Kory Anderson isn’t a mere enthusiast on the subject of historic U.S. manufacturing—he is, in fact, on a mission to preserve it. He might rebuild all the machinery of the past with his bare hands, castings and all, if he only had more hours in the day. But rising at 3:30 every morning to lead multiple organizations, as well as restoring or rebuilding the occasional industrial monster of the early 20th century, leaves time for little else but the nurturing of his own young family. Nevertheless, his drive to keep the past alive recently resulted in a 1,600-lb. ductile iron casting that won the Best Prototype category in the 2025 AFS/Casting Source magazine Casting of the Year competition. 

The 42-year-old entrepreneur is president and CEO of Anderson Industries (encompassing Spartan Pattern) and Anderson Foundries (including AFS Corporate Members Dakota Foundry and Muncie Castings). He is also the creator of the Iron Warrior fitness equipment brand and founder of the nonprofit Iron Warrior Academy (ironwarrioracademy.com), where he develops youth into highly skilled—and physically fit— tradespeople.

His award-winning casting last year was actually one of two 74-in. x 15-in. wheels for a restored 1911 Advance Threshing Company steam traction engine. The machine belongs to a friend who asked Anderson to manufacture replacement wheels. In its heyday, the 13-ton Advance engine was used to plow fields, could haul up to 55,000 lbs., and with a belt attached, could power a saw mill. The original machine—running with a single giant piston— would have run on coal, wood, or straw, plus hundreds of gallons of water.

Anderson’s task of casting the wheels was complex, but most would say designing them was impossible. However, for a guy who, while in his 20s, built an exact replica of a 150 Case, the largest steam traction engine in the world, noth­ing is too much to conquer. In fact, the Advance engine’s wheels were the latest proof of Anderson’s mantra: “We’re not afraid to tackle anything, but the impossible just takes a little bit longer.”

Two Castings in One

The project put his engineering repertoire to the test.

“We didn’t even have a blueprint, and there wasn’t anybody left to ask how to do it,” Anderson said. “All we had was a picture of that extension rim from a marketing catalog. So, we basically designed it all based on that one photo—we engineered it completely. And it made me think, how in the world did they make this? Back then, they had to use all wooden patterns and core boxes, and everything was handcrafted—no CNC machines, no 3D printing. It really garnered our respect for those guys back in the days being able to make such a complicated casting with no technology to support them—just skill, a lot of intelligence, and a lot of hard work.” 

Each wheel comprised two massive rim castings poured in 65-45-12 ductile iron. Fabricated steel spokes were positioned into the molds—similar to cores—between the rims during the pour to join the rims together as one enormous wheel unit. “Sometimes, the original manufacturer would cast the entire wheel, and that was a very complex process,” said Anderson. “That process hadn’t been done since they originally did it back in the early 1900s.”

Connecting two castings as one made Anderson and his Dakota Foundry team think carefully about the science of molten metal. “When a casting is cooling and solidifying, it’s shrinking and contracting,” he said. “And so, you have a six-and-a-half-ft.-diameter casting plus a three-ft.-diameter casting inside of that, and they’re connected by steel spokes. We didn’t know, but we assumed that we’d have to pour that outer casting first and let it begin to solidify and shrink. Otherwise, if we poured them both together, that outer rim would shrink so much more than the inner rim, and it would put a lot of undue stress on the inner rim.

“We had one chance to get it right, because we 3D-printed all the sand molds at $15,000 each—so we definitely didn’t want to make a mistake.”

Leveraging Modern Technology

Anderson and his team leveraged all available modern technology to facilitate the project, including simulation software from Magma that guided their design of the gating and risering systems. 

“But the biggest engineering challenge was designing the 3D printed molds,” he said. “Because it was such a large casting, we had to design the molds to all be assembled in sections. We were limited by the print size capacity of our ExOne 1S max sand printer, so we had to completely design this massive mold in about 20 sections, but in a way that we could interlock them—and the outer rim and the inner rim were two completely separate molds, but they also had to be indexed and timed perfectly in line. We actually made some fixtures that we could assemble into the sand mold sections to get everything to line up perfectly.”

Anderson estimates his finished wheels are probably twice as strong as the 1911 originals that were poured in gray iron.

With one foot in the past and one in the present, Anderson says he’s still marveling from the experience of reinventing a process that hadn’t been done in over 100 years. “Everyone said, ‘Nobody’s ever done it since they originally made these wheels,’ and now we have—we figured it out.”

Always Investing

Anderson is keen to advance Dakota Foundry with modern equipment. The most recent investments have been in a ventilation system for the health and safety of the team and new foundry-wide LED lighting to brighten the workplace and create a more attractive environment for current and future employees. Currently, Dakota Foundry runs two 10-hour shifts: a day shift that does molding and pouring, and a night shift that makes large molds and does shakeout. Anderson says the foundry has about 25% capacity available for melting and molding at present.

