TORRINGTON – Moving one year ago to Torrington the business he brought with him is holding its own.
Scott Lance is the proprietor of Torrington Engine Machine. It’s not just another mechanic shop – because it’s not a mechanic shop.
This is where mechanics send engine parts and pieces to be cleaned and turned making an engine run better, faster and with more power. Torrington Engine Machine is where metal can be changed into a working piece of art.
Born in Provo, Utah, Scott Lance lived there for more than 50 years before moving to Torrington to get away from over-population.
“The area in my opinion has gotten over populated, going from 80,000 when I was in grade school to over 600,000 now,” Lance said. “They demand it be (Los Angeles), they will be getting LA soon.”
With a dog named Mona, a cat named Kitty and a giant parrot, Lance said everyone works. Mona loves everyone, especially construction workers, while the cat gets the mice attracted by the mess of the bird. But they are a happy family living in Torrington.
Lance had a thriving machine shop in Provo before he packed up and brought it to Torrington. An avid hunter, he saw how the place he was born had changed to a place that was no longer a place he wanted to live.
“To go antelope hunting it is miles and miles of driving,” he said. “You have to draw for one antelope tag in what was thought to be a premium area and took me and my wife eight years to draw. When we got there, it was desolate and had no antelope. This is how things are run by Utah Fish and Game.”
Business here for the first year is what Lance expected, earning enough to keep going. Before becoming a machinist, Lance had worked in the oil fields as a roughneck in Wyoming in the 1980’s. When the work ran out, he went back home to Provo.
His father was a diesel mechanic and he had a little head shop in the back yard behind the house. When Lance got home he was looking for work, so father told him to go back there and start a small business of his own.
“Of all the dumb things I did as a kid, this was the one bright thing that I did,” Lance said. “It started growing and my father helped me, in fact he became my helper. He would come in and ask what he needed to do and go to work.
“If there was a problem and he answered the phone he would hand it to me ‘They want you,’” he said. “He taught me the whole business, including how to handle people.”
Moving to Torrington, Lance said he has been mostly accepted. There were some initial concerns in the community of him competition with the existing mechanic shops, which he is not. His shop is mostly used by the mechanics to repair car parts.
Lance and his wife are living on a piece of land that they bought 13 years ago. They love living here in Torrington with Mona, Kitty and the mean bird.
Torrington Engine Machine is located at 113 West 14th Ave, Lance can do engine work on all engine types gas and diesel. He offers Head and block reconditioning, pressure cleaning, blasting, crank grinding and polishing, valve and seat cutting and general machine shop work.
