About
Two directors,
one workshop.
TMF Welding is a Brisbane family business built on a trade and run like a company.
Director & head fabricator
Tom Storey
Tom grew up in Muswellbrook, in the Hunter Valley inland from Newcastle, and got into the trade through a trial in the mines. He took to metal work straight away, turned the trial into an apprenticeship, and spent his early years on the tools in one of the least forgiving environments the trade has — heavy plant does not tolerate a bad weld, and the people who learn there learn properly.
A few years working overseas followed — which is where he met Meg — before the two of them came home to Brisbane. Tom went back into the industry here, and eventually decided to back himself and start out on his own.
What turned that into a business wasn’t a plan. It was a phone call from a site he’d left, asking where he’d gone. They wanted Tom specifically, for the quality and the speed, and they chased him until he said yes. That was the point he and Meg decided to register a company and give it a proper crack.
Eight years in the trade on an incident-free record. Before TMF he was welding ship-to-shore cranes and refurbishing heavy plant on the Port of Brisbane — crack repairs with magnetic particle testing, welding to AS 1554 — and before that, heavy mining fabrication in the Hunter Valley: chutes, ROM walls, crusher teeth and pressure pipe, including hot works underground.
What he is building now is a crew, not a labour pool. A tight-knit team that works together, backs each other on site and takes pride in the steel that leaves the shed — apprentices brought along the same way he was. The culture on the workshop floor is what ends up in the weld, and it is the part of this business he is most protective of.
He still quotes the jobs and still runs the crew. When you ring TMF about a project, you get the person who will be standing on your site.
Trade qualifications & tickets
- Certificate III in Engineering — Fabrication Trade
- High risk work licence
- EWP over 11m · Forklift · Dogging
- Confined space · Working safely at heights
- MDG25 · Safe cutting and welding
- Welding to AS/NZS 1554.1
Co-Director — operations & business
Meg Lawes
Meg’s background is business, not the trade. She had always wanted to build something of her own — a business worth owning and a life worth living around it — and when she and Tom came home, that is what they set out to do together.
They run it as a pair, and the split is deliberate. Tom knew steel; he had never run a company. Meg built the structure underneath it — the systems, the accounts, the compliance, the way work gets quoted, invoiced and followed up. Neither half of that works on its own.
Day to day Meg runs operations: crew scheduling, accounts, the tender pipeline and the compliance file. For a client it translates to something simple — quotes come back when we say they will, invoices are right, and the paperwork is complete before anyone has to chase it.
It also means there are always two people who know where your job is up to. If Tom is under a helmet, Meg can answer, and neither of you has to wait until knock-off to get a straight answer.
How it grew
From a single tradesman to a 530m² workshop and a seven-person crew in under two years. Every step was a deliberate decision to back it harder.
- 01Sole trader
One tradesman, one ute
A sole trader with a set of tools and a phone, doing mobile welding across Brisbane.
- 02The call
The call that started a company
A site he had left rang asking where he had gone. They wanted Tom specifically, and they kept asking until he said yes.
- 03Oct 2024
TMF Welding Pty Ltd incorporated
October 2024. A licence, a branded vehicle, and the decision to build a company rather than a job.
- 04First hires
The first hires
A trades assistant, then a second boilermaker. The work arrived before the people did.
- 05The ceiling
Outgrowing mobile work
Mobile welding has a ceiling: one crew, one place at a time. Tom and Meg started looking for a shed across South East Queensland.
- 06May 2025
530m² at Sumner
A fabrication contract landed before the workshop did. They signed a two-year lease and took the risk.
- 07Today
Seven on the crew
Fabrication across South East Queensland and Northern NSW, an estimating team behind the quotes, and no intention of stopping here.
The team
A trade-qualified crew across the workshop and site, and growing. In this business the people are the product.
On the tools
Boilermakers
Trade-qualified, structural and heavy fabrication.
On the tools
Metal fabricators
Workshop fabrication, finishing and install.
Running the job
Site supervisors & leading hands
Our own supervision on every site — your team never inherits ours to manage.
Pricing the work
Estimating
In-house. Takeoffs, scope and pricing, so quotes come back on time and hold.
Supporting
Trades assistants
Keeping the floor and the site moving.
How we work with people
Most of our work is repeat work. These are the standards that produce it.
Priced line by line
Every quote separates inclusions from exclusions. Where a drawing does not carry the detail to price an item, we raise it before submission rather than carry the risk into your program.
One line of communication
Our estimating team prices the work and our director runs the crew. Both sit inside the business, so a question about the quote reaches the person who wrote it.
Documentation on schedule
Weld certificates, as-built drawings and compliance records are issued as the work completes, so your QA file closes without follow-up.
We work to your systems
Our crews operate under your site rules, inductions and program. Head contractors re-engage us because we do not create supervision work for them.
Scope we can hold
If a package sits outside our capability, or a date sits outside our capacity, we say so at tender stage. A declined job costs less than a delayed one.
Built for repeat engagement
We price to be engaged again rather than to win once. It is the reason most of our work comes from clients who have used us before.
Reviewed by the people who hired us
“Tom and his team from TMF Welding were fantastic. The were well prepared for the project, completed the scope accurately and left the site better then they found it. Highly recommend TMF Welding for any future Steel Fabrication projects.”
Adam Coley, Hall Group QLD · Google“TMF are now a trusted subcontractor for us.”
Hamish Schmalkuche, FHS Builders · Google“TMF welding are great to work with, and we have completed two projects with them recently with no issues and reasonable pricing.”
Fergus Schmalkuche, FHS Builders · Google“Tom was fantastic to work with. Top quality work and gets it done. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a top notch welder.”
Timothy Allen · Google“Recently Tom from TMF Welding completed a job at my home and I couldn’t be happier with the result. His cutting and welding work was completed with outstanding precision and attention to detail.”
Geoff Walker · Google“Tom and his team from TMF Welding were fantastic. The were well prepared for the project, completed the scope accurately and left the site better then they found it. Highly recommend TMF Welding for any future Steel Fabrication projects.”
Adam Coley, Hall Group QLD · Google“TMF are now a trusted subcontractor for us.”
Hamish Schmalkuche, FHS Builders · Google“TMF welding are great to work with, and we have completed two projects with them recently with no issues and reasonable pricing.”
Fergus Schmalkuche, FHS Builders · Google“Tom was fantastic to work with. Top quality work and gets it done. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a top notch welder.”
Timothy Allen · Google“Recently Tom from TMF Welding completed a job at my home and I couldn’t be happier with the result. His cutting and welding work was completed with outstanding precision and attention to detail.”
Geoff Walker · Google