and contribute to a larger purpose: our One Team. 

Are you interested in working for Jenfab? Are you looking for fabricator jobs, welder jobs or electrical work? Are you open to learning and trying something new? 

Click here to apply online for our manufacturing jobs in Springfield, MO! The application is at the bottom of the page.

We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to send in your resume or drop us a line regardless of your background or past experiences. 

If you’d rather talk to someone, please email [email protected] or call 800-524-9274 for more information about our company and open jobs. Our HR department can also answer questions about our second-chance hiring policy. We interview candidates at the Greene County Jail and several area prisons.

Aqueous parts washers offer a safer, better clean. That’s one reason manufacturers choose aqueous cleaning systems over washing parts with petroleum solvents. As parts are cleaned in an aqueous solution, they leave grease and oil behind. Too much oil and residue build-up in your solution will render it ineffective. 

You’ve got to clean oily parts to finish fabrication or start remanufacturing. What should you do? Oil skimmers and coalescers remove left-behind oil so you can continue using the cleaning solution. With some form of oil removal in place, you can maximize the reuse of your aqueous solution.  

The Science Behind Oil and Water Separation

Oil and water don’t mix. When put together, natural separation occurs. Oil would have to bond with water to be soluble in it, but the molecules in oil cannot bond with water molecules because they are non-polar. In other words, the two don’t attract. Water molecules are attracted to water molecules, while oil molecules are attracted to oil molecules. That’s why oil often forms a separate layer on water’s surface. 

Removing Oil from Aqueous Solutions

Water is the base of every aqueous cleaning solution. When oil is left in a water-based solution, it floats to surface because of its density. Oil is less dense than water. Removing free-floating oil is how you can keep your solution fresh. 

There are two types of oil removal systems: oil skimmers and oil coalescers. When oil floats to the surface, oil skimmers can collect and remove it from the tank. You can also use an oil coalescer to “filter” oil from the solution and avoid recleaning parts later.

Skimming the Surface: Types of Oil Skimmers

How do oil skimmers work? Oil skimmers pick up oil floating on the surface of the solution. Skimmers are mounted to the top of the tank and made with an elastomer or polymer medium that causes oil to cling to them. They are best for picking up small to medium amounts of oil. Skimmers are often used when parts washers are not running to give oil time to separate after a wash cycle. 

There are several types of oil skimmers:

• Belt skimmer. A belt lowers into the cleaning or rinsing tank. The belt picks up oil as it moves through the solution. Once it leaves the solution, wiper blades remove oil from the belt. The belt moves and collects oil continuously. 
• Disc skimmer. Oil clings to a disc that’s partially submerged in the solution. This disc rotates to pick up oil at a higher rate. As it turns, wiper blades scrape oil off into a container. For a disc oil skimmer to work well, the solution must cover at least half of the disc’s surface. 
• Drum skimmer. A large, rotating drum removes oil from the solution. Drum skimmers work similarly to disc skimmers.
• Mop skimmer. This skimmer resembles a mop with a long rope of tendrils. It enters the solution and picks up oil. Next, pinch rollers wring out the oil—like wringing out a wet floor mop.
• Tube skimmer. These skimmers use floating hoses or tubes to collect oil. A tube skimmer goes into the solution, grabs oil and returns to dispose of what it has collected. 

Working with Gravity: Using Oil Coalescers 

Another way to separate oil from water-based solutions is through an oil coalescer. Parts washers that use sprays or ultrasonics to clean may cause an emulsion. When oil emulsifies, it temporarily mixes with water. You may not have time to stop production and allow oil to separate in order to remove it. An oil coalescer helps you get the job done.

Coalescers attract small oil droplets in the solution and allow them to collect until they are large globules that can float to the surface. Coalescers pull the solution through a series of weir plates that capture the oil. As oil droplets gather together, they stick to one another and let the oil-free solution pass by. Gravity pulls the oil-free solution back into the wash or rinse tank for reuse. 

Oil coalescing systems quickly remove oil from solution when cleaning at high rates. They recirculate the cleaning solution continuously as parts are cleaned and may also utilize an oil skimmer. Any oil that’s collected by the coalescer moves into a separate container. 

Lengthening Your Solution’s Life

Removing oil and grease from your cleaning solution can add time to its lifespan. If you care for your aqueous solution, you will be able to use it for many cleaning cycles. Reusing solution—and still achieving a precise clean—cuts down costs over time and reduces water waste. 

Need to tackle heavy and light duty cleaning? Our Orca parts washer takes cleaning to another level. Trade in your scrub tub or pressure washer for the roll-in door Orca—equipped with an oil skimmer to handle high-residue parts. 

Request a quote today or call (417) 866-8855 to get started.