Today’s Machining World

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We’re on vacation this week. So we’re publishing one of my favorite Blog/Videos that’s been on my mind lately. I highly recommend you watch the video version of this podcast.Click on the link to go to the video.

I won a few big matches on my high school Tennis team, but I was never awesome. I never won the big tournaments. What killed me was that I always had more fun and played better in practice than in big matches when pressure made my muscles tight.

For the last few months, I’ve been fascinated by a discovery a tennis pro made 50 years ago that’s revolutionizing how people perform under pressure. It started when I listened to “The Coach in Your Head,” an episode from Michael Lewis’s “Against the Rules” podcast.

Check out the video I made breaking down the whole story on my YouTube channel, I Learned It on a Podcast.

We all experience this. Job interviews, presentations, equipment demonstrations. We “play tight” when stakes are high, performing worse at the very things we’ve trained for.

Tim Gallwey figured out why this happens. In 1974, he published The Inner Game of Tennis, decades before today’s coaching boom. Like me, he was skilled but didn’t perform his best when it mattered most. While teaching tennis at a country club during summer break, he had a profound realization.

Instead of giving a student technical instructions for hitting topspin, Gallwey stayed quiet and just tossed balls for 3-4 minutes. Suddenly, the guy was hitting perfect topspin shots. His next lesson, he told a complete beginner to shut her eyes and see herself hitting the ball. She executed perfectly, naturally doing everything he would have taught her.

His realization was simple. Performance isn’t about more instruction. It’s about eliminating mental interference.

This method became known as mind coaching. It helps people notice when thoughts create tension and worry, then redirects focus to what’s actually useful. Michael Lewis’s daughter Dixie, a competitive softball player, worked with a mind coach who transformed her brutal self-talk from “don’t screw up” to “loose and aggressive.” When she focused on that positive phrase, her muscles could work instead of being locked up by tension.

I’ve started trying to apply the “loose and aggressive” mindset in my daily life. I think about it in my morning routines, content creation, and business negotiations. Recently, teaching my 3-year-old to throw a frisbee, instead of explaining technique, I demonstrated it to him a few times and said “just watch and do it.” In minutes he was doing it–of course in his own way with two hands, but he was really doing it, probably better than if I’d verbally instructed him

Today mind coaches work with firefighters developing mental routines for emergencies, executives learning to compete rather than just manage.

Perhaps this week, try to feel where you are playing tight. Maybe you’ll notice you’re so focused on not failing that you can’t access what you actually know. Or, if you’re coaching other people, you might ask what they noticed instead of listing what they did wrong. The big puzzle I find is to not let yourself get tight about trying to be loose. It just creates more of the same problem.

Question: Do you perform well under pressure? What is your secret?

The post Why We Choke Under Pressure — And How to Fix It-EP 250 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s show is the first episode of our new season about Swiss-Type CNC machining. Our guest is Marc Klecka, founder and president of Concentric Corporation, a prominent distributor of Citizen-Cincom CNC Swiss lathes in Cleveland, Ohio.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast, or listen with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts or your favorite app.

Main Points

Marc talks about his company, Concentric, which has been distributing Citizen Swiss machines for 31 years and Miyano for 10 years (after Citizen acquired the company). (2:20)

Marc gives his “5-year-old explanation” of Swiss CNC Machining (sliding headstock machining). He says the original technology of “Swiss style machining” was developed in Switzerland over a hundred years ago for producing high precision watch components. He says what differentiates CNC Swiss machining from conventional CNC turning is that a CNC Swiss machine grips the part with a collet and also supports the part with a guide bushing. This eliminates the vibration that normally occurs when machining bar on a a conventional CNC lathe. (3:00)

Marc says a traditional Swiss part has a length to diameter ratio of 3 to 1 or more because that is the point where you start sacrificing the rigidity and accuracy on a conventional CNC lathe. He tells a story about a Citizen customer who produced a 10-foot part out of aluminum tubing. (4:40)

Marc talks about the importance of running ground bar stock on Swiss machines, particularly for running lights-out. However, he says that says in the 31-year history of Concentric, he estimates that only 30% of the material run (in Swiss mode) on the machines he has sold has been ground bar stock. He says it is a misconception that Swiss Style CNC machines are only good for running ground stock. (7:25)

Marc says that during 2020 Concentric’s business did ok, but the pandemic made it more difficult to sell machines because it was harder to have in person contact with customers. (11:00)

Marc says that there are lots of good brands of machine tools on the market, but he sees the support and service of local distributors as something that sets Citizen apart. He says that many years ago Marubeni Citizen made a point of having all of its local distributors become self-sufficient for servicing customers. He says that all the Citizen sales engineers also are applications engineers. He says it is important to have sales people who can get in the trenches with customers to solve their problems. (12:00)

Marc talks about Citizen’s proprietary LFV (low frequency vibration) technology, which is featured in many of the latest models. It enables operators to control the geometry of the chip coming off the machine using the machine’s CNC control. He says this capability is significant for manufacturers who want to do lightly attended or unattended machining. (17:20)

Marc talks about the significance of the medical sector for Citizen machines. He explains thread whirling for making long bone screws. He discusses a bone screw that was made on a Citizen featuring a laser that performed a cut on that part while still inside the machine (see video). (21:45)

Marc talks about diverse markets where he sees Citizens being used. He says during COVID-19 woodworking has become more popular and Citizen machines are making tools used for the art. Also, he says tattoos have become more popular during the pandemic and Citizen machines are making parts that go into the tattoo gun pens. He says demand continues to grow for parts for the electric car markets. (26:00)

Noah asks Marc tell him something he learned the week before. Marc jokes hat he learned it probably was not a great thing to break into the Capital building. He also said that he learned about the new LNS chip conveyors that are being put on some of the newest Citizen machines equipped with LFV technology. (31:00)

Question: Which Swiss machine do you prefer to use and why?

The post Best of Swarfcast: Talking Citizen CNC Swiss Lathes with Marc Klecka – EP 109 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

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I love baseball. We’re a week from the trade deadline. Teams are texting back and forth, hunting either for the crucial piece that vaults them into the World Series or the unpolished kid who blossoms into a star a few years down the road.

My team is the Chicago Cubs. I’ve rooted for them since I was 6. I tried out for the team at Wrigley Field when I was 21.

The Cubs won the World Series in 2016 after 108 years of trying. By the summer of 2021 that core had peaked, and management started trading off the players who won the championship, looking for younger ones to rebuild around.

The Cubs had a charismatic infielder named Javy Baez from Puerto Rico. Baez made electric plays in the field that made you shake your head and smile, and at his peak he was a dynamic power hitter who could also steal bases. Pitchers eventually figured out that he couldn’t hold back on a breaking ball, even one headed a foot outside the zone. In his last stretch with the Cubs he was chasing more than 40% of the pitches thrown out of the strike zone. He struck out 184 times that year, the most in the National League.

The New York Mets saw the flaw too. They thought they could fix it, and they badly needed a colorful infielder who could make amazing plays.

The Cubs needed pitching. What they really wanted was a Mets prospect named Matt Allan, the top-rated high school arm in the 2019 draft who slid to the third round over signability and signed for $2.5 million. The Mets saw a future star and refused to move him. Instead they offered an outfielder named Pete Crow-Armstrong, who was 19, nursing a shoulder that needed surgery, and had played only six minor league games.

The Cubs had scouted Crow-Armstrong in high school in Los Angeles. In the 2020 draft they passed on him at pick 16 and took Ed Howard instead, a shortstop out of Mount Carmel, known for leading his Little League team from the South Side of Chicago to the Little League World Series. Crow-Armstrong went to the Mets three picks later.

The Cubs wanted Baez gone, so they made the deal for the kid they’d once doubted. The Mets got a dispirited Javy Baez, who still couldn’t lay off the outside breaking ball.

Crow-Armstrong looked like a left-handed version of Baez when he arrived. Great center fielder, swung at everything. But PCA, as he’s called, was completely dedicated to becoming more than a glove. He reached the Cubs at the end of 2023 and took over center field in 2024. He changed his stance, trained his eye to read the curve and the change, and sharpened his stroke until he could drive the ball out. This year he’s cut his swing rate more than any qualified hitter in baseball and become an MVP candidate. Over three seasons he’s turned into one of the best and most charismatic players in the game.

Data tells us what a player has done, not what he or she is capable of doing. Often the best decisions are the ones made reluctantly.

Pete Crow-Armstrong is a baseball zealot, a fanatic, an intense student of the game. Baez had given up on mastering the breaking ball. PCA treated it as a challenge to conquer.

Sometimes in life successful moves come down to luck. Matt Allan, the Cubs’ first choice, has had two career-shattering arm surgeries, and no Major League team has signed him since. The player they “settled for” became the one the team built around.

It happens in my business too. We buy a group of machines, and the one we knew least about, the ugliest one on the floor, the one we barely figured into the price, turns out to be the piece everybody wants.

A reluctant decision can be the ideal one.

Questions:

What’s the best — or worst — trade your team ever made?

Who’s the best player everyone passed on and lived to regret?

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The post Can Work Actually Make You Happy? appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

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My guest today teaches happiness for a living. Which is ironic, because she grew up in a country where smiling at a stranger means something is wrong with you.

Tatiana Koval spent 15 years as an HR consultant in Russia. When the war in Ukraine started, saying you were against it could put you in jail. Within days, she left the country with her husband and two sons to emigrate to Brazil.

This is a conversation about happiness at work, life in Russia, and moving to Brazil, a place where strangers smile, hug, and say good morning in the elevator.

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel.

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Interview HighlightsLosing Everything to Stay HumanRussia’s war with Ukraine started February 24, 2022. On March 1, Tatiana and her family were gone. A new law had made it a crime to speak against the war. Most of her clients had government connections, so she lost them. Colleagues cut ties because being associated with her had become dangerous for their businesses. They chose Brazil because of a Facebook post saying Russians could move there and get citizenship.

Money matters, she says, “but to stay human for me was much more important.”

The Slavic FaceIn Russia it’s not the norm to smile. If you want respect, you wear a serious face. Tatiana calls it the “Slavic face.” Russians grow up expecting crisis, always ready for something bad to happen. She calls that mindset the opposite of happiness. Looking back at her school and university years, she realizes she fought depression, but she never saw a psychologist. The stigma was too strong.

Tatiana holds three university diplomas: mathematics, economics, and communication. None in psychology. Then about 15 years ago she joined a US-based online conference where people were talking about happiness at work. Nobody had ever told her that work could be a path to happiness. She calls it her “wow moment.” She dove into positive psychology, taking courses on Coursera and reading Martin Seligman and Tal Ben-Shahar. What hooked her was Seligman’s famous question: if everything is okay with our lives, could we make them better?

Bom Dia in the ElevatorIn her building in Brazil, neighbors say bom dia in the elevator every day. People smile, hug, and complain plenty too. Community runs deep, in church, in family, at work. In Moscow she lived in the same building for over 15 years and knew two or three of her neighbors.

But she pushes back on the idea that everything in Brazil is better. Social trust, she says, is about the same as Russia. She couldn’t go out after dark in her old Russian neighborhood, and she wouldn’t recommend it in most Brazilian cities either.

How She Learned to Love Cleaning the HouseTatiana uses a method from positive psychology called job crafting: redefining how you see a task. She hated cleaning her house. So she turned it into her hour for podcasts, dancing, and exercise. Now she refuses to let anyone else do it.

Understanding Your WhyWork becomes a path to happiness when you find the meaning in it. In Tatiana’s projects, one of the most common results is that people finally understand what the company is doing, why, and for whom. In her own business, the goal is not just to make money but to understand what the other person needs and find the true solution. If a solution isn’t right for a client, she says no and points them to someone else.

Happiness Is a SkillTatiana says the tools of positive psychology helped her recover from emigration faster. She had stress, losses, and plenty of negative emotions. But her recovery came much quicker than it would have without the science of happiness. During that period she asked herself every day if she was happy. The answer was yes, because the decision to leave was built on her values.

Listen to Tatiana’s podcast, Happy at Work — Coding Happiness into the AI Workplace

The post Can Work Make You Happy? Ask the Russian in Brazil, with Tatiana Koval-EP 270 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

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The Mullahs and the Thugs of Iran believe that with threats and drones they hold the winning hand in the pricing of oil and gas. But relying on a Strait ultimately will be their downfall.

Not long ago, 20% of the world’s oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz on its way to Europe and the Far East. Iran’s calculation was that by threatening the tankers passing through the Strait they would intimidate the insurance writers in London and terrify the owners and crews on the boats.

The tactics have worked for the moment, but long term they have weakened the strategic value of Iran’s threats. To the surprise of most speculators on oil futures, the price of crude has neither shot up to $150 a barrel nor crippled the world economy. The private sector is awash in fossil fuels, solar has finally become competitive, and Tesla and the Chinese are selling electric vehicles everywhere.

Even more important, pipelines, ports, railways, politics, and an American blockade are making the Strait of Hormuz a soon-to-be 100-mile-long swimming hole.

Saudi Arabia has the biggest operating bypass, an overland pipeline currently capable of transporting 7 million barrels per day. It is positioning itself not only as the Gulf’s biggest oil producer but also as its principal overland energy corridor. Geopolitically that will make it virtually a world superpower.

If Iran wants to play tough, the Saudis have F-35 Jets and the money to hire pilots to fly them.

Iraq is potentially the 3rd largest exporter of oil. Its new leader was in Washington this past week. He also met with heads of American oil companies likely to restart major fields there.

The United States is the world’s biggest producer of oil and does not need any Strait to export it.

South America has now become a significant player in the world oil markets. Venezuela is being freed up to eventually become a major exporter again, joining Argentina, Brazil and now tiny Guyana, all with major oil-producing areas. Guyana alone is producing 1 million barrels a day and will be close to 2 million in three years, almost all exported.

Not to be forgotten is the huge Maple Leaf in the room, the Tar Sands of Alberta. If Canada wants to make the investment, it could become an oil exporter the equal of the Saudis.

There is one other possible loser in the oil export poker game—Qatar. Qatar is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in the world and the Strait of Hormuz is the only logical way of exporting its output for now. Qatar has some big cards to play. Its banks hold much of Iran’s money, and it gave President Trump a shiny new airplane, which his security people now fear is unsafe for him to use. Qatar badly needs a Strait.

My prediction is that without Hormuz and the threat of nuclear weapons, Iran’s regime will fall well before its 50th anniversary.

For the Mullahs and the Thugs, playing the Strait is a losing hand.

Question: How is your business dealing with the ups and downs of oil prices?

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From today forward, I am being the point guard.

For years selling used machinery, I’ve constantly thought about how I need to delegate, how I need to stop trying to do everything. When I try to do too much, it’s a mess. I don’t do as good a job as I could have, and I get less done.

One of my issues is my ego. My brain says: I’m the best deal maker. I’ve made a study of this deal. I know this person better than the others do. This should be my task because I know how to do it better than everyone else. Those who know me well know that “should” is a verboten word in my vocabulary.

The other big problem is that I feel like if I ask other people to do things, it means I’m lazy, that I’m not doing my share or being a leader.

And even when I know I’m not being lazy, when I know I’m doing my part, I’m still self-conscious that other people will think I’m slacking.

Recently I worked from home because I was too tired to drive in. But first, I sat in my car for several minutes, going back and forth. Should I drive in and be seen doing my job, even if I felt sleepy? Even if I actually might focus better at home? Or, should I work from home and get judged for it? (Ugh. More “shoulds.”)

Of course, nobody said a word to me. But I hated that I had such insecurity about the situation.

So I’m shifting my mindset. Instead of trying to be the guy who scores all the time, I’m going to be the point guard. I want to pass the ball. I want my teammates to call more of the leads who email us about machines, so they score more. When they score more, we all win.

Question: What is the hardest thing for you to hand off?

The post Confessions of a Wannabe Ball Hog appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

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Born with no intention of becoming a machinist, Greg Knight says he was drafted into “indentured servitude” at age 16 when his father started a Brown & Sharpe machine shop in their garage. Despite his initial distaste for manual labor, fate had other plans for the psychology, philosophy, religion, and sociology major.I ran into Greg at PMTS 2025 in Cleveland last week, working in the Absolute Machine Tools booth despite being retired for several years after being diagnosed with ALS. I’ve always found Greg fascinating and fun to talk to since we met 20 years ago at my first PMPA event in San Antonio. As you can tell from this episode title, we’re going to unpack a lot of intriguing topics in this interview.Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel

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Interview HighlightsWhen Gregs father’s health declined, Greg’s mother pleaded with her only child to help run the family business. What began as temporary assistance evolved into a 20-year career. His father’s shop, which remarkably turned a profit from its first year, eventually expanded from primarily Brown & Sharp machines to include CNC lathes and mills while maintaining its identity as a screw machine house.

Greg’s expertise with Brown & Sharpe machines caught the attention of American Adaptive Machine Technology (AMT), who sought his insights while developing ServoCam technology—a modernization that brought CNC capabilities to traditional Brown and Sharpe machines. Greg eventually joined AMT to lead this innovation, selling his shop at his mother’s behest. The ServoCam technology, which initially cost about $15,000 per upgrade in 1998, eventually evolved to complete machine rebuilds priced at $150,000.

Greg later formed connections with Taiwanese manufacturer Lico, bringing their full CNC screw machines to the American market. His industry journey concluded at Absolute Machine Tools, where he ran their production turning division for eight years.

In 2019, Greg was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Initially told he had 3-5 years to live, he now believes he has a slower-progressing variant that might give him 10-12 years. The disease has affected his right arm’s functionality and is beginning to impact his back and legs, requiring adaptations in daily activities.

Greg has practiced Tai Chi for over 40 years, approaching it as both a martial art and philosophical practice. Fortunately he has always embraced the finesse-oriented approach rather than relying on his natural size and strength, explaining that he thought, “Someday I’m going to be old and infirm and that strength is going to fail me. This stuff will work forever.”

Greg continues to practice Tai Chi despite his condition, using it to stay active and mobile. His pragmatic approach to life’s challenges emerges clearly, telling me: “It is what it is. So now what are you going to do with it?” Rather than dwelling on limitations, Greg adapts and continues moving forward. He is still the fun, and fascinating guy I met at the PMPA management update when I was 25.

Question: What events transpired to lead you to your career?This summary was assisted by claude.ai.The post Best of Swarfcast: Tai Chi, Machine Tools, and ALS, with Greg Knight — EP 240 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

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My beloved Chicago Cubs lost 17 to 1 to the St. Louis Cardinals last weekend, and I’m grateful I was there.

I hadn’t planned on going to the game. My wife, Stephanie, and I were primed to go to Madison, Wisconsin, for a long-needed parent getaway. But my sister, Sarah, and her husband, Scott, were visiting for the weekend, and between hosting them and an upcoming hip replacement, my mom understandably could not take on watching our son Abe for the weekend.

When I finally came to terms with not going on our trip, I checked the Cubs schedule to see if there were any games that weekend. Sarah and Scott love the Cubs, and I had been wanting to go to a game with the family anyway. It turned out the Cardinals were coming to town. Two rival teams in a pennant race on the Friday afternoon of Fourth of July weekend could not have been more perfect.

Abe and Stephanie were in. My brother Ari and his son Judah were in. For some reason, Sarah and Scott hesitated to pull the trigger on $150 upper-deck seats. But when they found out Dad was going, they were going.

An hour before the game, it stormed. But as the radar predicted, the heavens opened up at game time.

We got $10 hot dogs and ice cream sundaes in mini batting helmets. We sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” drowning out the singing Cardinal fans. And we watched the Cubs lose 17–1.

In the sixth inning, I shot a video asking my dad how things were going.

He said the game was going brilliantly because he got to enjoy a Cubs game with his family, and had a chance to yell and scream and boo.

I missed out on a weekend I had looked forward to for a year. But I got a day at the Cubs game I will be grateful for the rest of my life.

We all have the chance to be a serendipity magnet. Create it, see it, seize it

Question: When have your plans fallen apart, only for you to be grateful afterward?

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Our guest on today’s podcast is Joe Bennett, Vice President of Sales at Seaway Bolt and Specials, a privately held cold heading company in Columbia Station, Ohio, founded in 1957.

In the cold heading process, coiled steel is cut into slugs, which are then hit multiple times, ultimately pounding them into a desired shape. The cold heading process is capable of producing several hundred pieces per minute. Some cold-headed products are net shaped blanks that are shipped to machining companies who then finish the parts.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.Main Points

Seaway has historically focused on cold heading one product family, taper threaded pipe plugs ranging from 1/16” to 2” diameter. The pipe plugs are used in a wide variety of industries such as automotive, oil and gas, and agriculture, going into products like transmissions, pumps, compressors, and engines. Joe describes a threaded pipe plug as an inside out nut. It looks like a nut, but its threads are on the outside. They are produced by cold heading a blank followed by thread rolling. Seaway produces 100 million pipe plugs a year, exporting 30% of its production. A few years ago, the company decided it needed to make a new part family if it wanted to keep growing. Its team decided the logical course would be to cold head female tubular fittings to match its male pipe plugs.

To cold head its pipe plugs, Seaway uses machines called nut formers. To make the new tubular parts the company purchased three machines called parts formers, which have the capability to make more highly engineered parts than nut formers. Joe says the new machines stand two stories high, have the footprint of three conference rooms and weigh 400,000 pounds each.

The used machines cost several million dollars to purchase and will take millions more to rebuild. Joe says National produced around 18 of the type of 1.5” cold heading machines Seaway purchased. GM was their original owner, buying them new in the 1970s.

Prior to working at Seaway, Joe worked in sales for 10 years at a large cold headed parts distributor in the Columbus, Ohio, area. Six years ago, he took a job at Seaway because he preferred to work for a privately held, smaller company with around 70 employees, where he felt he could make a significant impact.

Joe beams about Seaway’s philosophy of running the company with a “first class” management style. He and the company’s owner, Ray Gurnick, offered to cover a roundtrip plane fare for me to come to the company and interview them in person. I unfortunately had to take a raincheck.

Seaway pays 100 percent of higher eduction costs for its employees. The company has three holiday parties a year and regularly brings in food trucks to celebrate company achievements. It offers profit-sharing and gives regular bonuses. Its shop bathroom has been redone in marble.

Seaway uses open book management, showing its employees the company’s financials on a quarterly basis. The purpose of open book management is to keep employees invested in the company’s success and guide them how do their jobs in the best way to maximize productivity. Also, including employees in the management process makes them feel valued, which can boost performance and satisfaction.

Every Friday, production at Seaway stops for the last half hour of the day so employees can clean the shop–cold heading shops happen to be notoriously filthy. Afterward, the quality department takes photos around the shop and reports to the various departments how well they cleaned up. Joe says that when visitors come to Seaway they are wowed by the shop’s cleanliness, but more importantly, the cleanliness creates a pleasant working environment for Seaway’s people.

Though Seaway is ambitiously expanding its product lines, the company does not aspire to be like its larger competitors. Joe says the company’s strategy is to do all the little things better than its competition. This will attract the best talent to work there, which in the end will lead to success.

Question: If you could buy any new equipment for your shop, what would you buy?

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Is 2026 going to be a good time to invest in a business in light of what just happened in New York City’s mayoral race?

Peter Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook in 2004. His gain was over 4,000%.

If anybody understands capitalism, it is a guy like Peter Thiel.

He has observed capitalism becoming more and more out of favor with young people—the kind of folks who helped elect Zohran Mamdani mayor of New York City two weeks ago.

In 2020, Thiel wrote a prescient email to executives at Facebook predicting the coming rise in Socialism’s popularity among younger Americans.

The reasons that stood out to him were anger over staggering college debt and the high price of a home or apartment.

You can add many other factors that enabled Mamdani to win in New York.

Personal charisma. Two (originally three) tarnished, old, lazy candidates who opened a lane for him. The crazy cost of living, especially housing in New York City. White guilt that made a slightly brown-skinned Muslim attractive to kids who had imbibed “white colonial hatred” in elite colleges.

New York City was a juicy place for all of these factors to coalesce, but usually economic conditions decide elections. It also scares me that it may spread out of the five boroughs.

Older, richer folks who bought homes, paid off mortgages, have health insurance and IRAs probably do not understand the dream of Socialism. They know in their brains and guts that it always fails with time. But the dream continues to be attractive, like a coolant made of Colavita olive oil in a Citizen L32.

He’s a shrewd 34-year-old. Both old political parties are in disarray. Internet media gives him easy access to a vast audience.

Then throw in the problem of men who are lonely, don’t even know how to ask a woman out on a date, and live in their parents’ basement. You have a pretty ugly mess.

AI has begun to wipe out the entry level white collar jobs which were supposed to be the ramp to a well-paid career. These men do not know how to unplug a toilet. They are not going to fill the factories and drive a garbage truck to make 100 grand a year.

Peter Thiel saw this coming five years ago, but he had no easy fix to the lure of Socialism and the rise of Mamdanis.

The folly of Socialism will be revealed eventually. How long will it take? Who will be the next scapegoats?

We are celebrating 250 years of the great American experiment. There have always been fools and haters. Today Mamdani plays New York for the fool. How long will he last? Who will succeed him? Will it be worse?

Question: What do you think Trump and Mamdani will talk about when he goes to the White House today?

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The last six months I’ve been using AI to help me with everything from business negotiations to dealing with my kid’s pneumonia. It’s become a daily part of how I operate—at work and at home. The big difference between it and just googling is that you have a conversation with it.

Check out the video I made for my YouTube Channel, I Learned It on a Podcast!

What the Heck is AI Anyway?

If you’ve used ChatGPT or heard about it, you might still be wondering what it actually does. Wharton professor Ethan Mollick calls it “the world’s fanciest autocomplete.” Instead of just finishing one sentence, it can write full emails, answer complicated questions, or help you think through equipment problems.

Here’s the key difference: when you ask Google a question, you get a list of links. When you ask AI a question, you get a response—and then you can respond back. You’re having a conversation.

But you have to watch out—it can be completely wrong while sounding confident. I asked about health effects of eating eggs daily and got different answers depending on how I phrased it. It even sited a made up source! You have to stay sharp.

It Figures Stuff Out

The biggest shift is I’ve stopped Googling much. Instead of sorting through search results, I just ask AI and we work through problems together.

I’ve used it for oil stains on my pants—describing exactly how it happened, what cleaning supplies I have, when I can get to a washing machine. For business negotiations—discussing customer situations, to figuring out what to make for dinner, we discuss a game plan together. When I was lost at Frankfurt airport, I snapped a photo of German signs and uploaded it. ChatGPT told me exactly where to go like having a local guide.

The power isn’t in the first answer. It’s in the back-and-forth. AI asks follow-up questions I hadn’t thought of, suggests approaches I wouldn’t have considered. We figure things out together.

How You Get Good at Using AI

Don’t ask for one idea—ask for 200. Don’t ask for one way to write an email—ask for 30 variations and pick the best one.

This creates serendipity—lucky breaks that take projects in directions you didn’t expect. Recently, working with Claude on a video script, we went back and forth on different ways to explain AI’s value. Through that conversation, we landed on the perfect line: “It helps you figure shit out.”

I might have gotten there alone, but it would have taken a while. Together pretty quickly we found something that captured exactly what AI does in daily life.

My Creative Conflict

I’ll be honest. I sometimes feel conflicted using AI when I write. Sometimes it feels like having having a parent helping me with my homework who does too much. When Claude helps me write something polished that sounds like me, part of me thinks: “Did I actually write this?”

But here’s what I’ve realized: AI doesn’t replace the hard thinking. It removes friction. The ideas and judgment are still mine. It’s just easier now to get more ideas into the world. I think of it like jazz—sometimes it’s a trio with me, Claude, and ChatGPT all riffing together.

My Challenge to You

Spend 10 hours using AI for everything you ethically can in your business. Ask about pricing strategies, equipment decisions, customer communication challenges. But remember. It’s predicting patterns, not searching databases. When something doesn’t seem right, trust your instincts and double check.

Most importantly, don’t just ask one question and move on. Have the conversation. Ask for 50 ideas instead of 5. Push back when you disagree.

You’ll quickly discover what AI is surprisingly good at, and what it’s not ready for. More importantly, you’ll see how it changes the way you figure things out when you’re stuck.

Question: What’s your experience been with AI tools? Let me know in the comments.

For the original podcast that inspired my blog and video go to this link: Using AI to Think Better, Create More, and Live Smarter

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We’re seeing an uptick in the Swiss market on the Graff-Pinkert side of the business, particularly Citizen machines. In response, we thought now was a great time to share an interview Noah conducted in 2021 about Swiss-Type CNC machining. He talks to Marc Klecka, founder and president of Concentric Corporation, a prominent distributor of Citizen-Cincom CNC Swiss lathes in Cleveland, Ohio.

Read more below or tune in!

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View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel.

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Interview HighlightsMarc talks about his company, Concentric, which has been distributing Citizen Swiss machines for 31 years and Miyano for 10 years (after Citizen acquired the company). (2:20)

Marc says that during 2020 Concentric’s business did ok, but the pandemic made it more difficult to sell machines because it was harder to have in person contact with customers. (11:00)

Question: Which Swiss machine do you prefer to use and why?

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John Fetterman, Senator from Pennsylvania, is 6’8”, bald, wears a Carhartt hoodie and long shorts around the Capitol. He looks like a beaten-up wrestler from the WWE.

For a successful politician he appears and acts like a man from another planet.

But after reading a powerful excerpt from his new book about himself, “Unfettered,” my view of him as an eccentric looking to build a national reputation, has changed radically.

Fetterman, after getting an MBA and a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard, volunteered for AmeriCorps and worked in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a declining steel town. In 2006, he ran for mayor, a job he held for 13 years, until running for Lieutenant Governor. He won and served until running for the Senate in 2022.

This is where the excerpt published in The Free Press began.

On May 13, four days before the Democratic primary, he and his wife, Gisele, were on their way to the first campaign event of the day near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Gisele glanced over at him and saw his mouth was drooping slightly. She had seen a public service announcement on strokes, and it had stayed with her.

She immediately told the State Trooper who was driving them that she thought her husband was having a stroke. John thought she was crazy, but she was adamant, and they drove to the Lancaster General Hospital, which had a specialty in strokes. Had Gisele not noticed and had not remembered the symptom, or if they had been further away from the hospital, he might have died.

But as John wrote in his memoir, “He did anyway.”

His doctor discovered the clot blocking the left hemisphere of his brain and extracted it.

Four days later, the day of the primary, doctors implanted a defibrillator and pacemaker.

Fetterman won the election decisively.

He opted to stay in to run against the Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz.

It was a bruising campaign, with Oz, Fox and MSNBC all mocking him for staying in while still suffering in the aftermath of the stroke.

Despite the emotional beating he endured, and polls all showing him trailing, he won the election to become Senator of Pennsylvania.

Yet Fetterman wrote in his newly published book that he felt like he should have quit.

After taking office he became extremely depressed. He wanted to just go into a dark room to sleep and hide.

The vicious attacks had gotten into his head. He felt ashamed. He says he looked for ways to hate himself. His relationship with his wife suffered. He barely ate. He considered suicide.

He felt disoriented. He felt he couldn’t go home to his wife and family in his present state. He ultimately moved in with his parents, sleeping in the basement like he had done as a teenager.

“I had nowhere else to go,” he wrote.

On February 15, 2023, not long after taking office, he checked into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for inpatient care.

His brother Gregg visited him and was shocked. “John was despondent, just truly broken,” he recalled.

Fetterman writes that he slowly recovered. He read the book “Understanding Depression.” He walked around the healing garden on the roof.

But he was terrified to see his family.

A young therapist talked to him about seeing his wife and children, but he refused.

He just could not bring himself to see them. He was too scared and scarred.

But the next day, a young therapist came by and stepped out of her professional being.

Fetterman writes that she said the most important words he had ever heard:

“Children need their daddy.”

He played it over and over in his head. He clung to it.

They met in the Wendy’s on the first floor, and his kids gave him post-it notes saying, “DADDY you are becoming HAPPIER. YOU WILL GET BETTER. Peekaboo, I love you. It’s time to come home.”

Three weeks later, 44 days after being admitted, he went home.

Two and a half years later, this week, John Fetterman is an important national figure–one of eight Democrats in the Senate to vote to end the latest government shutdown.

His emotional struggles are not over. There have been other times he has considered suicide.

But he has used his prominence and this powerful book, which brought tears to my eyes, to tell people they are not alone. You are not going crazy.

And I remember, “Children need their daddy.”

Fetterman is a wrestler, fighting one of the toughest battles there is.

Question: When have you had to step away from your business?

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“Rare earths aren’t actually rare, nor are they earths,” Julie Klinger told me. Julie is an associate professor at UW Madison and literally wrote the book on rare earth elements—Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes.

I interviewed her last week, the day after Trump signed a rare earths deal with China, which had been threatening export restrictions. I knew from all the hubbub they were important for US national security and our supply chain, but I didn’t realize these elements seem to pop up in everything, including a ton of the materials used in precision machining.

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Interview HighlightsChina’s “Monopoly” Isn’t What You ThinkRare earths comprise 17 chemically similar elements on the periodic table. Julie calls them “spice metals.” You add a tiny bit to glass, steel, or other alloys and they do amazing stuff. They make things lighter, faster, stronger, brighter. They’re in your iPhone, your car, your welding electrodes. Lanthanum-thoriated tungsten electrodes? That’s a rare earth element giving you arc stability.

The conversation got really interesting when we talked about China’s dominance. I thought rare earths are like oil—a coveted resource that various nations hoard. But Julie explained that rare earths are actually all over the Earth’s crust. China doesn’t have a geological monopoly; they have a processing monopoly.

Back in the ‘80s and ’90s, Western firms basically said “this stuff is too dirty and expensive to process here” and outsourced it all to China. Now China controls about 80% of global processing, and we’re worried they’ll cut us off.

But Julie says that might actually be good for us in the long game. When China announced export restrictions, she said the Financial Times called it “a gift to Western industry.” Why? Because it drives prices up, making it economically viable for companies outside China to get back in the game.

We’re Not in a Rare Earth Crisis Julie also shared how measured China’s approach actually is. They have business interests to protect too. Chinese companies and joint ventures want to keep selling. If China plays too much hardball, those businesses might just pack up and leave. It’s not the zero-sum game the news makes it out to be.

We don’t need to panic about rare earth supply chains. The materials keep flowing because everyone wants them to. Also, we likely already have a decent amount in reserve, we just don’t know exactly how much.

Any real restriction would actually accelerate innovation in substitutes and domestic processing, things we’ve already figured out but haven’t scaled because Chinese supply has been so reliable.

What I found really interesting that many people aren’t talking about is that technology is already moving beyond rare earths. Julie told me that scientists have been developing rare-earth-free batteries and magnets for years. The solutions exist. They’ve just been sitting on the shelf because it’s easier to keep buying from China. If that supply ever truly gets cut off, we’d see these alternatives deployed almost overnight. It could be like when we restricted AI chips to China. Instead of crippling them, it pushed them to develop their own technology faster and more cheaply.

Question: What materials in your shop do you worry about sourcing?

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UPS, Amazon, and FedEx are all fully engaged in their annual employee purge.

UPS says it is cutting 48,000 jobs in 2025–34,000 in management and 14,000 in operations.

This might explain why Graff-Pinkert’s Wickman spare parts business was getting tariffed 200% on imports from England rather than the 10% rate we’re supposed to be getting. UPS doesn’t have the people to process the tariffs so they hit us first with 200% with a promise “one day” they will refund what we’re owed. Now we only use DHL for imports.

One of the big reasons for UPS’s cuts is Amazon. They have been UPS’s biggest client in recent years, but that business is going away.

UPS is struggling to hold up profits. Its drivers are unionized primarily by the Teamsters, which brings inefficiencies.

In 2010, Noah and I interviewed James Hoffa Jr. while the company’s 22 different union locals were trying to hammer out a deal before a strike. On a personal basis, I found Hoffa very friendly and confident that a strike would be avoided, which it was.

But this is a different business climate today. Amazon was a youngster then. FedEx had a much less package-oriented business 15 years ago. UPS dominated packages. Not so much today, so UPS sees cost cutting as the only way to stay competitive.

For Amazon, the announced cuts are for 14,000 people, but the total losing jobs seems to be over 30,000. Despite major advances in sales and profits year over year, management is trimming throughout the company, even in the tremendously profitable AWS unit, which is the world’s largest cloud platform.

Amazon is also dedicated to reducing the number of employees working within the enormous network of warehouses that dot the United States and elsewhere.

The company made huge gains during the Covid-19 pandemic. Package handling has been slowly receding as a part of the company’s business, and it is not the most profitable part. The management has been relentless in cost cutting, and they are still in the early phases of implementing robots in sorting and delivery.

As self-driving vehicles become ubiquitous, we will see fewer drivers and more walking robots to deliver to people’s doors.

FedEx is also in a continuous job reduction mode. Their program is called Network 2.0–corporate lingo for “streamlining” operations and reducing distribution facilities.

An example is the layoffs in Memphis, where the company started and is still based. One of their biggest clients in Memphis has been Cummins, which is moving a significant piece of their parts distribution segment out of Tennessee.

Like Amazon and UPS, they are attempting to support profits by cutting jobs and facilities. It is a relentless task.

When President Donald Trump asked Elon Musk and his cost cutters to reduce the federal bureaucracy, they did what corporate America, such as Amazon, UPS, and FedEx do year after year.

Did Musk approach the task with a meat axe, rather than a scalpel? Of course, because he knew the political winds would blow strongly against him.

Does job cutting in America mean greater unemployment? Traditionally it has not. Will AI and robots change things? Maybe.

Anybody know of a good screw machine operator out of work?

Question: How have these layoffs affected you?

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In part 1 of my interview with Bill Cox, owner of Cox Manufacturing in San Antonio, Texas, Bill talked about the power of his company’s robust apprenticeship program.

But how does Cox Manufacturing get so many employee candidates, while most machining companies are dying to get any job applicants? Answer—the company has built a strategic recruiting program.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.Some of the company’s strategies for finding new employees are simple common sense, such as keeping good records of everyone who has applied to the company, which Bill says some companies actually fail to do. Cox Manufacturing also posts a large company sign advertising jobs available, which is visible from the highway to grab the attention of potential employees.

The company also likes to find new employees via referrals from current employees who often bring in job candidates who fit the company’s culture. It offers bonuses to employees when their referrals remain at the company for one month, six months, and a year.

Several years ago, Bill became the founding chair of an organization of manufacturers in his area, called the Alliance for Technology Education in Applied Math and Science (ATEAMS). Initially, the organization sponsored tours for students to visit the area’s manufacturing companies with the hope it would attract them to working in the manufacturing industry. After a short time, the organization realized that instead of giving tours to students, it was more effective to give tours to local high school teachers who could then promote careers in manufacturing to the students. Prior to COVID-19, the program had become so popular it had a waiting list. Bill says most of the teachers have never been inside a manufacturing facility before, so they often are amazed when they get tours of state of the art shops like his. I asked Bill if guidance counselors also come on the tours. He said unfortunately most of them have not been receptive to promoting careers in manufacturing but he hopes that will change one day.

Bill said one of his employees who surprised him the most was a middle-aged woman who prior to working at Cox Manufacturing had spent many years in the health care field. She started at the company deburring and inspecting parts but then applied to its apprenticeship program. He said the company was hesitant to hire her because in the past they have not had the most success hiring people trained in other fields, but she persisted, so the company gave her a shot. As an apprentice she excelled and progressed much faster than a lot of her younger male peers. In 90 days she was setting up CNC machines.

Bill remains wary of people already making good money in other careers who apply to work at his company. In the past, the company invested in several employees who stayed there a little while, but left when more lucrative opportunities became available.

Cox Manufacturing has a policy of not admitting candidates to its apprenticeship program if they are fully trained in a field where they can make more money and jobs are available. The aerospace industry often has a lot of layoffs, so in the past, aircraft mechanics came to work at Cox Manufacturing but then left when their more lucrative previous jobs again became available. The company has had similar experiences with employees who previously worked in the oil industry.

Bill’s advice for manufacturing companies who want to build their workforce is to think about their long term future. He says companies should develop in-house training programs and start recruiting young people even when they don’t need new employees. They should not hire employees out of desperation who are not compatible with a long term success strategy.

As I do with many guests, I asked Bill what he thinks of when hears the word “happiness.” He told me happiness means fulfilling one’s God given purpose, which is why when his company hires a person it tries to make sure the job is aligned with who they are and who they are designed to be.

Question: How do you make sure employees stay long term?

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Unlike the majority of machining companies right now, struggling to find enough skilled people to fulfill demand, Cox Manufacturing in San Antonio, Texas, boasts a continuous pipeline of new talent. In fact, Bill Cox, the company’s owner, says right now the company has a stack of applications for shop apprenticeships, of which he will pick an average of one for every 50 candidates.

Cox Manufacturing specializes in producing high volumes of turned parts. I’ve been to his facility several times and can vouch that it’s a treasure trove of some of the best European multi-spindle screw machines, CNC Swiss, and CNC turning centers. The company churns out 1.5 million parts every week, supplying sectors such as aerospace, firearms, defense, automotive and trucking, medical devices, and electronics.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.Bill’s father, William Cox Sr., started Cox Manufacturing 65 years ago. When he suffered a fatal heart attack when Bill was 12 years old, Bill’s mother took the lead of the company. After Bill attended college for a few years he came back to run the company with his mother. At that time the company had 18 employees, today, 45 years later, it has 185.

Twelve years ago, Cox Manufacturing put together an apprenticeship program that it registered with the Department of Labor. The program is made up of an education curriculum, much of it taken from the online platform Tooling U-SME, along with some proprietary content created by Cox Manufacturing.

The other component of the apprenticeship program is “on the job training,” which today people prefer to call “on the job learning” or OJL. Cox Manufacturing’s apprenticeship program spans over three years. Each year the company maps out requirements for the OJL and academic components it chooses from courses offered by Tooling U-SME. The company has implemented software to closely track the apprentices’ skillset progress. Training coordinators and supervisors facilitate the training.

Every time employees graduate from a year in the apprenticeship program they get a pay bump and a bonus week of vacation. Apprentices training to run CNC machines start at a wage of $15 per hour, while those training on cam multi-spindles start at $16 an hour. Bill says the company pays apprentices more money to learn cam multi-spindles because the machines are more complicated and less “sexy” than CNC machines. Even with the higher starting wage, it is a challenge for Cox Manufacturing to get people to choose the path of training on the cam machines. Bill says some people try to learn the cam machines but can’t get get the hang of them, yet then they try to work on CNC machines and excel. I asked Bill if the company likes to cross train people to run both cam and CNC machines. He said it is not the company’s normal policy. He likens running different types of machines to playing both the violin and the saxophone. But, he admits, anybody who can run a cam multi-spindle can run a CNC, just not always the opposite.

Apprentice candidates visit Cox Manufacturing three times before they are chosen for the apprenticeship program. They have to take a math test, which many people fail. It consists of 12 questions, including 2-place decimal addition and subtraction, along with three word problems. Candidates are also given an AcuMax Index personality profile to predict if they will work well in the company’s environment.

Bill says in as few as 90 days apprentices can do basic setups on a 5-axis Swiss machine. They will know metrology, how to read blue prints, change tools, make offsets, and install tooling. However, 90 days is not enough time for apprentices to learn to set up cam multi-spindles because the machines have no computers to make automatic adjustments and have so many more moving parts.

Bill says that low wages is one contributing factor in young people not choosing manufacturing as a career, but the greatest reason for the shortage of skilled workers in manufacturing is that businesses haven’t invested enough in the development of their workforces.

Question: Are cam screw machines sexy or ugly?

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I am writing this blog longhand because words flow better for me straight from my brain to the paper. Very old school.

Today I ordered three one-pound bags of dried Blenheim apricots (not the tasteless Turkish kind) from an orchard owner named Gilbert Gibson who owns Gibson Farms in Hollister, California. Blenheims are seldom grown anymore, but thrive in a small area around Hollister.

For full flavor, the apricots are cut in half by hand and sun-dried until they reach peak sweetness.

Not only does Gibson’s produce great apricots and walnuts, but they sell them themselves at the Palo Alto downtown farmer’s market where I visit them when I’m in town.

Besides selling a variety of apricots which are becoming rare, they also refuse to take credit cards. After this shipment Gilbert Gibson will send a handwritten invoice by mail. I am obliged to send a check after the apricots arrive. So “old school” but I love it.

Another throwback to a better day is Bruce Hengel of Vancouver, Washington, who replaced the lenses in 2 pairs of reading glasses I had bought many years ago from a company named Fetch, that gives its profits to animal rescue efforts. They recommended Bruce to me.

I sent my two pairs of glasses to him plus a pair of $500 glasses I had bought locally from an optometrist that fell apart without me using them much. They refused to repair them. Bruce fixed all three pairs, sent them back to me by mail for $42, paid by check after I had received them and tried them out.

* * *

The NBA started its regular season games Tuesday. One thing we will not be seeing is the old school and very effective underhand method of shooting free throws, even though there are some guys who are awful “at the line.”

Two of the greatest free throw shooters in the history of the game, Rick Barry and Dolph Schayes, shot with both hands, underhand from below their knees. In the 1978–79 season Barry shot 94.7% on his free throws.

His career percentage was a hair below 90% over 15 years, all “granny style.”

Wilt Chamberlain, one of the all-time greats of the game, was a terrible free throw shooter. Over his career, he missed half of his attempts but for one year, after Barry’s tutelage and pestering, he shot 61.3%. In his legendary 100-point game he was 28 of 32 from the line, but then gave up shooting underhand because “it made him feel like a sissy,” as he wrote in his autobiography. He then regressed back to shooting 50%.

* * *

On Friday the World Series begins for 2025 between the LA Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays. If any sport besides horseracing or rodeo is “old school,” it is the National Pastime.

The greatest star, perhaps in the game’s history, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers, will be doing his thing. He’s the foremost hitter in the game, perhaps the most dominant pitcher and a top base stealer.

Babe Ruth started as a pitcher, then gave it up, but not Ohtani. When he signed his first major-league contract with the L.A. Angels, he demanded that he would pitch as well as hit.

The late Robert Redford’s character in The Natural was also a natural 2-way player like Ruth and Ohtani. Unfortunately, as far as we know, Ohtani did not carve out his own bat as a kid from a tree that was struck by lightning and name it “Wonderboy.” That was truly “old school!”

As I think about how this might be applied to the machine tool business, my mind wanders to IMTS. What if Haas or Mazak or an upstart said, “Bring your drawing and a piece of material, and we will program our machine and make the item right in front of you.”

If they could do it the customer might write them a check on the spot.

That would demonstrate that they “really knew their apricots” and applications.

Question: What is something old school that you embrace?

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Last week another machinery dealer mentioned that being a family business was part of why she wanted to work with us at Graff-Pinkert. I don’t know if that was the deciding factor, but it reminded me that persuasion often happens before you say a word.

This concept of convincing someone before you even start making your pitch was coined “pre-suasion,” by bestselling author Robert Cialdini, one of the world’s leading experts on persuasion. I often use his techniques in our machinery business. Some of it just seems magical. (More blog under the video)

Check out the video I made breaking down the psychology behind this on my YouTube channel, I Learned It on a Podcast.

The 7 Principles (Restaurant Edition)

To understand pre-suasion, it’s important to learn about Robert Cialdini’s seven principles of persuasion—the reasons people say yes. One good way to explain them is through restaurants.

Reciprocity: There’s a great breakfast place in Chicago called Lou Mitchell’s, where they give you these great donut holes while you wait. You haven’t even ordered yet, but you already feel good about the place.

Scarcity: My local deli, Bergstein’s, only serves chicken soup with kreplach on Thursdays. That makes me crave it way more than if they served it every day.

Authority: When the menu says “Chef’s Favorite” or “James Beard Award Winner.” We trust experts’ taste.

Consistency: Restaurant rewards cards. Once you start earning points, you keep coming back to stay consistent with what you’ve started.

Liking: Good service, friendly staff. When the waiter notices your Cubs hat and says, “Hey, I’m a Cubs fan too.” You want to do business with people you connect with.

Social Proof: “Most Popular Item.” If everyone else is ordering it, it’s probably at least pretty good.

Unity: This is Cialdini’s newest principle. People want to do business with those they share an identity with. When a place says “Family owned since 1950” with walls full of family photos, it draws other families in.

Pre-Suasion in ActionAccording to Cialdini sometimes the most powerful influence happens before a conversation even starts. Researchers ran a study with an online furniture store. Half the customers saw a webpage with fluffy clouds in the background. The other half saw pennies. Same store, same products.

The cloud group bought furniture based on comfort. The penny group focused on price. When interviewed afterward, customers had zero awareness that background images had influenced their decisions. Crazy, right?

In college, my friend Ryan had the brutal job of calling alumni for donations. But Ryan understood pre-suasion instinctively, so he handled the task quite well. He’d ask alumni what they majored in and ask for advice on his own major choice. By asking for advice, he flipped the script. They went from being victims of a donation call to mentors.

Your Setup MattersBefore your next important conversation, whether it’s equipment negotiations, customer meetings, or personal conversations, think about the setup. If you’re designing a presentation or website, pay attention to the cues you’re showing. A single image or phrase can shape someone’s entire decision. That’s why I added “Family owned since 1941” to the top of our redesigned Graff-Pinkert website.

Before meeting with someone, do your homework. Figure out what they value, what they care about, and bring that into the conversation before you even make your pitch.

And a nice counterintuitive move: instead of trying to be helpful, flip it. Ask the other person for advice. You’ll be amazed how much that changes the dynamic.

Question: What’s the weirdest thing that’s influenced a customer’s decision in your business?

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On today’s podcast, we interviewed Aneesa Muthana, owner of Pioneer Service Inc., a CNC machine shop that features 26 Star CNC Swiss lathes. Aneesa shared her fond memories of being raised on the floor of a centerless grinding shop, M&M Quality Grinding, founded by her Yemeni immigrant parents. While other girls were playing with Barbie dolls, Aneesa relished learning to use micrometers and cleaning out oil tanks from Cincinnati centerless grinders. At 23 she left M&M, where she had once thought she would stay forever, and bought into Pioneer Service Inc. a Brown & Sharpe shop owned by her uncle.

Aneesa shared her views on a number of topics, including how women are treated in the machining industry, her preference to work with Star CNC Swiss lathes over Samsung and Brown & Sharpe machines, and the significance of the hijab she wears.

Question: Is being a woman in the machining industry an advantage or disadvantage?

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The price of gold topped $4,000 per ounce on Tuesday, October 7th, the second anniversary of the massacres by Hamas in Israel two years ago. A coincidence? You decide.

My wife Risa and I know a local pawnbroker who deals in precious metals and jewelry. We asked him if he would take some of Risa’s inherited gold jewelry and turn it into tiny gold ingots that could easily be hidden.

This may sound crazy to you, but not if you know Holocaust survivors or had family flee Russia and Poland during periods of pogroms (events like October 7th).

We did this several years ago. Gold sold for around $1,200 per ounce and we treated it more as a defense against a recession worse than 2008, or a woke-fomented civil war in America.

Trading unused jewelry for tiny gold ingots was not intended as a bet on the price of gold. I have never speculated on commodities because I know less about soybeans or corn prices than the spread on Bears’ games. It was simply a hedge against calamity. It was part of a getaway bag that included some cash, food, toothpaste, and medicines in the event we had to run because of flood, fire—or insurrection.

I understand that many of the Silicon Valley billionaires have safe homes and bunkers in New Zealand if AI is a bubble or the “smart” robots decide to turn on them, but our tiny gold stash was more about jumping in the car and heading for the Gulf of Mexico.

Today things are more ominous. I saw our friend, the pawnbroker, over the weekend and he said his precious metals business, which used to be a small piece of his small shop, has become a big part of his daily operation.

Some people are playing the gold and silver markets, others need liquidity, and some are in the “what if” category like us.

As I read about the probable future Mayor of New York lauding the October 7th massacre that killed 1,200 people in Israel, I wonder what has happened to my country.

Personally, I have not felt threatened by antisemitism, but we had guards and police at our synagogue over the holidays as a safeguard.

The progressive left has turned against Israel, and much of academia seems to regard Jews who dare speak out for Israel to be heretics, to be shunned.

Jews in Europe are headed to Israel in growing numbers.

Gold coins and ingots saved the lives of so many folks who fled the Nazis in the 1930s. Diamonds, according to our friend, have little value today because of “lab diamonds,” which are almost indistinguishable from mined diamonds.

I know that gold at $4,000 an ounce is mainly an announcement by speculators about fear of inflation in America, but to me it is a signal, still faint, that Risa and I, or our children, might one day have to flee America the Beautiful.

Question: What do you have in your go bag?

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Today I’m going to tell you how to get lucky.

It seems like some people are always in the right place at the right time getting all the lucky breaks, while the rest of us watch from the sidelines. I often feel like I’m in that sideline category too. But as used machinery dealers, our business is fueled by luck, or as I like to call it, serendipity. So I’ve spent years figuring out how to make luck happen more often.

(Blog continues below video)

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel.

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Check out the video I made breaking down the whole story on my YouTube channel, I Learned It on a Podcast.

