Boylston companies' work draws high profile visitors.

Byline: Michael Kane

BOYLSTON - It wasn't the view from Hillside that drew Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray to Boylston Friday. It was the spirit of entrepreneurship; particularly that being shown at 240 Shrewsbury Street, the home of Phillips Precision Inc. and The Pitbull Clamp Company.

The manufacturing companies, now located at 240 Shrewsbury St., are poised to expand and move a few lots down Route 140, thanks in part to the zoning changes made at town meeting, owners Steve and Cathy Phillips said.

Murray was invited to the plant by State Representative Harold Naughton Jr. as part of a tour that also included a school in Northboro and a plastics manufacturing company in Clinton, and drew state officials, the director of Clinton's Community and Economic Development Office and Brendan Gallagher, the branch manager of the Phillips Precision's newest Route 140 neighbor, Clinton Savings Bank.

Flexible enough to build parts for Bose Corporation or cutting blades for the paper industry, then turning around and make a plaque for outgoing Little League President Doug Sieber, Phillips Precision specializes in short-run prototype development for companies that are creating new products or processes.

"We (build) parts and help develop prototype one-offs," Steve Phillips said. "The best thing about this kind of stuff is that, if you can draw it, we can make it."

The Pitbull Clamp Company is an offshoot of Phillips Precision, which began as a way to launch the owners' inventions, starting with the Pitbull Clamp.

While Steve Phillips joked that Cathy is the "brains" and the "visionary" behind the companies' success, history shows a successful partnership.

According to a company background prepared for the tour by Cathy Phillips, Steve Phillips invented the Pitbull Clamp while trying to solve a problem in the machine shop. Cathy then patented and trademarked the clamp, which is touted as having the most holding force of any clamp its size and is now sold worldwide.

The company's second invention, a garden plant support called "The Training Wheel," is also set to launch.

But before that, Phillips Precision began in 1997, after Cathy left a high-ranking position at Digital following the birth of the couple's twins, and Steve decided to go out on his own after many years of leading manufacturing operations for other companies.

The company has grown from two employees - the owners - to 11 employees and from 2,000 square feet to 5,500 square feet," the...