What Rocky Mountain Twist makes

Rocky Mountain Twist (RMT) designs and manufactures high-performance industrial cutting tools, built around high-speed steel and cobalt twist drill bits. The standard catalog spans jobber, maintenance, screw machine, aircraft and extension, silver and deming, hex shank, and threaded shank drills, plus microstop countersinks, taps, and pre-packaged drill sets from 13 to 115 pieces. The company also builds custom drills to customer print, and runs a consumer and pro retail line under the Montana Brand Tools name.

Aerospace is a growing specialty. The aerospace catalog includes countersinks in HSS, M42 cobalt, solid carbide, and carbide-tipped forms, aircraft counterbores, carbide-tip rivet shavers, countersink pilots, reverse spotfacers and reverse countersinks, hollow cutters, a Tri-Cam microstop countersink, nutplate drills, and NAS-965 aircraft extension drills. Double-margin drills, which add a second margin behind the leading one to burnish the hole and reach a reamer-grade finish in a single operation, are part of the same line. Materials the tools are designed to cut run from carbon and stainless steel to titanium alloys, hardened steel, and high-strength alloys.

Manufacturing is vertically integrated at one Montana plant. RMT lists CNC drill grinding, high-speed machining, die casting, injection molding, metal forming, and stamping among its in-house processes, and applies its own coatings: black oxide, black and gold, titanium nitride (TiN), titanium carbo-nitride (TiCN), and aluminum titanium nitride (AlTiN). Because the same plant makes tooling for demanding OEM programs and for retail shelves, buyers can treat RMT as both a catalog supplier and a custom tooling shop.

Manufacturing and quality

RMT's core process claim is a proprietary CNC drill grinding cell that grinds a solid high-speed steel blank into a finished bit without re-fixturing. In traditional batch grinding, a bit is moved between machines and re-oriented in a fixture at each step, and every re-orientation introduces small geometry variances that show up as inconsistent hole size and reduced life. In RMT's cells, a blank is oriented once and moves through each phase under computer control, which the company says produces more repeatable geometry. Quality control runs in-process: optic laser measurement continuously checks drill geometry against benchmarks, and when a deviation is detected the system triggers the grinding wheels to be redressed before out-of-spec parts are made.

RMT does not publish a named quality-system certificate such as ISO 9001 or AS9100 on its own site, so its quality position here is described from its stated in-process controls rather than from a certificate. Buyers who require a specific registration for a program should confirm current scope directly with the company.

Ownership and history

Rocky Mountain Twist was founded in 2001 in Ronan, Montana, and grew from a community-focused idea into one of Lake County's cornerstone employers. Its headquarters and roughly 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility sit at 34837 Innovation Dr. in Ronan, a town of about 5,000 people. The company employs a workforce reported between about 250 and 425 people depending on the source and year, and markets itself firmly on a Made in USA position.

Ownership passed through the Tiegs family for most of the company's life. Frank Tiegs purchased RMT roughly 24 years ago, at a point when the company needed capital, and the Tiegs family held it as a source of financial and strategic backing. After Frank Tiegs died, President Mick Cheff, who has led the company since its early years, purchased the majority stock from the family and, as announced in June 2026, now retains full ownership. RMT therefore reads today as an independent, owner-operated manufacturer rather than a subsidiary of a larger group.

Known customers

RMT serves both retail brands and aerospace primes. The relationships below are documented in major-outlet coverage that quotes the company or its plant tour.

Beyond these named programs, most of RMT's customer base is unnamed, which is normal for a cutting-tool maker serving OEM and private-label programs.

Sourcing evidence

RMT is a domestic manufacturer that also imports. US customs bill-of-lading records show 316 sea shipments on record, with the most recent logged in August 2026, so the company was actively importing within the last month of this review. The named foreign suppliers are consistent with a cutting-tool maker sourcing raw tooling, machine consumables, and finished retail-line stock rather than a reseller importing branded goods:

By origin, the visible supplier set skews to China, with a German equipment supplier in the mix. Coverage caveats apply: these are US ocean-freight records only, so air, truck, and rail movements do not appear; some records name freight intermediaries rather than manufacturers; and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. The mix of imported tooling stock against a Made in USA finished-goods position is the pattern buyers weigh when they assess a domestic supplier's exposure to tariffs and consider nearshoring trade-offs. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence.

Frequently asked questions

What does Rocky Mountain Twist make?

Rocky Mountain Twist manufactures high-performance industrial cutting tools, primarily high-speed steel and cobalt twist drill bits, along with microstop countersinks, taps, drill sets, custom drills, and an aerospace line that includes counterbores, rivet shavers, reverse spotfacers, and nutplate drills. It also sells a consumer and pro retail line under the Montana Brand Tools name.

Who owns Rocky Mountain Twist?

Rocky Mountain Twist is independently owned by its president, Mick Cheff, who purchased the majority stock from the Tiegs family and announced full ownership in June 2026. The Tiegs family, led by the late Frank Tiegs, had owned the company for roughly 24 years before that.

Who are Rocky Mountain Twist's customers?

RMT makes retail drill bits for brands including Kobalt and Spyder and supplies aerospace tooling used on contracts with Boeing and Lockheed Martin, per major-outlet coverage of its Ronan plant. Most other customers are unnamed, as is normal for a private-label and OEM tooling supplier.

Where is Rocky Mountain Twist located?

Rocky Mountain Twist is headquartered at 34837 Innovation Dr. in Ronan, Montana, where it runs a roughly 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. The company was founded there in 2001 and manufactures all of its tools in the United States.

How many employees does Rocky Mountain Twist have?

Rocky Mountain Twist employs a workforce reported between about 250 and 425 people, depending on the source and year. The company does not publish an audited headcount, and figures from data brokers are estimates rather than reported numbers.

What certifications does Rocky Mountain Twist hold?

Rocky Mountain Twist does not publish a named quality-system certificate such as ISO 9001 or AS9100 on its own site. It describes in-process quality control instead, including continuous optic laser measurement of drill geometry with automatic grinding-wheel redress. Buyers needing a specific registration for a program should confirm current scope with the company directly.

Last verified September 28, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.