Back in 2021, I was feeling sort of stuck. It wouldn’t be accurate to say I felt down on my luck, but it didn’t feel like I was getting the lucky break I needed either. Then one morning on my drive to work, I heard Christian Busch on The Next Big Idea podcast talking about his book The Serendipity Mindset.

Here was a UCLA business professor explaining that luck isn’t random. It’s something you can actively create. Busch says serendipity is about seeing something in the unexpected and then doing something with it, turning it into positive outcomes.

I was fascinated, but I was also excited that maybe this was the answer to being luckier, to getting more luck. I sent him an email asking if he would come on Swarfcast. He said yes. That conversation became one of my favorite episodes. But I didn’t realize at the time that the email itself was what Busch calls a “serendipity bomb.”

Serendipity BombsA serendipity bomb means casting a wide net instead of obsessing over one prospect. When I have an INDEX MS22-8 or a Doosan twin-spindle to sell, we try to contact lots of people who might be interested, even long shots. Most won’t respond, but we only need one buyer. Some people call this playing a numbers game, but lucky people do this all the time. It’s like throwing a Hail Mary. You only get the catch because you put the ball in the air.

Serendipity and CreativityIt was only a matter of time before I made an I Learned It on a Podcast episode about the podcast that introduced me to serendipity. For those new here, I Learned It on a Podcast is my YouTube show where I break down the best insights I find while listening to way too many podcasts. This concept has shaped how I approach business, relationships, and creative projects. So here’s the season finale, honestly, the episode I’ve been building toward since I started this show.

In his book, Busch quotes Louis Pasteur: “Chance favors only the prepared mind.” That’s the key to creative serendipity: being prepared to see potential in accidents and unexpected combinations. This whole show exists because dots connected over time.

Last August, feeling stale, my life coach Ginny suggested I get on YouTube. The I Learned It on a Podcast idea had been rattling around for years. I couldn’t find a co-host, so I made the first video on my own. Then I discovered AI could help write scripts, and my editor became a creative partner. All these separate elements connected into something I couldn’t have imagined a year ago.

Six weeks ago, shooting late and struggling with camera framing, I stumbled upon a video about creators making short, unpolished videos several days a week. I thought to myself, “I could make short raw videos about serendipity, and hopefully it wouldn’t take all my free time.”

So that night I shot the first serendipity video.

In the end, I’ve realized the biggest luck was discovering Busch’s book in the first place and realizing that not only could I become a good practitioner of serendipity, I liked telling others about it too.

Next time you listen to a podcast or read something or have a conversation where you learn something that could be important, be mindful. Think about it at the end of the day and write it down. Ask yourself: could this thing I learned today change my life, at least a little? If you believe it could, take action. Try using what you learned.

Will there be another season of I Learned It on a Podcast? I hope so down the line. We’ll see where the dots lead me. But for now, I’m launching a new series soon. I think I’m going to call it Serendipity Diary. That’s just what my nudge is telling me.

Question: What was a lucky moment that had a significant effect on your life?

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Mr. Umpire, you will no longer be the Emperor of Home Plate in 2026.

As the playoffs begin in the Major Leagues, I have been pondering how next year’s rule change, which gives teams two challenges on balls and strikes per game aided by 12 automated cameras, will affect the baseball that I love

My daughter Sarah called from California to ask me about my feelings regarding the umpire’s hegemony over home plate being eroded. She’s a rabbi and is preparing her sermon for the Jewish High Holidays. She figured it had to have some connection in my creative cortex to the holidays.

“Sarah,” I exclaimed on the phone, “what will happen to the make-up calls?”

In traditional old-school baseball, if an umpire made a glaring mistake on a ball and strike call, which the catcher, batter, and pitcher all knew was obvious, they pointed it out to him in a subtle way — so as not to show him up to be totally incompetent to the fans.

Then, on the following pitch, he would make up for it by making a call that would help the team that had been damaged by the previous bad call.

The new system with high-speed cameras will have no programming for “make-up calls.” There is only “right and wrong,” and no asking for forgiveness for an incorrect call by the machines.

I thought my daughter would find this useful as she wrote her sermon for a holiday that is about forgiveness.

Another important aspect of baseball which may be changed is “framing” by catchers. In recent years, the deception by the catcher by moving his big glove to disguise the pitch location has become a prized skill.

Framing is now a talent highly valued in catchers, graded by computers, and has a significant effect on a catcher’s pay.

The 12 cameras installed by Major League baseball in every field will give the actual location of the pitch without it being hidden from the umpire by a clever catcher’s glove movement.

Plate umpires are often sneered at by fans, but they have a very tough task with pitchers throwing curveballs, changeups, split-finger fastballs, and 100 MPH hummers. There have been umpire tyrants over the years like Joe West, who was also head of the Umpires Union. West seemed to delight in making atrocious calls and throwing out managers and players who complained.

But umps like West and Hall of Famer Al Barlick, who umpired Jackie Robinson’s debut and was legendary for his loud and decisive calls, added color to a game that can often drag.

The cameras with challenges will hopefully bring accuracy and less deception, which is generally a good thing for the game. But the old Cubs fan in me will miss “Cowboy Joe” West (he was a country and western singer during the offseason). Even if he was a nasty show-off.

And the “make-up call,” an integral part of the game’s humanity, may become a forgotten gesture of forgiveness.

Question: What was the worst call in sports you can remember?

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I encounter a lot of friction in my work. Too many obstacles get in the way of me doing the things I need to do and the things I like to do.

I know all of you out there have friction in your work too, and if you’re in the manufacturing business you likely encounter friction when you have to achieve the necessary quality to be ISO certified.

Today’s guest on the show, Adam Marsh, has a company called Ledge Inc. that guides manufacturers through the ISO certification process.

Getting ISO certification can be an overwhelming undertaking, but like so many challenging and complicated tasks, if you just have the right guide at your side to lead you through, it’s not nearly as difficult as it first seems.

Reducing friction is Adam’s specialty. In addition to talking about quality, we talked about how he reduces friction in hiring new employees, creating a skilled manufacturing workforce, and even figuring out what to make for dinner.

More to come!

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel.

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The post ISO Without the Headache, Adam Marsh-EP 227 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Monday morning I was thinking about what a slump I was in as far as selling used machinery in 2024.

We’ve got some very interesting opportunities right now to sell or buy equipment on the horizon. Some potential deals have been dragging on for months and a few new ones have recently materialized.

But still, looking at it objectively as far as sales I’ve closed, I’ve produced poor results most of the year. When I get my coffee in the morning I sometimes picture Alec Baldwin yelling at me, “Put that coffee down. Coffee is for closers only.”

But as Monday went by, “opportunities” seemed to be maturing–almost to the point of becoming sales. And some NEW potential deals popped up out of nowhere!

I’m mindful that you can’t know what each day will bring or what serendipity will occur. Great things are possible if you’ve planted the seeds for luck to occur with marketing and long relationships.

I think if I could just bust my slump then I could get some momentum. Get on streak like in baseball, one of the streakiest phenomenons in existence!

Maybe I’m like many of the players on the Chicago Cubs in this disappointing yet once promising season. Most of the Cubs this year hit pathetically the first 3/4 of the season. Then in the last month and a half, they finally remembered how to hit a baseball and teased us a little that they could make the post season.

Could I be like like shortstop Dansby Swanson (minus the $25 million a year contract)? Most of the season he was hovering around a pathetic .200 average, and now somehow he’s in the .240s. Mediocre, but an impressive average to climb to in such a very short time.

For the Cubs’ players the streaks were too late. They have to try again next year.

For me and Graff-Pinkert & Co., as long as we’re still standing, it’s not too late!

Question: What is one of your worst slumps? How did you bust it?

The post Busting My Business Slump first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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If you have not already listened to Part I, you can find it here.

After serving in the Navy SEALs for nine years, Bill Berrien retired from the military in 1999, ready for a new chapter in his life. He attended Harvard business school where there were six other SEALs in his class.

After graduating from Harvard, Bill worked as a Six Sigma Blackbelt at General Electric Health Care, which brought him to the Milwaukee area in 2002. Rather than climb the ladder at a large corporation, Bill’s ambition was to eventually acquire his own business.

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Main PointsPreparing to Acquire a Business After working at G.E., Bill worked in private equity in the health care field to gain experience and earn the capital needed to purchase a company. Bill often advises people starting their careers to take a similar path to his. First, get a job at a large established company like G.E. that has opportunities to get training and exposure to different areas. This can help people figure out their interests and strengths, which may pay off in future endeavors. He says that today, running Pindel, he uses a lot of the principles he learned at G.E., such as root causing, critical thinking, and numbers orientation.

After he finished working in venture capital, Bill spent a year searching for the ideal business to purchase. He looked at around 120 potential companies, about 75% of which were related to manufacturing. In the end, he chose Pindel, a successful 75-year-old family company in precision machining with about 80 employees. He liked the company’s customer base and ownership, and he saw areas in the business that he believed he could improve and grow.

Bill’s Start at PindelBill says when he first came to Pindel he didn’t have a set game plan. He had no prior experience in precision machining, so the first thing he did was take the time to learn the business from the company’s former owner, Mark Pindel, who stayed on several years.

Bill believes he gained some respect and trust from the company’s employees because he was a former Navy SEAL. He jokes that he did not tell anybody he went to Harvard, and some people at the company might find that out for the first time if they listen to this podcast.

Evolution of Equipment at PindelWhen Bill purchased Pindel it was primarily comprised of good old Acme-Gridley multi-spindles and some CNC equipment for doing secondary operations. Bill has kept the Acmes going, but he has also gotten big into Swiss, so he can run complex parts complete for the aerospace and medical industries. He has kept the company’s production in the medium volume range, with runs of 1,000 to 1,000,000 pieces.

There were only three old, underutilized Swiss machines when Bill arrived at Pindel. He realized that the company was outsourcing its most complex parts and saw expanding the Swiss machining department as a way to bring more work in-house. The company bought new Tsugami Swiss machines to run formerly outsourced work, and there was still capacity leftover for more Swiss work. Many of the parts that had been blanked on multi-spindles and finished on CNCs could was put on the Tsugamis to machine parts complete.

Pindel’s cam multi-spindles are still used for making parts for the industrial sector. What is noteworthy about the company’s multi-spindle department is that the average age of its operators is around 31, rather than the stereotypical multi-spindle operator age that is close to retirement.

A New Separate Company Specifically for CNC MachiningBill has found that medical, aerospace, and defense customers prefer a “pure play” supplier for the CNC components. They don’t want a supplier that also runs Acme-Gridley parts.

Meanwhile industrial customers don’t want costs associated with expensive CNC equipment that raises part prices. To solve this issue, Pindel incubated a new company called Liberty Precision dedicated to customers for CNC parts.

Military Parallels to Advanced ManufacturingSince Bill bought Pindel 10 years ago, he has observed some similarities between advanced manufacturing and the Special Operations community. Both are composed of small, highly cohesive, trained teams enabled by advanced technology. They both strive to do outsized things—to punch above their weight.

Under Bill Berrien, Pindel has taken a page from the military with its Pindel Professional Development program. The program has six levels of multi-spindle machinists and six levels of CNC machinists, four levels of quality technicians and four levels of industrial maintenance. Each level incorporates Tooling U classes, shop floor qualifications, and NIMS credentialing. Such a comprehensive training program allows the company to hire for attitude and train for skill.

To encourage new recruits to choose the multi-spindle track versus the CNC track, the first three levels of multi-spindle machinists are paid more than the first three levels of CNC machinists.

I ended the interview, asking Bill one of my favorite questions, “When you think of happiness, what does that mean to you.”

Bill explained a scientific concept called “freudenfreude,” which means taking joy from other people’s good fortune. This is the opposite of the more well known concept, “Schadenfreude,” which means taking pleasure in other’s misfortunes.

Bill takes pleasure from others around him succeeding.

Question: What did you learn in college that helped you in your manufacturing career?

The post How a Navy SEAL Runs a Machining Company, with Bill Berrien (Part II)—EP172 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Bill Berrien has had an extraordinary professional journey.

He earned an MBA at Harvard, worked for General Electric and then in private equity. Ten years ago, he purchased Pindel Global Precision, a successful two-generation machining company near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which he has modernized and grown over the past decade.

Oh, I forgot to mention, he was also a Navy SEAL officer for nine years.

Main PointsBill attended Princeton for undergrad, majoring in political science, and he was captain of the school’s water polo team. During college he had internships on Wall Street, but chose to follow up graduation by becoming an officer in the Navy SEALs in 1990.

Bill chose to join the SEALs for the small team dynamic. He wanted to develop as a leader, and he liked the challenge. Only 21 out of 121 applicants in his SEAL class successfully passed, and his classmates nominated him for the Fire in the Gut honor.

Bill served as a SEAL for nine years, leading operations in South America and Bosnia. He explained to me that the ‘90s was a very different time to serve in the US military than post-9/11. It was a time of preparation for war, rather than constant fire fights. He says the US military is in a similar period right now, keeping itself sharp and preparing for future conflicts.

Bill says the US military is one of the best in the world because of its incredible problem-solving abilities and adaptability. Also, the US military is special for having an exceptional NCO Corps (non-commissioned officers).

The NCO Corps is made up of enlisted soldiers who have significant leadership duties in fighting units on the ground. A strong NCO Corps system has enabled enlisted soldiers to have more fulfilling military careers with potential for upward mobility. This has attracted more talented people to join the military. One criticism of the Russian army is that it lacks a good NCO Corps. No NCO Corps on the ground has led to poor organization on the battlefield and many high ranking Russian officers being killed in the line of duty.

Bill suggests that when the US military developed its NCO Corps in the ‘70s as it became an all-professional volunteer army, the advanced manufacturing field had a parallel development of its management units. Americans in manufacturing experienced a new type of upward mobility in their careers.

However, in the ‘80s and ‘90s some of the potential for career growth in US manufacturing stalled as factories moved overseas and manufacturing education was removed from high schools. This trend seems to be reversing now, but Bill suggests that advanced manufacturing could learn from the US military’s NCO Corps system about how to create a path for manufacturing jobs to be sustainable professions.

Question: If you have been in the military, how did it prepare you for your current profession and civilian life?

The post How a Navy SEAL Runs a Machining Company, with Bill Berrien (Part I)–EP171 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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What’s the stupidest idea you can think of?

In a brainstorming meeting a couple of days ago, Rex and Noah and I were stuck thinking of the same old strategies that have been working just well enough for Graff-Pinkert. Then Noah challenged us to think of ten STUPID ideas for Graff-Pinkert. It turned out that the three of us came up with more than 30 goofy ideas for the business, several of which turned out not to be that stupid, spawning positive action the same day. It’s not inconceivable that one of them will turn out to be brilliant.

In business, simply putting one foot in front of the other is not enough to thrive. You need to do the unexpected to set yourself apart. In the machining world, just making perfect parts day after day may not be enough to survive in a cutthroat world. Ruthless customers may forget you as they march toward the cheaper option.

Coming up with crazy ideas seems hard because we don’t want to look stupid to our peers, but openly trying to contribute stupid ideas is a terrific way to wake ourselves up to try something worthwhile.

A machinery dealer starting a monthly print magazine called “Screw Machine World” in 1999, having no publishing experience seemed like a crazy idea to a lot of people. It lost a bunch of money, but it also differentiated Graff-Pinkert from any other dealer. Our audience came to know us as people they could relate to and trust. It made us “thought leaders” before anybody had coined that term.

And it had an ancillary benefit. My son Noah saw a place for himself in a creative business that he might have overlooked.

When my children and grandchildren get together, one of the word games that the family loves to play is Taboo. We give clues to the members of our team so they can guess the word that is in play without saying forbidden words that would make it too easy.

Competitive spirit comes out, but also zaniness and laughter. My mind has lost a little word quickness, so my score is invariably low. But what I may lack in ability to give clues that lead to a quick path to the given word, I make up for in a bizarre, roundabout description. What seems obvious to me often seems hilarious to my brilliant grandchildren. It has pulled us closer together through the years.

Creativity takes life out of the ordinary. It may change the course of a war by instilling fear in the attitudes of enemies. It may bring a family closer and it may enliven a business that feels stuck.

What did you have for breakfast today, yesterday, or the day before? Have you tried kiwi or limes lately in your cereal?

Think of ten nutty ideas today. It may change your life.

Question: What are some past ideas you’ve thought of that seemed stupid at first but then worked?

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At IMTS 2024, I learned about the latest technology for CNC lathes, robots, and most notably 3D printing.

Stratasys was the first 3D printing company I visited at the show. I spoke with Foster Ferguson, Director of Aerospace, and Tom Leach, Commercial Leader at Stratasys, about 3D printing applications for automotive and space vehicles. Then I spoke with Evan Hochstein and Allison Harbaugh, Business Managers for the Stratasys Medical Team, about the capabilities of Stratasys 3D printers to replicate the feel and shape of body parts, which surgeons analyze before they operate on real human flesh.

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Main PointsPart 1: 3D Printing in Aerospace, Defense, and Automotive IndustriesThe first half of the podcast, I with Foster Ferguson Director of Aerospace, and Tom Leach, Commercial Leader, at Stratasys. We focused on 3D printing technologies and applications in aerospace, defense, and automotive industries.

Foster Ferguson and Tom Leach, with Noah GraffThey showed me the H350 printer, which uses Selective Absorption Fusion (SAF) technology for large-volume production. A Ford F-150 Roush Performance Raptor mounting bracket demonstrates the printer’s ability to compete with injection molding for complex parts.

They emphasized 3D printing’s advantages: reduced tooling costs, increased design freedom, and quick iterations without expensive modifications. Ferguson mentioned a 95% 3D-printed drone, suggesting potential for on-site production in deployed situations.

Recent advancements include the introduction of polypropylene as a printing material, developed with BASF (now A.M. Forward), expanding their potential customer base.

Notable applications we discussed include:

A PolyJet-printed heart model that allows a surgeon to practice a complex procedure, saving a young girl’s life. (More detail in Part II of the interview)
A space-worthy panel made from PECK-based material with carbon nanotubes, developed with Lockheed Martin. About 300 such parts are currently in the Orion spacecraft.

They emphasized:

3D printing’s competitiveness with traditional manufacturing for high-volume production.
Cost savings and design flexibility compared to injection molding.
Applications across automotive, aerospace, defense, and medical industries.
Rapid advancement in materials and processes.
Potential for on-site, on-demand manufacturing in various scenarios.

Part II: 3D Printing Applications for the Medical Industry

My second interview with features Evan Hochstein and Allison Harbaugh, Business Managers for the Stratasys Medical Team. We discussed 3D printing applications in the medical industry.

We talked about Stratasys’ capabilities in creating anatomically accurate models using various plastics that mimic tissue and bone. These models, derived from CT or MRI scans, allow surgeons to practice procedures and test new products, potentially reducing risks during actual surgeries.

The interviewees clarified that while they don’t create living organs, they’re working on biocompatible materials for applications like cutting guides and braces. They mentioned a collaboration with CollPlant to develop 3D-printed breast implants for reconstruction after cancer.

Stratasys’ technology includes the Digital Anatomy Printer and the J5 MediJet, which can create detailed, multi-material, and multi-color models. They emphasized the importance of software in their workflow, mentioning partnerships with companies like Axial 3D and Materialize for FDA-cleared processes.

A notable example of their work includes creating a realistic heart model for a two-year-old patient with a congenital heart defect, which helped surgeons plan the procedure and explain it to the parents.The interviewees also discussed the potential future of 3D printing in medicine, noting that while full organ printing isn’t currently possible, they’re focusing on patient safety and regulatory compliance in their developments.

Lastly, they mentioned their latest product, the Origin Two, a DLP (Direct Light Processing) printer that can create injection mold-like finishes, expanding their capabilities beyond their traditional PolyJet technology.

This summary was aided by claud.ai.

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Today’s podcast episode is the second half of our interview with Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor, the founder of Hyphen Innovations, a firm that develops low cost, damage resistant aerospace components.

When Onome does engineering research, he fuels his creativity by embracing resource constraints and what he calls the “fail fast” mentality. The fail fast mentality means you can look at failure during the problem solving process as a positive. If “failing” means you learn something that propels you forward the next time you try to solve the same problem, then it really isn’t a failure. It’s a success.

We also discussed Onome’s desire for more young African Americans to feel confident in their abilities to pursue degrees in engineering.

You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.

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Interview SummaryNoah Graff: What does the expression “failing fast” mean to you?

Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor: I ask myself, what will I learn when this happens? If I decide that what I’m going to learn is healthy, it’s not failure. It’s just a prediction. You go fast, you fail, you learn something, you make it better. You go fast again.

Graff: You told me previously that you often prefer to stay in the background and observe other people from a distance. Do you see this as a positive?

Scott-Emuakpor: I think it’s a positive. I like to pay attention to the way certain things play out in the background before I make a decision. Take this entrepreneurial journey that I’m on right now.

A lot of people would say, “I want to start a business.” And they jump right into it. In my case, I went through an entrepreneur opportunity program.

I shadowed a lot of people. I called a lot of people. I had a lot of mentors. I took a year, essentially a sabbatical, going through the Air Force, understanding all the intricacies, sitting in the background, and paying attention to how things are done before I actually said, all right, I’m ready to make a move and make a decision.

Graff: Do you often consciously see yourself as an artist?

Scott-Emuakpor: Yeah. Sometimes I [think], yeah, “I’m a fine arts guy.” You’re drawing something or you’re coming up with some creative idea. In high school, we had an assignment where we were given two dissimilar animals to figure out a way to draw them to create a new thing. Sometimes I apply this to a turbine engine.

If you look at a conventional turbine engine, you have a fuel nozzle and a turbine inlet nozzle. These are two separate pieces. How do you manufacture them so they’re the same piece and significantly reduce weight while improving the efficiency of a combustor?

That’s the exact same exercise. You’re looking at these two different things that are not together, and then you’re getting creative and you’re bringing them together. The only difference is that now I have to bring in physics to make it actually work.

Graff: Do you think many people label themselves as not creative, but they could be creative if they were taught to believe that they were.

Scott-Emuakpor: I think that people just lack confidence because of their environment—not seeing yourself in somebody else. Not seeing your color in somebody else. Not seeing your personality trait in someone else. Not seeing your gender in somebody else.

When I was getting done with my PhD, one of the things that I wanted to do was become a professor. Not necessarily because I wanted to teach, but because I felt like there were a lot of young black people who didn’t believe that becoming an engineer or getting a PhD while (still) being themselves was a thing.

One of my missions was, I want to be an engineer, but I’m going to keep my hair with long braids. I’m going to keep wearing baggy clothes and keep wearing jeans. I’m going to keep wearing Timberlands, and I’m going to teach classes.

And people, especially young black men, are going to see themselves in me and say, “I can be him.”

Question: What was your last failure that turned out to be a good thing in the end?

For more information about Hyphen Innovations go to https://www.hyphenmade.com/

The post Thinking Like an Artist to Solve Engineering Challenges, With Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor—Ep. 181 (Part II) first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Noah is attending IMTS this week, so we are resharing one of our favorite podcasts from last year. This episode of Swarfcast was recorded in March of 2023. The second part is also available online here.

On today’s podcast, we talk about how you can apply the artistic side of your brain to solve engineering challenges.

Our guest is aerospace engineer, Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor, founder of Hyphen Innovations, a firm that develops new advanced aerospace components for the Department of Defense and other clients.

Onome’s family immigrated from Nigeria to Lansing, Michigan, before he was born. In high school, he was an average student but excelled in fine arts classes. In college, he played Division I basketball at Wright State.

While at Wright State, Onome realized he had a passion for engineering. Today, he says one of the keys to his success as an engineer is using the same type of creative approaches he embraced as a fine arts student.

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Interview HighlightsNoah Graff: Give me a quick explanation of your company, Hyphen Innovations.

Onome Scott-Emuakpor: With Hyphen Innovations we make aerospace parts. We make them lighter. We make them stronger. We make them low cost, and we do that with unique out of the box design. And we use really intriguing advanced manufacturing methods.

Our main interest is turbine engines and turbine engine structures. The reason why we’re focused on the turbine engine is because we know that there’s still a lot of innovation. There’s still a lot of juice to squeeze out of that technology and improve the thrust to weight, so to speak, and do all that while also maintaining affordability with it.

Graff: You mentioned to me before that you were interested in fine arts when you were younger. What kind of art did you do growing up?

Scott-Emuakpor: I loved to sketch. Then in high school, there were classes that broadened (my) artistic capability. All of a sudden, I was painting, using watercolors, using colored pencils, painting with pastels, painting with oils. And it was like, this thing that I had been naturally good at as a kid just expanded through to all these other mediums. I was like, this is it. This is what I want to do. I wanna sit in one place, and paint or draw.

Graff: Did your parents expect you to do well in school? Were you in honors classes in high school?

Scott-Emuakpor: I was not (in honors classes).I don’t think I ever did homework in high school. I did homework five minutes before class, and that’s just because it wasn’t interesting. Math was kind of interesting, but it was interesting to me because I liked the challenge of seeing how well I could do on homework if I did[it] minutesbefore class.

I took the ACT, and I did terribly on it twice. I [scored] a 19. But on the math part, I got a 30-something.

I remember my dad (when I got to college), said “don’t put fine arts as your major. That’s not a major. I’m gonna go sleep on it and I’ll tell you what you should do.” And [he said] “I had a dream. You should put down engineering.”

It wasn’t until I actually started taking engineering classes that I thought, oh, this is kind of interesting. It wasn’t until I actually got a job that I was like, I now see where all the math is going. I now see where all the physics is going. I now see where all these classes are going.

Now all of a sudden you walk into a class and they say, “this is vibration.” And I’ve been working in a vibration lab, and I know what vibration is.

Graff: So you finally got your PhD. You’ve done all this research, you’re a career academic in your mid-twenties, and then you said, what do I do with this?

Scott-Emuakpor: I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. So I got my postdoc position, which was through the Air Force, or the National Academies. I was working at the Air Force base (in Dayton, Ohio), the same place that I worked as an undergrad, and the same place that I did my graduate school research.

Graff: How do you feel about doing research?

Scott-Emuakpor: I love it. Research essentially allows me to engage in my creative side. It allows me to essentially do art with science and engineering.

When you think about art, it’s like you’re given a blank canvas to create something. You’re essentially creating something from nothing. Even when you’re taking a picture, you’re creating something from nothing. When you’re writing, you’re creating something from nothing.

Graff: How much are you leaning on other people’s research for your own research? How much are you inspired by it?

Scott-Emuakpor: I’m constantly looking at what other people are doing, and I’m constantly looking at what people are doing outside of my industry. Inspiration can come from anywhere. It can come from people arguing in a meeting while you’re sitting in the back. I just pay attention. I’m constantly thinking, I’m constantly thinking of how I’m going to solve the problem.

For more information about Hyphen Innovations go to https://www.hyphenmade.com.

Question: What type of fine arts classes did you take as a student.

The post Thinking Like an Artist to Solve Engineering Challenges, With Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor (Part I)—Ep. 180 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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“I can’t get good people to run the machines.”

“I can’t get good men to go to my college.”

The two statements are common laments today and related. Stephen Dubner’s brilliant podcast, Freakonomics, just updated its series from two years ago about dropping college enrollment and why men are not going to college, much less finishing. He interviewed, among many others, D’Wayne Edwards, founder and President of Pensole Lewis College in Detroit.

D’Wayne Edwards’ story is fascinating and relevant to the manufacturing world. He grew up in Inglewood, California, home of the Forum where the Los Angeles Lakers played. It is a tough black neighborhood where boys rarely even graduate high school and often end up dead or in jail by the time they are 21.

D’Wayne had an unusual talent for drawing and especially designing sneakers. He says he grew up with a No. 2 pencil in his hand. His guidance counselor in high school told him he had no chance to make it in college as an artist. Edwards chose a different path.

Edwards got his start working at LA Gear and Skechers. Then he spent ten years at Nike with the Jordan brand. He did work for Michael Jordan and Carmelo Anthony, obtaining more than 50 design patents.

After more than a decade at Nike, he decided to take a sabbatical. He started a two-week design course at the University of Oregon, and called it Pensole Academy. Pensole is a combination of “pencil” and the sole of your foot.

The program at Oregon became so popular that he decided to leave his job at Nike. He wanted to expand the idea, and a friend told him about Lewis College in Detroit, a historically black college started in 1928, aimed at teaching women office skills like typing and arithmetic, so they would be prepared for work in the fast growing automotive industry.

The school had gone into bankruptcy in recent years, but Edwards saw an opportunity because in his view American higher education had lost sight of its original purpose–to prepare young people to work where they were needed. His goal was to provide a free school, funded by companies that needed first rate, well-trained people who could step into work immediately.

Edwards moved to Detroit and began to build the school, naming it Pensole Lewis College (PLC), and with the help of some Michigan politicians, got funding and the designation as a historical Black College like Morehouse and Prairie View.

His early program was backed by Nike, Adidas, New Balance, and Herman Miller, among others. Current courses are five weeks and stress developing professionalism, especially being on time. Originally, if students were late they had to do 50 push-ups for each minute of lateness. This eventually was changed to explaining the late minutes to the interviewing employer who financed the program. Tough, but it gets results.

Is D’Wayne Edwards’ Pensole Lewis College possibly a partial model for the machining industry?

Perhaps Mazak or a big machining supplier could see a possibility in funding a training setting, particularly as more and more men are finding universities unappealing. Welding and heating and air conditioning are able to attract talent. Hospitals attract workers.

I know what we are doing today is not working well and skilled men are getting older or dropping out of the workforce.

What are your thoughts? Do you think Pensole Lewis can be adapted into a model for machining workers?

Question: What ideas to you have to help young men who are looking for opportunities?

The post The Pencil and the Machine first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Terry Iverson is a lifer in the machining industry. His grandfather sold machines for Hardinge over 100 years ago, and for 40 years he ran the Hardinge machinery distributor for the Midwest.

Today Terry focuses his efforts on getting young people in America into manufacturing. He wrote two books directed at parents to open their eyes to manufacturing careers for their children.

His latest project is a machining camp called Camp CHAMP, in which middle school kids are mentored by high school kids running CNC machines.

Even though Terry is 20 years older than me, I feel like we really connect we talk. We’re both third generations in a family machine tool business. We’re both creatives, and we both love to reflect on serendipity in our lives.

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel.

Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!

Main PointsChoosing a Trade in United States Vs. EuropeTerry Iverson: In Switzerland and Germany, they ask young people early in life to figure out what they’re passionate and skilled at doing. At like 14, 15 years old.

Noah Graff: How does a 14 or 15 year old know what they’re meant to do?

Terry: Sometimes they do. In this country, internships are the answer. I write a lot about that because you don’t know what you’re passionate about or what you’re even good at unless you try it. It’s awesome if you could get an internship when you’re a teenager, that’s life-changing.

And if someone gets an internship in something and they say, “I hate this,” that’s not a bad thing. You just saved yourself potentially four years of college studying something that you should never study.

Noah: I think one of the great things about the United States is that we’re into trying different things.

Terry: There’s no question. But I think the biggest takeaway is that we need to spend more time empowering our young people, our children. What are they really good at? What are they skilled at? What are they passionate about? And allowing them the freedom to pursue something that they’ll spend a lot of time doing and presumably enjoy and do very well.

Camp CHAMPNoah: Tell me how the CNC Machining Camp came about?

Terry: I did a camp. I actually picked up and shipped a CNC machine down to Florida at my expense. I set it up, programmed it, took an optical inspection system down with me, took a week off work and spent time with 10 high school young people and taught them about manufacturing.

What I realized is, not including the hard costs, just the cost of the machine tools, it was 10 grand.

What it taught me is that this was not a sustainable role or path in terms of introducing manufacturing to young people.

So I decided to buy a couple custom-made tabletop CNC machines and have them programmed, and we set up making pens. The lathe turns the top and bottom segment of the pen. And then the mill, we take pieces of wood and mill out, almost like a router, the wood for a top and bottom case for the pen.

Then I came up with a concept to take these out into the field to inspire middle school students. It’s not educational because it’s not broad enough to be educational. It’s more inspirational and informative, introductory. IMEC, the MEP for Illinois, decided to give me a little bit of money to do five camps. We ended up doing six over about a six-month period. A camp is defined as a morning session and an afternoon.

We have six different stations: lathe, mill, CNC control, laser engraver, assembly station, inspection station, and a programmable rotary station. What we do is every 15 minutes, we take 24 young people, divide them into six groups, so there’s only four per group, and then we have a mentoring component. We have a high school CTE student mentor the middle school students.

The middle school students become the mentors later for the next group of middle school students. And the host can either be a technical college or an industry member. So you have a path from middle school to high school to technical college to industry. It’s a total path.

We did the first six camps, and now IMEC has come to me again and said to keep doing this, they’re going to fund us again.

One thing I left out is that out of every 24 young people that come, only one or two know anything about manufacturing. We ask them when they first arrive. At the end, you can tell just by the excitement that you see and what they’re learning. They go home with a pen with their name laser engraved on it, and they get a shirt with their school name and cool logos.

There’s at least 10 that go home all excited about manufacturing. It plants a seed.

A Serendipitous MomentTerry: I was having a tough time being the only sibling in our family to work at the company.

I went to a class at Harvard for a week. It was a strategic finance class.

I was really struggling, and I met a woman from Brazil that literally kind of said, “Get over yourself.” And I’m like, “What? I don’t even know you. What are you talking about?” She’s like,

“Going into your family business and being the chosen one to take it into the future is an honor, don’t you know? You were chosen for a reason and you should be privileged and honored that you were chosen. Quit whining and get over yourself. Just accept your destiny and just do it. Do what you’ve been destined to do.”I was just so taken aback by her candor and her frankness. I was just like, “Well, obviously I needed that.”

Noah: And you were in the right mindset to receive it.

Terry: I’m always open. That’s why it happened.

Question: What are your ideas on how to get American kids interested in manufacturing careers?Transcript was generated with the assistance of claud.ai.The post CNC Machining Camp, with Terry Iverson–EP 225 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Most of us don’t have a knack for pivoting. We follow the standard curriculum, and we keep going forward when we get in a lane, whether we believe it’s the right direction or not.

But for Michael Gimbel, my guest on today’s show, seeing setbacks as serendipity and then pivoting is a natural gift.

Michael built a CNC router in his garage by age 12. He dropped out of an elite university after one year to start a company selling 3D printing technology that he invented.

When the company failed, he picked up the pieces, shifting to contract manufacturing and engineering consulting.

But that business didn’t excite him, so Michael pivoted again to manufacture a spindle gripper he developed for automating his own vertical CNC mills. Today his company, Gimbel Automation, is thriving and his spindle grippers are saving machining companies hundreds of thousands of dollars on automation. And he’s only 26!

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel.

Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!

Interview HighlightsThe StartupNoah: Tell me about your interesting career journey.

Michael: I got to college and was totally miserable. I was doing things I’d already studied and aced because they wanted me to. It was such a downgrade from the equipment. The only thing I could fit in my dorm was a little 3D printer. I went from having a full shop to just a couple of crappy pieces of equipment, taking courses I’d already taken. I got burnt out and chose to drop out after a year.

To be honest, I felt like I wanted to do my own thing. Hopkins is good for the right person, but it wasn’t me. You have to want to follow everything from A to B to C by the book, believing in the process. I’m the kind of person who wants to try everything, see what I can do, and see where I fail. It’s not a place that curates failure on your own, and that’s what I really needed.

Noah: Interesting. So you decided to leave after freshman year?

Michael: I completed freshman year, dropped out, and convinced six or seven professors to give me about $70 grand as startup seed money. Then I moved to Los Angeles and raised venture capital. I raised about 1.25 million dollars as a 19-year-old with just a dream, a plan, and a couple of experimental 3D printers. I had invented a new 3D printing process. From there, it was its own wild ride.

Noah: Then what happened?

Michael: What happened was exactly what you’d expect when you hand a million dollars to a 19-year-old. I tried to run the company, but I didn’t know what I was doing. We made cool tech developments, but I didn’t understand how to manage people or how to get things to the next level. Ultimately, that first company failed.

Contract Manufacturing and Engineering ConsultingNoah: What came next?

Michael: There’s a long, convoluted path to my next stage. The company’s assets traded hands a couple of times. The original investors didn’t want anything to do with it because it was a money pit.

Eventually, it came into my hands and I ended up paying off all the debts. I had the idea to run a job shop or contract manufacturer again, to have all these machines in this space for my next chapter. I’d looked for jobs but couldn’t get behind anything, thinking I’d fall into building someone else’s dream.

I wanted to build my own thing, even if it was difficult. And it was definitely difficult.

I started doing job shop work for startups. I learned quickly that startups are awful customers because most don’t exist in a year or two. We slowly moved into engineering consulting. The startup company was 3D printing, but to do our own R&D, we had machines – a water jet, a Haas CNC machine. I thought, we need to make money now, so we’ll do job shop work. That’s how we started and how I paid off the debts at first.

We then moved into engineering consulting and production work, like specialty stuff and art. We were doing all the stuff other shops didn’t want to do because it wasn’t full production quantities and was complicated. We took on customers who didn’t have drawings but needed certain requirements. We grew rapidly, doubling in size every year.

We quickly built up to four people. Everything was great. We were mostly in engineering consulting, not only making parts but designing components, putting assemblies together, and testing them. Then COVID hit, turning our whole business upside down. 90% of the revenue disappeared. I had to lay off two people and put one part-time. This was the only time I ever laid people off.

We started making face shields for a while and found a way through. It took a year and a half, but the engineering consults came back. People had projects they wanted to accelerate. The year felt like a rocket ship. Right after COVID, we won a big engineering consulting job that added 35% to our revenue overnight. Then it happened again with another customer. We were growing really fast, but you also have the tension of having one huge customer and working around their demands.

Before the breakthrough, there was another “Icarus flies too close to the sun” moment. I didn’t really love consulting. It never made me excited to wake up in the morning. We had a four-month R&D project where we lost about $350,000 developing a metal 3D printing system. I was convinced it would be great. We built it, it worked, the machinery was awesome, but when we tried to test it in the market, it failed. I was a bit bored and looking for shiny objects to work on, but the big thing in my head was needing stable, recurring revenue in addition to these big customers.

I really wanted a product. I think a lot of job shops have felt that. I’d been working on projects when bored for years. I once built an all-metal operational clock with a swinging arm. We built a shrink fit machine with virtual holders.

One of the things we’d built was a spindle gripper to run internal production on our own components.The Spindle GripperGimbel Automation CNC Robot GripperNoah: Explain how the spindle gripper works.

Michael: A spindle gripper goes into the automatic tool changer of your machine, loading into the spindle like a tool. This whole sub-assembly goes into your spindle, and when air is turned on, it closes. This allows it, like a robot gripper, to grab a component. Parts are loaded onto the table in a tray on a grid. The gripper comes down, clamps on a part in the grid, lifts up, and drops it off in an automated vise.

It does this without an external robot. We invented a new method for machines without through spindle air coolant, which is a huge portion of the market. We soft launched it and sold quite a few. We started with a couple big customers who liked what we were doing. We’ve exponentially grown the automation business from there, adding air vises, a conveyor loading system, and modules. Lately, we’ve focused on delivering total automation solutions.

Noah: You came up with this because you were short on people?

Michael: When I invented it, there were four of us, but I was the only one who could run a CNC machine. For production orders, I had to either turn them away or do them myself. It was built out of necessity – I needed a way to run parts. We used it for years before turning it into a product, which is now our primary business.

Noah: It’s a gripper that hooks onto the spindle. How is it automation? The part still has to get in the machine. Don’t you need a robot, person, or loading system?

Michael: We put at least one piece of automated work holding, like an air vise, onto the table, and have a fully adjustable part tray grid. You need room for a vise and a tray, and one of these grippers goes in the spindle. You set the vise, and using our program generator or automated templates, you upload your program. It’s as easy to program a run of 20 as it is for your setup guy to run one part.

When you hit go, the generated program moves the table so the tray of parts is perfectly under the gripper. The gripper comes down, clamps a part, lifts up, centers over the vise, deposits the part, and the machining cycle runs. For a simple one-operation pallet system, we put that part back and move to the next one. The machine keeps going until the tray is empty. We’ve taken it further with a system using a second vise for the second operation and an integrated flip station for a third operation in the same cycle.

Questions: When did you pivot in your business or life?What would you like to pivot to?Transcript was generated with the assistance of claud.ai.The post Pivoting to Manufacture a Product, with Michael Gimbel – EP 224 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I’m writing today at our 40-year-old round desk that can accommodate six people.

We have moved Graff-Pinkert’s offices 700 feet east on 166th Street in Oak Forest, IL. Our machinery is in the process of being moved to another building 15 minutes away.

Moving isn’t easy, even if you have known it was coming for at least two years.

I sold our 21,000-square foot crane building five years ago that we have been in for 45 years. It was perfect for the needs of a used machine tool dealer who stocked machines, and it was 12 minutes from my home. It seemed like a shrewd idea in 2019. We took a 5-year lease on the offices and half of the warehouse.

The business was changing. We did not need to warehouse as many machines. Customers seldom came to inspect equipment in our shop. Rebuilding machines often was a losing game. Selling enabled us to pay off most of our debts, some of which had accumulated after I bought out my brother, Jim.

Frankly, in 2019 I figured in five years there was a good chance I would either be physically unable to work or I would prefer a life of retirement. I would be nearing 80 years old. But I was wrong. Age 80 becomes the new 60 if you have capable people around you and you like what you are doing.

About four months ago, we began the search for a new home for Graff-Pinkert and Co. in earnest.

Lloyd at the Round Table in the Old Graff-Pinkert OfficeOur first choice was to find the perfect building. Heavy overhead crane, small warehouse of 10,000-12,000 square feet, good offices, and a short drive for me because I only have one good eye thanks to seven retina surgeries 20 years ago.

It quickly became apparent that finding that building was a pipe dream. Nobody builds small crane buildings today, particularly in the south suburbs of Chicago. The closest we came was a foreclosure in Indiana that had some smaller spaces but no offices and was in poor condition with an unreliable landlord.

The next choice was to find a non-crane building at least 20 feet high that was nearby and not out of our budget.

We checked out numerous properties, but nothing was even close to being acceptable. The closest was a relatively new building in Mokena, but it still had no offices, was a little small, and cost 50% more than I wanted to pay.

As our lease deadline got closer, we decided to change course.

The office did not have to be in the warehouse if it was close by. Fortunately, I knew Nat, who owned four buildings in our industrial park. I called him to see if he had offices, preferably with a small warehouse space for our spare parts business.

He had the perfect spot 700 feet away from us. It even had an office ideal for our big round desk. But we still needed a warehouse that would be big enough and close enough for our used machinery inventory.

Out of nowhere, it appeared. An older building in South Holland, IL, was being refurbished with adequate dimensions and height. We bought a big lift truck we had seen on eBay for $42,000. The rental price wasn’t crazy on the building so we jumped on it.

The new Graff-Pinkert premises are now taking shape.

I still go back to our soon to be former building to check out the screw machines we’re working on and the moving process. But my primary interest there is in my old apple tree, which has had a bumper crop this season.

Do I have some regrets about selling Graff-Pinkert’s building? Of course.

Is the new Graff-Pinkert space perfect? No. Nor was the old one.

But the Graff-Pinkert staff have risen to the occasion and business has continued.

I’ll pick my apples and move on.

Question: What would be your perfect workspace?

The post Finding the “Perfect” Workspace first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guests on today’s show are Michael Ottenweller and Terry Hanson, of Ottenweller Company, a medium-sized fabrication and machining company headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Ottenweller is a 108-year-old fourth generation family business. I spoke with Michael and Terry about how a family business can grow and thrive for over a century and continue to find new quality talent.

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Main PointsOttenweller Company was started as a blacksmith and iron repair shop in 1916 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by Michael’s grandfather, Ed Ottenweller. During World War II, the company made truck parts for General Harvester, which had a truck plant in Fort Wayne. They also made components for General Electric, which was making specialty motors for military applications. After the war ended, Michael’s father, who was a General Electric Engineer, came on to run the family company. Over the years, components for the construction industry became one of its most significant businesses. During the RV boom in the 1950s, Ottenweller got into putting trailer hitches on cars and trucks, a job that Michael participated in as a teenager. Today the company has a diversified customer base in markets such as construction, energy, life sciences, forestry, and defense.

Michael was the sixth child of 11, with five brothers and five sisters, but he was the first of his generation to join the business. Most of his siblings went on to have successful careers in professions such as medicine, law, and academics. Growing up, Michael was less interested in school than his siblings, instead gravitating to the family’s blacksmith shop and mechanical applications. Though he was a mediocre student in high school and college, he majored in mechanical engineering at Purdue, finishing with an associate’s degree at the Fort Wayne campus. He says he can relate to young people today who prefer to work in the trades rather than “book learning,” which they are pressured into by today’s typical school curriculums.

When Michael started at the company he gravitated to managing the shop floor. Nancy, his younger sister, after getting a degree from Indiana University, took on the responsibility of managing the company’s finances. Gary, Michael’s youngest brother, is the only other sibling to join the company. He heads sales and marketing.

As the oldest, most experienced sibling, Michael eventually assumed the role of President when his father exited the business in the 1985. He and his brother and sister, eventually bought their father out. Michael describes the buyout process as a “handshake agreement.” He said the process was more or less an agreement that after his father retired he would continue to receive a paycheck until he no longer needed it.

Michael Ottenweller and Terry HansonMichael says trust is a vital factor for a family business to sustain itself through generations. He says, unless a company is making significant returns, it is hard to manage succession solely based on financial compensation. In the ‘80s and ‘90s Ottenweller grew rapidly, modernizing its equipment, expanding its geographic reach, and doubling its workforce from 75 to 150 employees. Michael says that by delaying compensation for the older generation that was selling out, it enabled the company to have capital to invest in modern equipment and grow.

In 2005, the fourth generation of the Ottenweller family entered the business, using a similar type of transition as its predecessor. Though Michael is still involved in the company, his son David is now President, and his sister’s son Kevin Dwire is Vice President. They have overseen the company grow to 250 employees, 50 of whom are in a new satellite location in North Carolina.

Michael’s brief summary of the transition makes it seem like an easy process, but he admits that succession has important nuances to take into account. The company did employ a business succession consultant for guidance.

Michael first reached out to me after reading Lloyd Graff’s blog, “Where have all the Men Gone?” The blog had explored the difficulty for many young men in the United States to find a good career fit. He suggested we have Terry Hanson, Ottenweller’s head of Human Resources, join the interview to talk about the company’s efforts to recruit talent.

Terry is a worldly charismatic guy, who cut his teeth in HR, being charged with recruiting staff for Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign and later leading other staffing roles for the Obama administration. He lived in Australia for a time and started a small bar in his hometown of Chicago with some family members. His wife, who hales from Fort Wayne, lured him there to raise their family. Terry says when he visited Ottenweller Company he immediately loved the company’s energy and connected with the people working there.

Terry has spent a lot of time involved in Fort Wayne’s Ivy Tech Community College. He puts effort into exposing the area’s young people to opportunities in the trades. He hopes his efforts will attract smart young people to come to work at Ottenweller. He also says the company has found some great employees who were unsatisfied in other industries such as food service or retail. Ottenweller has a paid internship program to grow its own talent in-house.

Both Terry and Michael stressed to me that to maintain a committed and happy workforce, management has show employees that they care about them. Ottenweller’s management regularly spends time on the shop floor. They take time to get to know individual people and recognize their successes in front of their peers.

Family businesses fail for a myriad of reasons when new generations take over. I think one cause for failure is when a new generation of management coasts on the success of the previous one, rather than asserting itself to grow and evolve the company in their own right. From the interview, it seems like Ottenweller Company is on a positive trajectory. Talking to Terry and Michael I could see that they both genuinely care that Ottenweller has a positive company culture and a plan for healthy growth. It would be interesting to talk to the fourth generation to get an impression of how they view the company’s path.

Questions: What is the best thing and most difficult thing about working in a family business?

The post How a Machining Company Thrives after 108 years in Business, with Michael Ottenweller and Terry Hanson—EP 156 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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What’s your favorite smell?

I asked the question on a LinkedIn post, and everyone said something different. I got the ocean, a farm, a forest in the morning after rain. My wife said her mother’s pie, the cinnamon rolls we bake together, and our two-year-old son of all things! Personally, I’m all about food smells. Chocolate chip cookies and pizza first come to mind. It’s clear that these examples are strongly connected with childhood memories.

I got fascinated with this phenomenon when I heard a an awesome podcast interview with Dawn Goldworm, an olfactive expert with more than 20 Years of experience designing scents for luxury brands like Nike, Cadillac, and American Express.

Goldworm says smell is the sense that is the most connected with memory because the nose is so close to your brain. Oder molecules go straight to your limbic system, which supports functions such as emotion, behavior, long-term memory, and olfaction. She says that from shortly before you’re born until ten years old, when you smell something you have a feeling about it.

Nike hired Goldworm to create a fragrance to personify the brand that it could pump into stores and shopping bags. The company wanted to aim their marketing at 17-year-old girls and 19-year-old boys around the world. They wanted a fragrance inspired by the feeling of “about to play a sport.” It took several years to engineer the fragrance, which is a harmony of several different smells they replicated.

They recreated the smells of a soccer cleat in dirt, a basketball as it gets oily from your hand, sneakers skidding on a basketball court, sweat mixing with the rubber on gym equipment, and the smell of opening a box of

Air Force 1 shoes (that model specifically).

The smell of opening a box of new sneakers is definitely one burned into many people’s brains during childhood. It’s created by off-gassing of rubber, glue, cardboard, and plastic on the shoelaces that have been in trapped in a box.

Goldworm no longer works with Nike, but she still amazes clients when she gives them a sample of the company’s fragrance. They smell it and they guess it’s the scent of Nike sneakers.

If you could create a scent for your company, who would be your target audience? What would be the feeling you would want to communicate?

Most of us don’t have the resources to hire an olfactive expert to market our brand, but this podcast reminded me of the importance of pausing for a moment to be mindful of what I want my brand to stand for. What is the identity that we could use in any type of marketing—perhaps marketing that could be connected to all of our senses. I’m sure that touch would be relevant to a lot of manufacturers.

What would you want your customer to think about when they envision your products or you personally?

Accuracy? Beauty? The feeling of good value?

What would that smell and feel like?

Questions:

What is your favorite smell in the world?

What is your least favorite smell?

The post What’s Your Company’s Smell? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Often the best deals and business decisions happen when you’re doing something that seems crazy to other people and even a little bit crazy to yourself. As used machinery dealers, putting our money down to stock old, dirty machines that we’re only interested in for resale, we have to have chutzpa. To some people, the business model seems a bit ridiculous, but it’s how we eat.

These days I often question if it even makes sense stocking machines. Often we make a good profit brokering machines we’ve spent no money on, selling them right off the owner’s floor.

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel.

Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!

Interview HighlightsStocking machines requires risking your cash, so you have to have some big self-confidence. It requires you to believe that you’re smarter than other people, which is an important trait to make clever business moves. But as you can imagine, it could also lead to doing some very stupid stuff.

Seeing other used machinery dealers out there rolling the dice on old equipment makes me feel a little more secure specking on machines. If we were the only ones buying other people’s discarded treasures, I’d be more nervous doing it. But still, most of our dealer contemporaries don’t buy the same junk we buy—Legacy Hydromats, Davenports, Acme-Gridleys—some as old as American presidents. Obviously it’s not really junk. Otherwise we wouldn’t buy it. I’m just trying to sound dramatic.

Anyway, even when a deal seems REALLY interesting, it’s easy to question yourself. Why hasn’t anybody else bought it? Are we really smarter than other people out there who aren’t specking on screw machines built in the ‘50s by companies that don’t even exist now?

And why is someone selling these machines? Do they know something we don’t? Or do they just have other things they want to focus on besides worrying about maximizing the value their old iron that they’ve already written off?

In any case, our biggest deals these last few months have been selling a bunch of Davenports, New Britains, and Acme-Gridley multi-spindle screw machines. I’m not going to lie, I was not enthusiastic about Graff-Pinkert’s recent purchase of a group of these machines out of a shop in the middle of nowhere.

As Rex and my Dad, Lloyd, plotted their bid on the machines, I thought back to the last New Britain Model 52 we owned. It was actually a really nice machine that came with a lot of spare parts. We ended up selling it very cheap after it sat in our warehouse for four years. I also thought about the New Britains in an auction we had two years ago that sold for nothing.

Yet last month, we still had the audacity to buy more of the same kind of machines, but this time it worked because we bought the machines right and sold them quickly for bargain prices.

It was easier for Rex and my dad to pull the trigger on old sexy ugly iron like this because they were around when these machines were mainstream, when their resale was paying my college tuition. But the reason the deal was a success was that other people didn’t know about it, and other people weren’t stupid enough or smart enough to buy it.

Meanwhile, we have some beautiful relatively late model CNC Swiss machines that have been sitting in our warehouse for two years give or take. We bought them during a period when everybody was dying for Swiss, so it felt like a safe move at the time. We thought we were clever when we imported them, but we weren’t. We were following the herd, the same herd that has their own similar machines taking up warehouse space right now.

We need more deals that others overlook. Deals where we’re competing with ourselves rather than other dealers.

