About Bach Steel

familyFrom The Gifted Hands of Nels Raynor, Owner

My dad was a ceramics professor at Michigan State. I used to go with him every weekend. I threw pots, but I liked to hang out in the sculpture lab. I was about 12 years old when I decided I wanted to play with metal, and I’ve never done anything else.

Nels began working with iron at 19, held several jobs at several companies, and started Bach Steel in 1997. Although “pretty much self-taught,” he does have an associate’s degree from Lansing Community College.

Nels Raynor has sold and/or done work across the country including Wyoming, Idaho, Iowa, Texas, Minnesota , Alabama, and Mississippi although his roots are in mid-Michigan where he has an impressive portfolio of work including a fancy cable rail system for the new Christman building in downtown Lansing, and several exclusive homes in the area. Bach Steel also completed the biggest steel truss bridge that’s ever been refabricated in Michigan, located part-way between Lansing and Grand Rapids. Since then, Bach Steel has gained a reputation for outstanding work in historic truss bridge restoration.

Nels Raynor does all the ornamental work himself, and currently has a staff of men who work for him; depending on the work load. Of the ornamental work, he said, “Really, it’s a hard thing to do. I do it more out of love of what I do than the money. I can’t pay my bills by the love of it, but if you were to do it just because you wanted to make money at it, you’d have to be a whiz at it.

Bach Steel has a great reputation for the quality of the work that we do and that’s the number one thing. I won’t sacrifice. And I don’t care if I have to lose money on the job. [I’ll ask myself] would I put that in my house? If not, I’ll tear it apart. I’m pretty picky.

Nels Raynor, Owner, Bach Steel

Bach Steel Services

We are a fabricator that specializes in a variety of areas. In particular, we are known for our work with historic bridge restoration, including historic metal truss bridges, including both restoration and relocation. We are experienced in hot metal riveting, and the repair and restoration of riveted structures. We also do general structural steel fabrication and erection, hand-forged (wrought) iron/steel, ornamental art/furniture, stairs and rails, manufacturing, miscellaneous structural metal work, welding and repair.

Bach Steel specializes in custom one-of-a-kind creations that add beauty, elegance and function to residential and commercial structures.

Professionally Installed

Our custom metal fabrication customers span many industries and include but are not limited to; transportation, medical, military, consumer electronics, telecommunications, automotive, amusement, heavy machinery, industrial, construction.

We encourage you to view our Project Gallery on this website to see a sample of some of the work we have done.Please contact us if you are interested in our services as we are always excited about new opportunities. In particular, we are always looking for historic metal truss bridge projects to work on.

Please contact us if you know of a project we might be interested in! We do work across the country.

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