Three years ago, Dakota Foundry purchased its own ExOne 3D printer, becoming one of just a handful of foundries in the country producing their own 3D printed sand molds. In 2024, another major investment occurred in the patternmaking side of Anderson’s business. At Spartan Pattern, they added a large Haas gantry CNC machine that enables them to create larger patterns both for foundries and other manufacturing customers. 

On Nov. 3, 2025, Anderson acquired Muncie Castings in Indiana, and began a new chapter of metalcasting in aluminum, almost 900 miles from the South Dakota homebase where only iron is poured. 

Next on their growing to-do list: expand Anderson Foundries’ machining capabilities as a value-add service. “That seems to be the biggest challenge our customers have … We can make the castings, but we’re really seeing our customers struggle to find shops to do the machine work,” Anderson said. “So, we’re looking at adding some more in-house machining to the limited amount we currently have—especially capacity for machining larger castings.”

DIY Project of a Lifetime

Anderson grew up in the company of men who knew machines, including his father, Kevin, a collector of historic steam engines and founder of a 50-year-old annual event for antique machinery hobbyists, the James Valley Threshing Show.

“I had the greatest fortune to be surrounded by a number of ‘old timers,’ some of whom had been alive and made a living with steam engines,” said Anderson. “I was blessed to have been able to grow up listening to their stories, not only about the machines, but their stories of perseverance and hard work, and how difficult it was living in the Midwest, trying to farm or run a saw mill or run steam locomotives down the rail. And these older guys, they didn’t have social media or other technology. They were all very skilled at storytelling, because that’s how people communicated back then. It was all about sharing stories, and it was about supporting each other. They were very willing to help each other, because that’s what it took to survive back in those days.”

Anderson was 10 when he first saw a 150 Case steam engine made by the JI Case Company, which built nine of them between 1905 and 1907. Awed by its size and complexity, he learned all he could about it and eventually designed his own manufacturing apprenticeship program at age 16. He was on a self-guided mission to build his own 150 Case, which he completed in 18 months about a decade later. He started his own business at 22 and went from making patterns out of his garage to buying one of his metalcasting customers, Dakota Foundry, in Webster, South Dakota, which would otherwise have closed because its aging employee owners were ready to retire. 

“I had to basically have a foundry to be able to do that [150 Case] project,” he said. “There were hundreds of castings that had to be made, and a lot of them were very large and complex. It became my mission to complete this tractor in a timely fashion so that the mentors who had taught me and invested in me would be able to see it and appreciate it.” Today, the 150 Case is on display in Andover, South Dakota, and he takes it on the road to several Midwest shows throughout the year. His wife and business partner, Ali, even created a merchandise line around the machine.

The Andersons Go to Washington

Anderson tends to speak about his life and work in terms of mission and explained the two that drive what he and Ali want to accomplish through their organizations: “One is the preservation and strengthening of American manufacturing,” he said. “We have such a love and passion for the foundry industry because of the great history, and it’s the oldest form of manufacturing. I’ve been in a lot of different manufacturing industries, but the foundry industry is the only one where you really feel a sense of brotherhood—I can call up an owner of almost any foundry in the U.S., and they will do anything they can to help me to solve a problem.

“Our second mission is to rebuild and create opportunities for the next generation of skilled tradespeople,” he continued. “We do that through our Iron Warrior Academy nonprofit, but it’s very connected to the foundry industry.”

Well known in their region, the Anderson name is beginning to receive public notoriety on the national stage—Anderson Foundries was named a 2025 Top 100 Small Business by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Ali Anderson, a supply chain and marketing professional, has made it a priority to amplify the message about American manufacturing and its dire need for skilled tradespeople. Toward that endeavor, she discovered the Chamber’s award platform and applied in five out of 10 available categories. 

“We were selected for the Enduring Business category, because I shared the story of how we made it through the pandemic,” she said. “We were faced with a decision to either temporarily shut down or get really creative. Being married to Kory, we went with Option 2 and launched an entirely separate business called Iron Warrior. 

“During COVID, we saw a huge reduction in fitness equipment because it was all made overseas. We knew we could lean into that and not only provide fitness equipment to Americans, but also keep our team employed and not have to impact their earnings in any way. We’ve been making kettleballs ever since, and then we also launched a patented Warbell in 35-, 55-, and 75-lb. versions. I’m really proud of these innovations, which helped us earn the title of Enduring Business.”

The couple traveled to Washington, D.C., in November for a special Chamber of Commerce event for its award winners. While they were in town, the Andersons seized the opportunity to visit all the senators and representatives from the states in which they do business, delivering a strong advocacy message for the metalcasting industry, American manufacturing, and the need for a strong American workforce. Naturally, they brought casting gifts to leave a lasting impression: a miniature replica of their Iron Warrior kettlebell called the Baby Bell. CS