We need to learn about more types of machines, get out of our comfort zone, and try to not think like other people.

I’m trying to take inspiration from some unconventional deals we’ve done in the past. Some were really profitable and some weren’t, but they were still worth doing. I always love to think about when we bought our first INDEX MS32C at an auction in Australia. The machine cost $70,000 to ship to Chicago, but then we sold it to shop in Italy for a huge a score.

I’m also thinking about one of Graff-Pinkert’s most memorable deals from before I joined the business. We had several Eubama transfer machines that we just couldn’t sell, so we traded them to Tony Maglica, the owner of Mag Light for 23,000 flashlights, several thousand of them monogrammed with Graff-Pinkert’s name. I think it took us about 20 years to give all of them away, but they were interesting high quality swag for customers. It was a much better solution than scrapping the machines, and it was just cool!

When our B2B magazine Screw Machine World started in 2000, we put copies in the bathroom stalls at IMTS. Did it lead to subscribers and advertisers, who knows. But I know it was fun, a bit crazy, and it energized us. It’s the kind of thing that makes me feel alive. The kind of thing I need a hell of a lot more of at work.

What do you know more about than your competitors? What could you do that they might be afraid to do? What could you do that they would think was crazy?

Question: What was something crazy you did at your company that you’re proud of?

The post How Crazy Ideas Fuel Your Business–EP 223 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I was planning to write about the difficulty for manufacturers to find space for their operations. I even had interviewed shop owners yesterday for insight. But that blog will have to wait because “Heil Hitler” hit me.

At a Paris Olympics soccer match between Israel and Paraguay, young people chanted, “Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler.”

In many ways, the games are a constant reminder of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Hitler’s introduction to the world, of himself, and the fascism which would soon overwhelm Europe and be welcomed into Paris.

A few years ago, who would have expected to hear “Heil Hitler” at the Olympics?

But this is 2024, with Israel at war in Gaza.

It’s a little hard for me to believe.

My daughter recently visited Israel for a week of study and a reunion with a dozen Rabbinical classmates. She painted a fascinating picture to me of the country she experienced.

When she arrived, she saw photos of the approximately 200 hostages covering the walls of Ben Gurion Airport. She frequently saw rallies honoring the prisoners and mourning the 1,400 people killed by Hamas on October 7 of last year.

The 60,000 people who fled from the North are spread all over the country, waiting for the day they can return to their homes.

My daughter went to one of the open-air markets on the Friday she was in Jerusalem looking for dishes to eat on the Sabbath with her friends. The vibrant moments she shared with me were surprising amid the war and killing. Yet she told me that she always felt safe while she was there.

This is Israel in 2024.

Most soldiers live normal lives and then go back to the front line to fight with their units. This is not an army of professional soldiers for the most part. They are volunteers, with fighters who are Ethiopian, Russian, and American fighting alongside third-generation Israelis. Many Israeli college students have returned from America to volunteer for the Army.

Today when I read about the preparation to disrupt the Democratic Convention in three weeks in Chicago primarily to protest support of Israel it sickened me.

I hope to be able to travel downtown, go to restaurants, and attend a Cubs game without reexperiencing the chaos of the 1968 Democratic Convention.

Let’s hope Lebron James and teammates crush the opposition at the Olympics.

The post Israel On My Mind first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s show is the second episode in our season about Swiss machining.

I interviewed Chris Armstrong last week while he was parked at a rest stop somewhere in Texas. He was en route on an all day trip to service a customer’s Citizens. I met Chris and his partner, Ryan Madsen, owners of Texas Swiss, a few years ago, trying to sell them some Citizen L20s from Asia.

Texas Swiss, formerly named Mad Science, is a CNC Swiss job shop not far from Houston that focuses primarily on Oil & Gas and Defense, along with some medical and other work thrown in. Chris told me that some of the medical parts the company produces actually have similarities with gun parts because of their size and various other features and shapes.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast, or listen with Google Podcasts,Apple Podcasts or your favorite app.

In the past, I’ve usually talked to Ryan when peddling machines because Chris always seemed to be on the road, servicing the machines of other shops. That puzzled me, but eventually it became clear that servicing machines is truly a second business for their company. Just cranking out parts isn’t enough for Chris because his true passion is wrenching on machines.

Chris’s Citizen odyssey began 15 years ago. He was 21 years old and had just gotten laid off of his job as a welder at a fab shop. The night he lost his job and the following day he let off steam by blaring Metallica and starting a rehab on his condo’s bathroom. His neighbors in the building complained about the noise. When Chris explained to them that he was pissed off about losing his job one of the neighbors suggested he visit her son’s machine shop the next day.

When Chris came to the shop he laid eyes on a 1993 Citizen L316, and it was love at first sight. The machine was a new addition to the shop because the company was bringing new work in-house, so nobody there knew how to run it yet. Chris seized the unclaimed position of operating the shop’s lone Swiss machine. He taught himself to run it, taking books home at night and memorizing them. He was the beginning of the company’s Swiss department. The company, which was a medical shop, grew exponentially the next few years, but Chris eventually left to work for Citizen. He traveled around doing applications, sales, and support for awhile before finally deciding to start his own Swiss shop. Eventually he teamed up with Ryan Madsen, a high school friend to start their company Mad Science (later renamed Texas Swiss). The company’s original name came from Chris’s nickname, “Mad Scientist,” which he was given when he learned to operate a Matsuura MX-520 in one legendary morning on his own.

Chris says he enjoys the “crime scene forensics” element of troubleshooting machines. Yet, he says the root of most problems he encounters in shops comes from simplest of culprits. He says a lot of problems occur just because machines are not kept clean. Stray swarf and chips can easily cause a chain reaction of production mishaps.

He also says machines often don’t work correctly because they were poorly set up. He says setup people are sometimes in such a hurry to get a job up and running they use the wrong tooling, which is the cause of a lot of machining issues. He told me he likes to say “slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” His philosophy is that the machines are already plenty fast, so taking a little more time for a setup will make production a lot more efficient in the end. He adds, its always important check machines’ sleeves because they’re always suspect.

Just talking to Chris a few minutes you know he can’t be content with staying home running a production shop, never venturing out into the field. He told me it would be a waste of a God given gift for him not to service machine tools, and that helping people overcome their machining heartaches and bring their projects to life gives him purpose.

Question: What was the most difficult problem on a machine that you overcame?The post CNC Swiss Mad Scientist, Chris Armstrong–EP 110 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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“This is how it’s always been done.”

Businesses sometimes can do OK with a philosophy like that. Maybe even make good money.

But it sucks being just ok, because you know you could be so much better.

Today on the podcast we are joined by Jim Mayer, founder of the Manufacturing Connector and host of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast. Jim is a manufacturing advocate who helps companies break free from the “it’s always been done this way’ mindset.

He specializes in transforming workplaces where the culture is “just OK” into awesome places to work, where employees are engaged, people trust each other and they celebrate successes together.

It was a great conversation, he even gave me valuable advice about improving meetings at our company, Graff-Pinkert.

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel.

Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!

Interview HighlightsNoah Graff: On your website you mentioned taking “OK” scenarios at manufacturing companies to a new place. Explain that.

Jim Mayer: “OK” in the sense that I use it means status quo. The way things have always been done. When I hear people say, “That’s the way things have always been done,” I see it as a sign of room for growth, opportunity, and improvement.

I can take what has always been done and provide a solution or a way to become better, become more profitable, become more process-oriented.

Noah: I know you don’t believe that a culture for one company is necessarily right for another. But how do you define a “healthy culture” in your surveys and when you’re consulting manufacturing companies?

Jim: The idea of organizational culture is that you have a good culture when your employees and your organization have alignment of values.

When your company values are X and your employees also value that same thing, that’s when you have alignment. That’s when you have a healthy culture for your organization.

It’s individualistic because every employee is going to have their own values. Every organization is going to have their own values based on the values of top-line leadership.

That’s why it’s not my job to judge. What I value may be different from what that company values or what the employees value. I’m just making sure they’re aligned.

Noah: How has remote work affected business culture and manufacturing culture?

Jim: Typically, what I find with the shops I work with, remote work is not accepted where it could be. Of course, folks on the shop floor can’t be remote, but they can have flexible hours more suited to their lifestyle and work-life balance needs.

It all comes down to what that individual is looking for. But remote culture in manufacturing can thrive.

It’s just a matter of trust. That’s really the foundation of why it doesn’t work. Leadership in this industry is so conditioned to have eyes on processes and people who are part of the processes. When they aren’t able to have eyes on somebody, the trust just isn’t there that they’re getting their job done.

Noah: One thing I’ve wanted to do more at our company, Graff-Pinkert, is have some huddles or meetings. We have never had anything routine. We are moving right now, and we’re going to have the added challenge of having a separate office and warehouse. I’d like to have some meetings to bring people together and be more engaged.

Jim: I would say start with a weekly meeting. But really define what that weekly meeting is designed to accomplish ahead of time. “Hey team, we’re going to have a weekly meeting where we talk about this week’s wins, this week’s failures, this week’s lessons learned.” You have to have that defined ahead of time so that people don’t walk into it thinking, “Why are we having this meeting? I have no idea.”

I always like to talk about celebrations. What were our successes? What were our opportunities for learning this week? When you take that kind of mindset, it changes the framework of the discussion.

But then also, the way that you create a culture that values those people and values that learning and development is asking them, “What were your failures and what did you learn?” What were some of the misses we had this week and what did you learn from them?

Companies that generally have healthier cultures don’t view failure as a mistake. They view failure as an opportunity to grow.

Questions:

What aspect of your company’s culture are you most proud of?

What aspect of your company’s culture would you like to improve?

This transcription was aided by claud.ai. to improve readability.

For more information about Jim Mayer’s services go the manufacturing connector.

The post How to Create an Awesome Manufacturing Culture, with Jim Mayer–EP 222 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I stare at the artistic montage of Today’s Machining World covers that rests against the wall behind my son, Noah. Boxes filled with old issues of Screw Machine World and Today’s Machining World lay behind my chair. We moved Graff-Pinkert’s offices last week, 700 ft. down 166th Street in Oak Forest, Illinois, and those precious copies of my magazines will not be left behind.

Soon I will take most of them home to stash in my basement, but the move got me thinking about 25+ years of writing about the precision machining industry in various forms and what got me started writing about the industry in the first place.

In 1969, after getting a Master’s degree in Journalism from University of Michigan, I was stationed at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, trying to avoid going to Vietnam. I faced a choice about my career. Was I going to be writing for a newspaper or magazine, or joining my father and uncle, Aaron Pinkert, in the used screw machine business that was located on the South Side of Chicago next to a “chop shop?”

I already had seven years of experience working summers, traveling the Midwest searching for Acmes and New Britains. I had two decades of listening to my dad talk about the business at dinner, and I had an impending marriage engagement with Risa.

As much as I loved the creativity I found in writing, business had an allure. Also, stuck in my head was a memory of my one summer job working for a magazine in downtown Chicago. The job had seemed to be going brilliantly until suddenly I was called into the owner’s office and was told to get out immediately. I was fired.

On my way out, in the hall, one of the other employees came up to me and whispered in my ear, “He fired you because he found out you were Jewish.” I was shocked and bewildered. It was my first personal episode with anti-Semitism, even though my father had told me many stories about his encounters.

When I chose to work with my dad and Aaron, I knew in my gut I would try to write too. My father was passionate about the business, but after having triple heart bypass surgery at 56, travel for him became more difficult. My brother, Jim, joined the business after me and soon took on much of the travel. Uncle Aaron retired. My father died in 1995, which left the company to Jim and me.

Graff-Pinkert Times, Fall of 1987. Cover features construction of an addition to Graff-Pinkert’s 15,000 square-foot warehouse.In the ‘80s and ‘90s I started writing about Graff-Pinkert and the screw machine industry in a self-published newsletter called the Graff-Pinkert Times. It whet my appetite for something bigger. We made a lot of money in the 1990s selling screw machines, and at the end of the decade I had the funds to start the publication I had always dreamed of owning. Interestingly, part of the intrigue was the idea of starting an online publication, as it was during the pinnacle of the dot.com boom. But print was still the dominant journalism media of the time, so I dove into the not-so-cheap magazine business.

Getting into the business of a self-published B2B magazine was not an idea that my brother was fond of, but I plunged ahead. I spent a lot of my time and Graff-Pinkert’s money to get it going, deluding myself that it would ultimately pay off for both Jim and I through advertising and thought leadership in the industry.

In 2011, we decided to take the publication all online. This gave Noah the opportunity to work in the machinery business because writing blogs took a lot less time than producing a print magazine 9-12 times per year. It was the very first time that Today’s Machining World actually turned a tiny profit, monetizing with email blast auction ads and banner ads.

As you can see, I’m still writing. My “Swarf” column from the magazine became “Swarfblog.” Noah’s podcast, Swarfcast, is thriving in its sixth year. Thousands of people open our emails each week.

I guess you could say that today we are thought leaders in the precision machining industry. But I mainly write because it’s fun.

Question: What side hustles are you passionate about?

The post The Story of Today’s Machining World first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I’ve had a LinkedIn profile for a long time, but I didn’t pay much attention to it until two years ago when I started using it to promote this podcast. I know it’s been helpful for me, but like all social media, the way it works is an enigma.

I’m guessing that many of you out there are like me. You’re on LinkedIn and wish you could use the platform to become a thought leader or promote your business, or maybe you’re trying to find a new job. But you’re unsure how to use the platform, so you to rarely use it if ever.

My guest on today’s show, Scott Aaron, seems to have cracked the code to excel on LinkedIn. He’s a professional LinkedIn coach, and he has a great podcast called Networking and Marketing Made Simple that I’ve become an avid listener of.

On today’s show Scott is going to talk about how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, build the right network, and make valuable content so you can get the most out of the platform.

More to come!

Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!

The post How to be a Thought Leader on LinkedIn, with Scott Aaron–EP 221 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our used machinery business, Graff-Pinkert, is in the process of moving its headquarters down the street this week. Right now, I am sitting outside our warehouse with Noah, looking at my beloved 35-year-old apple tree, remembering the stories of the history of Graff-Pinkert.

It all began with my grandfather Louis Graff who I never met. I just packed up his portrait photo, which we never got around to hanging on our office wall, into the back seat of my car.

My dad, Leonard Graff, idolized his father and joined him in the scrap metal business after proudly graduating from the University of Chicago but unable to get a job in 1938. He learned a lot from his father, particularly how to haul other men’s junk and weighting the scales in your favor. It was a dirty game he knew was not for him. But he saw that guys who didn’t appear that brilliant made a lot of money running screw machines.

Copy of the Emerman Red BookWhile in the scrap business, he became friends with the Blumberg brothers, used machinery dealers who owned Adams Machinery in Chicago, which still exists today. He partnered with them on some deals, and in a factory they were junking, he discovered the Emerman Red Book, a catalog which listed prices of machine tools, which he tucked away as treasure for future use.

In 1941, Louis Graff died of a heart attack. My dad was devastated but quickly rebounded. He soon met my mother, Thais, who was home for the summer from the University of Wisconsin. He liquidated the family scrap business and borrowed $5,000 from Chicago City Bank in Englewood on the sheer strength of his charisma. Then he went into the used machinery business.

He figured that any equipment he could buy for the price Emerman was selling it for in his depression era 1935 Red Book catalog he could make a profit on.

He folded his 6’6″ frame, carrying the Red Book and his confidence, and drove around Wisconsin, prospecting for machinery. He made calls from local telephone companies so he wouldn’t have to keep dropping in dimes.

He wholesaled most of his early purchases to the Blumbergs because they were easy to deal with and had plenty of money. Not long after he went into business, the Blumbergs asked my dad to fly with them in a private plane to Iola, Kansas, to evaluate the scrap at a factory they were buying (Iola is halfway between Wichita and Kansas City). It whet his appetite to be like them, although it scared the heck out of him to go up in a little airplane. I still often talk about that story.

As an aside, the senior Blumberg, founder of Adam’s Machinery, made enough money to go into the thoroughbred racing business. His horse, Venetian Way, named after the street in Miami Beach, won the 1960 Kentucky Derby after Lincoln Road finished runner-up in 1958.

This was the kind of history I grew up with as a child. My father loved the excitement of a deal and meeting interesting people along the way. But bedtime stories were about making deals.

My dad knew that because of his frequent mood swings he needed a business partner. His first was his Uncle Abe, a fat, balding older man who loved to laugh. He kept my dad’s spirits up and above all that was what he needed.

The story I remember most about his short partnership with Uncle Abe was their trip to Kalamazoo. Soon after they started calling local shops they found a milling machine, a precious Kearney and Tracker, which they quickly bought and flipped.

They were thrilled and wanted to celebrate. Abe knew the way. They went to the local ice cream shop and both ordered big thick chocolate milkshakes. They took them up to a rented hotel room and sipped.

That story has been passed through generations.

Abe and my father split soon after, but the story has lived on 80 years later. During World War II, my dad asked his cousin Aaron Pinkert to join him as they made bullets and other screw machine parts, putting aside the used machinery business. They made a lot of money and ran until 1949, quitting just before the Korean War.

If they had stayed for six months more, we might still be in the production business, but dad and Aaron were exhausted with that life and went into buying and selling apartment buildings and machinery. It was the beginning of Graff-Pinkert and Co.

Hope you like today’s family history lesson. Don’t forget to pass yours on to your kids.

Question: What family stories will you pass on to your kids?

The post My Family Business Bedtime Story first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The concept of an ESOP has always seemed a little mysterious to me. E-S-O-P is an acronym for Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Basically it means an employee owned company. Our guest on today’s podcast is Rich Gaffney, Vice President of Commercial Operations at Sentry Equipment, a 100-year-old manufacturing company in Wisconsin that has been employee owned since 1986.

Rich and I discuss the business structure of ESOPs and most importantly the profound impact that employee ownership can have on company culture and workforce engagement. Even if you have no desire to make your company an ESOP, the interview will give you some ideas to think about as far as how to get people in your business feeling more empowered and committed.

The post What if the Employees Owned Your Company?, with Rich Gaffney–EP 220 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Such an election we are faced with. How did we get into this position? How can we prevent it in the future?

I have been reluctant to write about this topic, but the situation the US faces demands discussion.

We face some major issues that most likely will not be addressed such as:

1) A declining educational system with kids poorly prepared for the jobs that will be available over the next decades, including opportunities in manufacturing.

2) A need for a reduction in government spending, which neither Biden or Trump seems to care about. We are swamped with Federal debt. Under Trump, we spent trillions over what we brought in, and even more so under Biden. They appear to calculate that the country does not care enough to throw them out for overspending. The world continues to buy our flood of debt. It will not always happen if the US economy no longer whistles along.

3) The problematic scenario many African Americans still seem to be stuck in that the welfare state was supposed to change. Democrats (Progressives) push new programs still thinking they will propel Blacks and the poor to rise up the economy and educational system, but they have not succeeded. Biden is an old congressional hack and still seems to buy into the failed programs. Trump does not seem to care either way.

4) How do we challenge a menacing Russia, China, and Iran in the world theater? I admire Biden for continuing to back Ukraine, but now the strategy appears to be playing for a standstill rather than Ukraine pushing Russia back.

Facing away from Iran’s movement toward a nuclear bomb is distressing because if Iran gets it the Saudis will acquire one, and Israel already has one. The world will be a lot more dangerous.

The inept Maoist leadership in China has been helpful for America, but they may eventually become more clearly belligerent.

What will billions be spent on as we move closer to the November election? The Republicans will stress 77-year-old Trump’s vigor compared to Joe Biden’s frailty and quite possibly failing mind. The Democrats need to show our Vice President as a viable potential President. How? I do not know, and it is a dangerous strategy.

The Democrats will stress Trump’s horrible moral character. It may stick, but Biden is no saint, and his son is now a felon. The Republicans will probably not press that too much because it is likely to rebound.

Biden pushes low unemployment and surprisingly modest inflation, but the American people do not seem to be terribly interested.

Here we are at the end of June, near an imminent presidential election with two old dogs limping to voting day.

Why can’t we do better?

Can we devise an election system that gets us the candidates we deserve?

Do you have ideas that will give us better than these two pathetic guys?

The post How Can We Do Better? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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My guest on today’s show is Kris Fugate, President of Revolution Machine Works, a prominent rotary transfer machine rebuilder, specializing in Hydromats. Hydromats can seem strange and overwhelming to those unfamiliar with them. Some say they their circular shape with 12 or 16 work stations reminds them of a UFO, and the machines can crank out complex turned parts like nothing else out there.

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Main PointsHow Rotary Transfers Work

Kris started the interview explaining how rotary transfer machines, particularly Hydromats, function and why they are such unique productive machines. How is it possible that parts which require several multi-spindle screw machines, or have cycle times of 2 minutes on a CNC lathe, can run complete on a Hydromat in 20 seconds?

Most Hydromats are configured in a rotary dial-like shape. Unlike on a screw machine, in which the bar of material rotates and the tools are stationary, on a Hydromat the bar remains stationary and the tools rotate. Each station (unit) of the transfer machine functions like a CNC lathe or CNC mill. Units can do work such as turning, threading, milling etc. Each station machines one operation and then transfers the part to the next station for the next operation.

Advantages of Hydromats over other Turning Machines

Hydromats have individual feeds and speeds in each station, so they aren’t held captive to the slowest operation, such as on an Acme-Gridley or other traditional multi-spindle screw machine.

They usually come equipped with an inverting unit, which removes a part from a collet, rotates it and places it back in the collet so it can be machined from the other side. This feature makes Hydromats ideal for machining double sided fittings.

Unlike a lot of other rotary transfer machines, which are set up with the stations vertically arranged in the trunnion style that resembles a Ferris wheel, most Hydromats are set up horizontally, more like a carousel. This enables modular units that can be easily swapped, making easy, quick changeovers.

Also, Hydromats are designed with a hirth ring coupling, which enables them to maintain tight tolerances part after part.

Revolution Machine Works

Kris’s company, Revolution Machine Works, services and sells refurbished and rebuilt turnkey Hydromats, and also supplies Hydromat spare parts. They often do entire overhauls on the machines, stripping them down to the casting. They rebuild units, and equip the machines with new Fanuc controls. While the Hydromats that Revolution provides are the non-CNC hydraulic generation, the company sometimes equips the machines with individual CNC units made by the Italian rotary transfer machine company DM2. Revolution Machine Works also distributes new DM2 machines in the U.S.

Hydromats are Tough Business

Since I went into the used machinery business over a decade ago, I’ve spent a lot of time learning about Hydromat rotary transfer machines. I’ve traveled to Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Norway to find them because you can make a nice buck if you find the right customer. Still, it’s always seemed like we had to have 10 interested customers to sell one Hydromat. It can get frustrating watching the machines sit in the Graff-Pinkert warehouse for years.

Why do customers hesitate to buy these machines that can crank out great parts by the millions. Perhaps its because they often cost a few hundred thousand dollars, and then a bunch more money to set up. Kris could relate to my experience. A rebuilt, turnkey Hydromat, has double or triple the price tag of one that Graff-Pinkert would sell, and the customers expect considerable service.

In the interview, Kris pointed out a lot of the other challenges Hydromat customers face. The machines take up a lot of floor space—perhaps large enough to fit three CNC machines. They require at least one expert to keep them running correctly, and it can take six months to a year to train a Hydromat operator.

Kris says he and colleagues often joke that they picked the hardest way to make money.

We both agreed that it’s much easier to sell a Hydromat to someone who already has them. They have units on the shelf, expertise, comfort, and enough work for the machines.

Yet Kris says his work is most rewarding when he is able to get a new client into the Hydromat business. A Hydromat can be a game changer for a company in the high volume parts business, yet a purchase comes with significant risk. Years ago, he ran Hydromats in his family’s machining company D & S Machine Pts. He says he can still remember how it felt when the company paid over a million dollars to buy its first new Hydromat, its biggest capital investment at the time. I can tell that being able to put himself in the shoes of his customers is helpful for Kris to sell machines, but more importantly, it’s clear that it gives him a sense of purpose.

Question: Do you prefer to buy, used, rebuilt, or brand new machine tools?

The post Where Rotary Transfers Fit, with Kris Fugate—EP. 144 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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In 1988, if you had the idea to start a CNC machine tool company in Los Angeles, people probably would have said you were nuts.

I recently heard an interview with Steve Forbes, owner of Forbes Media LLC, in which he talked about what it takes to become a billionaire. He said if you have a great idea you don’t need to patent it, someone may steal the idea anyway. The person who makes the fortune is the one who takes an overlooked idea and runs with it like a fanatic.

He gave the example of when Steve Jobs visited the famed Xerox research lab in Menlo Park, California. Jobs saw a prototype of a hand-guided computer that Xerox had no use for. He Incorporated the idea into his new computer and called it a mouse. It put Apple on the map.

I thought of Gene Haas, now 71 years old, still leading Haas Automation, America’s largest Machine Tool builder. He has produced over 200,000 machine tools in the company he started 44 years ago in Los Angeles, which he later moved into a 1,100,000-square-foot plant, 60 miles north in Oxnard, California. Haas sales are well over $1 billion per year.

What did Gene Haas know that other American Machine Tool Builders like Warner & Swasey, Hardinge, Bridgeport, National Acme, and others had forgotten?

He knew what it was like to start a tiny job shop in LA. He knew that every dollar was precious and his competitors were smart. He knew what it was like to fight to hire employees and keep them. He understood that American manufacturing was on a decline and the survivors would look for value in machine tools that would be simple to run. The people who were making such machines were Japanese Builders like Mazak, Mori-Seiki and Okuma, and he copied their production methods.

He focused on price, service, and accountability.

Why did America’s old builders fold one by one? The classic story is about Burgmeister, which made drill and tap machines. In their final days, they sent out new machines with two-page lists of parts likely to fail soon after the machine was received.

Gene Haas didn’t see a shrinking machine tool business in the United States. He saw a massive opportunity to take the older builders’ place and eventually export his machines to countries like China that still appreciated American quality. Today, half of Haas’s revenue comes from its export business.

Gene Haas has shown that manufacturing in America is far from dead. But it has not been all triumph. Haas’s arch-competitor, Hurco, in Indianapolis, sued Haas and virtually every other CNC machine tool builder in the world for patent infringement in the late ‘90s. After a fierce battle, Hurco won multi-million dollar judgments against everybody except Haas, which refused to settle.

After several years in the courts, Hurco finally won its battle and Haas paid a significant penalty.

Today, Haas Automation continues to thrive.

Gene is a venerated figure in American manufacturing because he has shown that grit and listening to your customers can win them over. He has brought that passion to the racecar industry where his teams are heavily involved.

What I find most remarkable in Gene Haas’s career is his almost manic determination to keep the price down for his machining centers. His basic VF-1 CNC mill costs under $50,000, less than the price of the first machine he showed in the 1988 International Machine Tool Show.

Starbucks would never do something like that.

Nor could Davenport, today selling a new cam screw machine for $200,000. A similar one cost $25,000 in 1988.

Question: What’s the best thing about Haas Machines?

The post The Billion Dollar Machine Tool first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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My guest on today’s show immigrated to the United States from Mexico at 18 years old, went to tech school, worked his way up in job shops, became one of the top technicians at Tornos, and then founded his own successful job shop.

Dulio Arellano is the founder of Premier Swiss, a Tornos Swiss screw machine shop in Addison, Illinois.

He is one of the most knowledgeable people I know about Tornos Swiss machines throughout the world, and whenever we talk he always has fascinating insight about entrepreneurship in the machining business. He’s really good at all the stuff I’m always working on like negotiation, networking, and finding deals on used equipment. He’s also a heck of serendipity creator.

I actually had him on the show four years ago, but we’re both significantly better at our crafts now, and his business has grown a lot since the time of the last interview.

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Interview HighlightsDulio Arellano, was born in Mexico and immigrated to the United States at age 18 to join his father who had been working there since the 1970s. After working at various jobs when he first arrived, Dulio’s brother persuaded him to take a class on CNC machining at a community college. When he saw the machine make a part, Dulio knew he had found his passion.

Despite initial challenges in finding employment due to his lack of experience, Dulio persevered and gained worked at several shops and progressed from being an operator to a setup person, continually learning and setting new goals for himself. Then he met the president of Swiss machine manufacturer Tornos at IMTS. This connection led to a job offer at Tornos, where Dulio became the company’s ace technician for Deco Swiss-type lathes and MultiSwiss CNC multi-spindle machines.

In 2018 Dulio seized an opportunity to purchase a used Deco 10 lathe from one of his clients and started his own contract machining business Premier Swiss. Today the company has nine employees, a variety of Tornos Swiss machines and produces components for industries such as hydraulics, automotive, defense, aerospace, medical, and electronics.

Excerpt from Part I of the Interview:Noah Graff: Do you feel a lot of operators are close minded about various brands and models of machines because they’re different from the ones they’ve been trained on? From my point of view as a machinery dealer it seems like driving a Honda vs. a Ford.

Dulio Arellano: That’s exactly right. There are still people who say that maybe Ford is better than Chevy. These cars will take you places, just like the machines. The machine doesn’t make the operator. The operator makes the machine make amazing things. They all have issues, limitations, and one thing that you’re not going to like about them.

Noah Graff: And most of them have something special about them, particularly Tornos.

Dulio Arellano: Yeah, they all have something that is going to make things better. It’s just a matter of what you think is better and what’s going to work for what you’re trying to do.

Noah Graff: Why do you prefer Tornos to other Swiss machines?

Dulio Arellano: For a lot of reasons, not only because I believe that they’re better machines. I think they’re great machines, and they offer a lot of good benefits. They’re made thinking of the operator, the final person who’s going to spend the most time in front of the machine.

In the Deco line, all your tools get preset outside the machine, making it easy right there because you are not getting your hands into the machine as much. You preset your tools, put them in, and there is no touch.

Noah Graff: And there’s so much room inside the machine.

Dulio Arellano: That, and the layout of the machine. For example, you’ve probably seen MultiSwiss (Tornos’s latest CNC multi-spindle). Do you see how the door opens? I mean, you can literally walk in the machine.
The Swiss Nano is another example. How much more accessibility do you want for a machine that small? The complete cabin opens.

Tune for Part II in two weeks for Dulio’s philosophy about hiring inexperienced workers and why he likes to work on the shop floor.

The post 18-Year-Old Immigrant Becomes Machine Shop Founder, Dulio Arellano (Part I)—EP 218 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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My wife, Risa, is an educational therapist who teaches kids with learning problems in our house.

She probably has close to a thousand books in her library. One of her favorites is a short masterpiece by Laura Numeroff, If You Give a Dog a Donut.

It has never been more apt than now as we see college campuses filled with tents with kids and agitators from off-campus proclaiming their anti-Semitism and carrying signs proclaiming Israel’s apartheid. The response by administrators and faculty has been almost universally appeasement.

“If you give a dog a donut he’ll ask for apple juice to go with it. Then he’ll ask for more, there won’t be any left so he’ll want to make his own. He’ll go outside and pick apples. When he’s up the tree he’ll throw an apple and it will make him think of baseball.”

And it goes on and on until finally the dog gets tired and asks for more juice.

“And he’ll want a donut to go with it.”

It’s a beautiful book with superb illustrations by Felicia Bond.

The war in Gaza started with Hamas invading Israel and killing 1,200 people. They raped and cut off heads on October 7, of last year. They took at least 300 hostages.

Israel retaliated and now has destroyed much of Hamas, but the plan to turn the world against Israel, decades in the planning, has been a sickening success.

Universities in the United States have been infected with faculty who have bought the “Israel is apartheid” line, and students for the most part don’t have any feel for the Middle East. Sympathy for Gaza is easy. It’s where the parties are.

The Hamas supporters have used the moment to follow their well-thought-out plan to take the campuses that were unprepared. The logical way out for college presidents would be to oppose the Hamas believers and get the tents off campuses so graduation can go on.

Next year will be worse. The dog will want his donut again. And it looks like he will get it.

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This week on Swarfcast, we’re sharing an interview we originally did back in 2020 with Paul Van Metre, Co-Founder of ProShop ERP.

During our discussion, Paul shares a lot of valuable and timeless information that can help your shop run more efficiently. Since we did the interview, he has also started his own podcast, called Machine Shop Mastery: https://machineshopmastery.com/about/. We invite you to give it a listen!

On today’s show we’re talking about how to set up machine tools efficiently.

Our guest is Paul Van Metre, co-founder of ProShop ERP. ProShop produces a comprehensive web-based and totally paperless shop management system for small to medium manufacturing companies. Paul says that using a few best practices, guided by ProShop’s management system, can reduce a machine setup time up to 50%.

Scroll down to listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts or your favorite app.

Main Points

Paul shares his background. He grew up in New York and studied mechanical engineering in college. He says he found it dry, so he began looking for something more hands on. He found a program in Washington State that was heavily involved in the Formula SAE competition, which he fell in love with. He and his teammates decided to start a machine shop together right out of college. (3:10)

Paul says that for their machine shop’s first three years (in late 1990s) the company used Excel to make its job routers and travelers. As it added more machines, it put a computer next to each one. (5:15)

Paul explains that the idea for his company’s proprietary shop management system came out of desperation and need. As the company grew, introducing more machines and employees, Excel was not keeping up. His team researched shop management software in the old school Thomas Register books. (6:25)

Paul says that none of ERP software firms his company looked at offered products designed specifically for managing the shop floor. The products also required paper printouts, which Paul and his team felt was a step backward from what they were already doing using Excel. Ultimately, they decided to hire a software designer to design a custom ERP system for the company. Paul says it took a little less than a year to develop workable software to handle the company’s needs. (7:35)

Paul says it took about eight years before the company’s ERP software received outside attention. During the economic slowdown in 2008, a production manager from his company’s biggest customer came to the shop to work one day a week. When he tried using the ProShop ERP he liked it so much that he told his own company about it. (10:50)

The customer convinced Paul’s company to let it use ProShop ERP. Paul says that within six months of using the system his customer’s productivity was boosted so much it was able to free up three full time employees, and it drastically decreased its lead-times on various jobs. Then the customer asked if Paul’s company would allow some of its vendors to use ProShop ERP. Paul and his team then realized the opportunity to start a new business selling their ERP, which they founded in 2016. (12:30)

Paul says he misses the joy of the production process of running a machine shop, but he says providing ProShop to help other companies succeed is what he enjoys the most. (15:45)

Paul says that by using a few best practices a shop can save up to 50% of machine setup time. (17:45)

Paul says proper setup process starts when a machine has already been torn down from its previous setup. The teardown should be part of the machine’s previous job’s processes. (18:46)

Paul says the first thing to think about when starting a machine setup is to have all of the materials ready for the job at the machine—tooling, instructions, and rich media such as videos and photos to guide the setup person. This is because if a setup person has to leave the machine to get something that she forgot she can run into a multitude of distractions in the shop which significantly delay getting back to work on a machine.

Paul says one of the worst obstacles in slowing down setup time is when the shop doesn’t even have a necessary tools or materials on site. Then the setup process loses days while the company waits for materials to be shipped in. (23:00)

Paul says it’s very important for a setup person to have detailed work instructions for a job ready (SEE VIDEO BELOW). He says that ProShop ERP’s paperless system makes it easy for people to have all the important info about a job at the machine at all times (again, so they don’t have to get up and leave the machine). Having paperless instructions also makes it smooth to set up jobs that were already run on that machine in the past because the setup person doesn’t have to find an old printout. The instructions from the old job are ready on a computer next to the machine and may have important updates from the last time the job was run. Having organized instructions at a machine that are easily accessible enables a different person to set up a machine than the previous one. Paul says that ProShop ERP has plans to have software integrated right on machine tools in the future.(24:45)

Paul says ProShop ERP also helps with cutting time on the inspection step of a setup. It sets up processes for a setup person to do her own inspection on a part so the part looks good before it is sent to the Quality department. When the part goes to the Quality department there are notes for the quality technicians to pay attention to. (29:45)

Paul says another important part of every setup is continuous improvement on a part. One of the key features of ProShop ERP is that it allows machinists to document process improving ideas, flag their planning department, create action items, and assign tasks to save even more time. It’s all in one place so that communication is simplified and efficient. (31:40)

Paul says one of the most interesting things he learned last week was that 6% of the forests on the West Coast have burned this year within the last few weeks, which is nearly 20 times more acreage than last year. (34:05)

Paul says a key takeaway is that setup is very logical and doesn’t require specialized software if you have key systems in place. He believes that a little upfront work will have huge ROI on your time on the back end of the process. (35:15)

Question: What aspect of work do you wish you were more organized for?

For more information on ProShop ERP, visit: https://www.proshoperp.com/.

The post How to Cut Machine Setup Time in Half, with Paul Van Metre – EP 97 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Can you predict how your mood will be tomorrow?

How about your business next week?

Life is constantly surprising us, yet we are forced to make judgments based on flawed data and bouncing emotions.

I sold the building that my father built for our used machine tool firm in the mid-1980s. The decision was based on sluggish business and having had heart bypass surgery 10 years earlier. I took a five-year lease on half of the building figuring that if I was still alive in 2024, I would be in no mood to continue to fight used machinery battles.

Now I have to get out of the building that has been my home for over 40 years and choose whether to stay in the game, and if so, where to move the iron and our offices.

It has been keeping me up at night for more than a year. Change is tough, especially when it affects the lives of people you have worked with for decades and how you will live the days you have left.

The moment of decision creeps up on you month by month, day by day. It only seems to get harder as your body fails to conform with your desires but your mind still wants to stay active and continue the challenges of the past 50 years.

The ups and downs of the business have been unpredictable over the last five years. In early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Business conditions were brutal. The only people who were busy were making ventilator parts.

Then in 2022, it bounced back unexpectedly and in 2023 it slumped. Inflation accelerated, and the Federal Reserve tried to save the economy by raising interest rates. The professional prediction folks were baffled. They live by numbers and have little grasp of the lives of factory workers and small business owners.

Here we are in the spring of 2024. I have a new lease to sign and workers to pay.

The stock market just hit an all-time high, an election is six months away between two old unpopular candidates. The climate predictors are continually wrong, and the economy seems to be improving without pushing up inflation. Despite all of the data we have, the ability to predict the future seems worse than ever. That is the beauty of it all.

For my business, the signs have shifted to optimism and action from the lethargy of the past year. I have no idea why, with wars in Europe and the Middle East and elections coming soon.

But I also have learned that when business sprouts for no apparent reason, it is time to listen closely. It does not happen frequently.

A few things are quite likely.

In a month, the business will be moving locations.

The Cubs will not win the Pennant this year.

Question: What have been your most difficult moving experiences–physically or emotionally?

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Do you ever wonder how I make a living buying and selling old iron?

Sometimes Graff-Pinkert’s used machinery business boggles our own minds too. But we have some tricks of the trade that make it possible for me to pay my mortgage, and on today’s podcast I’m going to share a few of them with you.

We’re running an episode from the Job Shop Show podcast, where I was interviewed last year.

Host, Jay Jacobs, and I talked about a lot of fun topics, such as what to watch for when you’re buying used machinery, negotiation tactics, and of course, how to create serendipity.

If you like this interview I recommend you check out the interview I did with Jay in episodes 196 and 197, as well as other episodes on the Job Shop Show.

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Interview HighlightsJay Jacobs: When I used to consider buying used equipment, I must admit I had a lot of fear. Fear of overpaying, fear of buying a lemon, or fear that the machine doesn’t work correctly and I have no one around to help me. As opposed to buying a new machine that’s under warranty.

Noah Graff: First of all, we much prefer selling a used machine to somebody who already has that model or has something very similar. Because unless it’s a Wickman or Davenport, or maybe an ACME multi-spindle, Graff-Pinkert probably is not going to be able to support the machine. If there is something fundamentally wrong with a machine we sell, we will do what’s necessary to make the situation right, even if that means taking a machine back.

As for used machines not working properly, my advice to people is always go and inspect. Spend the $2,000 to go see the machine or hire somebody to inspect the machine for you.

If it’s an older machine, I suggest that you already own that type of machine or that you have someone really experienced to maintain it and operate it.

Also, it’s important to research which machines are going to have the best support from the OEM and which machines have spare parts most readily available. Some models and brands are going to be a lot better than others. Ask around before you spend a bunch of money on a used machine.

Jay: How do you know if you’ve overpaid for a machine? You buy something and the next day you see the same thing and it’s 75% of the price you paid and you feel like a schmuck.

Noah: Well, that’s partly just dealing with yourself. After you buy the machine, you just have to ask yourself, “How much money am I going to make with this machine over the next decade?”

I beat myself up all the time after I finish deals, wondering if I could have paid a few thousand dollars less or made a few thousand dollars more. But that’s counterproductive. That’s just ego.

What you should be thinking about is if this is a good deal that will make you money longterm. Jay: How do I know that I got the right price? That I’m getting a fair price.

Noah: You and I have both read the negotiation book, Never Split the Difference. So I know we both hate the word “fair.” Everyone has a different opinion of what “fair” means.

But, as far as getting a “good price.” Do some research. Call a bunch of dealers and get quotes on similar machines and then compare them.

Also, always ask around about the people you’re buying the machines from if you’re not familiar with them.

We’ve been cheated out of a lot of money on past deals, and it likely would have been prevented if we had just asked some other dealers about the seller, or even just googled the seller.

There was a deal in Japan a few years back in which we thought we were being clever by not telling other people about our great source of cheap machines. Then we lost a few hundred thousand dollars on machines that never came. When we finally asked some other dealers about the seller, a Taiwanese dealer called JS Precision, we found out that they were notorious and the owner had gone to jail.

Do research. It’s one of the most important parts of buying machinery, whether it’s new or used.

People often ask me, which brand of machine they should buy? And I say that most of them are pretty good. Some things are personal preference. This brand has one feature. This brand has another feature.

But I usually advise people to find out which machines the most shops around them have. That’s important if you later need help or resources. Also, ask other shops which brands have the best service in your area. If you check those things, you’re probably going to be OK with your purchase, at least for a while.

Questions: What’s one of the greatest deals you’ve ever made?

What’s one of the worst deals you’ve made?

The post How to Buy and Sell Machines Like a Used Machinery Dealer–EP 217 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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It’s been a miserable month for electric cars. Tesla fired everybody in its charger department, Ford told us that it is losing $100,000 on every electric vehicle it sells, and Donald Trump announced he will stop the construction of new wind generators off the East Coast because he wants to save the whales.

If you bought Tesla stock at $600 a share it appears you have a long wait to get even. Hybrids are selling like hotcakes, but Elon’s Cybertruck can’t catch cold. Ford’s F-150 electric is nice for Los Angeles and San Diego but not Duluth.

President Biden told us electric cars would dominate the market by 2030, but I don’t think he has ordered a rechargeable limo yet.

What happened to the EV world?

Tesla captured the recharge market thanks to its novelty, Elon Musk’s flamboyance, and huge government gifts for each car, paid for by the gas and diesel makers. Tesla invested tremendous capital on chargers strictly for its own cars but still could not completely build out a network that would eliminate the fear of running out of juice before reaching a charger that hasn’t yet broken down.

The enormous run-up of Tesla stock gave Musk capital to use for expansion, and Europe and China became huge EV markets to dominate.

The Ukraine war, Russia losing some pipelines, and eager European customers pushed up world fossil fuel prices.

China has granted enormous advantages to its own EV industry, which is now competing with Tesla at the low end of the market and headed for America if Trump-like tariffs do not cripple it before it gets going.

On the truck side, Rivian built a lovely-looking vehicle in the old Mitsubishi plant in Southern Illinois with guaranteed orders from Amazon, but it’s now losing $43,000 per truck. The latest rumor is that Apple will invest heavily in Rivian after blowing $10 billion trying to build its own viable car. The thought is that Rivian’s truck would use Apple’s AI technology to develop a robotic vehicle.

Google probably leads the way in robotic taxis with its huge investment in Waymo, but they are moving slowly, primarily using Volvos and Jaguars as their software carriers.

Elon Musk boldly announced that Tesla would soon dominate driverless vehicles. It is potentially an enormous market. But GM and Google now have a good understanding of how long it takes to make money in that domain. Musk has lawsuits stemming from the nutty people who tried going 120 mph without hands on the wheel.

We are all finding out in 2024 how difficult it is to make money with electric cars and robotic technology. The investment it requires is huge, and the market has limits.

Human-driven hybrids, which Toyota envisioned as a smart approach before 2035, are winning on the market.

Elon Musk has had better luck with spaceships and satellites lately. Charging has its cost.

Question: Do you like or dislike your EV and why?

The post Are EVs a Losing Game? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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My youngest granddaughter is flying to Israel as I write this blog. Am I worried? Of course, but she has been hoping for months she could go with eight friends from her eighth-grade class in California.

Our family is part of the golden age of modern Jewry. These days, my wife Risa and I wake up at night wondering if it is ending.

Today is also Holocaust Remembrance Day. If you have not walked through a concentration camp and read the stories, you do not feel the chill you get when you see the photos of the emaciated survivors in striped suits who were among the few alive to be liberated.

Today we witness spoiled college students, some of them naive Jewish kids, who think they are so cool to be anti-Israel while vaping in a tent on campus protesting.

This is a sickening sight for me. It is a clear signal of the waning of the incredible American Jewish success story of the last 70 years. It is also the strongest argument for Israel to do its utmost, for as long as it can, to wipe out Hamas, which wants to destroy the state and kill as many Jews in its power.

Do I agree with everything Benjamin Netanyahu is doing? Of course not. He’s a politician desperately clinging to power. But he also is a patriot and a warrior whose brother, Yonathan, died attempting to free Jewish hostages in Uganda when he was a teen.

Israel is being squeezed now by demonstrations from people supporting the families of the hostages who are pleading for a deal.

The American president, still Israel’s primary ally, is prodding Netanyahu to work out a deal to calm the noise on American campuses and position himself in the Presidential campaign.

Hamas appears almost ready for some kind of deal to save itself from further destruction. Its leader, Yahya Sinwar, thinks he has won the war by surviving this long and turning so much of the world’s public opinion to view him as a martyr instead of a butcher.

I sit here in Chicago, trying to do business, watching the Cubs on TV, and reading every scrap I can about the Middle East. The birth and survival of Israel has been one of the greatest joys of my life.

One of the saddest experiences of my life is seeing the signs saying “from the River to the Sea” being carried around college campuses on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

May my beautiful granddaughter, Orli, have a safe and joyful trip to the Jewish homeland.

Question: How do you feel about me writing about so many Jewish Topics?

The post Is the American Jewish Success Story Ending? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Pasta machines operate a lot like cam screw machines, Antonio Adiletta told me when I interviewed him for this week’s podcast.

Antonio is co-owner of Arcobaleno and GAM Precision in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After growing up in Italy, Antonio moved to Canada and then eventually emigrated to the United States with his wife and business partner, Maja. He has manufactured, sold, and serviced fresh pasta making machines for 26 years, and for the last decade, he has simultaneously run a CNC machine shop.

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Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!

Interview HighlightsWhen Antonio started his career in manufacturing at a young age in Como, Italy, he apprenticed at a company that produced fresh pasta machines. For folks unfamiliar with fresh pasta, not all pasta comes as dry noodles in a box. Fresh pasta is soft and looks like dough. When restaurants boast that they serve “homemade pasta” they’re talking about fresh pasta. Often fresh pasta noodles are formed with an extrusion process, which is great for producing tubular shapes, like rigatoni, spaghetti, or penne. The other main method for producing fresh pasta noodles is the lamination process (rolled process), which is used for flat noodles like pappardelle and fettuccini. When I asked Antonio to tell me his favorite pasta noodle, he explained that choosing the right pasta depends on the marriage between the specific pasta noodle and the sauce. For tomato sauce, he likes spaghetti because of its thin diameter. For meat sauce, he says gnocchi or short rigatoni (mezze maniche) are ideal counterparts.

As an apprentice in Italy, Antonio set up and serviced industrial pasta machines weighing as much as 5,000 pounds. Often he worked on machines that made tortellini and ravioli because those machines required more fine tuning than those making simpler noodles. Decades later, when Antonio bought his machining company, GAM Precision, he realized that Brown & Sharpe screw machines operate using the same principles as tortellini machines. Like operating a Brown & Sharpe, in which a cam indexes the turret, in a tortellini machine a cam indexes the stuffing or moves the filling injector.

Antonio and Maja Adiletta, owners of Arcobaleno
and GAM PrecisionAntonio eventually moved to Canada where the Italian pasta machine company that employed him had opened a distribution office. He worked there several years setting up and servicing machines. In 1995, he started his own company, which built industrial fresh pasta machines in-house. In 2002, Antonio and his wife moved their business to the United States. At first they continued to build their own line of machines. However, after a while, they decided that business model was too labor intensive, so they went back to distributing machines from a supplier in Italy.

In 2012, Antonio and Maja purchased GAM Precision to diversify their business. It seemed like a good fit because they already owned some CNC equipment and had experience in manufacturing. Within a decade, they have modernized GAM from a cam screw machine shop to a highly automated CNC job shop, featuring some of the most powerful Citizen Swiss CNCs on the market.

Pasta Extruder + Mixer from ArcobalenoAntonio says in the United States Arcobaleno has no competitors who can match its service in the industrial pasta machine space. However, the pasta machine business is challenging because unlike precision parts customers, who consistently demand more product, pasta machine customers often don’t need to buy new machines for many years because they are so durable. This means the company has to constantly look for new customers.

At the end of the interview, Antonio walked around his showroom to explain various industrial pasta machines in his product line. He also showed me some colorful consumer models sitting under a Christmas tree. He told me about the challenges of making gluten free pasta—“because the gluten is really like a glue, that holds it together.” We compared the lighter gnocchi made in southern Italy to that of northern Italy composed of a much higher ratio of potato to flour. He preached the importance of salting the water abundantly before cooking pasta—enough to make it taste like sea water.

Antonio knows that it’s the little details that produce perfection.

Question: What’s your favorite pasta dish?

The post Pasta Machines and Precision Parts, with Antonio Adiletta — EP 140 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Working in the machining industry I hear the term “lean manufacturing” mentioned a lot. But what does the word “lean” really mean in this context? And how do you implement it your company?

To help me clarify these questions, I interviewed Matthew Rassi, founder of Twenty Helping Hands. He’s a lean manufacturing consultant who has been working in the manufacturing industry for over two decades.

Matthew says that the first step for a company to adopt lean manufacturing is to bring all of its people together to exchange ideas, from the CEO to the person sweeping floors.

In his experience, the people on the shop floor often have valuable insight for solving problems that upper management hasn’t even considered. The collaboration process also motivates employees because they feel heard.

Matthew and I talked about supply chains and limiting waste, but the most important concept I learned in our conversation was the lean principle of running directly at problems instead of dodging them. How on earth do you that? It helps to have someone like Matthew to guide you on that path.

The post Getting Comfortable with Lean Manufacturing, Matthew Rassi-EP 216 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I laid in bed moping about how crummy business has been in April. Then I saw my beautiful wife of almost 54 years snoring slightly next to me and thought, “You fool. You are incredibly blessed. Start thinking about all of your gifts.” And so I did, and I had my topic for the day.

I was born in America at the end of World War II. My dad operated a machine shop with rows of Davenports and Acme machines. He was not marching in Europe or slogging through the Philippines. If my grandparents and great-grandparents had not taken steerage to Ellis Island, my parents might have been gassed in a concentration camp or starved in Russia.

I grew up in the Golden Age of American Jews, which hopefully is not coming to an end on college campuses today, with confused students and weak administrators.

I had another War to deal with, Vietnam, but instead of dying in the jungle like 60,000 of my peers, I went to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I did basic training and then went back to Chicago to deal with riots that never occurred after Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were murdered in1968.

I lived in prosperous times, married the woman I doubted I ever would meet, and had three bright and loving children who choose to stay close to us as we age.

I had the opportunity to work with my father and brother. I found the business challenging and managed to get along with them most of the time. I was healthy until 2003. Then I lost vision in my right eye with a series of retina tears and scarring.

In 2008, I had a severe heart attack that should have killed me. I had a completely blocked LAD artery that kills 99% of the people who have it, but 20 years of running gave me enough peripheral circulation that I survived long enough to have a stent installed. Three days later I was strong enough to survive quadruple bypass surgery and mitral valve repair. I walked out of the hospital after 13 days, 12 of them on a respirator.

And here I am, still buying and selling machine tools and businesses. I’m in the 24th year of writing a column for the magazine I always dreamed of owning, working with my son, Noah, and married to the woman I met when she was a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Michigan.

In 2016, my beloved Chicago Cubs won the World Series in seven games, and I still watch them whenever I have a spare moment. I have five grandchildren who actually seem to like me and a family that loves getting together for at least two vacations a year.

Business stinks in April of 2024, but somehow I’m alive. I live in a country I love, and I have the ability to work with words to write a blog that at least a few people continue to read.

I am truly grateful.

The post Grateful Every Day first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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In honor of this weekend’s PMPA National Technical Conference, we’re resharing a podcast we did last year with Elliott May, engineer at BME in Port Huron, Michigan. BME builds original custom attachments for cam multi-spindles. They also rebuild Acme-Gridley screw machines.

Elliott and I talked about a lot of fascinating things in this interview. How to keep old mechanical beasts relevant, getting young people into machining, and what it’s like to work closely everyday with your dad—who’s also the boss.

