01/14/2026
This picture was taken in 2018. It shows a spiral staircase sitting outside our shop. Back then, we were not even Chiasson Smoke yet. We were still JJC Metalworks, working out of a small shop and saying yes to anything that came our way.
One day, a spiral staircase project came up. Someone asked, “Can you do this?”
And I said, “Absolutely.”
The truth was, I had no idea how to build a spiral staircase.
Our shop was too small to even fit the project inside, so we laid it out in the yard. Every piece of that staircase was cut on a 4 by 4 Delusional Design CNC plasma table. The steps were bent at another shop because we did not have a press brake yet. I still remember paying five dollars per step just to get them formed.
Then came the hard part. Trying to figure out how it all went together.
YouTube was no help back then. There were no clear guides. No step by step videos. Just math, angles, degrees, and trial and error. We made mistakes. We re cut parts. We laid things out again. Slowly, it started to make sense.
We built our first spiral staircase.
We also lost money on it.
By the time we factored in the learning curve, the mistakes, and the extra time, we did not make a profit. In reality, we paid to learn. But that one staircase led to another, and then another. Once we understood the math and the process, it became much easier. What once felt impossible became something we could do with confidence.
That is how small businesses are built.
You do not start as an expert. You start by saying yes when you do not know all the answers. You figure it out as you go. You fail. You learn. You get better.
That staircase was part of our early days, when everything was a learning phase. We are still in that phase today, just at a much bigger scale.
Chiasson Smoke was not built by knowing everything. It was built by being willing to try.
And sometimes, that is the only thing you really need.
