Manufacturing Day 2026 — Made in North Carolina Tractor Attachments, Built for the Work

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Manufacturing Day 2026 falls on Friday, October 2. For Catawba, it is a good reason to open the shop doors a little wider and show what made in North Carolina tractor attachments actually looks like.

The story did not begin with a product catalog or a lineup of tractor attachments. It started with welding repairs, farm equipment, and a small shop that grew one job at a time.

The Catawba Story Started With Welding, Not a Catalog

In 1988, Eddie Dellinger started Eddie’s Welding as a one-man operation. According to the company history, the first shop was in his brother’s garage with a welder, a metal saw, and a loan of roughly $4,000.

By 1990, the operation had moved into a larger building and added a small crew. Welding repairs, fabrication, tractor repairs, and farm equipment kept coming through the shop.

Those repair jobs eventually became part of how Catawba attachments were developed. When you spend years fixing equipment used on farms, you get a close look at which parts bend, crack, loosen, or simply do not hold up the way they should.

Catawba Attachments fabrication and manufacturing shop

Repair Work Leaves an Impression

One repair in the same spot might be a fluke. When the same weld cracks or the same pivot wears out repeatedly, it starts raising questions about the design.

That kind of experience followed Catawba from repair work into manufacturing. Instead of looking only at how an attachment appears when it is new, the shop had years of experience seeing equipment after it had been worked hard.

Bent box blades, worn pivots, broken welds, and damaged farm equipment all leave clues about where an implement is taking the most abuse.

A Second Generation Joins the Shop

Cody Dellinger joined the business in 2018 and helped grow the Catawba attachment line.

The product range now stretches beyond the repair and fabrication work that filled the early shop. Catawba builds front-end attachments, 3-point equipment, pull-behind tools, and a growing lineup for skid steers.

The shop is larger, and the equipment has changed, but the family is still involved in the work happening on the floor.

Why “Built Here” Matters to an Attachment Buyer

When the same problem shows up more than once, the shop has an opportunity to change the design instead of simply repairing it again.

Customer feedback can make its way directly back to the people building the attachment.

Material, cuts, welds, and fit can be checked before the equipment leaves the shop.

Replacement parts come from people familiar with how the attachment was built.

Catawba Attachments shop floor and manufacturing team

Modern Manufacturing Goes Well Beyond Welding

There is still plenty of welding involved, but a modern attachment may spend time in several parts of the shop before it is finished.

A design can begin in CAD, move to laser cutting, then go through forming, fixtures, welding, finishing, assembly, inspection, and shipping.

Catawba product pages regularly call out materials such as Grade 50 steel and laser-cut construction on many of its in-house products. Those choices become important when the same attachment needs to come off the shop floor with the same dimensions and fit from one build to the next.

For more on the steel used in high-wear areas, read Built to Last: Why Catawba Attachments Uses Hardox Steel.

Manufacturing Day Is Also About Who Comes Next

Manufacturing Day gives students and families a chance to see that manufacturing careers are not limited to standing behind a welder.

A shop like Catawba relies on welding and fabrication, but also CAD, machining, logistics, inventory, sales, customer service, shipping, and digital operations.

For a family business that has already moved from one generation to the next, showing younger people what happens inside a manufacturing shop has a little extra meaning.

Manufacturing Day in the Shop

Manufacturing Day does not stop the normal work.

Steel still gets cut. Frames still get welded. Attachments still have to be assembled, checked, and shipped.

That everyday work is ultimately what customers see after an attachment reaches their property. The equipment has to fit the tractor, handle the job it was purchased for, and have support behind it when something comes up.

Explore the current Catawba lineup through front-end attachments and 3-point attachments, or read more about the Catawba story.

What to Look for When You Inspect a Fabricated Attachment

A heavy attachment is not automatically a well-built attachment.

A quick look around the hitch and pivot areas can tell you a lot. That is usually where hard use starts to show first, especially around welds, brackets, and other points that carry the most strain.

Quick inspection checklist

Pivot area: Small cracks in the paint or weld around the pivot can be a sign that the joint has been flexing under load.
Gussets: Pay attention to where the bracing is placed. Extra steel helps most when it is tied directly into a corner or joint that takes the strain.
Hitch and mount fitment: Check the connection points for proper alignment and excessive play.
Replaceable wear parts: Cutting edges and teeth that eventually wear out are easier to deal with when they can be replaced without rebuilding the attachment.
Hydraulic hoses: Make sure hoses have room to move without rubbing, stretching, or getting caught in a pinch point.
Tractor clearance: Run through the attachment’s expected range of movement and make sure tires, loader components, and other parts of the tractor have enough clearance.

When you’re comparing Catawba attachments, start with the job you actually need to do. A grapple used for brush cleanup puts different demands on the tractor than a land leveler working a gravel drive, so the specs make more sense once the job is clear.

Local Manufacturing Keeps the Conversation Close to the Shop

Some of the most useful customer questions never appear neatly on a specification sheet.

Will it clear my tires? Can I see the spear from the tractor seat? Is that hose protected when the loader curls back? Can I replace the cutting edge without replacing the whole part?

Those questions tell a manufacturer how the equipment is being used once it leaves the shop.

When customers can talk directly with people close to the design and fabrication work, that feedback has a shorter trip back to the floor. A fitment problem, awkward hose location, or wear point that keeps showing up can become something the shop looks at on the next build.

That is a big part of the Catawba manufacturing story. It started with fixing equipment for farmers, and the lessons coming back from the field still matter today.