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast on our YouTube Channel.

Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!

Main PointsCustom Attachments

Elliott says that customers come to BME when they want to make a part on a cam screw machine but can’t figure out how to make it happen. The company offers an extensive line of proprietary attachments such air operated pickoff assemblies, rotary recess attachments, and synchronized slotting/milling attachments.

Elliott’s father, Brett, started BME 15 years ago. Nine years ago, Elliott started working at the company at age 14. His first job was cutting steel bars with a bandsaw. Later he worked in shipping and receiving, and then graduated to assembling attachments for multi-spindles. After studying engineering for a few years he began working in tandem with his father engineering attachments. Generally they are tasked with tweaking attachments already in their product line to suit the jobs of specific customers. A few times a year, they are called upon to engineer more novel devices, when a customer’s job calls for something special that they haven’t invented yet.

Elliott says his father, Brett, is the “idea guy.” Brett analyzes what he wants to accomplish, then Elliott puts the idea down on paper (often CAD). They both are constantly putting their heads together to solve problems. It’s not uncommon for the two to stand at several whiteboards for long periods of time, brainstorming various drawings, trying to work out a solution. Elliott says they have a good chemistry at work, and over the years his role has changed as his knowledge and skills have grown. He admits that when he was younger and less experienced he may have been too overconfident in his ideas and he had to be put in his place. But nowadays, it sounds like he is genuinely challenging his dad in the engineering room.

Acme Rebuilding

As a used machinery dealer myself, selling old cam multi-spindles, I grilled Elliott on a lot of the same questions we grapple with at Graff-Pinkert, our family business. I asked him if rebuilding old multi-spindles from the ground up, particularly Acmes, was a good business to be in. Graff-Pinkert still refurbishes some cam multi-spindles such as Wickmans and Davenports, but the work we do is much less comprehensive than that of BME. Also, we stay away from doing a lot of work on Acmes. The parts for Acmes can be very expensive, and the Acme rebuilding process is extremely labor intensive.

For a rebuilt Acme, BME charges several hundred thousand dollars. The price depends a lot on what kind of turnkey the customer requires, if any. Elliott says the rebuilding and attachment businesses compliment each other. Often the rebuilt machines come equipped with BME’s proprietary attachments. He says he believes the cam multi-spindle business has a significant future because the machines are often still the best option for high volume jobs, assuming companies have the personnel to run them.

Elliott May, Engineer at BMEYoung People in Machining

I asked Elliott why it’s a struggle to get young people to go into manufacturing and an even greater struggle to get them to run old multi-spindles. He says manufacturing has to shake off its bad reputation from the past, as having a top-down style of management that doesn’t care about the needs of employees. He suggests that if manufacturing employees could count on a clean, pleasant work environment, and felt supported and heard by management, more people would want to go into the field.

Working with His Dad

I was very curious to get Elliott’s perspective about working closely with his father, as I also work with my father. I asked him if he felt like he was in a strange position as someone who is not the boss, but also not a normal employee either. It’s a position that I’ve often analyzed for over a decade.

Despite being only 23, Elliott says he has the advantage of having the longest tenure at BME of all its employees. He also says because of his experience and confidence in his ability, he earns the respect of his coworkers. I remarked to him during the interview that he often referred to his dad in the third person as “Brett,” rather than “my dad.” He says it’s a useful way to draw less attention to himself as the boss’s son, even if everybody knows he is. I personally have seldom used this strategy because referring to my dad as “Lloyd” just feels strange. But I admit that I sometimes refer to him as “the boss,” or some other euphemism, when I’m talking about him at work.

It was Brett’s idea for me to ask Elliott to be on the podcast. I could genuinely feel his enthusiasm about the idea when he suggested it to me over the phone. I joked to him that it seemed like he was really “kvelling” about his son excelling in the business. He easily inferred the meaning of my Yiddish.

After interviewing both Brett and Elliott, it’s clear to me that both men share a passion for the nuts and bolts, and working together.

Question: What’s something important you learned from your father?

The post Innovating New Attachments for Screw Machines, with Elliott May—EP 143 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I’m dealing with a customer right now who seems interested in some CNC machines Graff-Pinkert has for sale. They told me they needed this type of machine ASAP! And these machines are RARE!

They even said they had a big job for the machines already and they are on the “verge of pulling the trigger any day now.”

But then they stopped returning my phone calls. They’re ghosting me, and my crock brain is getting the best of me.

I know these kinds of scenarios have happened to most of you listening to this, either in your professional life or your personal life.

And no matter how successful you are, you have to be very strong mentally to deal with this problem in the right way.

As machinery dealers buying and selling equipment all over the world, this happens to us at Graff-Pinkert, constantly.

Today, I’m going to tell you how I deal with customers like the one I just mentioned, people who stop returning my calls or seem to be just stringing me along. So the next time it happens to you, you won’t go crazy and hopefully you’ll make the deal in the end.

Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.

View the podcast on our YouTube Channel.

Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!

Interview HighlightsAs I just mentioned, right now I’m working on a deal for some expensive CNC machines. It’s a significant deal. Not the biggest one Graff-Pinkert has ever had, but it’s up there.

It seemed like they really wanted the machines. We worked with this customer for different deal a little while back, so I think they like us and trust us.

I went back and forth with the customer for a month. Closing the deal seemed to be getting nearer. But for the last few weeks, they’ve stopped being available when I call or text. They are GHOSTING me.

I’m frustrated. I’ve put a lot of time and energy and thought into this deal. I like to think that I’m a great person who someone would want to talk to. Yet they don’t even have the decency to communicate with me, to tell me yes, no, or maybe.

Enough venting.

It’s time to snap myself out of this crap and explain how I deal with situations like this.

Let’s break this down to a typical ghosting scenarioYou had a nice back and forth communication going for a little while, and things seemed to be progressing in a good way. Then all of a sudden, your customer isn’t available when you call and doesn’t call you back. They also stop returning your texts and emails. Let’s be real here, if this has been going on more than a week, it’s not a great sign. But it still doesn’t mean the deal is dead. If a customer showed significant interest once upon a time, the game is not necessarily over.

Don’t take their silence personally.The first thing to remember when you’re being ghosted is don’t take it personally.

Taking things personally when people don’t get back to me has historically been a weakness of mine. I’ve been ghosted by people I’ve known for years who I felt I had a great relationship with. I’ve been ghosted repeatedly by my old best friend, and it used to hurt me and piss me off, but I still appreciate him as a friend, so I stopped taking it personally.

If I can deal with my friend of 36 years seemingly falling off the face of the earth, I should be able to deal with less important people I haven’t known that long who aren’t calling me back.

Recognize your fear of the unknown.Maybe the worst part of getting ghosted is dealing with the unknown. Humans are naturally tortured by fear of loss. It often feels worse than actually losing. Fear of loss, AKA death, protected us in the wild for billions of years.

We plead with the heavens. Why can’t they just say no if they don’t want to work with me? If they just say no, the fear of loss will be gone, the torture will be gone. I will at least know where I stand, and I can move forward with my business and my life.

This is true. Getting told “no” can be a beautiful thing, and I’m going to talk about that in a bit.

Why you might be getting ghostedIn order to stay sane and prevent yourself from doing something stupid when you get ghosted you need to understand why the person might be ghosting you.

The number one reason in my opinion why people aren’t getting back to you about your big important deal—they just don’t care as much about it at this moment as you do.

It’s possible the opportunity you’re providing is fantastic and the other person could be interested. But it’s just not at the top of their mind right now.

Maybe they’re distracted by personal stuff like a family member who got sick or they’re sick. Or, they’re on vacation. Maybe something else is going on with their business that’s just a bigger deal than your deal—at this very moment.

It would be nice if people had the courtesy to just tell me that they’re deflected with something else. After all, a text or an email takes 30 seconds. It’s something I think I’d do, but not everybody is that courteous. So don’t worry about that. Just stay mindful that a lack of communication might have nothing to do with you.

Another significant reason people ghost you is that they don’t know what to say to you. They’re having trouble making a decision. Maybe they’ve been offered an alternative to what you’re selling and they don’t know which one to choose.

Maybe they’re embarrassed about their indecision because that they’re not sure they have enough money to pay for your product. That happens a lot to us, dealing with both startups and big companies.

Many people are uncomfortable saying “I don’t know what I want to do,” or “I’m not ready yet to make a purchase.”

Also, your customer might be calculating that it would be poor strategy to tell you that they’re indecisive.

Stay mindful of those possibilities. It can take a long time before people are ready to make a deal.

My dad says that deals are like fruit. Sometimes you just have to wait for them to ripen. We’ve waited years for single deals to finally break.

You have to keep things in perspective.Another thing that can help when you’ve been ghosted is to remind yourself to keep perspective about this deal. This BIG deal. Is it really that big in the scope of your life?

When I’m getting stressed out by a deal or other problems I encounter in life, I think about what the great negotiator, Jim Camp, wrote in his book, Start with NO. He says that all you really NEED in your life is food, air, and your loved ones. Everything else is just stuff you want.

Always have multiple deals going on simultaneouslyIt’s important to make sure to never let yourself be consumed by one deal—no matter how big or important it seems. One way I do that is by keeping a lot of other interesting deals going on at the same time.

If you have other good things going for you, you’ll be less consumed by the person stringing you along. Better yet, you’re going feel less needy, which will make you happier and more confident.

You will also be less likely to call people too many times when you’ve been ghosted. When you call a customer too many times, even when they are truly interested, you come across as needy and you lose negotiating power if the deal does happen.

But if you have a lot other deals going for you, when your ghost wakes up you’ll have a chip on your shoulder when you finally talk. You’ll approach the conversation knowing that YOU have value. And your customer will believe that you have value because they called YOU.

Use “no” questions.Besides being mindful of the reasons why a person could be ghosting you, what else can you do?

How can we wake up this ghost and wake them up in a good way that makes a deal more likely to happen?

You need to use “no” questions.

“No” questions are questions designed to get someone to respond to you with a “no” rather than a “yes.”

Why are “no” questions helpful?

Psychology studies have shown that people have a much easier time saying “no” than “yes.” It’s as if people are abused animals whose guard automatically goes up if they sense you want them to say “yes.” The reason for this is because it implies you’re trying to get something from them.“No” questions are super useful in a negotiation because they make you seem much less threatening.

In the case of contacting a customer, using “no” questions make it more likely they will pick up the phone and that you will come across as less needy.

How do you do it?

Whenever you contact anyone in a professional context, after you introduce yourself, always ask, “Is it a BAD time to talk?”

Contrast that question with, “Is it a good time to talk?” When you ask if it’s a “good time” you’re asking FOR something. You’re asking for their time. You’re asking for the most scarce resource any of us have. That’s going to increase the possibility the person who answers phone is annoyed by your call. You also seem needy and low status as you’re begging someone to grant you their time.

Back to the person who’s ghosting you.

If you send someone a text message asking if it’s a BAD time to talk, first of all, they will appreciate you being mindful that they have things to do. Then, many people will think to themselves, “Hmm, well, I guess it’s not a horrible time to talk,” and they will respond. Or, they will say, “Actually it is a bad time. I’m at a meeting, I’m at funeral, I’m in Ireland.” But at least they will say something to you rather than staying silent.

There’s another power “no” questions have when you’re trying to wake up a ghost. They can create a fear of loss for the person you’re trying to talk to. When you text or email someone, “Are you no longer interested in my product or service?” if they ARE actually interested, it might make them nervous that you could give up on them if they don’t reply back.

Or, maybe your “no” questions will just make the ghost feel more comfortable telling you they’re not interested, which is disappointing but at least you can get on with your life. There will be other deals. And hopefully, most of them will be with people who don’t ghost you.

If your “no” question attempts are failing you I’ve got something extra in my the arsenal.

It’s what I call the “nuclear bomb.” It’s the last resort after you’re tortured for at least a month by a customer. It’s for a deal that seemed so promising, before the customer’s silence frustrated you and vexed you to the point where you’re ready to lay it all on the line to find out whether or not the deal is truly dead.

You send the ghost a one sentence email. In it, you have a subject line that says, “Have you given up on this project?” Put that same line in the message. No “Hello.” No “best regards.” Just that one line. I’ve done it more times than I wish. Nine times out of ten they write back. In my memory, it usually resulted in them saying that they were still trying to make a decision, but they just didn’t know what they were going to do.

Whatever they answer, it’s almost always a relief because at least they communicated with you.

Hopefully by that point you’re no longer obsessed with the deal anyway because you have others going at the same time.

Remember these lessons.If a customer ghosts you don’t take it personally.

Keep every deal in perspective in the scheme of what truly matters in your life.

Be mindful of the reasons why your customer might be silent, because they still might be interested, and it’s counter productive to let deals stress you out.

Have lots of opportunities going on at the same time, to keep you sane, make you less needy, and because that’s the way to run a successful business anyway.

Finally, use “no” questions—both to prevent a customer from ghosting you, or to wake them up in way that doesn’t make you come across as needy.

Don’t give up too early, and don’t blame yourself for a result that might be out of your control.

The post Ghosted by a Customer, What Do You Do?—EP 215 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The NCAA Basketball Tournament, the less popular Men’s part, crowned the University of Connecticut as Champion for the second straight year.

UConn didn’t just beat their six opponents in the marathon event, they crushed them. They averaged a 23-point margin in their victories. The final 75-60 win over Purdue was almost a moral victory for the Boilermakers.

The UConn Huskies’ coach, Dan Hurley, is part of a fabulous basketball family. His dad, Bob Hurley, was the master of high school basketball in New Jersey. He coached the now-closed St, Anthony High School of Jersey City, which ceased operation in 2017. The Catholic school was tiny, usually with less than 200 students, but over 39 years of coaching, Hurley’s teams won 26 state titles.

Bob Hurley’s two sons played for him. Son Bobby was a fantastic high school guard and went on to become a First Team All-American at Duke, playing for Mike Krzyzewski. His Duke teams won two NCAA championships.

Dan Hurley, the younger of the two boys, was not the player that Bobby was but started at Seton Hall. He played against his brother once in college.

Bobby was a first-round pick by Sacramento in the NBA. His playing career never reached the heights expected probably because his car was broadsided after his rookie year and his recovery took almost nine months.

Both sons gravitated to coaching. Dan became an assistant at Wagner College, a small, private, 2,000-student school on Staten Island that still competes in the NCAA’s top tier of teams.

Eventually, Bobby ended up there too. After a few years, Dan became Head Coach at Rhode Island and Bobby at the University of Buffalo.

During this period, UConn became a basketball powerhouse in both Men’s and Women’s NCAA. In 2018, Dan took over the head coach job from Jim Calhoun who was forced to retire for health reasons. Bobby, meanwhile, left Buffalo to become head coach at Arizona State.

At the tournament, Dan seemed almost maniacal on the sidelines, constantly arguing with the referees. He even drew a warning for attempting to taunt Purdue’s star center, Zach Edey, as he was jogging past him. But Dan’s players seemed to love him, judging by how they hugged him after crushing their opponents.

The last player on the bench was Dan’s son, Andrew. He did not have an athletic scholarship and probably would have played for a smaller school like Wagner, but he chose to play for his dad and contribute to the team in practice. He got into all of the Tournament games when his father cleared the bench.

Will the family coaching dynasty continue? Who knows. But Hurley is a name synonymous with basketball success, even if they don’t have a shoe named after them.

Question: Could you have played for your father?

The post Basketball Family Business first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On this week’s classic episode of Swarfcast, we’re talking about preventing fires inside of machinery. Our guest is Mike Campo, Midwest Regional Sales Manager with Firetrace International, makers of fire suppression systems and solutions. Fire suppression systems keep businesses, people and equipment safe by automatically detecting and suppressing fires in high-risk equipment, like CNC machines, vehicles and wind turbines.

Mike says that machine tools are most at risk for fires when running oil based coolant while unattended. Suppression systems aim to hold back the fire, helping to mitigate the damage and allowing time for emergency personnel to respond.

Scroll down to listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts or your favorite app.

Main Points

Mike shares his background. He has been in the fire protection field for 43 years. He began his career in the engineered fire systems business, protecting data centers and telecommunications centers. He eventually went on to work at Firetrace International, a fire suppression system manufacturer that specializes in protecting critical small environments like CNC machines and wind turbines. (2:50)

Mike talks more about the niche market of working with what he calls micro environments. He says that the Firetrace system is designed for small enclosures, not rooms or spaces where there are people, such as a residential structure. (3:40)

Mike says that sprinklers are a valuable type of fire suppression for structures and are often mandated by local fire codes. He says Firetrace works heavily with the wind energy business to help protect wind turbines, which have structures that do not lend themselves to using sprinkler systems. He says that though an insurance company or local ordinance may instruct a business to purchase a fire suppression system for specific equipment, there are generally no official laws requiring a machine shop to install fire protection systems on its machines. (4:45)

Mike says the biggest risk for fires in machine shops occurs when machine tools are running unattended using oil based coolant rather than water soluble. (8:40)

Mike says that machine tools running oil create an oil mist that can ignite. Mist collectors can help evacuate some of the mist, but any kind of activity that would cause a spark in the oil mist such as a broken tool or failure of an oil pump, could lead to a violent fire. (10:50)

Mike says fires often occur when machining titanium, stainless steel, and aluminum because a lot of friction can occur, which can lead to broken tools. (12:10)

Mike explains that various Firetrace fire suppression systems correspond to different sizes of machine tools. Different volumes of space inside the machines require different amount of chemicals necessary to suppress fires. Larger machines necessitate larger tanks. (13:40)

Mike describes how the Firetrace systems work. A man in Great Britain developed a thermoplastic tubing that could hold pressure for a long period of time. Initially this technology was applied to create a fire suppression system for engine compartments of farming equipment. When pressurized, the tubing becomes a linear pneumatic heat sensor, so that if the tube comes into contact with high heat or flame, the tube ruptures, releasing the pressure that is holding down a piston in the fire protection tank. It releases and then dispenses chemicals to control the fire. (16:00)

Mike points out that Firetrace’s system “only works when it fails,” meaning that it will only go off only when the tube loses pressure. Thus Firetrace systems should not produce false alarms or go off when they are not supposed to. (18:00)

Mike says that Firetrace fire suppression systems target Class B and C fires. Fires are classified into four types, A, B, C, and D. Class A fires occur in materials such as wood and paper. Class B, fires are caused by flammable gasses or liquids, such as oil based coolant. Class C fires are electrical fires, which can occur in the electrical cabinets of machine tools. Class D fires are metal based fires. Those can occur when machining certain metals such as magnesium. Mike says that Firetrace’s system is not designed suppress metal fires, and the most common way to put out those fires is applying sand-like powder. He says if you see a yellow fire extinguisher next to a machine it’s probably meant to put out metal fires. (18:50)

Mike talks about the chemicals used by the Firetrace system. He says Firetrace’s goal is to have a clean fire suppression system that leaves no trace after use in the machine. (20:30)

Mike says that Firetrace is usually purchased aftermarket, though a few machine tool builders offer it as an option for purchase. (24:35)

Mike says the wind turbine business has been very successful for Firetrace. The company sees mostly electrical fire applications in the turbines. (27:25)

Mike says that the Firetrace has been very busy lately. Medical and automotive industries make up the majority of the company’s machine shop customers, while the Aerospace sector has fallen off since COVID-19 hit. (28:40)

Mike says that the cost of a fire suppression system for most CNC machines is $6,000 to $7,000.. He says that Firetrace’s systems are engineered to be simple, as they have no electrical components. Installation typically takes 2-4 hours. (29:25)

Mike says there are several competitor fire suppression systems which emulate Firetrace’s technology, as well as some others that function differently. He says that some systems that come installed on used machines coming from other countries might not be in compliance with US regulations. (30:35)

Mike talks about something he recently learned. He says COVID-19 has presented him with challenges that come when working from home. He says he has been honing is patience for working a lot in close quarters with grandchildren (who he says he loves dearly). (34:50)

Mike states that Firetrace is a simple technology, but the company is constantly performing R & D. He says although the system rarely fails, pressure leaks can present a challenge, whether it’s a leak in the suppression system or in the machine itself. (38:40)

Question: Have you experienced a machine fire in a CNC shop?

The post How to Prevent Fires in Your Machine Tools with Mike Campo-EP 98 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Imagine a sheet metal prototype shop that was so fast and reliable it never turned down a job if it were physically possible to complete and the customer was willing to pay the price. My guest today, Jay Jacobs, built his former company RAPID from a team of five to over 300. Before being acquired [...]

The post A Shop that Makes Promises Like Domino’s Pizza, Jay Jacobs (Part 1) EP-196 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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We will get an auto strike tomorrow. How do I know? Do I have a plant at the negotiating table? Have I bugged Shawn Fain’s phone (ahead of UAW)? No, no, no. But my gut tells me that the Union is aching to punch their company bosses in the gut. It’s just been too long [...]

The post Let’s Strike Tomorrow! first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The post A Shop that Makes Promises like Domino’s Pizza, Jay Jacobs (Part I) EP-196 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Nine years ago, I traveled to Sweden to see some old Wickman multi-spindle screw machines for sale at one of the country’s largest automotive suppliers. The machines were ok, but we decided not to buy them.

I stayed the night in the sleepy town of Värnamo, a screw machining hotspot of Sweden. The next morning, I knocked on a few doors of screw machining companies in the area, asking if they had any used machines for sale. They usually gave me the time of day because I had come from so far. A company called Ezze turned out to have two Schutte SF42s from the 1980s it wanted to sell, which at the time, were still pretty desirable machines. We quickly bought them and then flipped them to a dealer in England for a good score. Did I get lucky? Was it serendipity? Yes. But I created the serendipity.

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Jay Jacobs for Swarfcast (He also interviewed me on an upcoming episode of his podcast, the Job Shop Show). Jay is an extremely successful entrepreneur and cofounder of Paperless Parts, a cloud based estimating and quoting software platform.

In the interview, Jay told me that one of the keys to his success in business is what he calls “Be First.” He feels so strongly about the philosophy that he put it on one of his license plates.

“Be First” means when you see a potential opportunity you go for it without hesitating. When you see even the possibility of an opportunity that could help your business or personal life, don’t hesitate to investigate it or try it. If you see a person at a conference who might be important to talk to, don’t “wait for the right time.” The right time is now. If you have an idea for an innovation at your company, see a potentially interesting person to hire, a new technique to try, don’t stop yourself—BE FIRST.

Question: When in your life did you make your own luck?The post Be First first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s podcast is the fourth episode of our season interviewing people involved in CNC Swiss machining.

Our guest is Mike Reader, owner and president of Precision Plus, a CNC turning company in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Mike came into the machining business at 31 years old following a career in the fast paced finance industry. When he first arrived, the company was using old school Tornos cam Swiss machines and running a lot of commodity-type parts. Over the years Mike has built a world-class machining company, diversifying the company’s product lines with the help of newer technology. All the while, his original cam Swiss machines still keep spitting out parts.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast, or listen with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts or your favorite app.

Main Points

Mike gives an overview of Precision Plus. The company has 30 CNC Swiss machines, 40 older Tornos Cam Swiss machines, and some Miyano CNC lathes (single, double and triple turret). Mike says he has diversified the company’s clientele over the years. Precision Plus focuses on medical/dental, aerospace, and a variety of products in the industrial sectors. He says he has purposefully stayed away from doing automotive work because in his past experiences those clients were not looking for “a win for both sides.” (3:15)

Mike talks about being interested mechanical stuff when he was growing up in Delavan, Wisconsin. He says he was always the kid in the garage trying to make the go-cart go faster—the adrenaline guy. In high school he did well in technical classes as well as the standard curriculum. (4:45)

With encouragement from his guidance counselors he went to University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he majored in Economics with an emphasis in finance. After graduating he went to Chicago to get into the commodity futures world, starting out as a runner at the Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade. Eventually he moved up to working in clearing operations and then got a job at Bank of America running their clearing operations. He says that world was intense and competitive—a lot of “work hard play hard” 80-hour weeks. (6:00)

Mike talks about using the Predictive Index Personality Assessment to organize his workforce at Precision Plus. He gives the assessment to employees in order find the correct spot to put people in to be successful. He also talks about the importance of pushing his people on the shop floor to keep stretching themselves. He likes to make his people strive to figure out how to do things better, faster, and smarter. He says if he ever gets to a point when he is no longer doing that, it will mean the business is in decline. (8:00)

Mike says when he first started managing he wanted to hire people who reminded him of himself. He says we all think instinctively that others should think the same way we do, but he learned from the Predictive Index tool that people don’t all think the same and they don’t all hear the same. His says the first time he looked for employees his instinct was to look for the pedigree of the “best and the brightest,” but that was difficult because college graduates often don’t want to start their careers working in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. They want to go off and see the world like he did. Later, Mike changed his criteria for new employees. He started looking for smart, driven people who wanted to get to work right out of high school, in addition to graduates of technical colleges and 4-year universities. (9:50)

Mike says Precision Plus often likes employees who are trained in-house, so they learn to to things the way company prefers. It also helps create a good company culture. (11:15)

Mike tells the story of moving his family to London to work for Bank of America and then coming back home to Wisconsin only 10 months later when his mother was diagnosed with cancer. His father had bought Precision Plus only seven years before but had to go care for Mike’s mom. All of a sudden at 31 years old Mike was thrust into running a machine shop, which at the time was still pretty rough around the edges. It was a dark oily screw machine house in 1995—no CNC lathes, only Tornos mechanical Swiss machines and secondary equipment. (12:15)

Mike says when he first got started at Precision Plus he looked at the customer portfolio and could see that the company had a lot of opportunities to grow. At the time the company was doing a lot of brass connector pins on Tornos cam Swiss machines. (15:40)

Mike says that he really enjoyed working in the commodity futures arena in the first chapter of his life. He says the last 25 years in manufacturing have been meaningful for him. He talks about how in the early 2000s a lot of companies sold out American manufacturing to make greater margins by making parts overseas. At that point he realized that the had to move up market. He saw that the company needed to get into more highly engineered products than simple connector pins. He said it gave him purpose to keep manufacturing in the United States and create rewarding, good careers for Americans. (17:00)

Mike talks about the parts that go into musical instruments which Precision Plus produces. He says the company has been making parts for that customer since before he arrived at the company. They make screws and arbors that go into oboes, bassoons, and piccolos. (19:00)

Noah asks Mike what he thinks of when he hears the word “happiness.” Mike says it means being successful and being in control of your destiny. He says its important to him that Precision Plus is a private company where he has the freedom to make the decisions that are best for the company. (20:30)

Mike says the key to future growth for Precision Plus is continuing to increase the complexity of the parts it produces, setting it apart from other companies making more commodity-type parts. He says the way to accomplish this is by investing in better machines and pushing his people to keep upping their game. (21:20)

Mike talks about the roles of his various machines. He says there are no bad machine tools, just bad applications of machine tools. He says the Tornos cam Swiss machines are still a good solution for lower complexity parts with tight tolerances. For more complex parts Precision Plus uses Miyano CNC lathes. He holds up an aerospace parts the company makes complete on a triple turret machine, which he says had 98 different features on the print. (See video below). He says the shop also features many Tsugami and Star CNC Swiss machines that produce great parts and have great support. (22:15)

Mike says Precision Plus is interested in acquiring another machining company if he can find the right fit. He would prefer to buy a turning company not doing automotive work located in the Midwest because he likes the work ethic that the Midwest is known for. Also it would be best if the company can also add to Precision Plus’s current capabilities. (25:40)

Mike says the thing that bothers him the most running a machining company is that not everyone sees the world as he does, and he can’t stand missed opportunities. He says the most important thing is for people to work to the best their abilities, with a positive attitude, no matter what they are tasked with. (26:35)

Question: What do you think of when you hear the word “happiness?”The post Ep. 112 Developing a World-Class CNC Turning Company with Mike Reader first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Wednesday last week was exactly 15 years since Risa drove me 55 miles to see a friend who was an infectious disease doctor. I thought I might have had pneumonia, but I suspected it was something worse.

He was attending to a boy with a leg issue, but he saw me waiting and came out after a few minutes to say hello and listen to my heart. He put the stethoscope on my chest and with concern in his voice he said, “Lloyd, I’m going to wheel you into the emergency room myself.” The last thing I remember is the nurse asking if I minded them cutting my underwear off.

It was the beginning of hell for my family, but I would be virtually unconscious over Labor Day weekend. The surgeons pulled a Hail Mary just to save my life, first by inserting a stent in my left anterior descending artery, nicknamed “the Widowmaker,” and then connecting a pump to support the heart. Mine was virtually completely blocked, and if the surgeon could not get the stent in, I was not going to survive.

The heart surgeon, Dr. Akbar, told Risa the odds were stacked against him heavily, but he had to try. The collateral circulation from 25 years of running had enabled me to even reach that moment.

After the stent was successfully inserted, Risa asked the doctor how he did it. He looked up and pointed to the stars.

I have no memory of the next two days. Family and friends camped out in the hospital lobby, sleeping on floors and chairs and blankets, I have been told.

The day after Labor Day, I had a quadruple bypass and heart valve repair. I spent 12 days on a ventilator while I gradually became more conscious of what was going on.

On day 13 of the saga, the doctors removed my ventilator. I slowly got up and walked a few steps. Then I was wheeled to a regular hospital room and stood up to take a shower.

I started to realize what had happened and the ordeal my wife and children had gone through.

In a couple of days, we drove the 55 miles back to our home.

It was a medical miracle I survived. I wonder every day, why me? Why did I survive when almost everybody else with a blocked LAD dies before they even get to the operating room?

The primary after-effect of the ordeal has been PTSD. I think of it everyday, even though I remember very little except the ventilator and not sleeping much because the ICU was an annoying place.

Fifteen years. Why me? Why am I still making deals and writing a blog? Why did I pick blueberries with my family in Michigan three weeks ago? Why am I sitting on pins and needles with the Chicago Cubs this season?

God knows. But please God, let it continue.

The post Why Me? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Josh Hacko is a fourth generation watchmaker. He says he was born into his vocation, but in reality his work is truly his own.

Josh is Technical Director of two sister companies, NH Micro and Nicholas Hacko Watchmaker, which manufactures high-end wrist watches in Sydney, Australia, that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The company can manufacture up to 85% of a wristwatch’s components in-house, including the watch’s movement, a feat that only a handful of independent watchmakers around the world have accomplished.

With his team, Josh engineers and machines his watches’ components, and he and his dad come up with the watches’ designs.

If you love a story about business, technology, design, and serendipity, this episode is for you!

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The Origin of Nicholas Hacko Watchmaker

Josh’s grandfather and great grandfather were watch repairmen in former Yugoslavia. In 1994, Josh’s father, Nicholas, also a trained watch repairman, emigrated to Australia, fleeing the war in his home country. In Australia, Nicholas did watch repair and became a dealer of secondhand high grade Swiss mechanical watches, which the company still sells today.

In 2011, the world’s Swiss watch market was turned upside down. All of the Swiss watch companies, such as Richemont Group, Swatch, and Rolex formed a cartel, restricting the supply of spare parts to independent watchmakers around the world. Overnight, spare parts became unavailable to any independent watch repair person.

Josh says this was the equivalent of a Ford dealership mechanic being unable to source spark plugs, windshield wipers, or tires.

Nicholas asked the Swiss watch companies if he could send Josh to Switzerland to be trained as a watch repairman in order to then gain the right to buy watch parts, but the companies all rejected the idea, saying that “no Australian could be capable of properly repairing Swiss watches.”

This event inspired a crazy dream for Nicholas—building a watch from scratch in Australia. It was something that had never been done before.

At first, Nicholas believed a super machine existed that was capable of making all the components for a wristwatch, but he soon realized that was a fantasy.

Nicholas Hacko Watchmaker started its new wristwatch business, selling wristwatches that were designed, assembled, and adjusted in Australia, but made from parts produced overseas.

NHW MKII “Curl Curl” from Nicholas Hacko WatchmakerIn 2016, Nicholas and Josh embarked on a quest to manufacture the first watch from scratch in Australia, which they accomplished in 2019 with their NH1 series. Josh says the reason that the company produces only 85% of the watch rather than 100%, is that the rest of the necessary components are commodity parts that are better quality and cheaper to purchase off the shelf, such as springs and jewels. He says that nobody else in Australia is producing the movement of the watch (the back end mechanisms) like his company and probably only five independent watchmakers in North America have similar capability.

The interview has a lot of great moments. Josh talks about buying a Citizen r04 off the floor of a trade show in Stuttgart. Neither he nor his father had ever operated a Swiss machine before, and they didn’t realize at the time there was no substantial support for the machine in Australia. They had to teach themselves.

Josh talks about his passion for designing the watches, a task which the company has never outsourced. He came up with the design of the company’s Mark II model by observing the mosaic on a table at a restaurant on a beach front while at dinner with his wife.

He says he has grown over time to imagine design more freely, rather than approaching it solely in a “functional way” that revolves only around engineering.

Josh’s passion for his work, both the technical machining processes and designing are contagious in his presence. He says he has “never worked a day in his life” and he is grateful to be “born into this world of watchmaking.” He says he fell into his professional life, but I disagree. I say he created it.

Question: If you wear a wristwatch, why do you wear it?

The post Manufacturing Watches is Complicated and Spiritual, with Josh Hacko – EP 195 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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My son-in-law, Scott, bet a friend a fancy dinner that neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden would be the next president. No odds were given. I silently pledged that I would not write about the upcoming presidential election, but this contrarian bet gave me the entree to discuss politics without needing to pick a team. [...]

The post Betting Against Trump and Biden first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I love this classic episode because it emphasizes how having fun with your product (or service) and feeling free to experiment with it can lead to success and happiness. Mike Taylor inquired on a Tornos GT26 Swiss lathe Graff-Pinkert had for sale. He told me that for him the machine would be like buying a [...]

The post Innovation from Playing with Machines, with Mike Taylor first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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This podcast has been going for five years now, and those people who listen to it frequently might be tired of the Graff-Pinkert ad at the beginning of the show. I was tired of it, so I finally created a new ad. For people who are listening to this show for the first time, I’m [...]

The post How to Persuade Customers to Buy Your New Product–EP 194 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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My used machine tool company, Graff-Pinkert, has sold some used Davenport multi-spindle screw machines to China over the years. It’s impossible to know what type of parts they will make. Haas Automation stopped selling machines to Russia after the invasion in February, but according to a PBS news show Haas parts are still reaching Putin’s people. [...]

The post Do You Know Where Your Products End Up? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Editor’s Note: This podcast was recorded in Spring of 2022. Tyler has now been retired for over 2 years, and Noah is the proud father of a 1 year old. In early 2022, Tyler Jarosz sent me an email to ask if Graff-Pinkert would be interested in a used little parts washer he no longer [...]

The post How a Machinist Entrepreneur Retired at 40, with Tyler Jarosz—Ep. 154 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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George Konidaris is the cofounder of the startup, Realtime Robotics. He’s also a Professor of Computer Science and the director of the Intelligent Robot Lab at Brown University.

Right now, programming a robot arm to perform a repetitive task typically requires a robot integrator to program where every joint of a robot should go. It’s a ridiculous and tedious process.

But with Realtime Robotics’ AI technology, you can instruct a robot to do a task and you don’t have to tell it a zillion steps explaining HOW to do the task.

The post Robots that Know Where to Go, With George Konidaris–EP 193 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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It’s August. The 2023 Chicago Cubs have a shot at the playoffs, and my granddaughters have become avid fans. Life is good. Baseball. “The greatest game in the world,” according to the significant prophet, Harry Caray. I’ve written about my love of the Cubs before, but really, can you write about it too much? My [...]

The post Welcome to My Baseball Tribe first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On today’s podcast we continue our season talking to successful companies who produce their own products. Today’s guest is Joel Trusty, co-owner and President of Trusty-Cook, a company that manufactures a diverse group of industrial polyurethane products such as dead blow hammers and spindle liners for bar loaders. Joel says one of the keys to [...]

The post Listening to Customers and Selling Hammers with Joel Trusty – EP103 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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There’s no good writing, only good rewriting. I wrote a lovely blog about the possibility of a UPS strike. Then they settled! ___ I should have remembered my interview with James Hoffa, Jr., in 2006 about the “impending” UPS strike. Hoffa was head of the Teamsters Union. He told me “don’t worry about it.” There [...]

The post Time For Workplace Flexibility first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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After Graff-Pinkert sold a second used Lico CNC lathe to Vanamatic, a 3rd generation screw machine shop in Delphos, Ohio, I had a great conversation with Adam Wiltsie, the company’s Director of Operations. At that moment, I was quite envious of Adam—I was sitting at my desk in my office, while he was outside on [...]

The post How to Make Your Employees Want to Stay, with Adam Wiltsie–EP 130 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s guest on the podcast is Jayme Rahz, CEO of Midway Swiss Turn, a small precision machining job shop in Wooster, Ohio. Around a quarter of Midway Swiss Turn’s business is supplying the U.S. Department of Defense. While supplying the DoD can be a lucrative opportunity for a manufacturer, the work comes with some hurdles [...]

The post How a Small Manufacturer Becomes Secure Enough for the DoD, with Jayme Rahz–EP 192 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I feel like I’m at Manny’s Deli for lunch, walking down the buffet aisle almost overwhelmed by the tasty options. I’m writing this blog hoping to pick the tastiest threads to weave together. The Supreme Court ruled that Affirmative Action was unconstitutional at Harvard and the University of North Carolina last week. At long last, [...]

The post College Fall first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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In November of 2015, Graff-Pinkert bought a Schütte S32PC in Cologne, Germany, from a dealer we didn’t know. It was a nice looking machine. A big 32mm CNC Multi-Spindle, painted red and cream because it came out of a Mercedes factory. We were excited to bring the machine to the US until the seller allowed [...]

The post How Unexpectedly Helping People Creates Profitable Relationships: Seeking Serendipity first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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As a machinery dealer, very often I hear customers lament that they can’t find good people to work in their machine shops. To this I say, perhaps they need to be more creative in hiring practices. Maybe they could offer better pay, more flexible hours, or some other benefits that competitors don’t provide. Or, maybe [...]

The post Should I Hire Ex-Felons?, with Kathryn Shibelski first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I recently received a note from a friend telling me that Notre Dame had just terminated its intramural tackle football league. It was the last college in the country to have one. He had fond memories of putting on hand-me-down uniforms of famous varsity players. It was a way the kids in the halls bonded [...]

The post Join Me For 3 on 3 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On this podcast I spoke with James Persenaire, a district manager at FANUC America Corporation. James gave insight into the strengths and weaknesses of collaborative robots and how Fanuc’s collaborative robots differ from competitors such as Universal Robot. He also addressed misconceptions about traditional robots that they are expensive and dangerous. He emphasized that the [...]

The post Should I buy a Cobot or a Good old Fashioned Robot?, with James Persenaire of FANUC first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The question seems as obvious as the sun in the sky. Our company can make more money if we can find skilled workers to run our machines. Where are they? What if that is the wrong question? What if there were a dozen questions and the simple, straightforward one was leading you into a brick [...]

The post What to Do About the Skilled Workers Shortage? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On today’s show we’re talking about one of my favorite things, podcasts! Recently, I’ve talked to a few Swarfcast listeners who are considering starting their own podcast shows, so I thought it made sense to make an episode discussing the merits of hosting a podcast as well as some advice if you want to build [...]

The post Do You Have Any Business Starting a Podcast? With Kevin Chemidlin–EP 190 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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For years, Graff-Pinkert has tried to convince customers who use 6-spindle Acme-Gridley or New Britain automatic screw machines that they would benefit from running Wickmans instead. Before I go any further with this spiel, I want to add that I have never run production, so I’m sure there are reasons why Wickmans are not always [...]

The post Change is Painful first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Sometimes machining companies tell Graff-Pinkert they have long running, lucrative jobs supplying parts to the D.O.D., and it always has seemed a little mysterious to me. What are these parts they are supplying to the government? How does a company get to become a supplier to the D.O.D.? Is supplying parts to the U.S. Government [...]

The post Manufacturing Parts for the Department of Defense, with Mike Topolewski—EP 189 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Are we more connected today or more distant? A few days ago, I received an email from a business relationship I had not heard from in a decade. He wanted to connect with me on LinkedIn. I do have a LinkedIn account, but I have no connections because I lost my password and lacked the [...]

The post I Want The Valuable Connections first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Memorial Day 2023. Families gathered for barbecues. I was in California to watch my three granddaughters take the leads in a musical play about the making of the original Peter Pan in London, a story about a young boy who could fly.

On the short drive to the improvised theater’s location, we passed a sign for the large Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto. My mind immediately focused on my high school classmate, Glenn, who I used to shoot hoops with.

He had been just a little older than my oldest granddaughter when his life ended over the skies of Laos, shot down during a bombing raid.

Poof, life was over.

I’ve spent many years wondering why. It was 1963. There was no draft then. What was Vietnam to America?

The French left Indochina in 1954. They had learned a lesson. A colonial power cannot win a war against a committed foe who would fight a hundred years to be rid of them.

The United States would sacrifice 58,000 men, including my friend in Vietnam. Did we learn anything? I don’t think so. We’ve lost young soldiers in Beirut, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. We saw vivid images of those left behind in Saigon hanging on to helicopters, only to be duplicated in Kabul 57 years later.

When will we ever learn?

I avoided being sent to Vietnam. My father called his cousin Joe Pinkert, who had political connections with a powerful congressman from Chicago.

The congressman made a call, and I got my ticket into the Illinois National Guard in late 1967, which made it unlikely I would be activated for Nam.

I went to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, on New Year’s Day 1968. I figured I was in good physical condition and I could handle anything for five months as long as it wasn’t war in the jungle.

It wasn’t that easy. In the third week of basic, the guy in the bunk beneath me went to the infirmary. He died of meningitis, I think. They never told us.

There were 300 guys in the unit, only two were reservists. Most of the sergeants treated us decently, but one guy, a 5’3″ African-American Sergeant, despised me. Anything he could do to mock me he tried. But still, I was willing to endure almost anything for five months.

The college educated guys in my bunk constantly discussed sneaking into Canada or failing basic so they would be forced to repeat it. Most ended up in Nam except for a few who were assigned to Korea.

It was a crazy time in America. Martin Luther King was assassinated while I was at Fort Jackson. The Democratic Convention of 1968 took place in Chicago a few months after I returned home.

The Tet Offensive in Vietnam sealed our fate in the war, but the “brilliant” guys in Washington kept feeding kids to the futile struggle.

Fifteen years ago, I visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. I saw my friend’s name etched in the granite on the simple but beautiful monument. I think about him surprisingly often and the many thousands of other guys who suffered PTSD after coming home.

“When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn. “

Question: What does Vietnam mean to you?

The post Have We Learned From Vietnam? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Steve Jobs once said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

Today, I’m going to tell you a story about how dots in my past came together serendipitously to help me solve problems and make some good deals in our used machinery business. When I met the people in these stories, I had no idea they would be significant to our business down the line, and of course, I never could have predicted how they would connect with one another.

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One of the most interesting and gratifying parts of being a used machinery dealer is the wonderful network our company, Graff-Pinkert has built around the world for over 80 years.

We do business with an incredible variety of people. Technical specialists, new machinery dealers, used machinery dealers, end-users, end-users who act like used machinery dealers. The classifications of many of these folks often become blurred.

I’ve got my robot guy, Mike in Michigan, my INDEX guy, Mitch, and my South American INDEX guy Allen. I’ve got my Schutte and Gildemeister guy Mauro. I’ve got my Tornos guy, Dulio, and my Tornos guy in Germany, Achim. The list goes on and on.

Serendipity brought us all together, and now that we have all these relationships they stack on top of each other to create new serendipity. The more dots you have in your network, the quicker you acquire new dots.

Noah Graff and Rex Magagnotti in Graff-Pinkert’s booth at PMTSLast month, Graff-Pinkert presented at the Precision Machining Technology Show (PMTS) in Cleveland. The booth wasn’t in the greatest location because we registered at the last minute. But we knew it was important to be there because a show like that is such a fertile place for serendipity. There’s tens of thousands of people who are part of the same tribe. Sure, some people are doing milling and some are doing turning. Some people are running machines made 50 years ago, while others only want to use the newest technology. Other people like me are pedaling iron. But we all speak the same language of machining, and most of us can benefit something from getting to know each other.

On the second day of the show, Bill Camloh a distributor for the Japanese CNC machine tool builder Shimada stopped by our booth. We met Bill about 10 years ago when he contacted us because one of his customers needed a bunch of nice used Hydromats after his shop had a fire. It was one of those great machinery deals that you still remember a decade later. It sounds a bit morbid, but fires are sometimes quite serendipitous for machinery dealers, and manufacturers too for that matter, if they have good insurance and fire suppression systems.

Customers become a little more aggressive in their spending when they genuinely NEED more machines and they have an insurance company playing sugar daddy. Honestly though, that deal is bit fuzzy in my brain by now. I don’t generally don’t think about it when I talk to Bill. He told me he’s the same when he talks to us.

Anyway, Bill came by the booth and introduced us to a very close friend of his, Shinji Okuda, the Vice President / General Manager of SB Machine Tools, the U.S. distributor of Shimada. Shinji and I made small talk for a few minutes and exchanged business cards.

Just then, my friend Jay Sauder, owner of Sauder Machine in Plymouth, Ohio, stopped by the booth. Jay is a brilliant guy, who I always enjoy talking to. He’s been on the podcast twice. He uses super high-tech Japanese and German machines to make hydraulic wheel cylinders for Amish horse drawn buggies. We still haven’t made a machinery deal with Jay yet, but he’s always teaching me interesting things. Shinji and Bill were about to say their goodbyes after they saw Jay come over to the booth and start talking to me, but I stopped them from leaving and introduced them to Jay.

Jay doesn’t own any Shimadas. He runs Mazaks and INDEXs and DMG/MORI machines. But just about instantly, he and Shinji started talking shop, and I sat back and admired the new dots I was creating. My serendipity guru, Christian Busch, says that whenever you meet someone new, it’s good to think about all the people you already know who might benefit from an introduction with your new contact. When you introduce two people who can help each other, you create potential serendipity for them, and that serendipity has a way of finding itself back to you.

Ok. Back to the story. The conference ended on Thursday, and I returned to Chicago on Friday where four shiny used Citizen Swiss machines, fresh off the boat from Japan were waiting for me in our Graff-Pinkert warehouse. We had just rolled the dice, importing a Citizen K16 VIIP, L20E VIII, L20 VII, and A20 VII, as well as a DMG MORI 32/5 and a Fanuc Robocut Wire EDM.

The machines looked beautiful! However, before we could sell them, the first thing we had to do was get their controls in English and get them running.

Rather than bring in Citizen technician to work on the machines, we brought in Chris Armstrong. Avid readers and listeners might remember Chris from my interview with him on Swarfcast, as well as his role in blog and podcast “Tale of a Used CNC Machine.” Chris used to work for Citizen, he co-owns a production shop near Houston called Texas Swiss Factory, and he does technical service on all types of Swiss machines. Those who know him call him the Mad Scientist because supposedly he’s able to get any CNC machine going.

Chris had been at Graff-Pinkert all week working on the Citizens, and he had made good progress. Friday was his last day in Chicago before returning to Houston, and I was dead set on having a video of all four citizens running before he left.

I had taken videos of three of the machines so far. But we still needed to the get the Citizen K16 VIIP going. In order to do that, we needed to connect it to the Alps bar feeder that came with it.

The problem was that we couldn’t figure out how to run the bar feeder because its control and buttons were in

Alps Bar Feeder Connected to Citizen K16 VIIPJapanese. It was now 4:30 PM, and Chris and I both hated the idea of leaving without that machine running. Chris asked me if I knew someone who spoke Japanese, and ideally someone who also spoke “CNC machines.” I thought about it, and I remembered Shinji from the PMTS. I debated whether it was appropriate to call him. But he did tell me that if I ever needed help with anything I could call him. And he was the only person I could think of.

I called the number on his business card, and he picked up! I told about him our situation, and he said he would try to help. Then I called him on FaceTime so he could try to make sense of the messages on the bar feed’s PLC. Icould see that he was talking to us from his living room at home.

Shimada’s machine tools generally don’t use bar feeds, so at first it was difficult for Shinji to make sense of the PLC’s error messages. But then we turned our attention to the PLC’s key pad. We asked him to translate the Japanese characters on each button. Then we quickly grabbed a pen and started writing the translations right on the keypad. The scene kind made me feel like a code breaker! It was fun.

Shinji turned out to be lifesaver. With the translated buttons, Chris was able to activate the bar feeder, and we got the Citizen machine to run. (Scroll to the bottom for the video we took of it running). Chris and I celebrated by getting Al’s Italian beef for dinner.

Now we just have to sell the machines. Anybody reading or listening to this, feel free come on down to Graff-Pinket and have a look. They are beauties.

Before I end this little tale, I’m going to bring up a less fun story that happened four years earlier.

Our religious readers our there, (and I’m not talking about organized religion) might remember a blog I wrote recently about a bunch of Swiss machines in Japan that we were cheated on back in 2019. We paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for some late model Swiss machines, including two Citizen L20E machines, which the seller, JS Precision, never actually owned. Before we had realized we were never going to get the machines we had paid for, we had pre-sold the two L20Es to a company in Texas, co-owned by Chris Armstrong. They had even put down a deposit, which we had to send back, of course.

But those machines that we were cheated on introduced us to a new customer. A year later we sold Chris’s company a Citizen M32. I also got to interview Chris for the podcast. Two years ago, we hired Chris go to remote 200-person town in Texas where he revived a shiny red CNC Escomatic EC08 that had been defiled by rats. He’s also been a life saver over the past few years, helping us over the phone to troubleshoot our used Citizens.

Finally, four years after our failed attempt at buying Citizen machines from Japan, it was only fitting that Chris was the one to get our new imported Japanese Citizens going.

So remember, when you meet people, particularly in your business sphere, don’t discount their significance just because you don’t see it at that moment. It could take two days or 10 years, or in my case both, until the dots connect beautifully.

Question: What dots have you connected in your life?

The post Connecting the “Right People” at the Right Times: Seeking Serendipity–EP 188 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Lately, Graff-Pinkert has seen a lot of new opportunities for our used machinery business–particularly in the category of machines that I like to call “Sexy Ugly.” Many customers are clearing the decks of their dirty Acme, Davenport, and Brown & Sharpe cam screw machines to become pure CNC machine shops, while at the same time, quite a few machining companies are still embracing those ancient cast iron beasts.

I know I’m not saying anything that most of you readers don’t already know, but to people outside the machining industry, it must seem pretty bizarre to see many successful companies loading up on technology from 60 years ago while their competitors are buying the newest CNC machines on the market.

It made me think back to a classic Swarfcast double episode, (EP 63 and EP 64), in which I interviewed David Wynn, the CFO of ABF Engineering and Machining, whose production consists of 50% CNC work and 50% Brown and Sharpe screw machine work.

Wynn told me in the interview that in a high production run he often can get a closer tolerance on a Brown and Sharpe screw machine than on a modern CNC machine because the machine is rigid like a tank. He jokes that “a Brown and Sharpe was a CNC before CNC was cool.”

I know this equation only applies to certain types of parts, but still, what a crazy world when you can make a part in 10 seconds with a machine that cost $5,000, while your competition is making the same part in 40 seconds on a machine they bought for $150,000.

I called David up yesterday to check up on him four years later. He says about 50% of the work is still on single spindle Browne & Sharpe cam screw machines, and his operation continues to be more automated.

I hope you enjoy the interview. I believe it has remained quite current.

Make sure to check out both EP 63 and EP 64.

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Main Points of the Interview

Today’s Swarfcast is part one of an interview we did with David Wynn, CFO of ABF Engineering and Machining, a third generation screw machine shop in South Fulton, Tennessee. After earning an MBA, David joined his family’s business 17 years ago. His stated mission is to run a machining business composed of old cam screw machines as though it were a tech company.

(2:40) Dave gives a history of ABF Engineering and Machining. The business was started by his grandparents and father in 1976. They primarily ran Brown & Sharpe screw machines.

(4:45) Dave talks about the machines in his shop. He said the company has Haas lathes, CNC Swiss, and a CNC mill, but still more than 50 percent of the company’s work is done on Brown & Sharpe screw machines. The company is running 15 Brown & Sharpes currently, but Dave says he has about 100 in the building.

(6:30) Dave gives a brief education about Brown & Sharpes. He says what makes Brown & Sharpes productive is that an operator can work with the turret and other tools simultaneously. The machines are extremely rigid, and have a gear driven 5Hp motor.

(12:47) Dave explains how building a cam for a Brown & Sharpe screw machine is similar to writing a CNC program for a Swiss machine. The main difference is the CNC program is immediately implemented while the cam takes days to build.

(14:45) Dave talks about how he came into the business. He had never stepped foot in the shop before he turned 18 years old. While in college and grad school he began working at the company. He earned an MBA, but instead of going into the finance industry he fell in love with the machining business and decided to do it full time.

(18:40) Dave talks about how ABF Engineering and Machining changed after he and his father bought it from his grandfather. He says they chose to focus on creating a new culture based on teamwork and innovative work practices. They prefer to hire people who fit into the company’s culture rather than hire based on an applicant’s talent.

