Don Ingram

I am a senior engineer / machinist  (50 years old). I am married with two young children. My wife, Alexia Ingram is 39 years old. My son, Keagan Ingram is 13 years old. My daughter, Saskia Ingram is 7 years old.  I am very family orientated and I spend all my spare time with my family, they always come first. We are a very outdoors family and participated in various sports together. My son and I are musicians, he plays guitar for the last 4 years as do I. I have also been playing drums since I was 16 years old and can read and write music. My daughter and I enjoy doing arts and crafts together as well as helping animals in need. We have a donkey named Snow which we look after at an animal shelter for abused and abandoned donkeys. (Your ASS Donkey shelter). We love sport and do as much as possible together. Saskia has a yellow belt in karate and Keagan has a black belt in JKA, he is one of the youngest black belts in South Africa. We also enjoy playing football, swimming and tennis together.

We are busy with the process of immigrating to the Netherlands and I am seeking work. I am very disciplined in my work and take it very seriously. I strive to learn everyday to add to my already vast amount of knowledge. I am never scared to learn something new, I strive to learn something no matter how small every day. 

I have and always will be an asset to any company that I have worked at. Currently I am in the aviation industry were I design and manufacture tooling and components for just under 100 clients, local and internationally. I am a peoples person, I really enjoy being around and involved with people in our community. I have my own business for 13 years now which I am in the process of selling to be able to immigrate to the Netherlands with my small family.

I have dedicated my working career to gaining as much experience as possible in the trade and engineering industry over the last 30 years. Combining my 4 Trades, Engineering studies and pursuing the best in cnc and conventional precision machining, I have managed to become a very respected business owner and provider in all the industries I serve. These industries include Aviation, Marine, Automotive, Mining, Food and IT sectors. For the last 15 years I have been designing and manufacturing tooling, parts and components for these industries. 

I take my clients ideas that they have and design the products for them if they don't already have CAD drawings. From the design stage, I manufacture the prototypes and carry out all the R & D that is required. Once my client is happy with the product I take it to the testing stage were the required approvals are certified.  The final stage is for me to design tooling for mass production (If required). 

This includes plastic and aluminium / zinc high pressure injection moulds, pour moulds, press tooling, jigs etc. If required I get involved in manufacturing parts and components for production assembly lines as well. Most of my clients do not have facilities to run these type of tools, so I find companies that do and I stay involved with every client and product to date. I help with product improvement, break downs, maintenance and repairs that might develop over the years.

I am very proud of my company and my personal accomplishments. In the past 15 to 20 years I have not taken on a prototype or manufacturing project that I have not succeeded in completing to perfection. My company and a few of my designs for local and international clients carry FAA and EASA approvals as well.

Tooling that I manufacture for the automotive, marine and aviation industries have never failed to date. I take my work very seriously and I don’t compromise on perfection. I am very disciplined in this way. 

Over the years I have trained apprentices in my various trades and I have passed down my years of experience to them in the same way with the same discipline and love for the work that they do. I teach them to love the work they do. You cannot be good at your job if you do not enjoy it. 

Every apprentice I have trained to date has achieved a lot more in their working career than I ever could. This makes me extremely proud. When my apprentice is able to think for himself and surpass my knowledge, then I know I have done my job well. (A master is only as good as his student’s accomplishments.)

My school career, I completed my Std 9 at Florida park high school.

My first trade was as a specialised motor technician, I qualified in petrol, diesel and two stroke engines. Light and heavy duty. I furthered my career by specialising in automotive electrical, drive trains and chassis. During this 4 year period I attended Johannesburg technical college were I completed my NTC in mechanical engineering, mechanotechnics and motor vehicle science.

I then moved into the engineering field where I joined a company that did specialised automotive and marine machining. At Blue Print Engineering I completed my automotive machining trade and during this period I completed my Fitting and Turning trade as well.

I then left the country to do contract work in the UK. When I returned I did various work at OEM's. For a 5 year period I did my last trade (Part time) at Scorpion Tool & Die. This is my last trade qualification as a Tool, Die and Jig Maker.

From this period onwards I started my own company (Valchore Engineering Worx) were I have combined all my trades and studies into one complete “One stop shop” for my clients. My company has been successful in all my industries from 2010 to present.