Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin

CLS Fabrication started as a company that makes metal covers for the coin boxes on pay washers and dryers.

It still makes those covers, although since moving to Bend from its Orange County, Calif., birthplace, it’s risen to so much more.

Under the name Baldhead Cabinets, it makes custom, high-end garage cabinets. As CLS Fabrication, it counts among its clients the likes of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force.

“We have customers throughout the U.S.,” said Chief Operating Officer Ben Mitchell. But “we work pretty closely with quite a few local companies.”

Mitchell manages the company started by his in-laws, Eric and Barbara Fleming. A chance meeting at an event sponsored by Economic Development for Central Oregon yielded a collaboration with Cv International, another Bend company, that proved beneficial to CLS, Mitchell said.

Together they produced unique maintenance platforms for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and other aircraft. CLS, which started out as a sheet metal fabrication company, makes the structure itself, to which is added the hydraulic lifts and other components, Mitchell said.

“It’s usually very customized stuff, heavily engineered,” he said.

Next up for the pair of collaborators is a five-year contract with the U.S. Army to develop a “very specialized piece of equipment,” a modernized maintenance platform for Army helicopters. Cv International in January obtained a $15.9 million contract to develop the platform for use on four helicopter models and for unmanned aerial system aircraft,according to a news release from the U.S. Defense Department.

On a tour of CLS Fabrication Thursday, Mitchell pointed out the range of available technology, from welding tanks to metal-cutting lasers to a recent addition, a $1.25 million automated metal punch. The punch can take an aluminum plank the size of a stair step and puncture it with a dimpled tread pattern in minutes.

CLS is involved with a range of high-profile projects, including cabinets at the San Francisco air traffic control tower and check-in desks for the city’s cruise liner pier. It also built a steel frame for a tank at Boneyard Beer in Bend.

“We have capabilities that people aren’t aware of; we don’t publicize ourselves very well,” Mitchell said. “We’re a resource in the backyard.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Q: How did the company get into making garage cabinetry?

A: The cabinetry was definitely my father-in-law’s concept. They were looking for some quality garage cabinets and there wasn’t anything. It’s not a cheap product; you have to want a lifetime-grade investment if you want our cabinetry.

Q: Where do you see the company in five years?

A: We want to continue to develop our business in the structural sector. We know we can do that work. I’d love for that portion of our business to develop and grow.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected. In the original version, Ben Mitchell’s first name was incorrect.

The Bulletin regrets the error.