(21:55) Dave talks about the company’s unconventional practices for work hours. Its employees have the flexibility to work when they like and choose how many hours they work as long as they get their work done and work as a team. He says that most outsiders look at him like he is a space alien when he tells them about some of his policies.

(28:40) Dave says that usually the people who are most successful at his company are the ones who put in a lot of hours at the shop and also at home. One of the characteristics he looks for in a great employee is someone who is constantly trying to better herself.

Questions: What is your favorite non-CNC machine tool?

Do you know how to run a Brown and Sharpe?

Don’t forget to check out the podcast and summary for EP 64!

The post Running a Machine Shop like a Tech Company, with David Wynn–EP 63 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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About 30 years ago, my wife, Risa, was on the commuter train headed downtown for an appointment with her gynecologist. Suddenly the conductor was scurrying into the car. He shouted, “Anybody know CPR? A baby isn’t breathing.” Risa was trained in CPR and loves babies.

She jumped to her feet and followed him to the screaming mother, who happened to be African American. Everyone else sat still as statues.

The baby was covered in blood. She weighed 5 lb and was three weeks old. A young guy was holding her in one hand and doing chest compressions with two fingers.

Risa rushed to the non-breathing infant, put her mouth over her tiny nose and mouth, and began the resuscitation process.

It was the height of the AIDS epidemic, which was killing thousands, but she had no time to think. Maybe she could save the baby girl, while her mom looked on screaming.

Risa didn’t know if the baby was still coughing up blood, but she kept up her breathing while the young guy pressed gently with his two fingers.

The train soon stopped, and the infant started to breathe again. A helicopter landed, and the baby and mother were taken by air to Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Risa stayed on the train, dumbstruck by the events. She then rushed to her appointment and recounted the story to her doctor. He called Children’s Memorial Hospital and requested HIV and hepatitis tests for the baby. She found out later they were negative.

Risa and I have discussed the events of that day quite a bit since we saw the story about Daniel Penny, the 24-year-old man on the New York subway train, hit the news. Penny, who is white, restrained Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old black man, who was allegedly threatening to kill everybody in the train car. Everybody else at the scene had been paralyzed with fear.

Penny is a former Marine underwater instructor. He grabbed the ranting Neely and put him in a chokehold. A young Hispanic man held Neely’s legs. Neely had a long history of mental illness after his mother was murdered in 2007. He was also homeless.

Penny’s chokehold resulted in Neely’s death. Two and a half weeks after the events on the subway train, Daniel Penny was charged with manslaughter. He turned himself into the New York City Police and raised bail.

The two stories of Risa and Penny are far from identical. The three-week-old baby survived. The mom has connected with Risa periodically on Facebook to say that the baby she saved became a wonderful daughter. She also reunited with Risa on the Jenny Jones Show, which had an episode about people who had saved lives. The train story is still a powerful and unsettling memory for her to this day.

Daniel Penny could serve 18 years in jail if he is convicted. Al Sharpton is using the train car incident as an example of American racism. Did Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine, think about the potential negative consequences when he grabbed the ranting Jordan Neely, who was supposedly threatening to kill everybody in the train car? I’m not sure he knew, if Risa’s story of impulsivity is any parallel. Maybe we will find out, if the case ever goes to trial. Maybe.

How do you feel about the New York train car episode? From what you have read or heard, should 24-year-old Daniel Penny serve time in prison?

What would you have done in a similar situation?

Question: What stories do you have about someone risking their life to help a stranger?

The post The Risk of Helping first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s podcast is part two of an interview we did with David Wynn, CFO of ABF Engineering and Machining, a third generation screw machine shop in South Fulton, Tennessee. Dave makes a lot of his profits on mechanical screw machines that are older than him, but he emphasizes using advanced technology to automate his business’s processes.

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Main Points of the Interview

(2:15) David says it is important that his employees be driven individuals. He wants people who can work independently in a loosely structured shop environment. His employees can divide their work amongst each other as they want and structure their time how they want as long as they meet production goals. Dave says the more power you give your people, the better they perform.

(3:55) Dave says his goal is to one day have someone else handle the day to day responsibilities of his company so he can focus on growing the business by improving customer relationships and automating business processes. He says he would like to be able to step off the face of the earth for 30 days and and then return seeing the company running smoothly as though he never left.

(8:20) Dave discusses his goal to automate every part of the business that takes his mind away from the key tasks at hand. He says his shop has one button that turns off the all the lights, regulates air conditioning, turns off exhaust fans and everything else necessary to leave the building.

(10:20) Dave talks about the parts he is making on his Brown and Sharpes. He says if he has a high production run he can often can get a closer tolerance on a Brown and Sharpe than a modern CNC machine because the machine is rigid like a tank.

(13:35) Dave says he does not see his company as competing with China. He says his parts are not commodity parts because he often does short runs of 500 pieces or less. He jokes that “a Brown and Sharpe was a CNC before CNC was cool.”

(14:20) Dave says he feels the machining business in his blood. He thinks the machining bug has been passed down to his 5-year-old son who has been coming to the shop every day since he was born.

(18:20) Dave says he is glad he went to business school rather than going straight into the machining business out of high school because it taught him to determine the values of assets. He says his dad had actually forced him to go to college.

(20:35) Dave says he sees purpose in the machining business because every mechanism people use has parts that have been machined. He appreciates creating tangible products rather than merely creating liquidity in the finance industry.

Question: Is a college education important for running a machining business?

The post Automating a Machining Business with David Wynn–EP 64 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On today’s episode, we’re shaking things up. We’re playing an episode from a podcast I guested on, the Business Growth on Purpose podcast with Jose Palomino.

One of the topics we focused on in the interview was how I discover new leads and opportunities in our used machinery business by using strategies that create serendipity. You know–the stuff I often like to talk about. Keeping your eyes open for interesting things you weren’t originally looking for. Contacting lots of people out of the blue who might be able to help you. Saying the right things in conversations to bring out valuable information.

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Jose Palomino: I’d like to just spend a little time (discussing) good luck. Or I think the term you use is “serendipity.” Where can I actually start shaping good fortune by things I do or don’t do?

Noah Graff: Selling machine tools—maybe more than half of the job is the buying and finding stuff. Sometimes you call somebody or visit somebody’s shop looking for one machine and it turns out that machine sucked.

But then you see another machine in the corner that you had no idea they had, but you are interested in. All of a sudden, you found something that’s way better than what you came for.

You have to keep your eyes open for things in order to find luck.

I interviewed this guy for our podcast who wrote amazing book called The Serendipity Mindset. His name is Christian Busch. The book is about all the different things you can do to find luck in your life and in business.

One example is a strategy he calls “serendipity hooks.”

Say you’re calling somebody on the phone about a machine, but they say they don’t have it. Instead of ending the conversation, you continue by saying “before you hang up, our company also has a service, buying and selling machining companies. Do you know of anybody looking to buy a company or sell a company?” Boom. All of a sudden, you call for one thing and you might find something totally better.

Palomino: The request you don’t make is an automatic no.

Graff: Absolutely.

There are a lot of dealers who some might say talk too much. They’re like the town cryer. They give away a lot of information in conversations that might be questionable to share.

But if you tell somebody else a secret that maybe you shouldn’t tell them, maybe they’ll tell you a secret back.

The more things you put in the open, the more magic that could happen.

Palomino: You mentioned before something called “serendipity bombs.” That sounds interesting.

Graff: Serendipity bombs are really cool.

Say, you need to get something. Like you’re a podcaster and you’re looking get some awesome people on your podcast.

You think of six people who could maybe help you, and you send Hail Marys out to them. Maybe one or two actually come back.

I had a guy recently who bought a Swiss screw machine from me. He was this guy in Idaho. He made rifles. He contacted me about a machine on our website, and it wasn’t even the right model. It was a model that was smaller than the one he needed.

Then I thought about it, and I remembered that the week before, my friend Randy, another dealer, was telling me he had that machine in stock. I called up Randy, and he still had it. The next day I called up the guy from Idaho and he bought the machine right away.

Palomino: The request you don’t make is an automatic no.

What comes to my mind in all the years of coaching people trying to do ramp up their sales or their business development activities, oftentimes the most powerful thing is being a little bit vulnerable and asking for help.

And I find a lot of good people who would be helpful if they could. I have found a lot of kindness and goodness coming back my way just by being out there in the world a certain way.

Graff: Yes. That is totally true.

People often want to help. It’s incredible. They get this sort of feeling inside that, “oh, you value me, you want me to teach you?” And then by them doing that favor, all of a sudden you become closer in your relationship.

There’s this guy I love to study. His name is Robert Cialdini. He’s a social psychologist and one of the things he talks about is reciprocity. I think it’s sort of another kind of serendipity creator. The more things you have out in the open and more favors people do for each other, the more magic that can happen.

Question: What have been your most successful methods for finding new business?

The post How I Discover New Leads and Deals–EP 187 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On April 1, Budweiser ran an ad on Instagram with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney promoting March Madness, as well as celebrating one year since she transitioned to becoming a woman. This one short ad caused a mass boycott of Budweiser and brought out the worst of the intolerance and divisiveness that plagues my country. I understand how people become uncomfortable seeing “other” people who look different from the majority or who don’t fit into easily into a familiar, “normal” category. I also understand how people can be biased against various sexual orientations based on their religious belief–even though I staunchly disagree with that attitude. Everyone should have the right to their own belief, but extreme harassment, sending death threats, stirring up hate on a massive scale online, that I have to make my own extreme judgement on. I’m not open minded about that behavior.But I believe that if people could just see each other as fellow human beings, such hate and fear could be neutralized. It’s a powerful force when you genuinely get to know other people and listen to each other, even people who may have disgusted or scared you. It gives you the possibility to see them as people, the same species as you are. They are people often with similar joys, interests, values and fears.The Mulvaney story reminded me of a podcast interview I did back in 2021, in which we interviewed Jackie, a CNC machine shop owner who in her 40s transitioned from a man to a woman. Jackie is from our same tribe. She is a person who is passionate about working in precision machining. She’s not a mysterious figure lurking in a dark corner of a night club or a teenage TikTok influencer–though there’s nothing wrong with people who do fit those descriptions. Jackie could just as well be your coworker.Scroll down to read the original summary and listen on your favorite app or with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts or your favorite app.

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Main Points

Today’s podcast is the first episode of a new season about mental health. Our guest on the show is Jackie, owner of PXR Machining. Jackie spent the majority of her life trying to mask a significant part of herself from others and deny her own feelings about who she always knew she was. Through therapy she finally gained the courage to transition from a man to woman in her late 40s.Jackie talks about her CNC machining company, PXR. She started her first plastics machining company back in 1992. Over the years she has designed and machined a variety products in the plastics sector from tabletops, to signs, to gun smithing tools, one of her most steady products these days. Her shop features CNC routers and CNC mills such as the Fanuc Robodrill (pictured). (3:00)

Jackie talks about a brutal motorcycle accident she had 15 years ago at age 35. She spent three years in a wheelchair, yet continued to run her business. Then a friend of hers was going to get married, and she decided she was not going to go to the wedding in a wheelchair. Her right leg was mostly paralyzed, so she needed an orthotic foot device in that shoe to keep her foot from flopping around. She fabricated one for herself in her shop in one day. (6:00)

Jackie talks about first realizing she was a female trapped in a male’s body at four years old. Her grandmother asked her what she wanted to be and she said she wanted to look pretty like mom. Jackie’s parents then had a serious talk with her to clarify that she was not a girl. (9:30)

Jackie said she first thought about undergoing a sex change when she was 17, while working at Radio Shack alongside a trans woman, but she was too scared to do it. Instead, she got married the next year, with the hope that if she built a family and a successful business she could bury her feelings of being a woman stuck in a man’s body. Sometimes that worked, but she says after the motorcycle accident the walls came down around her and it was very visible to her that she had “hid herself from reality.” (11:00)

But somehow Jackie then managed to bury her painful feelings once again. She had just gotten remarried a year before and was planning to have another child. She also wanted to get her shop going strong. Jackie says she wishes during those three years in a wheelchair she had gotten a therapist, but she had been turned off by the stigma of getting one and instead tried to “DIY” her mental health. She says she finds it interesting how most people will take care of their physical health when they get hurt, like getting a cast after breaking a leg, but when they get a mental injury they to try “walk it off.” (13:31)

Jackie talks about constantly trying to overcompensate for her knowledge that she was a woman on the inside. She owned a restored Dodge Charger that was a replica of the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard. She owned 10 motorcycles and the biggest pickup truck you could buy. But later on, after she came out as transgender, friends told her they had sensed her secret for a long time—she could never actually have hid what was going on inside. (15:30)

In her latter 40s Jackie hit a wall. She says she had lost all the fire in her belly that tells a person to do things. Her shop was suffering, her home life was suffering, her mental health was suffering and she knew she needed help. She joined an online forum for trans-support and the members told her to get a therapist. (16:30)

Jackie says getting a therapist was the most important pivot point for making improvements in her life—it finally got her to start the transition process. (17:30)

Jackie talks about her current relationships with family members. She works alongside her father in her shop. She does not talk to her sister often. Her 30-year-old daughter is starting her own machine shop right now, and they share a bond with that. She has a teenage daughter who lives with her mother (Jackie’s ex-wife) who understandably has had difficulty with the transition. (18:30)

Jackie says the first step in a transition process is to get a therapist. Her therapist eventually told her to go to a medical doctor to start hormone replacement. She decided in therapy she was interested in getting a lot of surgical procedures to make her look more feminine. She says everyone has different preferences of what they want to get augmented or reconstructed. Jackie has had her breasts enlarged, facial reconstruction, vocal reconstruction, and “downstairs surgery.” I asked her if it was traumatic to look at herself after her organs were swapped out. She says she was finally able to look at herself in the mirror and say, “that’s actually me.” (21:30)

Jackie says the transition took her about three years and that hers was a relatively quick process. She says some people can do it faster, but other transitions can take over 15 years. She says she continually saw her therapist during the process, which she likens to going through puberty rapidly. She says getting rid of facial hair is one of the most difficult parts of the transition process. It can take years of electrolysis. Another change she has had to get used to is having less lean muscle mass because she has less testosterone. Now she can’t lift things around her shop like she used to. (23:30)

Jackie says despite transitioning to become a woman, she still is attracted to women rather than men. (29:30)

Jackie says she feels people have core personalities that are just us, but we all also have masks. She says she pulled her mask over herself so people would see only what she wanted them to see. But now that she has let the mask go she finally gets to see who she really is, along with everyone else. (30:15)

Jackie says her advice for people who need to alter their life or deal with things that require a lot of thought is to see a therapist—they should ignore the negative stigma and stop trying to DIY their mental health.

Question: What was one of the most difficult changes you had to make in your life?The post Having the Courage to Become Your True Self, with Jackie, owner of PXR Machining–EP 116 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Spinner is a German CNC machine tool brand that’s been around for 73 years. The company sold 1,200 CNC mills and turning centers, and automation systems in Europe last year, yet in the United States, a large amount of people in the machining industry have never even heard of them.

At the 2023 Precision Machining Technology Show, I stumbled upon Spinner’s booth when I stopped there to ask if I could borrow a box cutter. Then I met Salim Awad, President and CEO of Spinner North America, who graciously agreed on the spot to being interviewed.

Salim has a fascinating personal story. He’s from Colombia, he was an army diver in Iraq, and he founded his own law firm. And since 2022, he’s been entrusted with bringing a German machine tool brand to the United States.

From my experience as used machine tool dealer, it often seems as though machine tool brands are like religions for machining companies. Once a company has experience and success with one, it’s hard to convert them to something different—let alone to one they’ve never heard of.

On today’s show, we’re going to talk about how you penetrate a crowded B2B market. How do you get customers to pay a half a million dollars to try a new machine? How do you market yourself? How do you earn people’s trust?

The post Getting Customers to Buy an Unfamiliar Brand, With Salim Awad first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I followed a Tesla Model S driving home last night. Attractive blue sedan, even in the Chicago gloom.

I have not personally seen any other makes of electric vehicles other than a rivian pickup, which looked like it had never been driven on the streets of Chi-town. I know Ford has sold some Mustangs, and GM sold some Bolts, which they discontinued. I see no electric BMWs or Mercedes or Audis or Chinese built electric varieties in my town.

Tesla owns the American market for electrics, but their behavior says they are running scared. Two price cuts in the last month. All of Tesla’s competitors are investing heavily in advertising, battery plants, and lobbying, yet so far they are still not legitimate rivals on the street. The Japanese car companies have finally decided to maybe, perhaps, possibly put electrics into the marketplace.

I have questions.

Americans like trucks and husky SUVs. Does an American market clamor for a lithium-ion electric that takes half an hour to charge? Do they want a vehicle that gets 100 to 200 miles with any kind of load before requiring charging in cold weather like Chicago, much less Duluth? Frankly, I doubt it.

If my assumptions are correct, does that mean today’s electric cars are primarily sedans built for Phoenix and Miami markets?

I know this is short-term thinking because eventually there will be more charging stations with faster charging, but even Elon Musk has yet to solve the weight and distance issues

President Biden and Governor Newsom of California can proclaim and legislate as much as they want, but if electrics do not do what American vehicle buyers wish to buy, the electric market will be limited to city driving with light loads, i.e., your mama’s car in Los Angeles.

I think Elon Musk, the ultimate entrepreneur and risk taker, sees this. He has more experience building batteries and searching for a replacement for lithium than anyone. It appears he has no imminent replacement for the element. America actually has huge amounts of lithium, but we don’t mine it because environmentalists make it too difficult and expensive. So we haul it in from Bolivia and Africa. Forget about getting it from China or Russia. Meanwhile, Biden likes the idea of expensive gasoline and diesel, and Exxon and Chevron are not objecting.

If we really wanted $2 gas to lighten the load on American drivers we could eliminate taxes and ethanol subsidies, but would you bet $5 on that idea?

Musk is sending us a message with Tesla price cuts. I think he is saying, “Okay GM, Ford, Toyota, and BMW, try your best punch. By the time you finally put a viable vehicle on the road in 2025, 26 or 27, I will have huge brand loyalty and identity. You will all stumble with recalls and missteps like Tesla once did. While you spend billions on TV advertising, Tesla will work on improving its car and squeezing out better mileage, even in Anchorage.

By increasing Tesla’s sales volume, he will expand his margins. And, he might even put the first driverless car on the street for people to buy.

Elon Musk is tweeting it out to all of his competitors. Tesla is a moving target. Throw your best punch.

Question: What will it take for you to buy an electric vehicle?

Does liking a CEO of a company affect your buying decisions?

The post Take Your Best Shot at Tesla first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s episode is extra fun for me because I had the pleasure of interviewing my brother, Dr. Ari Graff.

Recently, Ari has shifted his career focus from practicing psycho therapy to life coaching.

His coaching focuses specifically on helping men who feel unhappy and stuck in romantic relationships, as well as single men who have difficulty maintaining or starting satisfying relationships.

As you might have guessed, today we’re not going to be talking about the machining business. But I wanted to do this interview because to reach your full potential in your professional life, it’s beneficial to have a solid personal life.

In this interview, you’re going to hear ideas about why some romantic relationships fail that you may not have considered before. We’re also going to talk about how with the right approach you have the potential to improve an unhappy relationship.

Whether you’re a man in a dysfunctional romantic relationship, someone single, or someone in a seemingly wonderful relationship, this interview will likely make you think. And for women listening to this, you’ll find it interesting and important as well.

The post How to be a Better Man, with Dr. Ari Graff–EP 185 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I commemorated the 26th anniversary of my dad’s death this past weekend. I lit the traditional Yahrzeit candle, which lasts 24 hours, and said the ancient prayer in Hebrew called the Kaddish.

This time it was particularly significant because it also meant that I had lived longer than him. I know that such footnotes of survival are stupid in the rational world in which I walk on the treadmill, trade machine tools, and write weekly blogs. Yet it looms large to me.

Oddly enough, I also had my semi-annual appointment with my cardiologist yesterday, who listened to my heart, and checked my blood pressure, pulse, and oxygen. Happily, he deemed me okay. I noted that it was almost 15 years since my heart attack and naively asked him how I had lived this long. He told me bypass surgery is much less common these days with the prevalence of beta blockers and ACE inhibitors that control blood pressure, as well as pharmaceutical grade fish oil and statins to lower cholesterol. Add in the widespread use of stents, and death by heart disease will soon be less common than from cancer, which sadly has not been treated as successfully.

The negative side of the picture is the prevalence of overweight folks in America and Type II diabetes, which is too often its companion. But now the miracle drug we have been waiting for forever has begun to change the world. Novo Nordisk came out with a once a week injectable drug, Ozempic, to lower A1C (blood sugar), but its remarkable side effect is promoting loss of appetite and weight loss.

Theoretically, Ozempic is not a weight loss drug, but it is. If there was ever a clear signal that willpower and running six miles were not the only solution that works, it is Weight Watchers Corporation recently buying a telehealth startup called Sequence, which will prescribe weight loss drugs.

The world has truly changed. My dad, grandmother, and grandfather all suffered from diabetes. The importance of Ozempic and new competitors hitting the market cannot be minimized.

I am no doctor, but I asked my endocrinologist about Ozempic and she had a one word answer–fantastic!

Her specialty is treating obesity.

I did not plan to write a blog about medical advances, but as usual it wrote itself.

As April ends and Spring actually looks like it might come a month into baseball season, I wish you all good health and long life.

And please donate your fat clothes.

Question: How have you successfully lost weight?

The post Donate Your Fat Clothes first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I am haunted on this day. I could not focus on work, health, family, even baseball.

My blueberries I ate for breakfast even evoked thoughts of blue forearm tattoos with numbers.

The light blue sweatpants I wore for a workout on my treadmill brought up visions of blue striped prisoner’s pajamas.

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, have sleeted into my memory. I’ve spent hours watching and listening to trailers of Holocaust films today.

It’s odd. My parents never discussed the Holocaust with me. It was not a school topic. I was naive, and I didn’t read much as a kid. Mainly I shot baskets and practiced pitching and hitting. But my life changed in 1959 when I heard about the book by Leon Uris called Exodus, immediately followed by the movie by Otto Preminger in 1960 starring Paul Newman. It was about the aftermath of the Holocaust and the passionate founders of the state of Israel.

The story totally captivated me. I read the entire book and I had never read a book of that length. I was 14 years old. I had had a Bar Mitzvah the year earlier and went through the motions, but I was a different person after the book and the movie. I was an ardent Zionist, even if I found the synagogue to be a stale place for old people.

I continued my education mainly through movies and TV programs. I followed Israel politics. I contributed heavily to Israel charities. My wife Risa shared my feelings, but she had something I did not have — a summer in the country in 1967 with her camp group.

We visited Israel as a family in 1985 and afterwards. Her Uncle Ed moved there and we stayed in his lovely apartment in Tel Aviv as a family. And we visited the Holocaust Museum.

A turning point in my life came in 1999. My wife took a trip to Poland with her close friend Judy to see where her mother’s parents came from. I had a simultaneous business trip to France, England, and Poland, and met up with her for an arduous bus trip to Majdanek concentration camp.

It was winter and we ran into light snow and icy roads. When we reached Majdanek, which to my amazement was in an open space next to a residential neighborhood in the city of Lublin, everybody got out of the bus but me. They went in the tourist entrance but I was too gripped by emotion. I took off my coat and then my sweater and shirt in the cold. I desperately wanted to try to connect with prisoners arriving there in trucks and trains to be gassed and cremated after their teeth had the gold fillings extracted.

After a few minutes, I walked in and envisioned myself in striped pajamas and then I walked into the rooms where the cremating ovens were. My brain was numb. I could barely comprehend what I was seeing, and then it was over.

I do not remember much more except the Christmas lights in the residential neighborhood across the street from Majdanek. It was weird.

We stayed overnight. Then Risa went on with her trip and I checked out some well used Wickmans in Poland.

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. My mind cannot leave the roster that I read at the death camp. It was not just Jews, but Roma and political prisoners that the Nazis wanted to quickly get rid of and forget. And I think of the pajamas that the emaciated survivors were dressed in when the Allied soldiers liberated the camp in 1945.

I find it sad that the Holocaust is a fading thought to most younger people today. But I find it wonderful that Ken Burns felt compelled to spend many years on his recent documentary about the United States turning its back on the millions of European Jews who begged for entry in the 1930s and ’40s.

I will never forget. I will try to sleep tonight, but those striped pajamas will make it very very hard.

The post Remembrance first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On today’s show we’re talking about what you do if your business’s growth has become stagnant.

Our guest is Jose Palomino, founder and CEO of Value Prop, and the host of the Business Growth on Purpose Podcast.

Jose gave me great insight about how you objectively examine the health of your company and take steps to make changes.

We talked about B2B marketing and what you can do revitalize relationships with your customers.

If your business’s growth is stuck, or you’re just trying to build a business, you’re going to get something out of this interview.

The post How to Revive Your Company’s Growth, With Jose Palomino–Ep. 182 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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It’s April. Holy Cow!

Call me a silly romantic, but I love this month. Spring. Birds are chirping.

Magnolias are blooming, even in Chicago. It’s a joyful cacophony.

And there is SPORTS.

It is the one great thing on TV if cooking and home improvement bore you.

First, there was the NCAA Basketball tournament. My favorites were knocked out early. Florida Atlantic from Boca Raton in the Final Four? Are you crazy? Last second shots. Unknown players and coaches. I loved it.

Now the NBA playoffs start. After a thousand games, we get to watch the best players in the world, literally. Antetokounmpo from Greece, Embiid from Cameroon, Nikola Jokić from Serbia, and yes, LeBron from Akron, Ohio, will show their stuff. It’s a basketball orgy. I love it. Keep it coming till June.

The NFL draft is April 27. The Chicago Bears need virtually every position but quarterback. So they traded their first pick to Carolina for a solid wide receiver, a quiver of draft picks, and a number 9 pick to gamble on an offensive tackle. Will Carolina choose Bryce Young or CJ Stroud, or surprise the football world and trade for Aaron Rogers?

But my real joy is baseball. The fun started with the World Baseball Classic, ending in Shohai Ohtani striking out Mike Trout to win the championship for Japan. Now we get to see probably the greatest baseball player ever to play the game, Ohtani, maybe win 20 games, strike out 200 batters and hit 47 homers, as he prepares to sign the richest free agent contract in history. He should. Wouldn’t it be great if it was with the Cubs?

The beauty of Ohtani is that I get the feeling he is not really playing for the money. But if it is available, he will collect it. He loves the game. I absolutely love to watch him play. His 100 mph fastball, golden swing, and a smile rounding the bases. Ohtani–I never expected to see you.

But best of all, I have lived to see my Chicago Cubs put together a team that is a winner. I do not expect to see a pennant this year, but these guys can play and seem to really love the game like I do. They can catch a ball, steel bases and know how to win a close game. A beautiful shift from the last few years.

And speaking of shifts, the new rule prohibiting shifts in the field gives a left-handed hitter a fair shake, now that no infielder will be stationed in short right field.

Also, the introduction of a pitch clock has taken away 30 minutes of idle game time, which had been used by batters taking batting gloves on and off and pitchers shaking off four signs before a pitch. There are now more stolen bases too because pitchers have limited throws to hold runners and the bases have been enlarged.

One problem remains. Pitching is just too good for most hitters. Fastballs at 98 mph are not uncommon, and sliders at 91 mph are almost unhittable if the batter does not guess right on the pitch. Fortunately, many pitchers cannot control their vicious stuff, so the game still has balance.

I know, I am still a child about my favorite sport. I sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in the bottom of the 7th and cheer for a game-winning hit.

It is my April, and I love the idyllic memories of my mom taking me to Ladies Day at Wrigley Field to see Jackie Robinson play. We will celebrate his day this Saturday. I see a big framed photo of Jackie sliding into home in my garage, which I cherish every day when I leave my car. I am a true fan of the old ball game. Bring on the popcorn.

Questions: What do you look forward to most about the spring season?

Which players are you cheering for this season?

The post April, Holy Cow! first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Gedaly and Erita and their son Igor were friends of our family in the 1990s. We met them soon after they left Odessa, Ukraine, which was controlled by Russia at the time. We helped Gedaly, an engineer, find a job.

In the late 1970s, like Gedaly and Erita, Ella and Mikhail Gershkovich immigrated to the US from the Soviet Union, along with thousands of other Jews escaping Russian tyranny. They joined the Refuseniks who hated Russian oppression and anti-Semitism, taking advantage of the short thaw between the US and Russia to flee.

Ella got out when she was 22 using an Israeli passport, with the help of her mother who had been a nurse in camps for Holocaust survivors in Poland after World War II.

Ella and Mikhail met each other in Detroit and soon moved to New York, got married, and ultimately moved to Princeton, New Jersey. Evan is their only son, born 31 years ago in America. He made them proud, excelling as a student and leading his high school to the state championship in soccer. He then attended an elite New England college.

Today, he sits in a Russian jail accused as a spy, but his real crime was writing too many accurate pieces about Russia for the Wall Street Journal over the past year and a half.

Perhaps because my family had a special relationship with Gedaly and Erita’s family, I feel a special kinship for the Gershkoviches and their son. Evan has been living in Russia for five and a half years, writing for several publications. He landed his job with the Wall Street Journal just before the outset of the Ukraine War. From everything I have read, he loved being in Russia and loves the Russian people. His favorite hang out was the Moscow Bathhouse and Sauna.

For me, Evan Gershkovich is much more than a pawn to be traded for a Russian bad guy. Somewhat like Brittney Griner was an enormously significant symbol to the LGBT community–not just a great basketball player, Gershkovich is much more than just a talented American journalist to me.

He has shown enormous curiosity and courage. His most recent article, published just before his arrest, was written with a colleague, Georgi Kantchev. It was a very thorough analysis of the recent decline of the Russian economy. He wrote about the biting labor shortage and brain drain as so many people, especially younger ones, have left to evade the army and economic failure. Capital has dried up for new Russian businesses. Most of the country’s budget is allocated to replace munitions and military products.

Certainly this article did not sit well with the Kremlin.

Evan had the courage to go to the Russian-Ukraine border to photograph and speak to members of the Russian elite paratrooper unit that had committed the atrocities in Bucha a year ago.

I can easily understand why Putin and company would do the almost politically unthinkable, seizing a reporter from one of the most respected publications in the world and trying him as a spy. That has not happened since 1986.

To me, Evan is more than just a brave writer.

On Wednesday, Jews all over the world will celebrate Passover, reciting the story of Jews standing up to the Pharaoh in Egypt.

Gershkovich stood up to evil power, embodied in Vladimir Putin.

Tomorrow, we celebrate Moses, who discovered his Jewish roots in a foreign land, as did Gershkovich.

As I lift up my wine at the Seder, I will be thinking of him languishing in a Russian FCB prison.

To your freedom, Evan. Be well. Be strong.

Question: How has the Ukraine war impacted you?

The post Evan Gershkovich Lives the Terror his Parents Fled first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I am a treasure hunter for a living. I pay my mortgage by finding obscure used machines from all over the world and then finding people who want to buy sexy-ugly/high-tech equipment. The best way to do that is by interacting with customers in ways that create serendipity.

Today, I’m going to tell you how calling people on the phone, even when it seems like a long shot, can result in serendipity. If you approach talking to people with the right strategies you have the potential to create tons of meaningful, significant, productive conversations.

You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.

Listen with the player at the bottom of the page or at your favorite podcast app.

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We get tons of emails from people inquiring about machines they see online from Graff-Pinkert, our used machine tool company. Sometimes it seems difficult to call everyone back, so rather than do nothing, I go to our nice automatic quoting system and send them a price, photos, and info. Then I hope they get back to me. They often never reply.

I know many people who inquire are just researching the market and don’t really NEED that machine they’re asking about. Or, maybe they see a price on the quote that’s out of their budget and dismiss the machine out of hand, which is a pity because we might have been willing to negotiate.

And that’s the end of the story. I didn’t sell a machine, I didn’t learn anything, I didn’t make a new contact, and of course, no serendipity happened.

It’s quite common for us to get contacted by customers looking for machines we don’t even have. Often, people see a used machinery ad sent to them from one of the machine tool advertising websites like Machinio, which does not always take old listings down right away after machines have been sold.

It can sometimes be frustrating for customers when they contact us about machines we no longer have. I’d be frustrated too. But on the other hand, it’s great. Those machines floating around online, both available and unavailable, for thousands of eyeballs to ogle, creates a treasure trove of serendipity.

The funny thing is, very often, people inquire about a specific machine they see online, and they aren’t even interested in that machine in the first place. One time, I had a guy contact us about a Star, but he was just as interested in a Tornos Deco we had in stock. Often people don’t even know what machine they want. They just click on something that they want to learn about.

Wednesday, I got an inquiry from a customer who saw an old listing for an Escomatic EC08 that we sold two years ago. It’s a powerful CNC coil-fed screw machine that’s very rare. I wouldn’t be shocked if there were less than five of that model in the United States. (I wrote a good story about that machine in a previous blog, by the way).

I looked at the inquiring customer’s website, and I saw they had a lot of small Swiss machines in their shop. So I called them, even though I didn’t have the EC08. A man answered, and I asked for the name that was signed on the email inquiry. But the guy on the phone told me that person was no longer at the company. We both thought that was weird. I guess the person who sent the inquiry still uses his old company’s email address and still likes to click on machines he wants to learn about.

So, just to summarize again—I called a company because they asked for a machine we didn’t have. Then the person I asked for didn’t even work there anymore. But sure enough, me and the guy who answered the phone ended up having a good conversation anyway. We talked about what machines his company uses and how business is going. Because I knew they ran a lot of small diameter work, I suggested they could be interested in Graff-Pinkert’s newest piece of inventory, a beautiful Tsugami B0125 III Swiss CNC machine with a 12mm capacity. He told me to send a quote over. Will he buy this machine? There’s a chance. Stranger things have happened.

The big thing was I CALLED. We talked. Information came out, and I met someone interesting. If I had sent an email saying that we didn’t have the machine but asking if they wanted something else, they might have written back, but that’s unlikely.

Another guy on Wednesday wrote us about that same Tsugami Swiss machine I just mentioned. He asked for the price of the machine. Generally, when people say they “just want a price,” it sounds like they’re doing research or window shopping. As a seller that can be frustrating, but hey, I do it sometimes to other people. So I called him and left a message, figuring if he didn’t call back I would then email him a quote.

Thursday morning he called back, and I gave him the price over the phone. I like telling the price to customers over the phone or in person rather than in an email or text because then I can try to gage their interest from their initial reaction. The guy told me he wasn’t just doing research and he had work for the machine. When I told him the price he said it was much too high. He also said he saw us buy the machine at a recent online auction, so he knew around what price we had paid.

Then the conversation got more interesting. He told me he had bought some LISTA cabinets at the same auction, and he had purchased three other Tsugamis just like ours from the same shop a while back.

Right now, our little Tsugami is still sitting at the auction site. Getting the machine rigged, and cleaned, and drained, and out of this factory has been a nightmare for Graff-Pinkert’s office manager Kelly. The parties involved have been unresponsive, and the price estimates are crazy. Thousands of dollars to clean a machine!

However, this guy I was talking to was experienced getting machines out of that shop. He knew which people were trying to rip us off and which people were being unnecessarily difficult. He told us who to call to get the machine drained. He also told us we should make sure to ask about getting the machine’s transformer that was hanging from the ceiling because the company had tried to leave it out when he took his machines.

No phone call—no new knowledge—no serendipity. Phone call—important things were happening.

Ok. So I have advised people to make calls. Many people reading or listening to this are probably saying, of course you make calls, you’re in sales. Tell me something I don’t know.

Ok. Let’s talk about making the calls. After you make the call, how do you go about it to get as much serendipity as possible?

First, I like to prepare for the call ahead of time. I look up the company’s website and find out what machines they have, because maybe they have some other machine they want to buy or sell, other than the one I’m calling about. If I want to prepare even more, I will look up the contact’s name online and check out their LinkedIn profile. This way I know if I’m talking to management or someone on the shop floor. Sometimes the guy on the shop floor is just as important or more than the management guy, because they know what machines the company is using and not using. They also often know more about equipment the company actually needs.

So after I have this info, I’m prepared to use one of my favorite serendipity tools to bring out some magic in the interaction—serendipity hooks! I learned about serendipity hooks from my serendipity guru, Christian Busch, author of The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Finding Good Luck. He is the guy who inspired my whole serendipity obsession in the first place. If you want a great breakdown of many of the book’s principles listen to the podcast interview I did with him, Episode 123.

Back to serendipity hooks. Serendipity hooks are extra things you can insert into a conversation that bring out new game changing information. Busch likes to bring up the example of meeting someone who asks you what you do for a living. Rather than say one thing like “I’m a machinery dealer,” you say a bunch of things. For instance, “I’m a machinery dealer, and a journalist, and I have a podcast, and in my spare time l love to salsa dance, but I don’t dance much any more because I want to spend time with my wife and my amazing 1-year-old boy Abe.” All of sudden, in addition to talking about machinery dealing, we can talk about journalism, and podcasts, and dancing, and kids, which I’ve been surprised to find that other people actually find interesting.

Before I call a potential customer, I first look at what machines the company has on their website, and I also look back at our own records to see what we have sold them in the past. Last year, we did a nice deal in which we sold some Tornos SAS16.6 multi-spindles to a longtime customer. We knew the customer also had Wickman multi-spindles that we had sold to them in the past. One of the ways we were able to make the transaction more attractive for both parties was to take back one of their 1-3/4” Wickmans in trade.

Another serendipity hook we have been using often lately is bringing up Graff-Pinkert’s new business of consulting machining companies who are looking to buy or sell their businesses.

After I discuss machines that people have contacted us about buying or selling, I say something like, “One more thing. Just so you know, Graff-Pinkert also helps machining companies buy and sell their businesses. Are you looking to expand your company through acquisition?” After they say yes or no, I say, “do you know of some other company looking to buy or sell?” Stuff often comes out—usually it’s people saying they would like to expand, but sometimes I do find out about companies for sale. Not long ago, I was talking to a customer about purchasing one of their CNC lathes. Turned out they decided to keep it, but the call wasn’t a total disappointment. I asked if he knew of any companies for sale, and he did. Treasure. Or at least potential treasure.

So, to sum it all up, emails are a consolation prize, not the first option. Call people. Visit people in person! Ask questions that can provoke information. Tell people interesting stuff about yourself that makes them bring up unexpected things. All of sudden, your conversations become significant, educational, productive, and serendipitous.

This was seeking serendipity.

Question: What was an interesting or productive conversation you had recently?

The post How to Make Conversations Profitable: Seeking Serendipity first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Fifteen years ago, I bought a magnificent office chair made especially for me out of sycamore wood.

I had seen this chair at an artisan show in Evanston and was immediately stunned by its beauty. I asked the maker if he could build one for me. He gave me the option of a few different woods, and I chose sycamore because I had never seen a sycamore office chair. The price was absurdly expensive, but my wife and I had been acquiring unique art pieces for our home, and I knew this chair would be something to cherish in my office.

It wasn’t.

After about a four month wait, my one and only sycamore chair was delivered. I eagerly unpacked it, sat down in it, and in my heart of hearts and my well-padded ass, I knew I had just bought a gorgeous chair that was PAINFUL to sit in.

No matter how I manipulated the chair and my body it felt uncomfortable, with wood slats in the back and a seat that left my legs feeling numb.

But I kept the thing. It’s a chair for an occasional visitor who does not stay long. I sit in it myself every once in a while to see if it has gotten more comfortable with age.

It hasn’t.

It is Lloyd’s $2,800 office chair (I never told anybody what I paid for it).

Why don’t I sell it on eBay or give it to Goodwill? It is because I do not want to admit my own folly. But after writing this piece I have finally decided to get rid of my sycamore stupidity–I think.

Noah and I were discussing this yesterday as he sat on the chair and announced, “Dad, this thing is really uncomfortable.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said meekly.

And Noah said, “Why don’t you get rid of it. Just like those three old 1” Wickmans that have to be rebuilt, which we have been paying rent on every month to store in a cold warehouse for several years.” And I nodded, yes.

Over the years, we have acquired an assortment of duds. It’s just the nature of the used machinery business. We look for value in other people’s mistakes. We have a fortune invested in “sexy ugly” machines. Most of the time it works out well. We clean them or rehab them, or just sell them to somebody who sees value or even beauty in the pieces.

But some stuff languishes, and we send it off to an old warehouse in a dangerous neighborhood in Chicago we have used for 50 years. We pay consistently rising rent on the machines until we finally admit our mistakes.

The real truth is that we just want to forget about those old ugly Wickmans, which we bought in Detroit because we thought they were a bargain.

Don’t most of us have stuff that we forget about most of the time? I have a ping pong table folded in my basement. I haven’t used it since my seven retina surgeries in 2003.

We store heavy luggage I never use, my grownup sons’ baseball cards and comic books, and a 50-year-old world atlas.

I also have a forgotten safe deposit box in a bank that’s changed hands seven times.

In a few days, it will be the Jewish holiday Passover. We used to move out all the non-Passover food and change the dishes. These days we are not quite so strict about the ritual, but we will still clean the house and prepare it for the holiday. We will get rid of what we call the “chametz,” the food associated with the forbidden leavened bread.

And this is the year I will give away my beautiful, painful sycamore chair.

Questions: What things or ideas have you held onto that you should have discarded long ago?

How do you get rid of unwanted items?

The post My Sycamore Wickman first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s interview is an old favorite. It’s a story about a young entrepreneur and his father producing minuscule parts with no other employees than themselves and Dan’s wife.

On today’s podcast we continue our season about Swiss machining. Our guest is Dan Rudolph, co-owner and founder of Rudolph LLC. Rudolph LLC produces medical parts as small as .1 millimeter on Citizen lathes. The company has only three staff members, Dan, his wife, and his father, but Dan says he has no plans to hire employees and the company continues to grow.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast, or listen with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts or your favorite app.

Dan describes Rudolph LLC. The company produces medical device components particularly for eye surgery. It manufactures mainly stainless steel and titanium components on Citizen Swiss lathes. The company has eight machines and plans on adding several next year. It also has various secondary and finishing equipment, as well as Universal Robots. (3:00)

Dan says when the company started he and his father gravitated toward smaller parts that required smaller sized equipment. They had no employees, and the company started in a 900-square-foot shop. Now it has a second 900-square-foot room available for machinery, and a second floor for finishing equipment. (3:50)

Dan talks about his career path. Growing up, his father was a supervisor for a Swiss department at an eye surgery OEM. In the evenings he ran a small foundry that did brass castings. Dan often tagged along with his father to the foundry as a kid. He attended Penn State for industrial engineering and worked in foundries after college, but decided that career path wasn’t what he was looking for. He and his dad had been talking about starting a medical Swiss shop together for a while because his father had knowledge of the industry and good contacts from his former company. Dan says since he was young he had an affinity for the elements involved in running CNC Swiss machines—a lot of moving parts, math, and computer programming. (5:30)

Dan says his dad prefers a supervisory role as well as handling quality and secondary operations, while he loves running production and setting up machines. (9:45)

Dan says the smallest part Rudolph LLC runs is .1 millimeter. The company does a lot of work with thin-walled parts (.002” thick). They drill holes as small as .007” in diameter in stainless or titanium. (10:40)

Dan says often he sees working on small parts as “imagining a half inch part but in a smaller world.” Though, he says often with very small parts the bar stock can break off in production. He says when he is working on very small parts he breaks up the work. He will turn a few features and then stop the machine to see what’s going on. Sometimes he will program the sub-spindle to grab the part just to make sure he can find it. He says when the parts are in the sub-spindle you sometimes have to use a razor blade and fish them out. He says for a lot of the parts after the sub-spindle picks them off he opens the collet and then an air blower puts them into jars or tubes. Then he evaluates them using a vision system or other measuring system. (11:30)

Dan says Rudolph LLC’s shop is located on what used to be a farm. The barn has been replaced by two 900-square-foot garage-type buildings. The company started in one of the garages and then when it grew took over the second garage and connected the two. Then they built second a floor on top. His father’s house is located across the driveway from shop. (14:30)

Dan talks about his wife leaving her CPA job to join he and his dad at the company. She has been shadowing Dan’s father so she can eventually take over his role as he gets closer to retirement. (16:00)

Noah asks Dan, how he can “replace himself?” What happens if he needs to step away from the business for some reason, or go on vacation? (17:45)

Dan says when he and his dad founded the company they decided they didn’t want to be “people managers.” He jokes that people at other shops warned them against the complications and headaches that come with hiring a lot of employees. He says that he and his dad prefer doing the actual production work. Automating with Universal Robots for secondary operations and Swiss machining that can finish an entire part enable the company to function and thrive without requiring extra manpower. He says in 2021 the company is not taking on new customers and instead trying to improve the work it does currently. (18:45)

Dan says one of the main things he wants to improve upon is reducing the rough edges on parts. He wants them cleaner with less burrs and loose material. Increasing his quality consistency will mean spending less time at the microscope troubleshooting. (22:15)

Noah asks how Dan how he is able to come up with new ideas and solutions if he is continuously busy producing parts. Dan says being spread thin is a constant obstacle, but even so, he and his father do not want to hire help. He says if they can perfect the work themselves they won’t need to hire anybody. He says his wife has been a huge addition to the company because she knows how he thinks, so she can help solve problems without creating a new problem of people management. She takes on some of the work, which has smoothed out the operations such as shipping and running the Universal Robots. (22:50)

Noah asks Dan if he has advice for someone else who wants to start small shop similar to his. Dan says he can’t fathom starting a shop without at least one other person because with two people you can divide the work between your strengths and weaknesses. (25:15)

Dan says he sees his company’s mindset as a game to see how much he and his dad can do within their constraints. He says having limited space is advantageous because walking around a big shop takes time. (26:00)

Dan says something interesting he learned last week was his research on various ways he can renovate his home’s deck. He says he has spent time searching on Instagram for photos of work done by contractors. (28:00)

Dan says social networking on Instagram has been beneficial for him. It has given him a peer group of other people in the machining world, which he lacks in his own 3-person company. He says his Rudolph LLC has even gotten some customers from Instagram. (29:30)

The post Producing Tiny Parts with a Tiny Workforce on Swiss with Dan Rudolph–EP 111 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Is the National Acme screw machine today the accordion of machining?

Are shops staking their future on the Acme the polka bands of manufacturing?

As sad as I am to admit it, I am close to conceding that at least the 6-spindle Acmes have become hard for a used machinery dealer to turn into money.

The reasons are many, and certainly there are exceptions to this observation.

1) You can’t find operators to replace the thousands of retiring setup people and tenders of the cam operated screw machines. An Acme makes money if you can keep it running. In today’s machining world of lean purchasing, the 100,000 piece orders are increasingly rare. No setup folks means idle machines when orders are usually 10,000 pieces or less.

2) An Acme is cam operated in a constantly changing world. To be prepared to run a variety of jobs you need to store cams and have a record of them. Shops today have a finite amount of usable space. Owners do not want to keep track of bulky cams that are expensive to make.

Acme-Gridley 1-1/4″ RA-6 at Graff-Pinkert3) Repairs can be troublesome. Most firms do not have the expertise to repair broken or sloppy machines. Repair parts are expensive when you can find them. Sellers of spare parts are dwindling and not carrying everything. Attachments usually are not immediately available, so Acme users need to keep old machines around to rob for spare parts.

4) If you want to keep a 40 to 70-year-old Acme running, who can give it a heart transplant? The sad fact is that even with thousands of viable Acme 6-spindles still running and making money, there are just a couple of Acme rebuilders still around to bring them back to life.

5) But what about the 8-spindle Acmes? It appears that the 8-spindle National Acme, especially the 3/4″ RA-8, 1-1/4″ RB-8, and 1-5/8″ RBN-8, still have a place. Judging by the demand that Graff-Pinkert sees, those machines, especially with Logan threading and pickoff attachments, fill the niche of efficient long-run production at an affordable price. Compared with European competition like Schütte, Gildemeister, Tornos, or ZPS, they sell for a pittance, so shops accept their deficiencies and run them until they drop.

For my whole life, selling the stallion of cam screw machines has put food on the table. These are the machines that help win wars and pour out fittings for faucets around the world. But even Secretariat limps around the barnyard eventually.

From my standpoint of a machinery dealer, the 6-spindle Acme-Gridley is now a bargain item. I write this with genuine sadness because a 1-1/4″ RA-6 with a good stem was gold just a few years ago. Today, many people still like them, but for a non-rebuilt machine Graff-Pinkert generally asks between $10,000 to $40,000.

The question is, will they become accordions that most people no longer know how to play?

Or, will 6-spindle Acmes make a comeback with an expanding Mexican market, like we have seen with Davenports in the last three years. It could happen.

Please come back Frankie Yankovic!

Questions:

What is the oldest machine in your shop, and is it still making money for you?

Do you still love a good polka?

The post The 6-Spindle Accordion? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s podcast episode is the second half of our interview with Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor, the founder of Hyphen Innovations, a firm that develops low cost, damage resistant aerospace components.

We also discussed Onome’s desire for more young African Americans to feel confident in their abilities to pursue degrees in engineering.

Question: What was your last failure that turned out to be a good thing in the end?

The post Thinking Like an Artist to Solve Engineering Challenges, With Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor (Part II)—Ep. 181 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The malaise of American manufacturing is the shortage of skilled workers.

Every few days, I hear the familiar lament, “I just can’t find good people.” If this is the epidemic of the machining industry in this country, we are long overdue to find the cure.

I am both a participant and an observer in this area. Graff-Pinkert has a small staff of factory workers involved in cleaning, painting, and refurbishing primarily screw machines. Our approach to the skills shortage is no panacea for a big machining company, but it is a practical one for us. “Pay people what the larger economy says they are worth, and trust them as the intelligent, skilled folks they are.” I really do not care what McDonald’s and Wendy’s are paying down the street. They are irrelevant.

Let’s be realistic. A young high school graduate who learns how to install a furnace and solve air conditioning problems is going to make $30 to $35 per hour after graduating from a two-year tech school. Or, a person could choose between learning CNC programming or apprenticing to a plumber. As a plumber, that person could be making $100,000 annually in a few years.

We wonder why we cannot find good young people to work in our factories? Lousy pay is the number one reason.

You may think those heating and air conditioning wages are absurd for the machining world. I doubt it in a period of reshoring to North America.

When I discuss this issue with people in manufacturing, they admit that labor costs are generally 20% to 30% of making a part. They also tell me that in an inflationary period, price increases are there for the asking. I hear more and more folks tell me that as the competition thins out with Baby Boomers retiring or dying off, they can take a hard-headed attitude toward raising their prices.

The notion that the work will all move to China is yesterday’s thinking during the period of the hostile Xi regime. Mexico is a legitimate and growing competitor, but the prevalence of the drug games make it problematic too. India is still in its infancy as a viable player in machining, and Taiwan is threatened by China.

As a machining firm, the main competition is other machining firms facing similar issues.

Training is a long-term cure for the problem, but the opportunities take time and money to develop.

Gig workers are a very useful approach to fill holes. Graff-Pinkert uses former employees and retired machining specialists who want to work three days per week, quite effectively. I think the machining industry is going to see more and more independent specialists who will travel, filling in where full-time people are no longer justified.

Companies will become more prepared to wait for the high priced expert to come in from Cleveland or Sioux Falls, and people will graduate toward those jobs and advertise with websites.

When a prime suspect as a potential hire tells you they want $40 or $60 or $100 per hour, do not laugh. Consider the potential value the person brings, not the amount that you used to think was absurd. Looking at the bigger picture, they might well be worth it.

Question: How would it impact your business if wages were 20% higher?

The post $40 an Hour? Are You Crazy? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On today’s podcast, we talk about how you can apply the artistic side of your brain to solve engineering challenges.

Our guest is aerospace engineer, Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor, founder of Hyphen Innovations, a firm that develops new advanced aerospace components for the Department of Defense and other clients.

Onome immigrated from Nigeria to the US as a child. In high school, he was an average student but excelled in fine arts classes. In college, he played Division I basketball at Wright State.

Question: What type of fine arts classes did you take as a student.

The post Thinking Like an Artist to Solve Engineering Challenges, With Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor (Part I)—Ep. 181 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Stuff I’ve wanted to write about but didn’t have the guts to.

It stinks to feel old. I am well into being 78 years old, which is a blessing and a curse. My hearing is miserable. I denied my hearing loss for many years, blaming it on overactive wax glands and sinus congestion, but my E.N.T. a doctor who excavates my ears searching for wax, shamed me into taking a hearing test during one of my drilling days. The results were that I had rather severe hearing loss. I needed hearing aids to hear clearly.

I bought pricey ones from the fellow who worked with him, and they definitely help, but they are no panacea. Certain frequencies defy their effectiveness, and they are useless in understanding voices in a crowd. At a party I am in a dither. If I am not looking at somebody and watching their gestures and mouth movements, I am in trouble

My vision stinks. I’ve had seven surgeries for a detached retina and subsequent scarring. Unfortunately I am one of the unlucky 5% whose retinas scarred after surgery, and there is nothing the surgeons can do about it.

I still drive, but cautiously, and it feels like every driver who gets behind me creeps too close for my comfort. It makes driving stressful, so I defer to my wife when we travel together.

