Press

“Making It Work” is a series about small-business owners striving to endure hard times. (March 17, 2025)

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When Nicole Rizzo saw the “For Sale” listing for Die Cleaning Equipment, the first detail she liked was that it was run by a married couple. Ms. Rizzo, then 43, was searching for a company to run alongside her own husband. But her husband, David, was puzzled by the name. Was it something involving janitors?

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Die Cleaning Equipment, as it turned out, employed welders. The company in Phoenix made machines that cleaned other machines — specifically, aluminum extruders, which force the metal into shapes useful for everything from bumpers to stethoscopes to gun parts. Steve Smith oversaw the shop, where a small team assembled vats and pumps out of stainless steel. His wife, Kristin, handled the finances.