The other thing that is a consistent irritant is the need for reading glasses. I have five, six or seven pairs scattered throughout my home, office, and car. The number varies because one or two pairs are always lost.

I have a long roster of medicines I take which are supposed to help keep me alive. Blood pressure pills, beta blockers, statins for cholesterol, aspirin, arthritis calmers, fish oil, pomegranate juice for prostate. Add a little CBD salve to smooth things out and a Valium here and there.

Put them all together in a day and you have a recipe for bathroom aggravation.

Aging also brings mood swings. I am grateful for every day except for the days I am not. I am really happy I get to work in the machinery business and write this blog, except when I don’t feel “on top of my game.” I am quite sure I would go nuts to merely be a TV blob between naps. My wife, Risa, has an educational therapy practice, and if all I had was Oprah, cooking shows, and the Cubs to talk about, I think she would be considering a divorce or at least a separate bedroom at a retirement village.

This is the lament of a well-off American with a wonderful family, a brain that still allows him to play word games, and legs that can carry him to the bathroom at 3:00 a.m. It is probably healthy to honestly bitch occasionally, so you know I am not a pollyanna.

What is a pollyanna anyway?

Question: What’s the best thing about aging?

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There is an economic boom going on in recession predictions.

Since COVID-19 hit in early 2020, the brilliant economists and professional pessimists have been predicting misery for the American economy.

We actually did have a recession in 2020. It started in February and ended two months later according to a group of economists who are in charge of making an “official” designation of such happenings, the shortest downturn on record.

For the last three years, the recession lobby has been pummeling us with continual harping about recession that is just around the corner, yet unemployment remains at 3.5%, the lowest in 50 years.

If you are in business or simply work for a living, how do you keep your spirits up in the face of this almost endless negativity? First, you could totally ignore every economist, banker, and business person who has the same stature in navigating the economy. The head of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Diamond, steers more money around than just about any person in the world. He continues to preach an ugly drop in business, while he harvests more profits as the Fed raises interest rates.

I discount everything Diamond spins to the press because he profits when interest rates go higher from the terrible threat of runaway inflation. The fact is, the Federal

Government and the Fed have pumped an enormous amount of money into the economy in recent years, yet it was only in the past year because of several unusual occurrences, which were bound to self-correct, that we got real inflation that is proving to be temporary.

First, the COVID pandemic soaked almost everybody. Big business and its clairvoyant economists panicked, not understanding that vaccines and the eventual herd immunity would mute its impact. One huge error that big manufacturing firms like auto companies made was drastically cutting the number of semiconductor chip orders.

Then COVID subsided, but the artificial chip shortage caused production to be way behind demand. That pushed up prices. Then we had the shortage of residential real estate. For many years, demand and supply have been fairly balanced, but Wall Street firms, speculators, and individuals all saw the market as undervalued with the Fed keeping interest rates at unprecedented low levels for several years. Stocks looked expensive after a big bounce up, bonds appeared ugly, while residential real estate was an opportunistic buy. Money poured in, the Fed raised rates significantly to levels that used to be normal, and the market is now correcting.

Then a year ago, Russia started the war in Ukraine and used its fossil fuels as a weapon. Vladimir Putin had shrewdly played the Germans for fools by making them dependent on Russia for oil and gas. But again, after a temporary run-up, the market corrected. Liquid natural gas was rerouted to Europe. The United States ramped up production. Oil, which the Russians figured would go to $150 a barrel, settled under $80. Ukraine battled the Russians to a stalemate, China stayed out of the war, and economies have held up.

Another unusual factor in this is the supply of workers in America has not expanded greatly. We only have gone up, especially for workers in the lower end of the market, to help stay even in buying power. The tech industry, which over-hired over several years, has trimmed a small percentage of their workers.

The net effect of all of these temporary factors is that we have moderating inflation without recession.

Why have so many smart people gotten it wrong? My assessment is that they have a strong vested interest in being negative. It gets them noticed in the media. The feeling is that if you are wrong in predicting doom, people will forget, but if you hit it right, you are brilliant.

But if you are in business and you are continually pessimistic, you will never grow because you are so wary of risk.

One day, the nattering negativists will be correct. One day, we will all be dead. I prefer to bet on life.

Question: How has your business reacted to the boom in recession predictions?

The post The Recession Boom first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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As machinery dealers, we are constantly evaluating when we should trust the people we are attempting to work with. Fortunately, the United States has a solid legal system that keeps people straight for the most part, and we live in a culture with relative social trust, despite our ever-growing divisiveness. Social psychology studies have shown that people naturally default to trusting each other, and for better or worse, I consider myself one of those instinctual trusters.

Most of the people we make machinery deals with don’t try to screw us over, and through the years, Graff-Pinkert dealt with only a few very costly incidents of theft.

The worst happened when a Taiwanese dealer did not send the Swiss machines to us that we paid a few hundred thousand dollars for. Another time, we put some machines in storage at another dealer’s warehouse, and tens of thousands of dollars in parts were robbed from them, rendering them worthless.

But usually, if we get screwed over in the machinery business, it means a customer went around us to a seller, or we bought a machine that was not in the condition it was promised, or another dealer didn’t pay us a commission we were owed—that one happened this year, and we will never call him again. That stuff stinks, but I consider those scenarios as more deceitfulness and backstabbing rather than significant pain inducing robbery. The lasting harm is more to relationships than anything.

The following is my advice to folks reading this to not get cheated in a deal, for what it’s worth.

If you ever encounter someone who says you “you can trust me,” or lectures you about “honor and integrity,” be VERY careful. The people who have cheated us in the past often said those exact things.

Does writing this blog make me one of those people? I hope not.

Another important thing I remind myself is that “getting to know people well” is not necessarily a great way to evaluate trustworthiness. My favorite social psychologist, Robert Cialdini, says that people will trust you when they know you and when they like you. I went to Asia to “get to know” the guy who would soon steal a lot of money from us. I spent several days bonding with Mr. Lin, traveling around together, looking at machines. He brought his wife on the trip, and we talked about their young daughter over dinners. I felt like we had developed a close relationship.

As I mentioned before, I am not talented at deciphering who is lying and who is telling the truth. But that’s not my fault because studies have shown that nobody is good at it. The supposed professionals like the criminal justice system and intelligence agencies get things backwards all the time. So why should I do any better?

The pity is that being cheated could been prevented if only we had done a little quick research about Js Precision. After the deal’s disaster, many people told us Js Precision Co. was notorious for scams. We never asked around about them before we made the deal because we were so hung up on keeping our amazing new source for machines a secret.

You’re probably not good at spotting a liar. After you realize this, you can figure out a better way to protect yourself.

Questions: How do you protect yourself from fraud?

When were you a victim of a fraud?

The post Advice to Not Get Screwed first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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One of my favorite machinery dealers we work with is from Brazil. He specializes in sending machine tools to South America.

A used machinery deal is usually a challenge to close—even if a customer says they need it. Even if it’s an excellent machine that’s rare on the used market, at a good price, it is hard to close a used machinery deal.

But selling a machine to Brazil from the United States adds extra challenges. The customers usually can’t inspect the machine in person, and the Brazilian government charges more than 30% import tax on used machinery brought into the country.

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You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.But my friend from Brazil is the most optimistic partner I’ve ever worked with. His optimism makes working with him fun, yet it’s frustrating sometimes. Once I told him that his constant excitement for deals that were going to happen, was starting to make me skeptical when he would tell me about his next great prospective buyer.

He smiled and told me that to succeed in the machinery business, which is often fueled by finding equipment or customers seemingly by chance, you have to be optimistic. If you seldom believe deals will succeed then it’s not a good business to be in. If you don’t believe that someone in another hemisphere will pay good money for a dirty, 20-year-old Walter CNC grinder that somehow you stumbled upon at an auction in Rockford, Illinois, it will be hard to make it in the used machinery business. That was a good deal we did together.

I discovered the podcast coaching program I recently joined from a paid ad while scrolling through Instagram late on a Saturday night. When the program, Grow the Show, was pitching to me, they told me my show’s listenership would likely grow 10- 20% in the first month. They said within a year it could be bringing in $100,000 in revenue.

I was seduced by these optimistic claims because they gave me hope, even though I knew deep down I should keep my expectations tempered. After all, they didn’t know me nor my podcast audience. They also didn’t know how much time I would have to put into their program.

But I allowed myself to buy into their optimism and made the significant investment to try it.

I’m happy to say in the last six months the podcast has grown a significant amount in listenership. Not yet to the extent that they sold me, but I’m pretty sure it would not have grown much at all if I didn’t take a chance on the program. Seeing that Instagram ad turned out to be serendipity. But only because I was optimistic it would work.

I met my wife, Stephanie, on an internet dating site. That became serendipity because I was optimistic enough to believe it was worth the time to meet her for a drink.

Maybe your machine shop is taking on an exciting new type of work for a customer you stumbled upon at a trade show. Maybe you’re thinking about hiring someone you met randomly working at Home Depot because they seemed sharp. To make those chance discoveries mean something, you must be optimistic that they will lead to something successful.

This is Seeking Serendipity.

Question: What are you the most optimistic about in your business?

The post How Optimism Will Lead You to Luck in Business: Seeking Serendipity first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I’m on vacation. Hold on a minute, I’ve got to take this call from the office.

You probably think I am nuts, but this is the vacation that I wanted and expected. My wife Risa is the same way. She usually has a meeting or two every day and phone conversations about clients. They punctuate her days. They stimulate her and give meaning to her life.

For me, the business calls from Graff-Pinkert are often with Noah and Rex. They are usually about opportunities and possibilities that allow me to stretch my mind and enjoy connection with them.

If I did not have these calls I would be bored.

I do not want them constantly. I may not answer if I am involved in a vacation activity or deliberate non-activity.

But these are the facts. At 78 years old I’m a smorgasbord of aches and pains, but with the gift of an active, curious mind, a successful business, and a son who pushes me, this is the vacation that I really do want.

I am extremely grateful not to be retired but also not forced to work at something I do not enjoy.

I am rarely bored. That is a real gift. I still have a good memory, though names and words can occasionally elude me.

I see peers and acquaintances who are retired. They move away from family and friends, looking for warmth and leisure. But then they are miserably bored and lonely and spend much of their time worrying about their illnesses and ailments and those of their wives and children if they are fortunate enough to still have them.

The very lucky ones have no money worries, children who want to be with them and visit, and the physical ability to go on walks, play golf, and deal a card game.

Keep the calls coming even when I’m on vacation and not feeling like an Olympic marathoner. I need the stimulation. I’m searching for opportunity and serendipity. I’m looking forward to a visit this morning with the customer over breakfast at my favorite coffee shop.

I am extremely happy for these kinds of days and I am truly grateful for each one. But excuse me, I have to take a call from Rex.

Question: What are you looking forward to if you reach older age?

The post To Me, It’s Not Work first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On today’s show, Lloyd Graff and I are discussing our observations of the machining industry in 2022 and our instincts about where the industry is headed in the coming year.

As used machinery dealers at Graff-Pinkert, we saw trends in 2022 such as reshoring, the resurgence of old school cam screw machines, and a growing number of machining businesses that soon may be for sale.

We think these trends will accelerate in 2023, and we hope this conversation will uncover some opportunities that your business can take advantage of in the coming year.

Question:What areas of your business seem the strongest in 2023?

The post Opportunities for Your Machining Business in 2023 EP: 178 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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LeBron James became the all-time highest scorer in NBA history Tuesday night, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record.

They are both amazing athletes, bright, dedicated men who are icons in the African-American community.

In Sunday’s Super Bowl, both star quarterbacks, Patrick Maholms and Jalen Hurts, are Black. It is the first time that has happened in the championship game.

These are tremendous personal achievements for these four men, but I will pose the question that a white man perhaps has no right to ask. Has their greatness as athletes been a positive thing for the Black community in America?

I was thinking about this question yesterday and asking myself if anybody knows the greatest Jewish NBA player or pro football player. Maybe we know the greatest Japanese baseball player because he is playing at the moment (Shohei Ohtani).

Has the superiority and exaltation of LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes done anything substantive to elevate the lives of the millions of poorly educated, underclass Black people in America who idolize them? Athletic status and superiority and the veneration of star athletes may have actually stifled the rise of many blacks in this country.

The Graff-Pinkert plant and offices are a short walk from Hillcrest High school in Country Club Hills, IL. Hillcrest is virtually all African-American. It is not a highly ranked academic school in the Chicagoland area.

Hillcrest received a big boost in its funds recently when 1,100,000 square feet of new warehouse space was developed and leased out adjacent to the school. Hillcrest’s School Board opted to build a beautiful new gym with its fresh money. Another local high school, Homewood-Flossmoor, a few miles away, recently built its own new gym as well. Meanwhile, local test scores continue to go down.

My close friend Jerry Levine lived in the Homewood-Flossmoor area for 25 years while his kids grew up. He was a leader in raising the money for a beautiful apartment building near Hillcrest for homeless people needing a place to get back on their feet.

He recently established a scholarship at his alma mater, Purdue University, just for Black kids, to study engineering. He has managed to find only two kids who qualified in four years. Both are the children of middle class parents who emigrated to America from Africa.

Sadly, I think that role models like LeBron and Patrick Mahomes have not motivated the majority of Black males to excel academically. Hillcrest High School did not use its windfall to do the long hard task of somehow motivating students to eventually qualify for Jerry Levine’s scholarship at Purdue.

Is it LeBron’s fault? No. He is using his great gift as a basketball player with all of his vigor. But something is wrong with this picture. I do not think blaming America’s long-term racism is an answer. I do not think LeBron and Mahomes have lived their lives as victims.

I think that lowering academic standards and requirements reinforces a sense of victimhood. The upcoming Supreme Court decision about Harvard and University of North Carolina showing favoritism in admissions to Black students in order to achieve diversity and equality will be fascinating to watch.

Meanwhile, let us applaud LeBron, Mahomes, and Jalen Hurts, for their terrific accomplishments, yet still ask whether it is a great thing for the African-American community to build gyms and not students.

Question: Why are there so few Black people working in precision machining?

The post Build Students Not Gyms first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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During my career as a used machinery dealer, I’ve met many successful companies in the machining business who have no social media presence and don’t even have a website. Surprisingly they use some of the most advanced equipment and have more customers than they need.

Today we’re pulling out a favorite podcast episode about a company just like that.

I interviewed Jay Sauder, owner of Sauder Machine in Plymouth, Ohio. Sauder makes a variety of precision components such as casings for mechanical pocket watches and wheel cylinders for horse drawn buggies driven by Amish people.

Sauder Machine has no sales team nor a social media presence, yet it has a diversified, profitable customer base that continues to grow through great networking. Jay Sauder told me about how doing great work and establishing great relationships with customers has been the fuel to keep his business rapidly growing year after year.

Listen with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or your podcast favorite app.

Main Points

Jay talks about the origin of Sauder Machine. His dad started the business with his uncle in 1982 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Jay is the fourth generation of machine shop owners in his family. In 2009 he started at the business and eventually took over administrative duties from his dad, who prefers to be working on machines to pushing pencils. Jay says when he started, the business had a lot of good customers, but his dad had not been charging some of them enough for various jobs to be profitable. (3:00)

Jay talks about his Mennonite background and how that has brought him Amish clientele. He grew up as Old Order Mennonite, a religious group with many common customs and origins as the Amish. He started driving a horse and buggy when he was 15 years old (he has only been driving a car for six years). Jay says the communities vary, but on the whole, Amish people are more conservative than Mennonites. Jay says he grew up with electricity and telephones in his house, while Amish people usually don’t have those amenities. Mennonites don’t have to have beards and don’t have to dress quite as conservatively as Amish. (5:00)

Jay says the commonalities and connections between Mennonite and Amish communities have brought Sauder Machine some important customers. Sauder Machine designed a hydraulic brake system for Amish and Mennonite carriages. The carriages already had brakes, but they were using cast iron rear cylinders imported from China, which were modeled after those on a 1941 light-duty Ford truck. Sauder’s wheel cylinders are made of anodized aluminum and are water resistant. The company also makes master cylinders. Since Sauder started making the wheel cylinders in 2012, it has produced 140,000 of them, which the company makes on an OKK CNC 500mm pallet horizontal mill. (7:45)

Jay says his company uses no advertising, sales team, manufacturer’s rep, or social media. The company has a single page website that Jay says has brought him a few RFQs in the past. He says his business connections and customer good will are his key getting new business. (10:20)

Jay talks about a casing for a mechanical pocket watch he produces. Amish people do not wear wrist watches, and some require the watches to be mechanical rather than battery operated. An Amish watch producer in Wisconsin had been been importing his casings from China, but he was looking for a supplier in the United States. He spoke with an Amish owned machine shop in Ohio that Sauder made parts for, and they referred him to Sauder. Sauder sent him a quote and the watchmaker immediately ordered 5,000 pieces, which Jay says he will make on the company’s INDEX C65 lathe. (11:00)

Jay talks about a 2% discount he gives every customer if they pay within 10 days. He says 90% of his customers take this discount, everyone from the Amish watchmaker, to steel producers and Parker Hannifin. (15:00)

Jay says the same principles that have grown his business within the Amish community have helped him in other spheres. He says that a steel company customer in Ohio refers new clients to Sauder Machine. Jay says he keeps the steel company as a middleman, rather than working with those new clients directly. This reinforces their cooperative relationship. (16:00)

Noah asks Jay, what advice he would give a new company who does not have an existing network of customers to bring it referrals. Jay admits that he does not have experience in this scenario, but he suggests to try a service like manufacturing.com to source work, which hopefully would start a network of more customers. (18:30)

Jay says since he took over the business operations of Sauder, he has had to go to longtime customers and dramatically raise prices because the company was losing money on various jobs. He says some of the customers left, but within a year they came back and didn’t even try to negotiate. He says if you do parts right the first time, customers are not going to want to go elseware. (20:30)

Jay talks about the negotiation process with customers. Noah asks him what he would do in a hypothetical scenario where customer came to him with target a price of $2.00 per part, while he knew that Sauder could actually produce the part for $1.00. Jay says his first instinct is to offer to make the part for $1.75. This way Sauder makes some decent money, and the customer feels good as well. He says however, that if later he is able to improve his process internally to make the part cheaper, the price of the part to the customer will often stay the same. Sometimes he might lower the price to strengthen a relationship with a customer or stave off competition. (24:20)

Jay talks about his constant reinvestment in his business. He always is concerned with upgrading equipment and taking care of employees. He says taking the right steps to do good work is one of the most important ways to keep customers and find new ones. If people know they can buy parts from his company and there won’t be problems they will continue to come back and bring him new customers. (27:20)

Jay says he likes to buy equipment (always used) if he sees fantastic opportunities—he does not need to have work for it yet. He says the most money he has ever paid for a machine was $140,000 for a Traub he recently bought, which might have cost 6 or 7 times that price new. He says he is considering buying his first new machine, a Mazak Multiplex, for a Parker Hannifin job. To make a part come of the machine complete he needs a machining center that can do probing, induction hardening, and grinding. He says he is not afraid about losing the job because he could repurpose the machine. He also says that large companies often make decisions slowly. He says a part Sauder makes for Parker took two years from the time it made a sample part until being approved for production. Then it took another year to make one change on a print. (29:40)

Noah asks Jay to tell him something he learned last week. Jay says he learned he can draw out a solid piece of steel rod cheaper than the price of tubing by using an Iscar SUMOCHAM drill. He says the material cost is about $.60 cheaper. Jay says his philosophy is “live and learn, crash and burn. If the tool doesn’t crash you’re not pushing it hard enough.” (32:45)

Question: Is word of mouth the best way to find new work?

The post Finding Customers Using Old-School Networking, with Jay Sauder–EP 121 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On today’s podcast I interviewed Trevor Blondeel, the founder of Operations Kickstart and the host of the podcast, Mindfulness Manufacturing.

Trevor uses mindfulness techniques to coach manufacturing executives so they can better lead their companies.

The idea is that if his clients become more conscious of their feelings and their current behavior, it will inspire sustainable change in how they work with others and lead.

If you’re interested in the topics of coaching and understanding yourself better I think you will like this episode.

You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.

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Noah Graff: Give me a quick summary of Operations Kickstart and how you came to start it.

Trevor Blondeel: We work with manufacturers to connect (management) to the shop floor.

I ran manufacturing plants for 25 years. I made a lot of mistakes and got a lot of battle scars. And I did a lot of actions well.

In 2016, I went off and started (Operations Kickstart) to help solve the problem of “disconnect.” Often we have great owners of manufacturing plants and businesses who really enjoy their teams and want to do well, but they get disconnected. That’s the problem that we solve. Everyone has great intentions, but sometimes our intentions don’t land with the perceptions of others.

Graff: What caused you to pivot in your career?

Blondeel: It definitely was a lot of personal growth. I started reading more on emotional intelligence. I started doing mindfulness practice. I really started exploring and heightening my own self-awareness— seeing that the way that I thought people saw me wasn’t always that way. I started learning more. I was blessed with some great training and some great mentors and coaches who helped me identify that just by shifting a couple behaviors, I could make such an impact for others.

It’s like that first hour in manufacturing. If you start with a good vibe and you start with a green hour and everybody’s organized and aligned, there’s a better chance you’re going to have a better production day.

When you come in, and your boss is not in a good mood, that kind of spins off to the rest of the group.

Graff: Give me the general definition of mindfulness. How you use it in coaching manufacturing executives?

Blondeel: Where your two feet are. Where you are planted right now, is your mind where your two feet are?

Are you present in what you’re doing right now? Because often we have 10 different tasks on our mind, and we’re jumping from task to task or from conversation to conversation because we have a lot to get done. For me, mindfulness is taking that breath, realizing that right now I’m talking to Noah.

I’m not checking my phone. I’m just focused on listening to what you’re saying and really getting my mind in a mode where I’m not thinking about what I want to say next. I’m actually just taking in what you’re saying to me.

Graff: Millennials are a huge part of the workforce now. How does your mindfulness coaching help for working with millennials.

Blondeel: I have a 23-year-old son. All I know is that he has a unique perspective that I learn from. Whether it’s millennial or whatever label we want to have on it, every generation is a little bit different, and that’s actually what manufacturing needs. We need younger people, especially in the trades.

They’re going to be more curious and challenge a little bit more. It’s not going to be the “come to work I’m getting paid a good dollar, so I’m just going to be quiet.” So there’s a greater need to add value.

It’s going to require us to have more dialogue back and forth, and it’s going to be less direction and more conversation.

They understand the bigger picture. They understand how they connect to the vision, and they understand how their value is connected to what we do for this plant and this community. You don’t have to motivate people. You don’t have to push anybody because they’re connected and they’re driven.

Graff: Your website says that 25% of manufacturing workers are engaged at work, 8% less than the national average of 33%, according to Gallup. Making manufacturing the least engaged industry.

Blondeel: Gallup surveys people, asking, “How engaged are you in your work?” “Do you enjoy working there?” “How passionate are you?” They look at the different industries, at how excited people are.

Manufacturing has one of the lowest engagement rates and one of the highest pay rates.

A lot of times we’re (telling) people, “trades get paid really well in manufacturing, and there’s some good benefits, and you can be secure for life financially.”

A lot of that is true, but I believe we can have both (high workplace engagement and pay rates). We can create an environment where we can connect to the people and we all have value.

Question: What do you do to connect with other people in your workplace?

The post You Can Connect With Your Shop When You Know Yourself, With Trevor Blondeel–EP 177 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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This week Otto Frank, Bobby Hull, and Stormy Daniels all made the front page. My challenge is to mix them into a blog that holds your interest and makes you think.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day was January 27. In Ken Burns’ recent documentary on the actions of the United States during that terrible period in Europe, he opens the series with the story of Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, and his frantic efforts to leave Germany before the soldiers came for him and his family. He tried every connection he could imagine to get into the United States. He would have paid every Deutsche Mark of his substantial fortune, but he was constantly refused entry by a country that turned a blind eye to the systematic killing of six million Jews in Germany and the other countries the Nazis invaded.

Bobby Hull, probably the greatest hockey player ever to play for the Chicago Blackhawks, died a couple days ago. Hull is the most celebrated player of my lifetime. He has a statue at the United Center, where the Blackhawks play.

He is being mourned in the sports press, but not by his daughter Michelle Hull. She is a lawyer who defends abused women and children, like she was by her father. Michelle lived through the drunken, hateful rampages of her father. She vowed to make her life’s work defending and aiding women and children against awful abusers like the “Great Bobby Hull.”

Hull was also a blatant racist and anti-Semite, and he made his views quite clear whenever he had the chance.

Stormy Daniels of porn fame is back in the news. The New York City District Attorney is beginning to present evidence to a grand jury regarding Donald Trump offering her hush money to keep quiet about their relationship in 2016 when he was running for President of the United States. Supposedly he passed the money through David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer.

Pecker was present in the building Monday where evidence was being presented to the Grand Jury, according to Fox News. The District Attorney also contacted two of Trump’s own employees about testifying, according to Fox.

How do these threads pull together in a blog about machining by Lloyd Graff?

I love this country. I feel blessed to live here and give thanks everyday for the privilege.

I also see its flaws. I live with the conflict. Sometimes it boils inside me.

Ken Burns loves America too. One of his first magnificent works was the history of baseball, which I dearly love. But America’s response to the Holocaust has haunted him as it has me. He wanted to tell the story as he saw it, beginning with America’s rejection of Otto Frank and millions of other Jews and others who begged to enter the country.

The tirades of our heroes like Bobby Hull are ugly, but common threads in our great country, which we saw so dramatically recently in the outrages of Kyrie Irving and his mentor Kanye West.

We saw them in 2017 at the Charlottesville rally where white supremacists shouted “the Jews will not replace us,” and the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

How does all of this tie into precision machining, an industry that is starving for workers?

The US is still the country that most of the people in the world would love to come to and work. They would add their energy and ideas. Even today with the country in dire need of legal immigrants, half of the startups are founded by newcomers.

Yet my country cannot stop its immigration mess. The “Build the Wall” shouts that Donald Trump used to get elected still reverberate and connect with the nationalist and anti-Semitic threads that kept Otto Frank and his family out of America and led to their deaths.

Imagine how much creativity and energy has been lost because of this “Build the Wall” trope. Yet we still hear it everyday.

I am sure Bobby Hull connected with it. I am one of the people who voted for Donald Trump in 2016. I ignored his narcissism and womanizing because I thought he was a better option than Hillary clinton. And I still think that Trump was an effective president in many ways.

I am one of the conflicted Americans who loves their country, but I see enough to deplore the ugly germs that continue to infect it.

Question: How would you fix the “immigration problem?”

The post A Week to Remember first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today we are starting a new podcast show and blog on the Today’s Machining World Podcast Network called “Seeking Serendipity.” Click the following links to listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.

As our regular readers and listeners know, we talk a lot about serendipity in Today’s Machining World and on Swarfcast. Serendipity is the concept of being in the right place at the right time. Some people call it being lucky, a Spanish customer of Graff-Pinkert once translated it as “destino.”

But why produce a blog and a podcast about serendipity for a media outlet directed at the precision machining community? Because it’s a concept that applies to the manufacturing business and to living a successful, happy, and interesting life.

“Seeking Serendipity” will often center around my experiences as a used machinery dealer, whose livelihood relies on serendipitous events, such as one we had this week.

A machinery dealer I’m close with in California called me last week to get an opinion on a Tsugami Swiss machine he had in stock. It was a beautiful machine, manufactured in 2016, but we were both a little fuzzy on its demand. I made a mental note, but didn’t think much of it. I didn’t know anyone who wanted that machine, but as I like to say in our business, all it takes is one customer—that one right customer to make a successful deal.

Tsugami B0205 II at Graff-PinkertA few days ago, a manufacturer inquired about a machine on Graff-Pinkert’s website, a Tsugami B0205 II manufactured in 2014. We have been trying to sell that machine for a while. I just can’t understand why nobody has bought it yet. But that’s a story for a different blog.

I was excited to call the customer back to discuss the B0205 II. Unfortunately, he wasn’t actually looking for that model. He just contacted us because we had a Tsugami.

The next morning, for some reason the guy’s machine request was lingering in my brain. I suddenly remembered my friend in California who had asked me for advice about that same model the guy was looking for! I called him right away and the machine was still available. I then called the manufacturer I had spoken to the day before. I sent him a quote, and within an hour he wrote back that he would buy the machine!

A whole machinery deal nearly completed in a few hours. In case you’re wondering, deals like this don’t happen everyday, and as I write this, no transaction has been finalized yet.

Why did this deal happen? What did the three parties in this deal do to create this “luck?”

First, I have a good network of people I talk to regularly about machines. This other dealer and I share information often. We have a relationship and have built trust over time. If he didn’t know me, he likely would not have called me the week before to get my opinion about this machine, and there would be no deal.

Secondly, the deal happened because a customer searching for treasure took the initiative to experiment. He contacted me, even though I hadn’t advertised the exact machine he wanted. Perhaps he was thinking that if we had a similar Tsugami to what he was looking for, just maybe, we might have the Tsugami that he actually wanted.

Then, I connected the dots. I listened to the elements manifesting around me and followed my nudges, which led me to bring the machine to the customer.

People in the precision machining industry rely on serendipity constantly. They solve problems for a living. To be successful they have to be present in the moment. They have to notice all the opportunities at their disposal, experiment, and put everything together to make things “work out.”
Honestly, I’m not going to claim to be a serendipity guru yet.

I don’t know exactly how this blog and podcast are going evolve, and I don’t want to sound like I think I know everything. I’m experimenting and following my nudges with the faith that this will work and be great! I want to take people on this journey with me. We will learn new strategies and share them as a community, which of course, is a key ingredient to creating serendipity.

Question: When did you encounter serendipity recently?

The post Seeking Serendipity: A Machinery Deal Gone Right first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Ping pong has changed my life.

I thought about that a few days ago when I watched my adult sons whacking backhands and forehands playing against and then with each other in doubles at a big family celebration in California. They love the game almost as much as I do.

The family they are part of never would have happened without ping pong. I started playing as a kid with my dad. Great for developing hand-eye coordination and a father-son relationship. I graduated to after-school competitions. One year, I played three games for the school championship before a few hundred people.

When I went to college at the University of Michigan, eight tables were set up on the second floor of the Michigan Union next to the pool tables, not far from the Grand Ballroom where dances were held. I immediately gravitated there and spent many hours playing, often against very good players from around the world.

The Union was just a 3-minute walk from the Michigan Daily where I worked for four years, and eventually became the Sports Editor. I left Ann Arbor after graduating in 1966, but returned a year later after a stint in the Illinois National Guard, doing basic training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

Afterward, I went back to Michigan for a year of grad school. A few months after the fall semester began, I decided to go back to the Union for more ping pong on a Saturday night. It was a freezing January evening, but Freshmen were streaming into the building for a big dance being held about 50 feet from the ping pong tables. The music was distracting me anyway, so I decided to walk into the dance with my paddle sticking out of my jacket pocket.

I surveyed the crowd of young women, most of them six or seven years younger than myself, and out of the crowd of at least 1,000 people, I saw one girl, one beautiful girl, in a plaid mini skirt. I walked across the entire ballroom to say hello.

Sixteen months later, in Risa’s Levine’s hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, we were married.

When we bought our home eight years later, it had to have plenty of space for a ping pong table.

As our three children grew up, family ping pong was often played after dinner. It wasn’t just played for enjoyment. Frequently, it was a therapy session, just hitting the ball gently back and forth. Sometimes we talked, but often we just hit, allowing thoughts and anger to play out.

I recently heard Brené Brown, a well-known writer and business consultant, saying she does her best creative thinking while playing ping pong.

It brought me back to those many nights spent quietly hitting with my kids in our basement. I don’t play anymore because seven retina detachments have robbed me of my depth perception, but I still dream and imagine the tapping of the ball against the green painted wood table.

Ping pong. You never know how a 38mm hollow celluloid ball (now 40mm and polymer) and a pimpled rubber paddle might change your life. Ping pong, savor it all.

Question: What activities do you like to do to get your creativity going?

The post Ping Pong Changed My Life first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Recently, we have seen a growing number of mergers and acquisitions in the manufacturing space.

After these deals are finalized there’s a lot of uncertainty for the employees caught in the middle of reorganization.

Our guest on the podcast today is Jennifer Fondrevay. Jennifer is a best selling author and the Founder of Day1 Ready, a consultancy that advises companies on how to prepare for challenges that result from changes in the workplace.

This interview will be helpful for anybody dealing uncertainty in their work environment.

You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.

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Main PointsNoah Graff: Explain your company, Day1 Ready. What is the significance of the name?

Jennifer Fondrevay: I felt that too often in mergers and acquisitions, buyers sellers on both sides, thought day one was the moment they announced the deal. My philosophy was, nope, that is not day one. Your day one is from the moment you as leaders or business owners or CEOs, start thinking about a merger or an acquisition. Even if you don’t share with anyone that you’re thinking about doing a merger and acquisition, people start to pick up on your decision making, the fact that you’re traveling a lot, that you’re not in the office. My focus is helping you be day one ready, so that the moment you make that announcement, you are ready for all the questions you’ll get.

This is how people react. Here are all the ways that you need to be prepared as a leader to help your people navigate the change that’s going to happen.

Graff: Tell me about your book, NOW WHAT?: A Survivor’s Guide for Thriving Through Mergers & Acquisitions?

Fondrevay: I interviewed 60-plus CEOs and CFOs from Fortune 500 as well as small and middle sized businesses. Consistently they shared the same challenges that they had with people. How people react to change.

I was a chief marketing officer at several multi-billion dollar [companies], and I went through three separate multi-billion dollar deals. The first [deal] that I talk about in my book is really what motivated me to write the book. I had the privilege of working at Navteq, heading up the B2B marketing. We were acquired by Nokia in 2008 for roughly $9 billion.

Graff: What advice do you have for executives coming into an M&A deal?

Fondrevay: Consistently come to the deal with respect for the other side. You have to treat this like a marriage.

I have never seen a deal go well when both sides are either arrogant or one side is arrogant, thinking they’re saving another business.

Humans don’t like change, they abhor uncertainty. There’s a lot of things that are going to play out. Variables you cannot control, but focus on what you can control. Prepare your people, have answers to questions.

Graff: You break employees down into several types in your keynote. Explain some of them.

Fondrevay: The “former rockstar” is the person who consistently in the original company had the Midas touch. They could have been head of sales, head of product, head of marketing. The person who had the CEO’s ear.

The struggle that will turn them into a former rockstar is that once the deal is done, the metrics for success change.

Graff: How do you help them?

Fondrevay: Acknowledge the really important role that they played in helping get the business to where it is. But with the rockstar, the number one piece of advice I highlight to CEOs is you can’t coddle them. Because then he or she tends to keep things as the old way of doing things. After a certain point, if you let that person stay on and they continue to say, “this isn’t gonna work,” he or she can become toxic.

Graff: What is another type of employee you discuss in your work?

Fondrevay: “The missing in action.” The people who hold back. They really don’t contribute much. They don’t volunteer and lead anything. They put in the bare minimum because they’re trying to see how things are going to play.

The reason why in our discussion I referenced quiet quitting is it’s a lot of the same symptoms. They actively disengage. But you may not necessarily pick up on it right away. They’re physically present, but you aren’t even sure what they do.

So you need to prepare for how that [organization] chart is going to look? What will be the titles, the departments? Are people going to maintain the same compensation? Will they have their vacation days? These sound like very basic questions, but the more you don’t have answers to basic questions, the more people worry and hold back to see what’s going to happen.

Graff: Give me one more type of employee?

Fondrevay: The dominatrix. That person who is laser focused on the objectives and getting the job done. They’re not there to make friends. They aren’t there to build consensus. That personality can be enormously seductive and very beneficial early on.

When we talk about Elon Musk, that is absolutely his leadership style. He doesn’t hide how he leads. He’s said upfront. “I’m hardcore. If you can’t take it, then go.”

But what can happen is you lose key talent because people say, “I can’t put up with this. This is not the kind of boss I wanna be with. My values don’t align with this person.”

Who knows how this will play out.

Question: When have you felt the most uncertainty in your work environment?

To get in touch with Jennifer Fondrevay, you can go to her website, https://jenniferjfondrevay.com or contact her on LinkedIn.

The post How Do You Manage Employees When a Company is Acquired? With Jennifer Fondrevay—EP 175 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I have thought much about friendship in recent years, wishing I had more, wondering why so many guys I know also don’t have many friends.

In 2023, I decided to do something about it.

I made a mental list of people who I hope to have a better relationship with– acquaintances, family, friends from long ago who I had lost contact with. I have committed to write them, text them, email them, and visit to begin to see what happened to them.

I have seen stats that nearly 15 percent of men and 10 percent of women say they do not have a close friend. We can blame it on our video games or TikTok, the demise of team sports or the elite players who excel. There is no room for the club player, the mediocre guy who will play catcher on the men’s softball team, bat 10th, and still enjoy it.

Churches and synagogues are places for the old.

The coffee shop, what Starbucks used to be when Howard Schultz started it as the “third place,” neither home or work but a place where people could go to meet, is gone.

Zoom is a poor substitute. My son, Ari, says there are websites devoted to meeting potential friends, so maybe there is hope in the online world, but I don’t know if they are getting traction. It does show that men are recognizing the damage of loneliness and looking for ways to discover new friends.

I have read that loneliness is as damaging to health as smoking a pack of cigarettes each day.

I have been blessed to have a wife who is also a best friend and adult children who like to be with me. I treasure that, and we converse often.

Yet I know there is more, especially as I traverse my 70s.

I have a standing appointment to talk with my friend Jerry every Saturday for one to two hours on Zoom. Over the years, we have been getting together for tennis, golf, coffee, or breakfast, after a morning shift at the local homeless shelter. Now we meet on Zoom to talk about family, politics, sports, and occasionally ailments. It’s a great thing, 40 years in the making.

But I know I can have more than one good friend and the gift of a loving family.

I know there is further enrichment out there. I have decided to go after it with the persistence I show chasing a business deal.

Over the last 10 days, I have been calling or contacting old friends and family. I connected with a cousin who I have been playing Words with Friends with on the internet for several years. We will be seeing each other in a few days. I hope to have a genuine conversation. We will see.

I have connected with my teenage granddaughters in a much deeper way than I ever have. They have educated me about their lives, and I have given them a deeper glimpse of Lloyd, the man. In the past, I never really connected with their lives, and they saw me as distant. We have finally begun a genuine conversation, and I’m truly happy and surprised at its depth.

I just had a conversation with my sister again in a meaningful way. For so many years, our conversations have been brief and on the surface. We recently spent an hour talking about our parents and I learned stuff I never understood. Where has the time gone?

I’ve reached out to business friends and writing acquaintances. It is a place to start.

I am on an extended stay at the moment with my daughter in California. It is a great time to begin my new mission.

I’ll end with a quote from author Ally Condie:

“Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side-by-side. Our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.”

Question: Who is one person in your past you’d love to reconnect with?

The post Time to Get More Friends first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on the podcast today is a machinist, entrepreneur, and master craftsman.

Josh Shapiro is the owner and founder of JN Shapiro Watches, one of the few high-end luxury wristwatch makers in the United States. His latest line of watches will be priced at $70,000 dollars and up.

His operation uses the most state of the art CNC Swiss and turn mills, as well as manual turning technology developed as far back as the 1500s!

Listen to the podcast or read the highlights to learn how Josh is producing watches like nobody else has in United States for last 50 years.

You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel. Highlights from the InterviewNoah Graff: First, explain your company, JN Shapiro.

Josh Shapiro: We make high-end luxury wristwatches. We’re one of the very, very few companies in the United States that manufacture watches. We started out just making the faces of the watches. Our expertise is with something called Guilloche, which is doing engraved geometric shapes on the faces of watches, and that’s done using non-motorized, very old school machines. They’re really special. From there we moved on to making our own cases. Now we are very close to having our first prototype completely in-house movement done.

Graff: How much do the watches cost?

The price was $30,000 to $40,000 depending on the case material. The new series that we’re going to launch soon is $70,000 up to about $85,000, depending on material and customization.

JN Shapiro WatchSo they’re very expensive, but we put in about 400 to 500 hours on each timepiece. So much time goes into making each one of those watches.

Graff: How did you get into watchmaking?

Shapiro: I just had a love of old things, so I ended up becoming a history major and then becoming a teacher.

I walked into a local watch store here in Los Angeles called Feldmar when I was about 25, and just fell in love with watches.

One of the first watches I saw was a Skeleton Chronograph watch. There was just so much going on there. It was so fascinating to me. Watches are mechanical. Watches are a really beautiful thing. It’s wearable jewelry that’s functional. It’s fascinating how the gear train flows together. How the escapement functions, the pendulum, just the whole interplay of all the pieces.

While I was a teacher and principal, I was doing watchmaking as a hobby. Then around 2015, I purchased a really nice set of Guilloche, or engine turning machines, and that allowed me to do professional level work. I started producing watch faces, watch styles for other watchmakers, and started thinking in the back of my head of launching my own brand.

Around 2018, I launched my first series, and that’s when I started really reducing my role as a principal, until finally leaving completely two years ago.

Graff: Explain engine turning

Shapiro: The concept is there are cams made out of bronze on the spindle of the machine, and those cams are rocking against the stop. As the spindle is turning, it’s creating these geometric patterns. Then you can phase the cam, independent of the workpiece, and you can create these really beautiful geometric shapes.

It’s an old art. Engine turning machines have been around since the time that lathes came into existence, around 1500.

I have a number of them. The first one I bought, I scraped together every cent I had to afford it. Then, then I ended up selling that set of machines and buying another set of machines. The second set of machines cost me around $30,000. I didn’t have that much money, so I had to sell my 67 Mustang Fastback to afford it.

Graff: How many staff do you employ for making the watches?

Shapiro: It’s me plus seven. I’ve taught everyone in the company how to do engine turning. I have one trained CNC machinist. I have another watchmaker who is turned into a CNC machinist. I have three other watchmakers who are doing various watchmaking tasks and manual machining tasks.

I have one person who’s a trained jeweler, who has pursued a whole career in hand engraving, and one admin. So everyone has a really great skillset and really enjoys making things.

Graff: Tell me about the various machines in your shop.

Shapiro: My first big CNC machine, which we still have, is a Haas office mill. That’s actually a great watchmaking machine, and there’s a lot of people in Switzerland that have these Haas office mills because they’re really, really accurate.

Then we got a Hardinge, HLV, which is like the premier tool room lathe.

And then we picked up the, the (Citizen) L20 from you that was to practice on before we got our new shiny L12, which is getting here Wednesday.

The big machine that we got this year was a Kern Evo. Kern makes the most accurate milling machines on the planet.

It’s a sub-micron machine. We can’t measure sub-micron here in our shop, but it’s nice to know that we’re working with the machine that accurate, that precise. It’s the first Kern Evo used for watchmaking in the US, which is really exciting.

JN Shapiro Watch PartsGraff: Explain the watch movement

Shapiro: A movement is the guts of a mechanical watch. It’s everything inside of it, just like a car engine and transmission. There are some [watch] brands in the United States that do cases and dials, and some purchase everything from Switzerland. They’re just designed in the United States, like Shinola watches. You know they’re importing a good chunk of all their stuff. They got in trouble with the FTC for saying it was American made.

Slowly more is being done here. Our watch that we’re working on is the first time since the sixties that all the parts, all the little parts, everything are made in the United States.

The old series, the Infinity series, that we sold out on, we were making the case, the hands and the dial. So not the movement of the watch.

That was according to plan. I did the Infinity Series to have the funding to grow the company enough to be able to make the movement. Some people make the mistake of trying to do the movement, which is the most difficult thing, right off the bat. And if it’s not a critical success, then they’re out of business.

Graff: Why do people buy expensive watches?

Shapiro: I guess the best example is if you look at the car world. You can buy a Toyota or Honda, and it’ll get you from point A to B, and you can also buy McLaren and it’ll get you from point A to B. From the outside observer, they say, okay, the McLaren looks cooler and rich people buy it.

But then you get into the engine. You know the car goes fast—very, very fast. There’s a ton of engineering that goes into the car to make it be able to do that.

The quality of the parts that are in the car are produced at a much higher level than in a car that’s mass produced. It’s the same thing for a watch. It tells the time, but the quality and time that we put into each and every one of the parts is astronomic.

[A watch] is something that’ll last hundreds of years. It’s a piece of art, and it’s functional art that you can wear on your wrist. Art is the spice of life. It’s not something that’s necessary for you to eat, or live. But it’s what makes our civilization special beyond just being a toy for wealthy people.

When someone sees a work of art it’s inspiring, and that’s what we do with our watches. They’re more than just time telling devices.

Question: What is your favorite watch?

The post Manufacturing a $70,000 Wristwatch in the United States, with Josh Shapiro EP-174 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Why was 2022 the best year of my life so far?

(This blog was also recorded as a podcast narrated by Noah Graff). Listen with the player below, Apple Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast app)

Reason Number 1: I Improved My State of Being

I began working with my life coach, Ginny Cutler, in January. She is coaching me on “being” who I WANT to be. The idea is that if you “feel” stuck, the only way to become unstuck is to transform your state of being.

She says to ask yourself, “What would I be doing if I didn’t feel stuck?” And then do that!

With her help I wrote a document with several statements that declare who “I AM.” Every morning I walk around my neighborhood and recite these statements. Ideally it is good to say them loudly, not caring if others around you hear.

The “I AM” statements I recite the most are:

—I am a bullet penetrating all resistance in my way.

—I embrace discomfort.

—I am following all my nudges—whenever, however, wherever they push me.

—I am a serendipity magnet. I create, I see, I seize opportunities everywhere.

—I am successful, and I am becoming more successful every day.

—I am a productivity machine, focused and ready to begin immediately.

My transformation continues to be a gradual process, but I know I am moving forward to a much better state of being.

Reason Number 2: There’s MORE to the Used Machinery Business

It was a great year for our used machine tool company, Graff-Pinkert. According to Lloyd Graff, the owner and my father, we made the most big deals this year in our company’s 80-year history. We made a few blunders, usually when we bought machines at auctions, but we more than canceled them out with some great scores.

Great scores feel good. They help pay my mortgage. Finding treasure though serendipity and coming up with creative deals—that’s fun.

But I want to feel that what I do for a living means more than buying a machine and selling it for a higher price than what we purchased it for. I know there is more to the used machinery business, but I need to pause and look for it.

Noah Graff with Davenport Multi-Spindle Screw Machine at Graff-Pinkert & Co.I don’t do it enough, but sometimes I think about the purpose we have as used machinery dealers. We provide valuable equipment to machining companies that they might not be able to obtain elsewhere, so they can succeed in their businesses. If they succeed, they create new jobs and create products the world needs.

In 2022, we encountered more startup machining companies than we’ve ever seen. We enabled some of them to purchase their first machine tools. They would not have been able to build their businesses if they had to pay multiple times the price to buy a new machine.

We also helped a company sell their family operation when they wanted to retire. We enabled them to receive some compensation for their life’s work, which they likely would not have achieved otherwise.

It was also fulfilling this year to develop relationships with customers and partners around the world. It feels great to collaborate with other people in the machining industry. We help each other to be successful and sometimes we become friends.

Last of all, working alongside my father, Lloyd, has been a gift this year, as it always has been. We both try to remember to stop sometimes and be present in the moment when we are talking about a deal or collaborating on a blog. Sometimes we even actually tell each other how much we enjoy working together. We know these are precious times. We get to work together regularly with someone we appreciate, and enjoy, and love.

Reason Number 3: We Grew Today’s Machining World’s Podcast

Our podcast, Swarfcast, is growing more than ever. Its download numbers are up 50% over the last 30 days. This is partly do to a new podcast coaching program I joined a few months ago called the Grow the Show Podcast Accelerator Program. The most significant contributors to listener growth have been my participation on LinkedIn and being a guest on other podcasts, which I have to say has been a lot of fun and educational.

Noah and Lloyd Graff doing Podcast InterviewRegardless of download numbers, I’m proud of every one of the 31 episodes I put out this year. They are all enjoyable to listen to, and they teach people things that might help them in their lives. Making the podcast is fun. I get to talk to cool, interesting, smart people. I enjoy the creativity of the production process. But what’s more important is that making Swarfcast, just like writing our blogs, gives me purpose because I know our work affects thousands of people.

Reason Number 4 (By far the most important reason 2022 was the best year of my life!): I Became a Father!

April 6, 2022, my wife, Stephanie, and I had our first child, Abraham! Having any child is a miracle, but we are both in our 40s, so we have extra gratitude for our miracle, as Abe did not come easily.

Noah, Stephanie, and Abe GraffI understand why people say being a father is the most important job they will ever have in life. It’s a fun job and a hard job. Thank God I have an almost perfect wife and we live in the age of quality disposable diapers. We are also extra blessed that Abe happens to be a great sleeper, a fact which I am probably jinxing now.

My analyst once told me, “Adults don’t make kids. kids make adults.” Up until this year, I was a kid. I only had to take care of myself. In 2022, I was blessed to receive an incredible but defenseless person I now have to protect and support.

I’ve always been grossed out by babies, but being with Abe I feel a love I have never before experienced. He brings new meaning and purpose to my life. My wife, Stephanie, and I think he is brilliant, of course, and we are positive he is the sweetest, cutest kid on the planet. Not trying to brag, but honestly, people tell us all the time that he looks like the Gerber baby or even a cherub.

Questions: What was the best thing that happened in your life in 2022?

How did you grow in 2022?

The post 2022 Was the Best Year of My Life first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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This blog is what I decided not to blog about.

I considered writing about holiday bonuses. I have struggled with giving bonus checks for as long as I have made business decisions.

Every year is baffling. What is the right amount? Is it even a good idea to give them at all? Do I sow discontent because employees find out what other employees make and they resent that I did not feel they deserved as much?

I have considered giving no bonuses at all and instead raising salaries, but that seemed dangerous because it locked me into wages which may seem inappropriate the next year.

I have no brilliant answers to write about, so scratch that topic.

I thought about Hanukkah, a relatively minor Jewish holiday that has risen to great significance because Jews want something to celebrate when everybody else is focused on Christmas and gift giving.

Unfortunately, I am no student of holidays and have always downplayed gift giving in my family, so I am passing on that idea.

I have thought many times about discussing my ambivalence about selling machines to make products I feel emotionally pained about, like components for AR-15 rifles, especially bump stocks.

I have stayed away from the topic because I thought discussing making parts for guns would be a no-win subject for me and only get me in trouble with clients. So Lloyd, forget about tackling guns.

I was 78 years old a couple of days ago. I received birthday wishes from all over. The fact is, I am grateful for reaching the birthday I doubted I would ever reach–14 years after the heart attack that should have killed me. I chose not to write about it.

The truth is, I feel enormously fortunate to reach the date and scared about it because it seems so old. My dad died at 78. Therefore, I refuse to write about this big birthday.

Finally, I wanted to write about one of my favorite topics, the Chicago Cubs. They have signed several highly sought after free agents, including shortstop Dansby Swanson, who has been a star for the Atlanta Braves for the last two years. Unfortunately, hardly anybody follows baseball with the same fascination and passion I do, much less for the Cubs. I know I would be foolhardy to waste a blog on baseball in the dead of winter.

So I sit here at 10PM, completely stumped about what to write about in my last blog of the year.

Any suggestions?

Happy New Year and good health to you all.

Question: What should I blog about next year?

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To encourage new recruits to choose the multi-spindle track versus the CNC track, the first three levels of multi-spindle machinists are paid more than the first three levels of CNC machinists.

I ended the interview, asking Bill one of my favorite questions, “When you think of happiness, what does that mean to you.”

Bill takes pleasure from others around him succeeding.

Question: What did you learn in college that helped you in your manufacturing career?

The post How a Navy SEAL Runs a Machining Company, with Bill Berrien (Part II)—EP172 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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She was portrayed in the Russian media as a “lesbian drug user,” skillfully plucked from a plane leaving Russia, to be traded for a valuable patriotic citizen imprisoned in America.

Brittney Griner was finally freed from a Russian jail after almost a year in prison last week. To Vladimir Putin, she was a useful pawn in his battle to humiliate the United States as a pathetic state with weak leadership that bows to Russian might and his superior negotiating strategy.

For Putin, it was one more part of the game of war. He must know that his attack on Ukraine has failed, and his army and its leadership have floundered. His only success has been lobbing missiles from a distance, killing civilians, hobbling Ukraine’s electrical grid, and bombing schools by using drones obtained from Iran.

To the Western world he is this century’s Hitler. He also has exposed everyone’s naivete in abandoning fossil fuels by following the dream of converting to wind and solar power long before it was ready.

Putin proved his point but lost the argument as Europe put new life into NATO and America provided the sophisticated weapons Ukraine desperately needed.

He was looking for a way to show up America and make it look helpless to his shrewd bullying. Poor Brittney Griner, a 32-year-old American female basketball star, provided the tool in his bully’s manual.

She had gone to Russia to play basketball in a Russian women’s league and pick up a million dollars as her reward. Many American stars have done the same thing. Sue Bird, probably the best woman to ever play the game, has recounted in podcasts her adventures playing Russian ball. The money was too good to pass up, so Griner took the chance, thinking her fame would be her shield.

Griner by most accounts is a friendly, easy to like person, who was unprepared for Russian treachery. After being pulled off the plane for possessing two vials of vaping hashish, she endured months of imprisonment before she had a show trial in which she pleaded guilty on advice from her lawyers.

It was part of Putin’s callous chess game. Soon after the sentencing to eight years in prison, the hostage negotiators in both countries began the process of trading prisoners.

Viktor Bout was clearly the plum that Putin wanted to spring. He is a fanatical hater of America. He had sold arms in Congo, Rwanda, and Colombia, and traded in cocaine. He was proud of his nickname, the “Merchant of Death.” This guy is the worst of the worst and he immediately joined an ultra nationalist party in Russia, which treated him as royalty when he arrived in Moscow.

He had served 11 years in a maximum security prison in the United States. Some people in Russia are pushing for him to get into politics in the Kremlin, but he appears to want to resume arms trading for drugs.

So Vladimir Putin got his guy. To him, it was an almost laughable deal. He traded an amiable American woman, a basketball player with a loving wife in America, for stealthy smuggler Viktor Bout. The Americans wanted Paul Whelan too, a former Marine who has spent four years in a Russian prison, but Putin held out, and in the end, President Biden settled for just Brittney. Another case of Biden’s weakness in Putin’s sinister mind.

Putin proved himself to be a shrewd, malevolent tyrant. He is cruel to the core.

Many people in this country are criticizing the US negotiators for being weak and folding for political reasons. I do not see it that way. I have learned from a long business career that you have to make a deal when you can make it, because the opportunity can easily slip away. In my mind, the United States did not lose in this transaction.

I subscribe to Oscar Schindler’s quoting of the Jewish Talmud in Schindler’s List: “Whoever saves one life saves the entire world.”

Question: How would you have handled the Brittney Griner deal?

The post What Is One Life Worth? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Bill Berrien has had an extraordinary professional journey.

He earned an MBA at Harvard, worked for General Electric, and then in private equity. Ten years ago, he purchased Pindel Global Precision, a successful two-generation, machining company near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which he has modernized and grown over the past decade.

Oh, I forgot to mention, he was also a Navy Seal officer for nine years.

What I like about Bill…

Main PointsThe post How a Navy Seal Runs a Machining Company, with Bill Berrien (Part I) — EP171 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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It’s been a bad month for the bad guys.

Iran: Bad guy #1

It lost to, of all countries, the United States, in the World Cup, and people all over the country honked their horns to celebrate.

A couple of days ago, it was announced that the Morality Police were being abolished. It is the enforcement group that is the spearhead of religious orthodoxy in Iran. They are in charge of putting down women’s demonstrations all over the country for violating the mandatory wearing of the hijab head covering in public. The hijab requirement is symbolic of the lack of freedom for women, which prompted growing demonstrations following the death of Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish background who was killed three days after the Morality Police booked her in Tehran.

The power of the ruling regime is being challenged daily with closed businesses and now even the Supreme Leader’s niece joining the rallies. Whether the morality police are actually gone or the announcement is a government headfake remains to be seen, but there is no doubt the country is in turmoil and the regime, which has held power since 1979, feels threatened.

Xi Jinping: Bad guy #2

The next bad guy who is struggling is Xi Jinping of China. After being voted Chairman of the Communist Party for life at the Party congress, he now sees his power being challenged by demonstrations, ostensibly about strict COVID policy, such as locking apartments and whole buildings when a case is reported.

As in Iran, the bigger issue is that people are complaining about lack of personal freedom in the country. In the case of China, the COVID heavy-handedness is the popular symbol. On the economic front, China’s enormous over-building of apartments has left millions of half finished and empty units.

The country is attracting less foreign investment, and we are seeing even Apple looking for new places to build phones. China’s one area of growth is still TikTok, but we are starting to see parents limiting time on the addictive site, and security officials are worried about its corrosive power and data gathering potential. China, which was seen as equaling the US as a world power, is now struggling economically, socially, and politically for stability. Xi no longer looks unshakable.

Vladimir Putin: Bad guy #3

Putin is looking more and more like Hitler in 1944 when it was obvious he was losing his war.

Ukraine’s push back of mighty Russia, which has replaced General after General, is revealing its cardboard army so weakened by low morale and corruption. Putin’s plan to become the Tsar of a greater Russia has been shown to be folly.

He has awakened NATO, shown the superiority of American weapons, and ignited a sense of national unity in Ukraine that many people had doubted.

Putin has shown that he can revel in being a murderer. He has turned off a Germany that for decades had played nice with the Kremlin, partly out of fear but also because of the corruption of its own leaders.

Now Putin is searching for a face saving way to show he actually won his war, but Ukraine’s Zelensky will not give it to him.

Ukraine will have a cold winter, but Putin’s grip on power appears to be getting shakier.

The United States may be messy, but despite a misguided Federal Reserve, the economy is still thriving and people still look to elections, bargaining, and the courts to settle disputes and change government.

Who would have predicted 10 years ago that two African Americans would be running for the Senate in Georgia?

Question: Who are the baddest bad guys you can think of? Fictional or Real.

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I have to laugh when I reminisce about a machinery deal we made last year.

It all started three years ago, when a machinery dealer in Texas called us about a powerful yet very specialized used screw machine that belonged to one of his good customers. The machine was a beautiful, virtually unused, Swiss made, Escomatic EC08, Mfd. 2013. It was a 6-Axis, CNC, coil-fed screw machine with a max rpm of 10,000 that could machine parts up to 8mm diameter and 100mm in length. It was a powerful machine for the right job, but I would not be shocked if less than 50 models of its ilk existed around the world.

So who owned this machine?

Remember the horrible shooting in Las Vegas in 2017 that killed 58 people? One of the things that made that horror possible was the bump stocks that were attached to 13 semi-automatic weapons belonging to the shooter. For those who don’t know, bump stocks are attached to semi-automatic rifles to mimic the rate of fire of automatic rifles. After the shooting, a federal agency banned them. Supposedly, the owner of this Escomatic EC08 had produced those bump stocks, a machining job that was no more. Just to clarify, I don’t think he used this Escomatic to produce parts for bump stocks, he just happened to be the guy who made them.

In any case, this machine had 400 hours on it and had sat in a warehouse for several years. We see this story play out sometimes in our business. A beautiful new machine is bought for a specific job, and that job never even started. Then the machine sits, because the owner has more important things to do than fuss about getting rid of a moderately expensive piece of equipment (I think around $300,000 retail) that few people in the world have even heard of.

Because there are so few Escomatic EC08 machines in the world, particularly in the United States, it could be valuable but also the kind of machine you would never want to buy for stock. Graff-Pinkert peddled this machine for years. Once in a while, a customer would flirt with it, but nobody had ever come close to buying it.

Then one day, I was contacted on the internet by shop owner in the Czech Republic interested in the machine. We sent an email quote and he immediately accepted our offer, sight unseen. It was surprising but not unprecedented.

But, if there is one thing I have learned in the used machinery business, very few deals are easy. When a company overseas that you have never heard of instantly agrees to buy a machine that no-one else has ever been interested in, it’s good to take a breath and remember that no deal has been made until money is in your account.

But this customer truly was ready to pay and take the machine immediately. They didn’t want to come inspect. Covid was rampant at the time, and the machine was in the middle of nowhere Texas. Besides, it looked perfect and had been run 400 hours, probably just for testing. But before they wired the full payment, they asked Graff-Pinkert to guarantee that the machine was in good condition. We could have held our breath and done that, but it didn’t seem wise.

We did not feel comfortable guaranteeing a machine that had not been turned on for at least three years. We suggested to the customer that they pay for someone to inspect the machine and get it going. They agreed without hesitation.

The machine was deep in the heart of Texas, in a town of a little more than 200 people. We needed a CNC ace, who didn’t mind taking a roadtrip to the middle of nowhere to wrench on a machine he probably had never heard of. We called up my friend Chris, a customer who had purchased Citizen M32 not long before. Chris lived in Houston, five and half hours drive from the machine. He had worked for Citizen prior to cofounding a production shop and still loved servicing machines. Chris was nicknamed the Mad Scientist of machining because supposedly he could fix anything. He was the perfect man for the job! (By the way, we did a great podcast interview with him a while back).

Chris drove 350 miles to the 200-person town to get to work on the machine. The machine didn’t turn on. But why, if it had run only 400 hours? Because rats had gotten inside it and chewed up wires in the back of its PLC. The rats were gone long before Chris got there, but he could see their old droppings. There was no reason for them to stay there because there ain’t much to eat inside a virtually unused screw machine.

The PLC control was beyond repair, and we prayed it was the only problem with the machine. I called up Tornos USA, who used to distribute the machine, to purchase a new one. Tornos was helpful, but it took over a month to get the part sent to Texas. Chris traveled back to the machine and we crossed our fingers that it would turn on. It did!

And we lived happily ever after.

Sometimes the stars do align. Serendipity leads a machinery dealer in Chicago to the impossible to find customer or the impossible to find machine. In this case, a shiny, red, rat infested but immaculate, coil-fed CNC screw machine from from Switzerland, likely sent to a 200-person town in Texas for making bullets (that were never made), then revived by a CNC mad scientist before being sent to the Czech Republic, where it likely was repurposed for medical work.

Question: What are the strangest machinery deals you have been involved in?

The post Tale of a Used CNC Machine first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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It’s hard to accept the idea that it is time to make a change and move on.

I was reminded of that by listening to two wonderful interviews with Michael Lewis, who has written a dozen great books and inspired me to write many times. Steven Dubner recently interviewed him on the Freakonomics podcast to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his classic book, Moneyball, about baseball General Manager Billy Beane and the Oakland As, who revolutionized the sports world by going against the veteran baseball scouts and looking differently at players and the game.

After that, I listened to Steve Levitt’s interview with Lewis, in which he talked about writing his first book, Liar’s Poker, about Wall Street life and working at Salomon Brothers for three years after graduating from Princeton.

Lewis said he had been a huge success, gaining the Rothschild family as a customer for the firm. But he had no taste for the lucrative games played by investment bankers. He followed his dream of being a writer, even though his Salomon superiors told him he would become rich on Wall Street and that he was crazy to throw away the opportunity of a lifetime.

Lewis has written for 25 years about people willing to forsake the well-worn, safe path, to try something new. Billy Beane had a budget half the size of rich baseball teams like the Yankees and Giants. He struggled to field teams that were better than mediocre because of his limited resources.

Finally, in desperation, he decided to scrap conventional baseball dogma by bringing in a young assistant who had never played baseball, Paul DePodesta. DePodesta used statistics to analyze what worked and what didn’t, rather than evaluating players primarily by their looks. Suddenly baseball seemed totally different to Billy. As a former player himself who was a top draft pick, he knew that looks were deceiving because he was a washout as a pro baseball player.

The thrust of what Michael Lewis had to say as well as Dubner and Levitt who interviewed him and injected their own observations, was that most people are afraid of change. They are born into a tribe, they stay forever in a job or marriage they don’t like, and they are scared of jumping ship.

On the business front, I often, but not often enough, ask myself if the way I have always done things is the way I should continue doing them.

I have always regarded longtime employees as a great asset for a firm, but maybe I’m wrong about that. Elon Musk just paid $44 billion for Twitter and then fired half of the employees. Possibly he has it right. Musk is willing to put self-driving vehicles on the road, knowing that some wacko will go 90 miles per hour and get himself killed. He wants the data from leading the pack.

On the other side, how many people play it safe in jobs that bore or frustrate them, waiting for their pension or 401k to mature. How many people endure marriages that are unsatisfying because the unknown of being alone is so scary or they think it will be bad for their children?

I find that the used machinery business is interesting and challenging, but I sometimes wonder if I could have been a Michael Lewis.

As we head into 2023, perhaps you should ask yourself what changes you should make to enrich your life. Is there a group you could join, a charity you could contribute to, a coach who could help you? Maybe you need some therapy to get through a tough period in your life?

The unknown is scary, but maybe sticking with the known indefinitely is even scarier?

Question: What was it like when you changed jobs or got divorced?

The post Change Is Tough first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage of Wall Street

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Today’s guest on the podcast is Jon Perin, owner and President of Perin Industries, a young CNC machining company in Webster City, Iowa. Jon, started Perin Industries in 2018, after a 12-year career as a hospital administrator. Like many entrepreneurs, Jon has had to face some daunting challenges. Starting out, he aggressively bought new state of the art CNC equipment to make parts for the medical sector. When he had trouble penetrating that market he successfully pivoted to fire arms work.

Main PointsWhen Jon Perin started Perin Industries in 2018, he planned on making parts for the medical industry. Early on, Perin Industries devoted a lot of resources to obtaining ISO 9001 and AS9100D certifications. Achieving those certifications was costly, so before the company could start the process of obtaining medical work certifications it had to start producing revenue. Also, Jon realized that medical customers prefer to work with companies who have established track records and experience, so he steered the company to work in more general industry.

Jon grew up around his father’s screw machine shop and learned to run ACME multi-spindles in high school. His shop is right across the street from his father’s shop, which is now primarily managed by Jon’s sister. Jon attended college in Florida and after graduating went to work as a hospital administrator for 12 years. Working in the hospital environment played a part in Jon’s interest in making medical parts. Jon says he appreciates the manufacturing business’s simplicity compared to that of the health care field. He says it is easier to quantify success working in manufacturing because success can be measured by the quality of parts produced.

Perin Industries has eight full-time employees. In addition to managing the company, Jon does CNC programming and setups. He jokes that he is also the janitor. He says his employees are becoming more capable to perform setups, which will free him up to focus on more administrative tasks in the future.

When Jon started his company, intending to do medical work, he purchased state of the art complex CNC equipment, including an INDEX C200 twin spindle/3-turret lathe he bought new for around a million dollars, and a Traub TNX65/42 twin spindle/4-turret lathe that he bought used for around $500,000. He says that after attending Design-2-Part trade shows around the US he concluded that the opportunities for Swiss work and traditional screw machine work were extremely competitive and dominated by established companies. This influenced him to invest in sophisticated turning centers.

After being unsuccessful in penetrating the medical sector, Perin Industries pivoted to the fire arms business, primarily making parts for Glock barrels and slides. Jon says that many companies produce the same parts using Haas machines. However, using his turning centers Jon can single-op the parts, making them in less than a third of the time as his competitors. Getting into medical work is still Jon’s longterm goal. He also aspires to one day buy his dad out, which would open his company up to many new types of customers.

Jon says he preferred to start his own company rather than go into business with his dad, but he says one of the main reasons he has been able to keep his startup company going is having good mentors such as him. Jon’s first year in business he made some costly mistakes, many of which experienced companies are also guilty of. Sometimes he took the wrong types of jobs, he bought equipment too early, and some jobs took him twice as long to set up than he had planned. Through it all, Jon’s father and another mentor have guided him to stay resilient. Jon says he’s grateful his company didn’t make enough bad decisions to fail. He plans to keep learning from the past and push forward.

Question: If you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what would you say?

The post Best of Swarfcast: Starting a Machining Company is Hard, With Jon Perin — EP 136 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Why does a kid living in shorts and a t-shirt in the Bahamas attract multi-billions of dollars to invest in cryptocurrency, while the machining world is auctioning off Haases and Davenports because they can’t find enough people to run them? The Sam Bankman-Fried story fascinates me, perhaps because it is so different from the world [...]

The post Thankful to be in the Machining World first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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It seems like every other day as a machinery dealer, I talk to someone who says they would purchase a machine from me, if only they could find a person to run it. Today’s podcast guest, Ann Wyatt, founder of Ann Wyatt Recruiting, makes her living by finding manufacturing professionals for companies. Ann’s journey to [...]

The post How to Find New Manufacturing Talent, with Ann Wyatt — EP 170 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Two clients in the machining business. One is going up for auction soon. The other hopes to sell for $10M. Both are family businesses run by brothers. One runs mostly National Acmes, the other Davenports, Wickmans, and Brown & Sharpes. One has well-trained operators, the other says they are quitting the business because they can’t [...]

The post Buying the Bones first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Dave Polito is my Star CNC guru. He’s always been there when I’ve had questions, whether I was asking about a 1999 Star SA12, or a sweet SV38R located in Asia, or the ever flummoxing Siemens control on an ECAS-20. Dave is the owner of Quality Machine Tool Services, the Star distributor for Illinois and [...]

The post STAR CNC Swiss Guru, Dave Polito—EP 169 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Everyday, Graff-Pinkert runs into a myriad of excuses why people won’t purchase a used machine tool from us. Maybe they don’t have the work. Maybe they don’t have the expertise to run a machine. Maybe they are not sophisticated in negotiating with buyers and suppliers. Maybe they don’t have enough money. All of these things [...]

The post An Offer Too Good to Refuse first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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How do boys grow into men? I am no expert, but I have two grown sons and two grandsons. I am happy about them all, even the one who is six months old. And, add my son-in-law who is a wonderful person, a friend, and a Cubs fan. I have thought a lot about how [...]

The post Boys to Men first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Do you know what is really going on with your machines? Have you actually listened to them lately? Today’s guest on Swarfcast is Jeff Rizzie, Director of Digital Enablement at Sandvik Coromant. Sandvik is renown for its cutting tools, but the company has branched out into selling cloud-based machine monitoring software called CoroPlus Machining Insights. [...]

The post Knowing What Your Machines Are Up To, with Jeff Rizzie–EP 168 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I get stressed sometimes choosing what tasks to prioritize in my day. Yesterday, I listened to an episode of Grow The Show, my favorite podcast for advice about making podcasts. The subject of the episode was how to deal with the stress that comes with managing a business and a podcast as well as all [...]

The post Must do or Could do? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I wish I hadn’t bought the story. Ford, the pickup truck gorilla, was going to take over the electric pick up market which was going to crush the gas and diesel portion over the next few years. Ford knows the pickup business like nobody else. The Japanese and Koreans know new cars, but trucks are [...]

The post Tough For Ford first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on the podcast today is Rogério Mezadri, Director of SAMOT Mexico, a 200-employee automotive machining company in Guanajuato, Mexico. Rogério and I discussed the challenges running a machining company in Mexico. We talked about Mexican manufacturers upgrading technology. We also talked about the difficulty to find enough skilled manufacturing workers in Mexico. Yes, [...]

The post Machining in Mexico, with Rogério Mezadri–EP 167 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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What do you do if you are running a major pharmaceutical firm and a team of your employees comes to you with stunning news that an aging drug of yours, soon to lose patent protection, may be a treatment for Alzheimer’s? It happened at Pfizer in 2015. A team was analyzing death insurance claims for [...]

The post The Alzheimer’s Moral Dilemma first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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When does a theoretical value become really valuable? When do you decide to buy or sell a business, particularly a precision machining business? How do you assess its value? How do you determine whether a business is a collection of machinery, tooling, and real estate, or if it is something of significantly more monetary value? [...]

The post Valuing a Business first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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At IMTS 2022, I stumbled upon a booth with an impressive 28 foot rocket on display, constructed by students from the Purdue University Bechtel Innovation Design Center. Anirudh Pal, an operations manager at Bechtel, and Xander Wells, an undergraduate teaching assistant at Bechtel, told me the story behind the rocket’s creation when I interviewed them [...]

The post Manufacturing Rockets in College, with Anirudh Pal and Xander Wells—EP 166 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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In the financial world of banks and funds, stupid follows stupid, which then follows stupid. It would be funny if trillions of dollars of real people’s paychecks and savings were not the instruments of capital dumbness. I have saved a chunk of money over several decades and put a piece of it into the stocks [...]

The post Manufacturing Recession? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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At IMTS 2022, I had the privilege of interviewing Bryan Stusak and Steve Vanderink, two product specialists from Iscar Metals, world renown seller of cutting tools for machining. We talked about the latest developments in cutting tool technology that enable faster changeover, and how to save money by using inserts properly when removing small amounts [...]

The post How to Save Money on Cutting Tools, with Bryan Stusak and Mike Vanderink–EP 165 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I just watched Ken Burns’ new documentary about the role the United States played in the Holocaust. In 1960, my life changed when I read the book and saw the movie, “Exodus.” The film, starring Paul Newman and directed by Otto Preminger, brought the Holocaust to life for a 16-year-old boy whose main interests were [...]

The post Holocaust Has Become Cliché first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I was pumped for IMTS 2022! I went there to listen to the heartbeat of the machining world. I set out to learn about the newest technology, interview people for Swarfcast, and stumble upon as much serendipity as possible. A few things struck me as I strolled the vast McCormick place, gliding my iPhone around [...]

The post Stuff I Learned at IMTS 2022 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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How do you build a great team? It could be a business, a hospital, or a sports franchise. It’s easier to discuss sports because the results are more recognizable, so we will start there. Two of the best current baseball teams are the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Yankees number one star [...]

The post You Be The Judge first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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With the International Manufacturing Technology Show coming up next week in Chicago, we decided it was important to do a podcast about how to get ready for a trade show. The following is a summary of our 2-part interview with Will Healy III. Will has been going to machining industry trade shows such as IMTS for [...]

The post How to Get the Most From a Trade Show, With Will Healy III (Part I)–EP 163 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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This podcast episode is the second part of our interview with Will Healy III about how to get the most out of trade shows, IMTS 2022 in particular. We suggest you listen to Part I of the podcast before you tune into this one. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or [...]

The post How to Get the Most From a Trade Show, With Will Healy III (Part II)–EP 164 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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IMTS For me, the initials stood for I am Missing That Show. But as I started thinking more deeply about this piece, I began to change my mind. The world has changed so much since the last show in 2018. COVID killed big exhibitions for two years and they are just beginning to reconfigure themselves [...]

The post How Many IMTSs Do You Get? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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This piece was supposed to be about the ridiculous show following Serena Williams’ opening match of her last tournament. Serena won against a weak, inexperienced opponent, but looked overweight, slow, and dressed in a costume. The announcers, particularly Chris Evert, a great champion who never had a farewell like this, fawned over Serena. They generally [...]

The post It’s All About Belief first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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On today’s show, we’re discussing the scary reality that manufacturers are the number one target of cyberterrorists around the globe. Manufacturing companies are at risk for ransomware and intellectual property theft. It’s even possible for hackers to take control of a factory’s machine tools remotely. Our guest is Drew Phillips, senior systems integration engineer at [...]

The post Defending Your Manufacturing Company From Cyberterrorism, with Drew Phillips–EP 162 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Companies in the machining world say they are begging to hire young people who want to work. The statistics from the government say unemployment is at a near record low, yet we all know a young person who says they can’t find a job. Why do we have this apparent mismatch? I see many reasons, [...]

The post Failure to Launch first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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If you really wanted to buy something that you thought could be important in your life, would you be willing to walk away from the opportunity because the price tag seemed higher than it should be or because you felt offended by the seller? I ran into this dilemma this week. As most of you [...]

The post Pay For It If You Believe In It first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The New Union Movement is sweeping the country. At least you would think so reading or listening to the popular media. But it isn’t. Some Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, and an Amazon fulfillment center on Long Island has voted to organize too, but to me the shocking fact is how few of America’s [...]

The post The New Union Movement? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on the podcast today is Shawn Gaskin, owner of Swiss Technologies of New England and Stone Medical in Plainville, Massachusetts. Shawn started Swiss Technologies over 20 years ago, with one L20 Citizen making parts out of sterling silver for Tiffany and Company. Over the years, his company has grown into a diversified shop, [...]

The post Running a CNC Swiss Medical Shop, with Shawn Gaskin–Ep. 161 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Ping pong. Rowing. Surviving somehow in the ghetto. After a life in Chicago, most of it on the Southside, I thought I knew a lot about black life in the city. I didn’t know “nuthin.” Over the last few days, I listened to a long interview with Wally Green, who escaped gang life, drugs, death, [...]

The post Paddling Your Way Out first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on today’s podcast is Adar Hay, co-founder and CEO of Jiga, a company providing a web platform for manufacturing buyers and suppliers to communicate and establish new relationships. It’s ironic how in today’s world, in which we have so many channels to communicate and network, it’s still complicated to do those things well. [...]

The post How to Connect Efficiently with Manufacturing Customers, with Adar Hay–Ep. 160 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Time, money, prospects, hope, and the allure of winning. It all comes together in the next week of baseball season. In every business we constantly weigh all of these factors in our daily decision making process. Do we hire a person with a history of jumping from job to job, knowing he or she has [...]

The post The Trading Season first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The Home Run Derby at the Major League All-Star Game ended up with two young Dominicans, Julio Rodriguez and Juan Soto, blasting 400-footers in a battle for the trophy. The greatest young stars in the NBA, Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Luka Dončić, headed for the Basketball League in their early 20s. Perhaps the best [...]

The post The War for Talent first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on today’s podcast is Justin Tauber, co-owner and Vice President of Integrated Machinery Systems (IMS), a machine tool distributor in Itasca, Illinois. Justin’s company sells a wide variety of machine tools, ranging from turning machines, machining centers, grinders, 3D printers and automation equipment. In our interview, Justin discussed the merits of high-end expensive [...]

The post Should I Buy the Expensive or Cheaper CNC Machine? With Justin Tauber–Ep. 159 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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When I was a young man and we moved into our new warehouse in Oak Forest, IL, one of the first things I did was plant an apple tree. The soil next to the building had been scraped off to accommodate our parking lot, but I planted it anyway. I love apples, and I wanted [...]

The post My Apple Tree of Life first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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My son Ari was going to Peru on an adventure vacation a month ago. I thought it would be useful for him (and me, too) if he had a person in the country who he could call as a resource in case of a problem or perhaps just to meet up with for an hour [...]

The post Lucky to Sell That Machine? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I came into contact with Edwin Nyuysever Mbinkar a month ago, when he sent an email to Graff-Pinkert inquiring about an expensive Mikron 5-axis machining center on our website. He explained that he was the manager of a High Tech Centre (British spelling of “Center”) in Cameroon, and he wanted his school to have the [...]

The post Manufacturing in Africa? With Edwin Mbinkar–EP 158 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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What if the popular wisdom is wrong? As usual. For many decades, the consensus was that if inflation gets too hot, the Federal Reserve must raise interest rates to tame it. Reduce demand for goods and services by making them more expensive, then people will purchase less and the pressure on prices will seep out [...]

The post Cheaper Brass, Rising Celery first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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You are confused about inflation, interest rates, recession—your job. I’m not going to act like the Wall Street economist who knows less than nothing, but proclaims there is a 10% to 90% chance of recession to justify their million-dollar paycheck. I’m going to tell you what is going to happen over the next year. Give [...]

The post Inflation, Recession, Pretzels? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s podcast is an American Dream story. Our guest is Dulio Arellano, owner of Premier Swiss, a Tornos shop in Addison, Illinois, which he founded in 2017. Dulio came to the United States from Mexico when he was 18 years old. After working in various machine shops, Dulio got a job as a technician at [...]

The post Best Of Swarfcast: Starting a Swiss Shop with Dulio Arellano—EP 68 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Father’s Day came early for me with the end of the NBA Finals. The Golden State Warriors won the championship with four of the five players with the most minutes in the final game being the sons of former NBA players. The fifth, Draymond Green, had his Michigan State coach, Tom Izzo, in the stands [...]

The post Family Business first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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This Sunday will be my first Father’s Day—the first one in which I am a father myself, which I have only been for about two and a half months. Sometimes when I look at my infant son Abe it makes me marvel how I get to work alongside my dad in two businesses. It’s mind [...]

The post My Father’s Day Card first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I feel like my 20,000-square-foot house’s lot is a wildlife preserve. Three weeks ago, a deer gave birth to a fawn in a group of bushes in our backyard. The baby lay well-hidden while its mom left for long periods because deer know how to be discreet around potential predators. She would come back in [...]

The post Help Me With My Skunks first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s guest on the podcast is Matt Wardle, owner and President of JD Machine Corp. in Ogden, Utah. JD Machine currently produces around 4,000 active part numbers, serving a diverse group of sectors, which include aerospace, defense, and medical. Matt says he sometimes envies other machining companies who have a more narrow focus on the [...]

The post Trading Sanity for Stability in a Machining Company, with Matt Wardle—EP 157 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The post Trading Sanity for Stability in a Machining Company, with Matt Wardle—EP 157 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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You might think chopping up steel bars would be a fairly mundane business, but for one of the biggest choppers of them all, it’s been, well, awfully choppy in recent years. Last week, Central Steel & Wire broke ground to become our neighbors in the Southern Suburbs of Chicago. Central Steel & Wire has been […]

The post Central Steel’s Big Move first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I am a bullet, penetrating all resistance! I embrace my discomfort zone! I try to say this statement to myself out loud every morning. It is part of my I Am List I created with my life coach. The principle is that if you repeat something enough it will eventually become your reality. I’m blessed […]

The post Breaking Out of My Comfort Zone first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The country is pulling apart. It’s a mess here. I don’t think so. This Memorial Day weekend reminded me of how remarkably bound together we are. Sometimes it takes a dark tragedy like the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, to awaken even the hacks in Washington that we must finally do something to prevent mentally ill […]

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The post How a Machining Company Thrives after 108 years in Business, with Michael Ottenweller and Terry Hanson—EP 156 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I am celebrating the 60th anniversary of my high school graduation with the Class of 1962 on Zoom this Thursday. I remember a surprising amount from my four years at the Lab School, part of the University of Chicago. A lot of the kids had family affiliated with U of C, but more than half […]

The post Memories That Stick first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I wonder. How many people in the world do I already know who I’m missing out on doing great things with? The used machinery business is quite good lately for Graff-Pinkert, though I’m probably jinxing this prosperous period by saying that. Sometimes I ask myself how I have contributed to make these deals happen. I […]

The post Who Am I Missing Out On? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Should I sell a CNC lathe to some company in Iran, not knowing if they are making missile parts which may be used against the United States or Israel? Should Blackrock, one of the biggest investment firms in the world, try to influence the corporations it makes huge bets on to follow its notion of […]

The post Does Money Care? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today we’re celebrating the milestone of 150 episodes of Swarfcast. This is actually Episode 155. We just didn’t get around to doing this one until now. I hope you enjoy as we look back at four of our favorite past episodes spanning the last four years. Four years! Not much has happened for me? Besides […]

The post 150 Episodes Often About the Machining World!—EP 155 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Why aren’t kids wanting to go to college, especially guys? I’ve been intrigued by this question since seeing the stats showing college enrollment continually dropping over the last decade. We are now at the point where women comprise almost 60% of college students, although in our politically correct world I am probably offensive to some […]

The post Where Have All the Men Gone? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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It’s strange how at Graff-Pinkert we sometimes can be so tentative about specing on a used machine that we’re supposed to be experts on but then surprisingly decisive buying something more obscure that we know very little about. Sometimes we find a used machine that we are unfamiliar with, but still the opportunity seems intriguing. […]

The post You Have to Trust Your Gut first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The war in Ukraine is a genocide. The economy is a perplexing complex of boom and missteps. Politics has degenerated into angry posturing and eliciting cheers from your fans rather than changing the minds of voters who are capable of listening to challenging ideas. Today I will write about SPORTS. *** The NBA playoffs are […]

The post Sports Refuge first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Tyler Jarosz sent me an email about a month and a half ago to ask if Graff-Pinkert would be interested in a used little parts washer he no longer needed in his machine shop. He found out about Graff-Pinkert from listening to Swarfcast, which I’m proud to say is the only podcast he has ever […]

The post How a Machinist Entrepreneur Retired at 40, with Tyler Jarosz—Ep. 154 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Elon Musk is buying Twitter. The announcement came the same day that Twitter announced that it was blocking climate change deniers. I don’t know for sure if there really is significant climate change going on caused by fossil fuel usage, and I doubt anybody does. To me, the economic and societal rationale for Twitter is […]

The post Twitter’s Climate Will Change first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I am a proud dad! I promise not to write too many blogs about becoming a father, but today I am because it’s quite an amazing experience and often thought provoking. At this very moment, I’m battling grogginess from a lack of sleep. Since the day Abraham was born, doctors told us to wake him […]

The post Does That Advice Really Make Sense? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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My family celebrated Passover this past weekend. It is called the “Holiday of Questions” for many reasons, but especially to pull children into the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt, hoping to reach the Promised Land despite all obstacles. My 6-year-old grandson is an inquisitive boy, and we enticed him to join the storytelling by […]

The post Are We the Promised Land? first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on today’s show is Steve Tamasi, owner and CEO of Boston Centerless, a distributor and manufacturer of ground bar stock. I asked Steve why there is such a shortage of raw materials for precision turning manufacturers and what companies can do to deal with this problem. We also talked about how the war […]

The post How to Navigate Material Shortages in Swiss Machining, with Steve Tamasi—EP. 153 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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The post Best of Swarfcast: Starting a Machining Company is Hard, with Jon Perin—EP. 136 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I hate unions.

I love Amazon. I’ve made a bundle on its stock. Their delivery service was a lifesaver during the COVID pandemic.

Yet the story of Chris Smalls and the first union victory against Amazon Corporation at one warehouse, JFK 8 on Staten Island, excites me. It is a classic story of underdog triumphs against the Godzilla of American corporations.

Amazon had two union elections last week, Birmingham, Alabama and Staten Island, New York. Amazon easily crushed the corporate union types who spent lots of money and brought in professional organizers from New York City to wage their battle against big bad Amazon.

Their problem was they were outsiders who were all paid and believed in the “union movement.” Their problem was that Amazon’s Birmingham workers were not angry enough at the company to jeopardize their wages and benefits that were so much better than the other job alternatives they had.

Amazon bashed the union organizers in two straight elections in Birmingham. It wasn’t close.

The situation in Staten Island was totally different.

The union in Staten Island was not part of any national organization. It was started by a pissed-off former employee who got fired for complaining about the working conditions at the huge fulfillment warehouse

Amazon pays well. $18 per hour to start for relatively unskilled people. But they expect employees to work hard. They closely monitor productivity, how many packages they sort, how many items they pack, and did they show up on time. They have cameras and computers continually checking up on people.

There are a lot of hand and back injuries at fulfillment centers. Carpal tunnel is common. They would really like people to be replaced by robots, but robots are just not as productive as humans at this point.

Breaktimes are short, warehouses are enormous. All in all, it is not a real fun place to work for many folks. Chris Smalls was one of those dissatisfied workers.

Smalls is a single father, part-time rapper, and the kind of annoying guy Amazon hates, and they fired him when he started talking to other workers about his gripes and began discussing starting a union.

Mighty Amazon totally underestimated Mr. Smalls. Angry and unemployed, Smalls started a one-man campaign against the trillion-dollar company.

Chris Smalls organizing Amazon

He hung out with a sign at the bus stop where many employees came and went. He employed social media to be noticed and started a GoFundMe campaign. He had barbeques near the warehouse where employees gathered and traded their gripes. Volunteers, including some lawyers who understood how labor elections worked, counseled him.

Amazon had no idea how to deal with this kind of guerrilla attack by somebody who knew the territory. They saw Smalls was starting to get traction so they hired ad agencies, lawyers, and union fighters from the outside. Mr. Smalls had more barbecues, started another GoFundMe round, and handed out a little free marijuana at get-togethers.

Amazon knew how to combat national unions, but had no plan for combating an African American, 32 years old, dedicated local guy named Smalls.

The irony of the story is that Jeff Bezos started Amazon in 1995 on a shoestring. He was born in poverty to an 18 year old mother. His father owned a tiny bike shop in Albuquerque. He retired this year to work on other ventures, especially going into space.

Howard Schultz, his counterpart at Starbucks, just came back to the company he built to deal with a similar kind of union challenge. Schultz, son of a New York City cab driver, failed as a quarterback at North Michigan University and went to Seattle in the mid-90s to build his fortune in the coffee shop business.

Amazon and Starbucks were models of American business success, and made their founders incredibly rich.

Maybe these companies have now lost their ability to deal with their growth. The changed labor climate today has found weaknesses in their approach toward their workers.

Is Chris Smalls the labor entrepreneur that Amazon and Starbucks cannot deal with? Is he a little bit like Bezos and Schultz were 35 years ago? We will find out in the next few years.

Question: Would you want to work for Amazon?

The post One for the Small Guy first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I’m not releasing a podcast this week because next week or perhaps the following week I’m going to become a father, so I want to have a podcast episode in reserve. Podcasts take a lot of time and energy to produce, items I fear will be scarce commodities in the coming weeks.

Very soon, everything in my life will be turned upside down. Many of my normal daily routines will never be the same. That’s what I’m told at least, and I can envision it happening.

Lately I’ve been listening to two books, Atomic Habits: an Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Sometimes I listen to the two books one right after the other. Their messages sometimes clash, which I kind of like.

Atomic Habits is giving me tools to manage my time. The book is filled with methods to help me take on new activities to make me healthier, more successful, and hopefully happier.

Meanwhile, the message of 4,000 Weeks is that rather than trying to optimize time in order to squeeze in everything, sometimes it’s best to just choose one activity over another. The book’s author, Oliver Burkeman, a former time optimization zealot, argues that if we try to squeeze in too many tasks, we may never feel satisfied with what we are already doing. We will always want to use the new saved time to cram in new tasks. The title, 4,000 Weeks, stems from the fact that if we live to age 80, we get a mere 4,000 weeks on this earth. That doesn’t sound like a lot of time to me, so I better make that time count. My conundrum is, what does “making time count” mean?

The author, Noah Graff, outside the Graff-Pinkert office

Burkeman says that when he first became a father, his inclination was to try as hard as he could to optimize his time. He would keep tight schedules, automate and outsource tasks, etc. But that didn’t lead him to feel increased satisfaction or fulfillment.

One concept he talks about the book that really struck me is what he refers to as “the joy of missing out.” This is the opposite of the popular term nowadays, FOMO, the “fear of missing out.”

Burkeman believes that making a choice to do one activity rather than try to cram several into your schedule makes that chosen activity meaningful. It’s special because you chose it over something else.

I want to write these blogs and make podcasts. I want to dance and see friends. I want to excel in my profession, the art of turning overlooked, imperfect equipment, into gold—the job that pays the mortgage. I also want to be a great father and husband. I want to spend time with my loved ones. At 42 years old, if I’m fortunate, I should have a good 3,000+ weeks left. Soon I will have to figure out how to fit the myriad of great gifts in my life into my crowded schedule. At the same time I will have to decisively choose what wonderful stuff to sacrifice.

Question: Does anybody have advice for me?

The post The Joy of Missing Out first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

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Why did Vladimir Putin start this war to take Ukraine?

I’ve heard and read a dozen theories about why he started this evil venture, which now appears to be both madness and failure. I think that a year ago or even a decade ago this invasion would not have seemed foolish to him because he was so blinded by what he saw as his destiny and his foes’ weakness.

Putin grew up in the Cold War in the Soviet Union. His college was the KGB, which hated the West. He was stationed in East Germany when the Berlin Wall was pulled down, and it seemed like that sowed the seeds of revenge for the humbling of the Russia he loved.

Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and the Baltic states dumped Russia as soon as they dared. Those events must have sickened him and left him with a burning rage. It appeared to grow as he got older and he shrewdly seized more power year by year. Putin never seemed to mellow with age.

The KGB experience taught him to mistrust everybody. It also seems to have inculcated in him the belief that everybody could be corrupted and those who sought power and wealth were the easiest to corrupt and blackmail.

His corrupting of the German head of state, Gerhard Schroeder, must have reinforced this belief as he attempted to weaken Germany, the strongest European country economically, by making it almost totally dependent on Russian natural gas with the Nordstream pipelines.

After Schroeder left government, he became the economic head of the Nordsteam company, though Putin and his henchmen held the real power. It was the ultimate buying of a prominent politician, and it must have confirmed Putin’s belief that he could own anybody by putting enough money in their pockets

Putin’s cynicism about Europe and America is limitless. He surrounds himself with KGB types, sycophants, and oligarchs who owe him their wealth and power.

The photo of Putin sitting at the head of an endless table with generals and spies at the other end became the symbol of his regime. He isolated himself in his castle like a czar. He listened only to people who saw the world like he did. His observations of the prosperous Western countries surely galled him as his lust for power and revenge festered.

Russia took over Crimea in Ukraine in 2014 and then a Russian speaking region after that. If he could capture Ukraine, with its agricultural resources and its Black Sea port of Odessa, he would be well on his way to putting the Soviet Union back together. The Baltics would be pushovers. America was divided with no taste for war. The Afghanistan pull out only confirmed that view. NATO countries were captives to Russian energy exports and intimidated by his nuclear bombs and missiles as he saw it.

Vladimir Putin as the shirtless horseman

It must have seemed like the perfect time to invade Ukraine. Its head of state was an actor and former comedian, almost a perfect counterpoint compared to Putin, the virile shirtless horseman.

Putin trucked 150,000 troops into Ukraine and nobody raised a finger in Europe or America. NATO did nothing. It was all so easy.

Then it all fell apart. Zelinsky stood up to the bully. Ukraine did not fold or give up. Zelinsky did not flee. Putin’s army was soft, and his tanks were the helpless elephants of WWII. All Russia could do was shoot missiles at civilian targets, kill helpless people, and destroy cities.

Overnight, Vladimir Putin became the new Hitler. Western countries attacked the Russian economy with potent sanctions. He became a pathetic a joke. His reputation was shattered and the weaknesses of Russia—rampant alcoholism, an average lifespan of 10 years less than the rest of Europe, a bankrupt army, poorly led unmotivated soldiers, and a war criminal running the country—became obvious.

Vladimir Putin is finished as a world leader. He is a victim of his own folly, blinded by a pathetic desire to avenge the demise of the Soviet Union. Suicide is a more likely ending for him than a trial as a war criminal.

Question: How do you think the war in Ukraine will play out?

The post Putin’s Folly first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on the podcast today is Jennifer Grant, marketing manager for Haizol Global Europe.

Haizol is a company that connects manufacturing companies in plastics and metal working with suppliers in Asia, most often China. The company’s value proposition is that it bypasses daunting challenges inherent when outsourcing to foreign countries, such as vetting suppliers and communicating in a foreign language.

Haizol has to two separate Web platforms, haizolglobal.com and haizol.com.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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Main Points Haizol.com

Haizol.com is a matchmaking service, connecting buyers in Western countries with suppliers in Asia. Buyers log on to haizol.com where they can submit part drawings and receive quotes from available suppliers. They narrow down choices of suppliers using filters for characteristics such as certifications, location, capacity, number of employees, and R&D departments. Haizol.com assists with negotiation and communication between the companies, but the buyers and suppliers have autonomous relationships.

Haizolglobal.com

Rather than acting as a matchmaker, Haizol Global serves buyers directly. It has its own manufacturing capacity and sometimes outsources work to some preferred manufacturers. The advantage of Haizol Global over haizol.com is that buyers receive constant customer support with an English speaking account manager who works with them throughout the production process. Haizol Global has a portal which gives buyers realtime information throughout the process. Account managers are available to answer buyers’ questions.

Buyers submit their drawings on Haizol Global’s website. Engineers look at the design and decide which of its shops should produce the part. A sample part is produced, which buyers then must approve. Then full scale production begins. Buyers don’t have the burden of having to choose between different suppliers. Haizol Global takes on the responsibility to deliver the part to the expectation of the buyers. Buyers don’t have to spend resources coordinating with Asian suppliers or performing regular quality checks.

Haizol Global’s customers are able to visit the shops making their parts, though Jennifer says very few companies have made the trip in the last few years during the pandemic. Usually the customers who travel to the factories in Asia are doing larger part runs, rather than single prototype jobs.

Jennifer says some clients want constant updates during production, while others are satisfied just waiting for the finished parts to arrive. Haizol Global guarantees parts will arrive at the promised time, baring unforeseen circumstances like worldwide pandemics.

Nondisclosure Agreements

Before buyers upload part prints to either Haizol Global or haizol.com, they can upload NDAs online. I questioned Jennifer about the risks of sending proprietary drawings to Chinese companies, notorious for stealing intellectual property. She argues that though that is a risk, Haizol has vetted the factories it works with, meaning it would be less risky working with Haizol than with a company found in Asia through a less established channel. Haizol has been working with the same factories for years and weeds out the ones who produce inferior work.

Jennifer Grant of Haizol Global Europe

Language

Jennifer says the language barrier is one of the biggest hurdles preventing companies from outsourcing overseas. Even small misunderstandings from language discrepancies can cause huge problems, which is why a company like Haizol is so attractive for Western buyers.

The majority of the manufacturing for haizol.com and Haizol Global takes place in China, but it also uses shops in Vietnam and the Philippines, which is advantageous in case of a problem with the supply chain in one country.

Effects of Reshoring

Haizol Global has a lot of customers in Western Europe, but most customers are located in the United States.

Jennifer says Haizol has not seen a recent reduction in users, despite current trends of bringing back manufacturing work to North America. She says that using Haizol helps prevent some of the supply chain issues that have given outsourcing to China such a bad reputation.

She says that the quality of manufacturing in China is significantly better than it was a decade ago. China’s Made in China 2025 initiative passed in 2015 has improved its manufacturing standards. Also, as more Western countries continue to outsource to China manufacturing abilities have improved.

Haizol’s Female Founder and CEO

Haizol’s CEO, Sherry She, founded the company. Jennifer says female CEOs are quite uncommon in China, but it is becoming more normal to find women in leadership positions at large companies.

Jennifer’s Story of Living In China

Jennifer moved to China in 2013 and spent most of her 20s living in Shanghai. Before starting at Haizol four years ago, she worked for a different Chinese firm, also in the manufacturing sector. She says she loved living in China, but decided to return to London at the end of 2020. She lived in China for the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic when the world still believed it would not spread to the rest of the globe. If you listen to the interview, you can hear details about what it was like to be “locked down” in China. There were guards at the door of her apartment complex, baring people from leaving.

Question: What is a part or service you have outsourced?

The post How to Find the Right Asian Supplier, with Jennifer Grant—EP. 152 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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One reason I continue to push the boulder uphill in a small business smack-dab in the middle of the industrial economy is that I get to hear the stories of so many people who have decided to start their own businesses in 2022. I cannot remember a time when I had the opportunity to connect with so many starter uppers.

If you read or listen to the mainstream media you would probably miss the epidemic of startups in post-pandemic (we hope) America. I think the COVID-19 phenomena which exiled so many people to the solitude of their homes probably ignited the movement. A lot of people asked themselves when they were separated from offices, associates, and bosses, “Is this all there is?”

Commuting was such a time sucker. Now regimented hours seem unnecessary, outsourcing resources are everywhere, and the Internet connects you to a world of other people thinking the same way.

For many, the seeds of work Independence germinated in the isolation of COVID fear and then sprouted when the economy opened up.

Many people moved to less expensive locations, freeing up start-up capital and, equally important, spurred the confidence to be a pioneer in a new home with new friends and neighbors.

Supply chain problems, particularly with Asian goods, moved bigger companies to search for alternate sources. China’s militancy spread fear in the US and cast doubt on its long-term reliability as a supplier. President Xi moved to squash entrepreneurship, which cast more doubt about the country as a partner. Once a dictator takes these steps in such an interconnected world, it is hard to reverse course.

Other factors also played a part. The real estate market shifted. Office buildings languished and shopping centers withered, while Amazon flourished, needing giant “fulfillment centers” everywhere there was vacant space near an expressway. Airbnb found a new market in longer-term rentals to complement their vacation model. Homes rose rapidly in value, opening up startup money. Stocks went up, surprising the pessimistic banks and economists.

The semiconductor shortage hobbled big auto companies, but the move toward electric cars provided new opportunities for people working from their homes or in association with others with similar desires to work independently. Tesla reached out for suppliers who were not already wedded to big automotive companies.

CNC workshop in a garage

The stories we hear in our small segment of the precision machining business fill in some details. We hear from people in their thirties and forties who have worked in shops for several years. They have seen what works and what doesn’t. They have a barn or a garage and have saved enough money to buy a CNC lathe, maybe a Haas mill they can imagine paying off in a year. In many cases, their current employer has overflow work that they are happy to have them run. A second income often is a cushion for startup couples.

The traditional mainstays of the precision parts industry — automotive, military, aerospace, oil and gas — are generally not providing the bulk of the start-up work today.

We now find guns and ammunition are often a staple of start-ups. A complement to that is medical-related parts, which are always in short supply.

I wonder if this unusual confluence of events, a pandemic, a real-estate boom, skilled labor shortage, supply miseries, and risk-taking Millennials, will continue to fuel a long-term start-up boom in America.

I doubt inflation will kill it unless the feds get crazy raising interest rates. Bungling politicians have probably helped sustain it by making life difficult for big companies.

We had a burst of start-ups after WWII, the Korean War, and the start of the Internet surge in the 1990s. It is shocking to see the 250-year-old United States become a start-up nation, but it really is happening.

Questions:

If you were going to start a new small business, what would it be?

Who do you like for the NCAA Tournament?

The post There’s a Haas in the House first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Nobody knows how the current tragic war in Ukraine will play out, but I hope that those listening to the second half of our interview with Dr. Andrew R. Thomas will get a little bit of new insight into how the conflict fits into the world’s energy economy.

Andrew is an author and business professor at University of Akron. In 2018, he published a book called American Shale Energy and the Global Economy. He also published a book in 2014 called Geopolitics, Development and National Security, Romania and Moldova at the Crossroads. His latest book coming out in 2022, is about the Panama Canal, The Canal of Panama and Globalization: Growth and Challenges in the 21st Century.

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Main Points Where Ukraine fits into the current situation of Europe

[02:17] Andrew points out that the Russia has been at war with Ukraine for eight years, starting with invading Crimea. The rest of the world did very little in response, partly because United States was already in Afghanistan and Iraq. The US imposed a few sanctions to appease the media and try to demonstrate it was doing something, but Russia never faced real consequences for its actions from the US or Europe. People didn’t realize what had been happening until Russia ratcheted up the violence in the last few weeks.

What the Ukraine-Russia Issue means for Global Energy

[03:54] Andrew says the war in Ukraine is going to put a lot more unpredictability into the world’s energy system. When nations do not buy Russian energy in order to punish Putin, it dramatically alters global energy production, pricing, and availability. In the past the variable in the energy economy was energy suppliers who refused to sell, but in the current situation we have energy consumers saying they are not going to buy.

Andrew says that companies cannot instantly start mining more oil and gas. It will take several quarters to “turn the spigot on.”

Canada Mining for Oil and Gas in the Tar Sands

[08:17] Before fracking took off in the United States, the Canadians had figured out how to extract oil and natural gas from tar sands. Tar sands contain a lot of energy, but extracting it is a very intensive and costly process. When oil prices were shooting up in the early 21st Century, processing oil from the tar sands made more sense.

The Environmental Aspects Mining Tar Sands

[08:51] A key issue with mining in the tar sands is that if it’s not managed properly the environmental damage can be huge. This makes it an expensive process. It requires a massive amount land, water, and labor, and can produce a lot of residue. Because we have been living in an era, starting with the fracking revolution, where the price of energy has been pretty low, mining in tar sands has not been that attractive. But if oil stays consistently at $120-$150 a barrel, there is a good chance for investment and activity going in that direction.

Is Putin “putting the Soviet Union back together?”

[10:10] Putin cannot to put the Soviet Union back together because that would involve many other states that are now in European Union and NATO. Currently, Russia is faced with several ongoing crises. One is a demographic challenge. The life expectancy in Russia is low, and Russians are not having many children.

Putin is on the defensive. Russia has a lot of territories to defend. With the expansion of NATO and Romania joining the European Union, those organizations push right to the boundaries of Ukraine, which historically has been a buffer for Russia. Putin views NATO’s expansion near Russia’s borders as an offensive gesture. He does not want to see military bases and nuclear missiles pointed at Russia from such a close range. This fear is similar to what the United States felt when missiles were pointed at it from Cuba in 1962.

[12:55] Belarus is playing a very important role in facilitating the invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have used Belarus to enter into Ukrainian territory. Rather than a reconstruction of the Soviet Union we are witnessing an alliance network in Eastern Europe, made up of Belarus, Russia, Moldova, and parts of Ukraine. This is a reconstitution of some elements of the Soviet state as it existed in that portion of the Black Sea region.

Timing of the Invasion

[13:28] It seems as though Putin timed the recent invasion carefully. The United States will not have reconstituted its military following the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq until 2028, according to the latest DOD estimate. Europe doesn’t want to get into a conflict. The United States does not want to send American soldiers anywhere to fight. Also, Andrew says that he does not think Russia would have invaded if it did not have China’s blessing. Russia needs China’s help to withstand the sanctions from Europe and the US.

The Panama Canal

[17:48] The Panama canal was originally built to avoid developing a 2-ocean fleet navy. Yet, within 25 years after World War Two, the canal was rendered useless because US had created a multi-ocean fleet navy, and its ships were too big to fit through it. Eventually, President Carter gave the canal back to a dictatorial government of Panama, which the country has done a brilliant job running. Panama has made more money with the canal in the last 20 years than the US did in the entire time it ran it.

In 2006, Panama decided to invest billions of dollars, about 15% of the country’s GDP, to expand the canal to handle larger ships. This timed well with the fracking revolution in the US. The US can now send ships transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe and Asia through the expanded canal. The canal is also being used for transporting agricultural goods to Asia from Argentina and Brazil.

America is reluctant to send troops around the world

[21:09] The United States has become incredibly reluctant to intervene worldwide at a national level. Most people agree that the US exited Afghanistan poorly, but at the same time most Americans are still glad that we left.

The nations of the world are realizing that the United States is not going to be the policemen of the world anymore, that the American people do not have the stomach to send their soldiers and their treasure to fight in faraway places. The US is spending less money on its global military, from 60% 30 years ago at the end of the cold war to around 40% today. Other countries are increasing their spending on their own defense because they know the US is not going to defend them. Andrew thinks we’re going to enter back into a period that will be much more dangerous, unpredictable, and violent.

Has the Green Energy Movement reached its peak ?

[26:07] Andrew says the European Union admitted it was impractical to reach its goal to sustain itself without fossil fuels in the coming decades when it quietly reclassified natural gas as a “renewable” in January.

Learn more about Dr. Andrew R. Thomas at https://andrewrthomas.us/

Question: Have you donated to help Ukraine? If so, how have you done it?

The post The Fracking Revolution and Ukraine Part II, with Andrew R. Thomas—EP. 151 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I backed my 2016 Acura sedan out of the garage and headed toward Bergstein’s Deli to pick up the chicken matzo ball soup I had ordered a few minutes earlier on the phone.

It is six minutes away. I order it a couple times a week. A teenager delivers it to my car five steps from the entrance. I always give the person who delivers it a couple dollars tip. I figure they are poorly paid and I want them to stick around because I value the good service. I got in the habit during the pandemic of picking up the soup and I’ve continued it since.

In the little strip center with Bergstein’s is an Asian owned nail salon on one side and an African grocery store on the other. Next to the grocery is a gaming shop, and next to it lies a newly opened “Dixie Food Store.” All tiny independent businesses.

Leaving the parking lot, I see an office building which has been converted into a dialysis center. On my way to Graff-Pinkert, I will pass a bank and two other office buildings that have been converted to dialysis facilities in the past three years. Obviously dialysis is more lucrative than vacant office space or local banking.

Lloyd Graff in his parking spot at Graff-Pinkert

At my second stoplight after the deli, I hit a red light. A car drives up beside me with music blasting. I hear it loudly, even with hearing aids and my windows tightly shut in the 20 degree winter air. I know it is a cultural statement, but I am annoyed anyway.

Soon I pass by my dentist’s office. He is an entrepreneur and has a flashing billboard in front of his recently-built office addition. He is advertising “walk-in cleanings.” Another irritant.

In three minutes I pass a local shopping center with a Walgreens. It used to have a Starbucks and Panera Bread. Both closed, I’m guessing because they did not have drive-thrus. Panera’s space is still vacant, and the Starbucks is a pizza by the slice joint now. There are several other vacancies, but Walgreens still looks busy.

I pass several office buildings. Most are either for sale or advertising vacant space for rent.

I’m getting close to my office now. I pass a Walmart and a bunch of fast food franchises. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Sonic, Panda, Subway. Sonic is always empty, but the others are all advertising looking for workers.

The shopping center takes up a small fraction of the space in this one square-mile acreage. Most of it has been vacant for many decades despite being across from I-57, an Interstate Highway. It is only a half hour from downtown Chicago on a good traffic day.

Two years ago, they started building massive warehouses in the open space. There are now four 500,000 square-foot buildings with 30-foot high cement wall buildings. Amazon occupies one, but the others appear to be empty. They are advertising for tenants. I’ve talked to the leasing agent and they sound very confident about filling them soon.

My 20 minute drive is now about finished. I turn into the Oak Forest Industrial Park. The building with a 20 ton overhead crane that my father built is now owned by another machinery dealer, but we have our offices in it and share the factory space. The 32,000 square-foot vacant lot next to the building has a for sale sign, but it is being sold as part of an Aldi’s grocery store, soon to be built. It will be a parking lot.

I know the territory very well, but it keeps changing every month.

What did I learn?

First, treating kidney failure must be a lucrative business. Office buildings are a disaster area. Entrepreneurs in the kidney business obviously see opportunity in moribund office space.

Second, if you do not have a drive-thru restaurant or delivery to your car, you probably are “toast” in the dining business.

Third, small businesses can still make it if they make good soup or do nails, but they have to be really good at it and run with a smile.

Fourth, fulfillment centers are everywhere. People moan that they can’t hire people, but Amazon and others have figured out a way to lure them.

Fifth, the amazing thing about America is that businesses will always come and go. The successful ones shift when they see an opportunity.

The last business I have to mention is a funeral home located five minutes from Graff-Pinkert that has a primarily African American clientele. When they are not hosting funerals, they are doing COVID testing and vaccinations.

Opportunity is always knocking while I keep driving to work.

Question: What changes have you noticed lately on your way to work?

The post What I Learned Driving to Work Yesterday first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s podcast is Part 1 of a two part series discussing the current state of the global energy supply and how it ultimately relates to the war in Ukraine.

Our guest is Dr. Andrew R. Thomas, author and business professor at University of Akron. He has published 25 books, most of them at the intersection of global strategy, business development, security and energy. In 2018 he published a book called American Shale Energy and the Global Economy. He also published a book in 2014 called Geopolitics, Development and National Security, Romania and Moldova at the Crossroads.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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Main Points

Andrew started the interview by explaining the fracking process. Fracking is defined as fracturing the rock under the earth’s surface to extract trapped carbon fossils, particularly oil and natural gas. Fracking in the United States first began in the late 19th Century, in Titusville, Pennsylvania. People shot artillery shells down holes using old Civil War cannons to break up rock.

By the 1940s, companies like Halliburton started experimenting with shooting water down holes in the ground to break up rock. The process pretty much remained the same until 1995, when Nick Steinsberger, an engineer at Mitchell Energy, discovered that by shooting water 20 or 30 times more intensely than had been done previously one could break up the rock enough to release substantially more oil and natural gas. Fracking suddenly had the potential to be a sustainable and profitable business. Other technological advancements in fracking were developed in following years, namely, drilling horizontally. In the mid 2000s the United States suddenly found itself energy independent for the first time in decades. Energy independence dramatically changed US foreign policy, which often had been dictated by its reliance on oil and gas from other countries, who were not always the friendliest to the US.

Dr. Andrew R. Thomas, author and professor

Fracking does have some environmental problems, which Andrew says have been significantly reduced in recent years. There are two main environmental issues fracking companies run into. Sometimes drilling can pollute drinking water if it is too close to the water table. In the fracking process the fluid that is shot down to break up the rock contains chemicals such as sulfuric acid and guar gum. Guar gum happens to be an ingredient in Twinkies, but it’s not a good addition to drinking water.

For a while, drillers didn’t know of a good way to dispose of the fluid they used for fracking, and sometimes they dumped it into rivers. Also, frackers dispose of fluid shooting it down into concrete-lined injection wells, going 20,000 to 30,000 feet beneath the surface of the earth. The fluid usually doesn’t leak, but the process can cause earthquakes because it’s done around geological plates. The US Federal government, primarily under the Obama administration, insulated itself from handling the environmental regulations of fracking by designating most oil and gas drilling under the jurisdiction of state governments. Most States with fracking industries have dramatically improved their environmental regulations for fracking. Unfortunately, Oklahoma and Texas have not self-regulated significantly. Texas happens to have the greatest supply of oil and natural gas in the country.

In recent years, the private investment going into fracking has softened because releasing large amounts of energy resources into the world causes prices of oil and gas to fall, making the business less profitable. Also, energy producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia flooded the world market with their oil and gas in an effort keep energy prices low, which would put American frackers out of business. Vladimir Putin even put out propaganda arguing the negative environmental effects of fracking. Some fracking companies did not survive the falling energy prices, but the ones who did survive improved their companies, coming up with new creative, more efficient processes.

European countries, aside Great Britain for a time, have stayed away from fracking, primarily for environmental reasons. They don’t have a federalist system like that of the United States, which grants autonomy to state governments to make their own environmental regulations. Russia has enough easily accessible oil and natural gas that it has no need to frack.

In 2010, Germany set a virtually impossible goal to no longer rely on fossil fuels or nuclear energy by 2020. During that period, the Germans became reliant on Russia to supply them with natural gas, which they deemed more environmentally friendly than other types of energy. Because it has become clear that for the foreseeable future they will remain dependent on natural gas, they have started building liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals that enable them to import natural gas from the United States. Natural gas must be converted into LNG when it is transported long distances. When it reaches its destination it then must be converted back to its former state.

The three largest importers of natural gas are China, Japan, and South Korea, and now there is an increasing demand for US natural gas in Europe because it is cheaper than most other sources. Andrew says China is in an energy crises right now. The country has had rolling blackouts since October because they don’t have enough coal and natural gas. In October, China started buying coal from North Korea (violating US sanctions). China also relies on Russia for energy, which explaines Putin’s visit with Xi Jinping a week before the Olympics. There is a pretty good chance they also discussed an invasion coming in the next few weeks.

Tune in next week to hear how all this relates to the war in Ukraine.

Question: Would you mind if fracking was done near your home?

The post The Fracking Revolution and Ukraine, with Andrew R. Thomas —EP. 150 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on the show today is my friend Miles Free, Director of Industry Affairs at the Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA).

Miles was actually the first featured guest on this podcast four years ago, and we are very thankful to have him back for episode 149. He is definitely one of the most passionate people I know about the machining world. It was a great conversation in which we covered an array of topics, such as tariffs, shop safety, electric cars, and even a bit about Ghostbusters.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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Main Points

Miles and I started the interview reflecting on the first episode we did together back in April of 2018. It was right around the time when President Trump was introducing tariffs on imported metals. Despite leaning conservative politically, Miles was very critical of the policy at the time and still is. He labels it the equivalent of implementing economic sanctions on ourselves—harsh sanctions. He reported to me that in December of 2021, for hot roll band, the US price for steel was $1,947 per ton. In Europe that same steel was $1,016 per ton, in China it was $634 per ton, and the world export price was $820 per ton. The policy was originally implimented to prop up the production of US steel mills. Today US steel mills are at 82.4% capacity, up less than 15% since the tariffs were implemented

Despite the huge disadvantage in raw material costs, US manufacturing is currently thriving, which Miles attributes to the fantastic ingenuity of US shops. He says several months after the initial Covid-19 panic caused demand for parts to plummet, customers suddenly needed new parts and demand shot back up. US contract manufacturers were prepared to step up to the plate to fill the demand. In 2021, PMPA shops had their highest average sales ever for December, up 23% from the average sales of the last five Decembers. Sales were up 18% over the prior year.

Miles says he is not sure if reshoring is actually occurring but according to the last census report, exports of US manufactured goods were up 18% from 2020 to $1.1 trillion.

Miles Free, Director of Industry Affairs with PMPA

Miles is a huge believer in the future of electric cars. He loves to reminisce about his first white paper for the PMPA back in 2003 in which he predicted a bright future for electric cars. Many association members said he was crazy at the time. Miles says today he can only think of five shops in the PMPA currently making automotive parts for the Big 3 automakers, but he can name a dozen PMPA members making parts for Tesla.

He pointed outside his office window to show me his own Tesla Model Y, which he was able to buy from selling portion of his own investment in Tesla stock. He boasts that he spends 1.7 cents per mile driving the car. Prior to gas prices shooting up, his 2015 Honda Civic Hybrid got him 5 cents a mile. He estimates a conventional internal combustion engine car would get about 15 cents a mile.

Miles made a point of covering the topic of safety in our interview. He says shops need to prioritize keeping their talented employees safe. He argues that if companies have a reputation for neglecting the safety of their people they will have trouble finding good talent. Also, the penalties for breaking safety laws can kill companies economically. Starting in 2022, the government passed a law that if a company even fails to post a sign with safety regulations they can be fined $14,502. Even accidental first offenses can trigger huge fines. It’s possible for a company to be fined $145,000 per violation per day.

According to Miles, the EPA also has very harsh punishments for violations—harsh for gross violations that are obviously detrimental to the environment, but also harsh punishments for unnecessary regulations designed by people ignorant about the processes in question.

I told him that sometimes talking about the EPA makes me think about the scene in Ghostbusters when the the ignorant EPA agent shuts down the protection grid, releasing all of the captive ghosts.

But I digress.

Talking to Miles is always interesting and an upper because he is so passionate about our industry. If you want more of his wisdom, I suggest you check out his blog at pmpaspeakingofprecision.com and his podcast, Speaking of Precision: Mondays with Miles.

Question: What has been the most surprising thing to you about the machining business in the last year?

The post Why the Machining Industry is Thriving, with Miles Free —EP. 149 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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As Putin impersonates Hitler and attempts to steal a big piece of real estate with 44 million people, I’d like to discuss a few small pieces of the American real estate dream where ambitious folks are trying to build an investment safety net that will grow in value.

In the last five years, accelerated by COVID-19, Americans moved away from staying in hotels. They are seen as sterile, institutional, unsafe, and boring. The remarkable entrepreneurs who run Airbnb and their competitor Vrbo picked up on this trend early and figured out how to capitalize on it. When some observers saw the pandemic as their armageddon, they turned it into an opportunity.

Maybe pleasure travel would die for a while, but Americans travel from one place to another for millions of different reasons. Many are tired of hotel boxes, waiting at front desks, and sleeping on institutional beds with the wrong pillows.

The Airbnb business model is brilliantly thrifty in its use of capital. Let individual owners be the host. Airbnb is the enabler, the rental agent, who takes a commission off the top for their internet marketing, branding, and knowledge of the business. A multibillion-dollar enterprise was born from this contrarian idea. Conrad Hilton would have smiled if he was alive.

In the last decade, hundreds of thousands of regular people have scraped together a few bucks, lined up bank loans, very cheap money until recently, and looked for properties, usually in areas they know well, planning to convert them into Airbnb rentals.

This week I spoke to a machinery business acquaintance who gave me a free education on building an Airbnb side business with his wife, who recently retired after 21 years as an airline attendant. Before entering the Airbnb business, Chris had little real estate experience, but he understood borrowing from a quality lender, the value of a well-connected real estate agent, and the power of the Airbnb brand. He moved from Chicago to Charlotte with his wife. His business office was his phone and home. He quickly realized that Charlotte was a spot that many people wanted to move to, and if he was ever going to take the property plunge, Charlotte was the place.

Over the last few years, he bought three rental homes, all in Union County, a middle-class suburb outside of Charlotte, and gradually learned how to turn them into cash cows.

He told me the first thing to do when getting into the Airbnb business is to make sure an area is accepting of rentals and that there are no regulations to get in your way. A good real estate agent will know where to check before the buying process gains momentum. Chris, with his machinery selling experience, knew how to check the pricing comps and borrowing costs, which would establish price ground rules.

Airbnb, with its fees, takes around 14% of the rental proceeds. Short-term rentals tend to be more lucrative but require more work by a host. Cleaning costs money, bedding gets holes in it, and big parties alienate the neighbors quickly.

Being an Airbnb landlord is a second job with a lot of annoyances, but Chris and his wife felt they could handle the task. They took the jump and bought their first house, hoping for the best. Over the next couple of years they purchased two more, despite the red-hot Charlotte home market.

Chris’s wife welcomes each tenant and gives them a bottle of wine. She makes sure the towels are clean and ample. She is available in emergencies and Chris is handy enough to do a lot of repairs.

One house has been continuously rented by a single person whose own house burned down. Insurance has paid the rent for 18 months. That property brings in less money but is less trouble than the other two homes, which average 5 to 7 renter changes a month.

Airbnb and Vrbo provide most of Chris’s renters. He says he and his wife average about $7,000 gross rental per month. For the lodgings with frequent renter turnover they try to screen the renters, but outward appearances can be deceiving. He said their biggest partier was a woman who was celebrating after earning her Ph.D.

Chris would like to buy another property for short-term rental. The tax benefits with the depreciation have made these investments extremely worthwhile, but high prices in the Charlotte area have him sitting tight. Also, three homes are plenty of work for him and his wife at the moment.

The Airbnb game is definitely not for everybody, but it seems like a nice side gig and a great opportunity to build wealth. It’s America, not Russia. Opportunity is all over the place if you have the guts and are willing to work. Have you tried it?

Questions:

What’s your favorite place you’ve ever stayed in your travels?

Would you stay at an Airbnb?

The post Real Estate Populism first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on the podcast today is Jim Gosselin, owner and President of Genevieve Swiss Industries. Genevieve Swiss sells innovative accessories specifically for Swiss CNC lathes, such as live tooling and cutting tools, to combat the problems small parts manufacturers constantly deal with.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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Main Points

Jim gives an overview of Genevieve Swiss. He says the company’s mission is to make the job of the machinists easier. If machinists have the right tools to get better efficiency and quicker setups then machining companies will be more profitable. (2:30)

Jim says he was always interested in mechanical stuff from a young age. He liked to take apart his toys as a kid to try to understand how things worked. He dropped out of high school in his Junior year and went into the military where he became a combat engineer. He summarized that job as “building things and blowing things up.” (3:00)

After getting out of the military, Jim got a GED and took college courses at night. He worked at a machining company called Savage Arms in Westfield, Massachusetts, that made shotguns and other hunting equipment. In 1983 he became a programer and ran the new Citizen CNC machines that the company purchased. The machines had 2 turrets with 5 stations each, with cross drilling and milling capability. He says those machines were not actually sliding headstock. Rather, they were sliding guide bushing machines. The turret and the guide bushing slid together on the machines. (4:00)

In 1987 Jim became an applications engineer and salesperson at Brookdale Associates, a Citizen distributor in New England. In the late 1980s Brookdale Associates began building high pressure coolant systems for Swiss machines. He says before then, high pressure pumps were not used for Swiss turning. The company also sold a line of accessories, including tool holders for Swiss machines. In 2002, he and his colleagues traveled to Switzerland where they began a relationship with PCM, a company that sold high quality live tools. Jim thought that Brookdale would distribute PCM’s tooling, but it was a difficult year for the machining industry, so his boss didn’t want the risk of taking on a new product line. He told Jim if he wanted to start his own company he supported the idea and would be his best customer. That was the start of Genevieve Swiss. (5:45)

Jim says that when he started Genevieve Swiss he realized at the time that many Swiss operators were getting older and they were burning out because the Swiss machining process caused too many headaches. He decided his company’s mission would be to make Swiss machinists’ lives easier by supplying them with products that enable faster setups and better cycle times. (8:00)

Jim talks about developing gear-driven head live tools for Swiss machines with PCM. He says that prior to gear-driven live tools, typically live tools on CNC Swiss machines turned at 4000-5000 RPM for cross drilling or cross milling. He says this wasn’t efficient for end-mills that could be as small as a diameter of .020” or .030”. The slower turning speeds caused burrs and slower cycle times. The new gear-driven heads produced 3 times the output as the older technology. (9:25)

Jim talks about the products Genevieve Swiss sells. The company sells accessories specifically for Swiss machines such as live tools and cutting tools. It sells arbors for slitting as well as coolant that is specifically designed for high pressure delivery. He talks about a thread whirling head for a Citizen L20 that is designed to have coolant flow right through the head and then delivered to the cutters. (see video above) (10:30)

Jim says that chip control problems are one of the most significant hurdles for Swiss operators. He says often in medical work that uses difficult metals like 465 stainless, chips can come off the machine like ribbons. Genevieve Swiss is working with its insert tooling supplier UTILIS to sell laser ground chip breakers. (see demonstration video below) (12:40)

Jim talks about insert tooling developed by UTILIS in which coolant flows through the tool and is focused on the tool tip. (17:00)

Jim says most of the Genevieve Swiss’ innovations come from listening to customers on the shop floor. He says the company talks to customers and distributors to find out what machining problems operators are complaining about. (20:00)

Jim compares the construction of older Swiss CNC machines to those of today. He says that Swiss machines used to have heavier castings to achieve rigidity. While today’s Swiss machines are built with lighter castings, Jim says they are designed more intelligently based on factors such as stress analysis, which enables them to stay ridged. (21:30)

Jim says the incorporation of lasers is one of the most interesting recent innovations on Swiss machines. Lasers can do cutting, milling, cross drilling, and knurling. They also enable welding two parts together while still on the machine. He says though 3D printing is slow right now, it could be a disruptor in small parts manufacturing one day. He brings up a scenario of a Swiss machine that also incorporates 3D printing. (22:30)

Learn more about Genevieve Swiss at Genswiss.com.

Question: What are the biggest challenges you run into running CNC Swiss machines?

The post Best of Swarfcast: Live Tooling and Accessories for CNC Swiss, with Jim Gosselin —EP. 114 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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This is how I see the battle for Ukraine, from the comfort of rich, bumbling America.

Vladimir Putin is Dictator of Russia, a miserable place to live.

To Putin, the people of Russia are pathetic pawns in a narcissistic lust for power. The power game is his life and passion. He is a planner. Unlike American Presidents, he does not worry about elections or popularity. He sees their preoccupation with winning elections as weakness and silliness. He uses guile and corruption, backed by terror, to advance his almost maniacal lust for power and recognition on the world stage, using Russia as his vehicle. This makes him a dangerous foe because he doesn’t have to worry much about criticism from within the country. If dissenters get too much traction he just has one of his well-trained goons kill them.

Putin has been planning to take over Ukraine since the Soviet Union disintegrated. The key to taking Ukraine was weakening NATO and neutralizing Germany.

Germany is the richest and most economically powerful country by far in Western Europe. Putin was a KGB operative stationed in East Germany when the wall came down.

He saw how Germany prospered afterward, and it must have galled him. But he also saw the country’s huge weaknesses that he believed he ultimately could cultivate and use to take over Ukraine and Belarus, and reassemble the rest of the Soviet Union without the cost of a big shooting war.

Vladimir Putin, Russian President

The horrors of World War II made Germany and the rest of Western Europe quite pacifistic. Germans paid an incredible price for Hitler’s war and would do almost anything to avoid another military conflict.

Germany joined NATO, but they saw their role as funding it and having others do the military stuff.

Putin understood this fear of war and planned on exploiting it, even if it took decades. To Putin, NATO was essentially American military strength with Europe paying as little of the bill as it could get away with.

When Ukraine allied itself with NATO and sought to join it, Putin was enraged. So he waited for the United States to take Europe for granted and look more and more inward while developing its economic relationship with China.

Unfortunately for Putin, Russia became increasingly impoverished, alcoholic, and shrunken in population. It had only three strengths: military power, fossil fuels, and Vladimir Putin’s brilliance at keeping power and pushing his goals.

Putin believed that if Russia could weaken Germany, he could gobble up Ukraine, unravel NATO, and be America’s equal. His problem was corrupting and entangling Germany in his web without war.

His key to the puzzle was the Greens in Europe and especially Germany. It would take decades, but he knew the weakness of politicians and the power of money.

Putin was a fitness buff. He was tough, and fossil fuels were his spear and net to capture Germany.

A subtle long-term promotion of the idea that coal was dirty, nuclear was too dangerous, and wind and solar could ultimately fuel the continent, was sold to a sleeping European population. While the new green energy infrastructure was being built, Russia would provide the least awful fossil fuel, natural gas, through huge safe pipelines under the sea.

Angela Merkel bought the idea and saw it as her vehicle to gain and maintain power. Meanwhile, her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, was artfully corrupted. As soon as he left power he became head of Nordstream AG and later Nordstream 2, the gas pipeline of which Russian oil Giant Gazprom is sole shareholder. Earlier this month he was nominated for Gazprom’s board.

Putin’s huge headache was American fracking, which kept the world oil prices down and could reduce Germany’s dependence on Russian gas. Clever entrepreneurs developed liquid natural gas which could float all over the world in huge tankers.

But in 2020 Joe Biden became the American president. He thought he owed his election to the Greens and Progressives and shut down much of American fracking. The stars aligned for a 69-year-old Putin. COVID had reduced oil and gas demand worldwide. Prices fell, and frackers dependent on big borrowing were economically fragile.

If there was ever a moment to move on Ukraine this was it. Biden was weak, America had COVID, Germany had a new leader. European countries were uninterested and almost totally militarily dependent on an inward looking USA.

A ruthless, fit, dedicated Vladimir Putin now has 150,000 troops facing Kiev. Biden could probably stop the implementation of Nordstream 2. He could stimulate fracking production in the US, which would reduce demand for Russian gas and slow inflation.

Does Biden have the guts to do it, or will Putin get his dream of reassembling the Soviet Union with minimal losses?

Question: Will Putin’s gamble in Ukraine lead to his downfall?

The post Putin’s Long Game first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on the podcast today is Brian Balasia, CEO and Co-Founder of TalentEi, a company that produces a software platform that matches employers and job seekers across a variety of sectors. Brian says the platform enables companies to hire superior people, more quickly, and at a better price than traditional hiring methods such as job descriptions and resumes.

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Main Points TalentEi’s software platform surveys hiring managers, asking them what they are looking for in a particular role. In addition to the obvious information like how many years of experience a candidate should have, the system asks managers questions about the day to day experience and the particular tasks the job requires. An example question would be asking if candidates are expected to learn things on their own, or if will they be receiving continuous coaching and instruction.

When people apply for jobs on an employer’s website or on sites such as Indeed, their contact information goes into TalenEi’s database. Then TalentEi contacts the candidates and asks them to answer a series of questions tailored specifically for that position. After collecting data from employers and candidates TalentEi’s software places applicants into the spots where it feels they have the best chance to succeed at a company. It has the power to pinpoint positions at a company that management may have overlooked. It can even find job openings at different facilities if the company has multiple locations.

Brian says there is a lot of waste in a traditional hiring system. TalentEi sets out to eliminate the waste using a system with common characteristics to the Toyota production model. He says contrary to what tons of employers are saying right now, there actually are a lot of good job candidates out there, but they are being overlooked or falling through the cracks when there are a high number of applicants.

Brian Balasia, CEO and Co-Founder of TalentEi

One type of waste TalentEi tries to limit Brian calls queueing waste. It occurs when a company receives an abundance of job candidates. If a company has 100 spots and 200 applicants, it ends up choosing candidates in the order they apply, plugging them into arbitrary roles at the company simply because they are vacant. This type of hiring neglects to understand applicants’ strengths and needs, which results in placing them into jobs where they are not suited or they will not enjoy. Many people who could have been successful hires for a certain occupation turn out to be failures just because they were placed in the wrong shift. Queuing waste also occurs when good people are skipped over because they were so far at the back of the line of candidates they never got a chance to be evaluated.

Employer bias is another cause of hiring waste that TalentEi tries to limit. It occurs when hirers come in with preconceived notions about why a candidate would or would not be a good fit for a company. Brian talks about one manufacturing company that decided they only wanted candidates with “prior manufacturing experience.” The problem was that there are so many different types of manufacturing companies and so many types of jobs in manufacturing companies. Many of the people the company hired because of their past manufacturing experience ended up being poor fits for their positions. Meanwhile, many qualified candidates who didn’t have past experience in manufacturing but could have been great fits in the company were passed over. Brian says it’s not uncommon for an employer to decide against interviewing a candidate simply because they were worried they couldn’t pronounce the candidate’s name correctly. The hirer, already bombarded with resumes, picks someone else to interview because it was hard to differentiate among any of the resumes in the first place.

Brian says placing job candidates in positions they enjoy is a key goal for TalentEi. The company has found that when employees enjoy what they do, they do good work and don’t leave. The objective is to place people in jobs that fit their needs and strengths as well as satisfy the requirements of the companies that are hiring. The software takes into account things such as working hours, commute length, if the job requires social skills, if it requires patience to do one thing repeatedly. Brian says the key to his company’s success is that it attempts to treat applicants as individuals and people, rather than commodities.

Question: Are live job interviews unnecessary in your experience?

The post A More Intelligent Way to Hire, with Brian Balasia—EP. 148 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on today’s podcast is Lauren Dunford, CEO and cofounder of Guidewheel. Guidewheel produces a sensor that clips onto a machine tool’s power supply to collect data while it runs. The data helps manufacturers understand what processes on the shop floor need to be improved and guides them toward solutions.

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Main Points

Guidewheel’s sensor is a current transformer that clips around the first phase of the 3-phase electrical connection to a machine. This means it can be configured for use with virtually any type of machine tool, no matter how sophisticated. It monitors the electricity draw recording when the machine is running on load, idle, or off. The live data is transferred to the cloud where a software platform sends alerts to shops to inform them if the machine is functioning correctly. The software also analyzes the data in the context of what’s happening on the shop floor, layering in metrics such as production, quality and speed. This helps management understand which processes need to be improved upon.

Lauren Dunford, CEO and Co-Founder of Guidewheel

Guidewheel’s data might reveal that various shifts differ in production output, pointing out inefficiencies of certain personnel. It could also reveal that some machines are poorly maintained or not well suited for certain tasks. Guidewheel’s sensors often show that machine changeover and setup are processes that could significantly be improved. When the sensors record that one worker averages 3 hours to change over a machine while another worker takes 30 minutes, a company can then observe both people working and compare their processes.

Companies often find that the culprit for slow setup or changeover time is that necessary tools for the job aren’t already next to a machine. When workers have to leave their machines to obtain the tools they need, they may have to walk across the shop floor where they could be held up by fellow employees or sidetracked by other distractions.

Guidewheel’s data helps companies cope with labor shortages by boosting their efficiency. Sometimes it produces data revealing that more employees are needed, justifying the cost of additional staff.

Lauren says typically a manufacturing company’s perceived utilization for its equipment is much higher than its actual utilization. For example, she sees high volume shops targeting 85% utilization while having actual utilization of 60-65%. She says low volume shops often have actual utilization of 30-40% or even lower.

I asked Lauren at the end of the interview if the increased efficiency was enabling people to work fewer hours. Her first reaction was that people are still working the same amount but output is being increased. However, she added that Guidewheel’s monitoring tools have enabled supervisors to spend less time at their shops because they don’t have to stand around watching employees and troubleshooting problems.

Questions: What are the most inefficient processes in your work? When are you least efficient in your daily life?

The post Tracking Your Shop’s Performance, with Lauren Dunford—EP. 147 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Valentine’s Day is coming up this week. A Hallmark invention. But the idea of expressing your love or kindness or compassion to a person you care about is no joke.

People have trouble communicating feelings. Not just people “on the spectrum,” but almost everybody on the planet has trouble connecting with people they care about.

One problem is the language of connecting. The hug, the kiss, the handshake, even the wink or a laugh, often connect more naturally than words. A gift is one way to express feelings. Often it’s a clumsy way, but sometimes it strikes the right note. I have found that the best gift is the unexpected item that expresses something unique about the relationship.

My wife and I have pots and pans we received 50 years ago as wedding gifts. Prosaic gifts, yes, but some days we are making chicken soup in a big stainless steel pot, and Risa and I will both think of Shirley Silverstein, who wanted us to have utensils that would last for the rest of our lives.

Revere Ware

Could the perfect Far Side comic greeting card say as much as that copper-clad Revere Ware?

When I think about gifts and holidays my thoughts turn to my father. Money and things meant a lot to him. He grew up during the Depression. Buying a Cadillac was hugely important to him to symbolize his business success. Yet, for his birthday all he wanted was a $2 white knit tie that he wore everyday to work to go with his tailor-made suits. He did not want other people to buy things for him.

Late in his life, I visited him by myself at his apartment in Florida. My mother had died several years earlier, and he was alone and feeling vulnerable.

My dad did not normally express his feelings easily and very seldom discussed his relationship with my mother, but he was in a pensive mood and said, “Lloyd, I wish I had given her more jewelry.” The remark hit me really hard because it was so unlike him. I knew he felt it deeply, but I really did not know what to say to him except that I thought my mother had never wanted for anything material.

I was seeing a psychotherapist on a regular basis in those days, and I couldn’t wait to discuss this with him. His name was Herb Cibul. I learned so much from him over the 10 years I worked with him.

He told me that the jewelry my father emphasized symbolized the love and sexuality which he must have felt were lacking in his relationship with my mother. That nugget of knowledge had an enormous impact on me. I realized it was a really good thing to express my feelings clearly and outwardly to the people that I cared about.

I felt a genuine sadness for my father that he wanted to tell me about how he had come up short, at least in his own heart, with his most important relationship.

I don’t need Valentine’s Day to let my wife know how I feel about her. I write her love notes almost every week. They may be only a line or two, but they come from my heart.

My dad and Herb Cibul taught me one of the most important lessons in my life.

Question: What was the most memorable gift you have given or received?

The post From the Heart first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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For those who don’t know yet, I’m going to have my first child in April. Many people are telling me that I won’t have any time of my own anymore. Life is going to consist of going to work and then coming home to be with my newborn son—and I’m going to love that as my new existence.

Right now, I spend a lot of time after work toiling on my weekly podcast, Swarfcast, along with some other creative projects. I know I’m going to have to alter my working habits to keep those projects going.

I have heard in the news recently about companies successfully implementing 7-hour workdays or 4-day workweeks. Bolt, a tech startup company in Silicon Valley, implemented a 4-day workweek last year. Since then, the 600-person company has grown the fastest since its inception. The founder, Ryan Breslow, believes the 4-day week was critical for the growth because the company’s employees felt happier and were extra focused at work. They approached their days with intense bursts of energy to get what they needed done. Breslow says they worked like lions as opposed to employees at most companies who work with little urgency like grazing cows.

It made me think back to one of my favorite Swarfcast episodes, in which I interviewed David Wynn, CFO of ABF Engineering, a Brown & Sharpe shop in Tennessee. David told me that his company gives its employees flexibility to work when they want and as long they want, provided they get their work done and work as a team.

I think in my job as a machinery dealer it would be difficult to change to 4-day workweek because most of the positions at Graff-Pinkert have little redundancy. I would be worried that customers would try to call us with opportunities, and then when we weren’t available they would call a different dealer who would answer the phone or return their email.

I admit, I don’t always devour my to-do list like a lion. One rationalization I have for working less deliberately is that some of the longer than planned conversations I have with customers lead to serendipitous discoveries or grow important relationships. Also, sometimes I get off task on the Web looking for a piece of equipment and discover buried treasure that I would not have found if I had been so focused.

I know there are lots of inefficiencies in my day that if corrected could theoretically allow me to get more things done in less time. I could put limits on phone conversations, check email less, automate and outsource more tasks. I promise I am working on implementing these strategies at this very moment.

Everyone’s efficiency is a result of Parkinson’s Law—work expands to fill the time that’s available for its completion. Right now there’s no plans for Graff-Pinkert to reduce hours or shorten the workweek. But going forward I will still have to be more lion and less cow than ever before.

Questions:

What tasks take up too much of your workday?

Would you rather have a shorter workday or a shorter workweek?

The post Work Like a Lion first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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When my kids were young, I used to make up goofy bedtime stories. They were silly, with crazy characters. I called the main characters Ooga, Wooga, and Mooga. The kids laughed loudly and always begged for more.

For my readers today, I have decided to tell you one of those stories.

Long, long ago, about 1980, at a Paris coffee shop that stayed open until 3 a.m., Ooga, Wooga, and Mooga were sipping Turkish coffee and smoking cigarettes around midnight. Ooga said “I miss the good old days of Hitler, Stalin, and McCarthy in America.”

“Yeah, those were the days. Big lies, strong states, huge prisons,” said Wooga.

“Wouldn’t it be great if Communism could make a comeback? It’s all falling apart right now. I think the Germans are even going to tear down the Berlin Wall one of these days. Wouldn’t that be sad,” said Mooga.

Ooga chimed in, “We need a new ism or a new religion. Something based on fear, but without the ruthlessness of Hitler and Stalin. Something that the professors and the scientists and nice people would get behind without knowing that they were being used to bring on the new Communism.”

“We’re on to something,” said Wooga and Mooga. “Any ideas?”

Ooga said, “We have to get people scared. How about monsters?”

“Sounds too much like a comic book, not that there’s anything wrong with comics. I love Captain Marvel. How about volcanoes?” said Wooga.

“Not enough of them to really scare folks,” said Mooga.

I really like it here!

They puffed and sipped, ate a couple of stale croissants, and then Ooga said, “Freezing to death. Maybe if we could get enough folks to be terrified that their world of apples and lilies was going to turn into a refrigerator, and plant life was going to shrivel, and they would have to pick up and move to the Congo to survive on bananas and fight gorillas, we’d have something sensational to sell,” he said.

“Not so fast,” said Wooga. “Cold is cool, but I read an article that said we are in a sunspot. The temperatures are inching up a tad. We could recruit some scientists and bearded university nerds at Harvard and Oxford and the Sorbonne. They’ll believe anything if you give them a grant, and then they’ll tell everyone that hell is approaching.”

“Now we are getting warm,” said Ooga. “Sweat rolling down everybody’s brow, even in Siberia and Alaska. Glaciers melting. No snow skiing for the rich people,” he went on.

“But we need something else for people to get paranoid about,” Mooga added to the party. “Any ideas?”

“We need some plagues and sickness,” said Wooga. “A lot of coughing and lung disease,” he said, puffing on his Camel cigarette.

“I’ve got it. Coal! Yeah, it’s black and yucky and miners look ugly coming up from the mines,” he added.

“What if we added all carbon fuels and threw in nuclear energy and terrified everybody with the specter of nuclear explosions at power plants,” said Ooga.

“Guys, I think we’ve got ourselves a new “ism” or a new religion. Christianity, Islam, Judaism will be yesterday. Climate change, global warming, they are a great new one-two punch. We need to get a few charismatic prophets and some venture capital money, buy off some writers and TV people, and we will be in business,” said Wooga.

“We need one more thing to sell this to Bill Gates and George Soros, a slogan or a jingle,” said Ooga.

“The existential threat of climate change,” said Mooga as he doodled it on his napkin.

“Dude, I think you just won yourself a Nobel Peace Prize,” laughed Ooga.

And now we can all go to sleep.

Question: Do you see the existential threat of climate change as a fable?

The post A Climate Change Fable first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s episode is Part II of our interview with industrial auctioneer Robert Levy. In Part I, I tried to get an understanding of what’s going on inside the mind of an auctioneer. In the second part of the interview, I asked Robert to give me some practical advice on how to be a successful bidder at an auction.

The first tip Robert suggests for auction bidders is to talk to the auctioneer before the sale about what items they are interested in and even tell the auctioneer their spending targets. This advice first surprised me because I’ve always figured if an auctioneer knew a bidder’s price limit, they would do their best to push the item’s price up to that limit quickly. To me that’s not a great start for getting a good deal.

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Main Points

Robert says if bidders come to him before the sale and promise they will buy items for what seem to be respectable prices, he will try to protect those buyers from getting into bidding wars and losing their desired items by small amounts of money. One method he uses to try to prevent bidding wars is controlling price increments for bids he will accept after the item reaches the target price. For instance, if a buyer tells him he can spend $100,000 for an item Robert will promise that he won’t allow the person to be outbid by a small amount like $1,500. Of course, if another bidder tops the customer by a significant amount like $15,000 he will allow the price to go up. The thinking is that a bidder will be less frustrated if they lose an item by large margin as opposed to a small one.

Robert Levy, President of Levy and Associates

Robert does admit that you really have to trust an auctioneer before you share your target prices. He suggests asking around to research the reputation of an auctioneer before confiding in one. Call me cynical, but I would be scared to divulge my price target to any auctioneer. After all, Robert told me that it’s the auctioneer’s fiduciary responsibility to get the most money for their client. It seems like it would be difficult to truly be on the side of both the buyers and sellers. But perhaps in the end, it’s not about being on both sides, but rather, making buyers feel comfortable and earning their trust, which Robert says is one of the most important qualities of a good auctioneer.

In our experience at Graff-Pinkert, it has been helpful for us to ask auctioneers for specific information about items before a sale. We ask them if they will combine certain items into one lot if they naturally should go together. We also try to get a sense from them about what they think items will bring.

Robert says it’s much harder to provide bid protection to buyers in online auctions than live ones because they are designed with the intention of creating bidding wars. In a standard online auction, in the last few minutes of bidding if a new bid is submitted, the expiration time for that item extends. Bidding on items can slowly climb for hours after the original closing time. His suggestion for buyers is to go into a sale with a specific budget, and stick to it.

Robert says he very rarely considers selling an auction item before a sale. He only does it in a circumstance where the offer seems considerably attractive to his clients. He doesn’t want to take the items out of a sale that attract the most bidders. Also, he often sees that after an auction ends the seller finds out they could have gotten an even higher price if they had left it in the sale.

When the manufacturing economy is strong, like it is currently, Robert says it’s a good time for the auction business. Prices go higher because there are more happy buyers. Also, during good times, assets switch hands more often because companies want to sell older equipment before they buy new equipment. During bad times, on the other hand, there are a lot of auction sales, but supply is high and demand is low, meaning equipment prices go low. He sees a favorable outlook for industrial auctions in the near term. Assuming manufacturing remains hot, as the supply chain gets better and people are able to receive new equipment they will want to sell more used equipment.

I hope so.

Question: What piece of equipment do you wish you had the opportunity to purchase right now?

The post Machinery Auctions Off the Stand with Robert Levy, (Part II)–EP. 146 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I like football, but I am not a football nut. I don’t even own a Walter Payton or Mike Ditka Jersey. But last Saturday and Sunday’s games were so riveting that I couldn’t move myself away from the TV, even for a stack of Oreos. And I love Oreos.

Four straight playoff games were decided on the last play, and probably the eight best teams in the NFL played each other. Athletes gave every play everything they had. Great receivers used every trick they knew to get open, and the most amazing quarterbacks in the game threw the ball perfectly, often before their receivers made their final moves.

Everybody agrees that Buffalo was robbed by an idiotic “sudden death rule” in the last game of the weekend. But unless you were a Bills fan, you just watched in total amazement at the magnificence of Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen and wished the game would last forever as they dueled each other to total exhaustion.

Just a few more reactions that linger two days after.

Joe Burrow of Cincinnati may be the next Tom Brady. He has the arm and he sees the field like Brady. He can win without a great offensive line and All-Pro receivers.

Their histories have some similarities. Burrow was underappreciated at Ohio State after being the top high school player in Ohio. He sat on the bench or was injured for three years, then transferred to LSU where he led the Tigers to the national championship and won the Heisman.

Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes

Brady sat on the bench for two years behind Drew Henson at Michigan before blossoming and leading the Wolverines to the Rose Bowl. Then it took an injury to Drew Bledsoe for him to get a chance to play in the NFL.

They are traditional dropback quarterbacks but can avoid tacklers without great foot speed. They are both charismatic leaders without being show-offs. I think they both would play until they were 50 if their bodies would let them.

Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers should have won against San Francisco. The Packers were the better team and they were playing on the frozen tundra. For the Packers to score just 10 points against the 49ers indicates they were outcoached or a little complacent in the cold conditions. They were experienced playing in the Arctic but played too cautiously, believing that a mediocre offensive team like San Fran could not score against them.

Their calculation was mostly correct, but mistakes in the kicking game were extremely costly and they lost on the last play because of scoring only 10 points.

A Los Angeles Rams versus Packers game in Green Bay should be the NFC championship game next week, rather than the Rams playing at home against a banged-up 49ers team, but that is the beauty of the NFL playoff system.

Four fabulous games. It was a true gift for anybody into football. The last three minutes of regulation play of K.C. versus Buffalo will go down as the greatest toe-to-toe battle of exhausted players ever, guided by incredible quarterbacks who just refused to lose. It will stick out in my memory forever.

And the Chicago Bears thought Mitchell Trubisky would be better than either Mahomes or Allen in successive years.

Questions:

Who is the best quarterback who ever played?

Who is your favorite quarterback of all time?

The post Pigskin Rhapsody first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Today’s episode is Part I of a two part interview with Robert Levy, President of Robert Levy Associates. Robert has been an industrial auctioneer for 44 years and knows more about the auction business than anyone I’ve met. Auctions are fascinating and sometimes mysterious to me, so my goal in this interview was to get a glimpse into the head of a person masterminding these events.

We first interviewed Robert back in 2018, our sixth podcast ever. After three and a half years and 139 episodes, it’s obvious that the used machinery market and the auction world have changed. Robert hasn’t been on the live auction stand in two years, that’s after over 40 previous years when he often averaged doing two live sales per week.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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Main Points

When I spoke to him last Friday, Robert had just finished a successful online-only sale of Duffin Manufacturing, in which he partnered with Miedema’s Orbitbid. The sale was a sign of the times. People bid from the comfort of their living rooms, rather than brave COVID-19 and Ohio in January. Multi-spindle New Britains and Acme-Gridleys sold for half the price of Winter thread rolling attachments. On other hand, two 10-year-old OKUMA CNC lathes and two late model Tsugamis brought over $500,000.

Robert started the interview telling me about his father’s auction company, Norman Levy Associates, founded in 1951. Robert says his father, Norman, cleaned up the industrial auction business, which was marred by corruption. Norman wanted to create an auction experience where regular people had a chance at getting a bargain and where the auction process was considered a respectable way for legitimate companies to turn equipment into cash.

Robert and his brother went into the auction business in the ’80s and built the family’s company into a global enterprise. Robert admits that back in those days, auctions were often dominated by dealers, like my company, Graff-Pinkert, who knew where all the sales were and had more ability to travel then many endusers.

In the late ‘90s, with advent of the Internet, the auction world was turned on its head. Everyone with an eBay account considered themselves an auctioneer. People from all over the world suddenly could bid simultaneously on a sale in a remote corner of the earth. Endusers everywhere could be instantaneously notified when new interesting equipment went up for sale.

Also, the resources necessary to become an industrial auctioneer became more accessible in the last 15-20 years. This led to many used machine tool dealers starting their own auction companies. Robert and other auctioneers often have told me that used machinery dealers who are also auctioneers run into conflicts of interest during sales. He believes that when bidders know a dealer is behind a sale, they don’t feel like they have a fair chance to get good deals, so the sale suffers.

I understand the theory, but as a dealer myself, I’ve often wondered if this is just a case of auctioneers trying to hold onto their turf. I understand the temptation of my peers to be both dealers and auctioneers. If Graff-Pinkert were to find a company that wanted to sell its assets and we had the resources to organize and advertise a sale, why would we want to give a piece of the action to someone else? Robert admitted to me that he could understand where I was coming from, and I will admit that Graff-Pinkert has been quite successful partnering with auctioneers, who have expertise, resources, and infrastructure that allow us to focus on what we do best.

It’s beautiful to observe someone so passionate about their craft, like Robert. I can spot a little smile when he talks about being on the stand, where he lit up shops for over 40 years. He says he sees himself as a kind of engineer when he makes a deal with a client and then conducts the actual auction. The night before a sale, he walks the shop, scoping it out, so he will be ready when he needs to improvise, perhaps combining items or changing the order of lots if he needs to shift the momentum of bidding. Still, as much as he misses the stand, for the Duffin auction last week, Robert suggested to his client that the way to get the best return would be an online-only sale.

What I found most interesting in this interview was how much purpose Robert says he has in his vocation. He told me several stories about how great he felt when helped good people maximize the value of their assets. Interestingly, he also talked about his desire to create fair opportunities for buyers. Balancing those two intentions seems like a difficult high wire act. Can an auctioneer really look out for both buyers and sellers?

You will have to tune into Part II of this podcast interview to judge for yourself.

Question: What’s the best deal you ever got at an auction?

The post Machinery Auctions Off the Stand, with Robert Levy (Part I)—EP. 145 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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I grew up in between.

Eight blocks to the West were the people my parents called the “Schvartze,” and eight blocks to the East was the South Shore Country Club, where no Jews or dogs were allowed.

It was also the time when school desegregation was taking hold in Charlotte, North Carolina, where my wife grew up, and Martin Luther King was leading a March in Selma, Alabama, with Bull Conner lined up against him.

I was “in between” the races at the time when America was starting to change significantly. I think I’ve lived my whole life struggling with the gut fear and racism I felt at home. I feel an emotional and spiritual pull to cleanse my fear of African-Americans from my soul.

I sang “We Shall Overcome” with the demonstrators at the University of Michigan. That was easy. Everybody was chanting and marching, but just talking to a black girl was scary. They weren’t from my Tribe. They weren’t even from my race. I played basketball and baseball with black guys and had an easy, casual friendship with many, but socializing with women was too scary. What if I got emotionally involved with one? Horrifying.

In my heart of hearts I knew this was crazy. The racism I grew up with was not Bull Connor variety, but close to Archie Bunker. It infected me for life.

I hated myself for it and made a commitment to myself that my kids would not have the same genes.

I moved to the south suburbs of Chicago to raise a family. It was that extremely rare place in Chicago where blacks and whites lived next to each other and the kids went to school together.

I vowed never ever to use the word “Schvartze,” which is the Yiddish equivalent of the N word. My boys dated black girls. I never objected. This was the new America, the country Martin Luther King had tried to move toward, with acceptance and ultimately love and brotherhood.

I lived the dream, but I never absorbed it in my soul like I had hoped I would as an idealistic college student. I must admit with some shame that when I watch NBA basketball games, the body tattoos and the hairstyles of black players upset me. I assume it’s their intent, to emphasize their differentness, and it works. Also, I count the white players on the teams, and I’m ashamed that I do.

I have tried to live an ethical, non-racist life, yet I am still a racist. I have to admit I always will be. Most of our neighbors are African-American. I smile and say hello, but I tend to keep my distance emotionally.

Yet when we went to California for three weeks, we gave them our keys, and they baked us delicious sugar cookies for the plane trip. This is America, almost 54 years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. We celebrated a federal holiday yesterday. I admit I hate the idea of Critical Race Theory and 1619 embedded in every black kid’s mind, but I do get it. Racism is still inculcated in most people’s minds from birth.

But America is a much better place regarding racism, despite wokeness and white supremacists. Integration is everywhere. We’ve come a long way.

We have overcome, at least a little bit.

Me too.

Question: What do you think of on Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

The post We’ve Overcome, a Little first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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Main Points How Rotary Transfers Work

Advantages of Hydromats over other Turning Machines

Hydromats have individual feeds and speeds in each station, so they aren’t held captive to the slowest operation, such as on an Acme-Gridley or other traditional multi-spindle screw machine.

Also, Hydromats are designed with a hirth ring coupling, which enables them to maintain tight tolerances part after part.

Revolution Machine Works

Hydromats are Tough Business

Kris says he and colleagues often joke that they picked the hardest way to make money.

We both agreed that it’s much easier to sell a Hydromat to someone who already has them. They have units on the shelf, expertise, comfort, and enough work for the machines.

Question: Do you prefer to buy, used, rebuilt, or brand new machine tools?

The post Where Rotary Transfers Fit, with Kris Fugate—EP. 144 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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What makes a great team out of a group of good players?

I’ve considered that question since I first started watching team sports on TV and playing on organized teams myself. I could almost feel when a team would fail, not just because they lacked the talent to win, but because they did not have the other elements it took. I’ve been searching a lifetime trying to define those elements and putting them into practice.

Recently I’ve been watching a TV show that took the issue head on.

Ted Lasso on Apple TV addresses teamwork with a light touch, flavored by sadness and loss. Each of the major characters are dealing with loneliness and pain. The lead character, Ted Lasso, leaves Kansas after a successful career as a football coach in Wichita. His marriage has failed and he needs a change. He has been recruited to coach a Premier League soccer team which has been a perennial loser, even though he knows virtually nothing about European football. The woman who now owns the team after a bitter divorce settlement hires Ted as a vehicle of her own revenge, desiring to ruin the team her rogue husband loved dearly.

Over two seasons, a sense of team develops among an assortment of mediocre players from around the world, and the owner’s attitude changes from contempt for Ted to genuine friendship and respect.

When Ted Lasso arrives, the first thing he does is post up a handwritten, slightly crooked sign that says “BELIEVE.” Over 22 episodes, it takes on various meanings that describe a sense of team to me.

For a team to work, you have to believe in your teammates. You have to know they will have your back in a crisis. You have to feel they “believe” in the group as much as you do. You have to “believe” that they will not single you out as the cause of defeat.

Team Star, Jamie Tartt on Ted Lasso

Several episodes focus on the relationship of the fading star player, Roy Kent, and the young rising star, Jamie Tartt. They hate each other. Both covet the same woman who at various times has an intimate relationship with each one.

The most interesting aspect of the relationship between Roy and Jamie is that the aging Roy ultimately steps aside so Jamie can be the star and then coaches him on how to be a good teammate. “Always make the extra pass,” is Ted Lasso’s credo and it is adopted by Roy Kent.

But in the big game, when Roy is no longer a player and the team desperately needs a win, Kent tells Tartt that it’s time for him to revert to the selfish jerk that he has tried to squelch. There are times when every good team needs the star to step up, to be the SOB that everybody used to hate and score the winning goal alone.

A good team needs a star at times and a coach who knows when that time is.

I’ve watched successful and failing teams in business. Respect for one another and belief in the ultimate success of the group are vital elements. But every business is tested by competition, external forces, a crisis of confidence when the leader or the star has to be tough and connect with their own self belief, and take the final shot.

You don’t have to score to be the ultimate winner. But simply “trying” is never enough either.

Question: What is the greatest team you’ve seen and why?

The post Sometimes the Star Must Take Over first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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Our guest on today’s podcast is Elliott May, engineer at BME in Port Huron, Michigan. BME builds original custom attachments for cam multi-spindles. They also rebuild Acme-Gridley screw machines.

Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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Main Points Custom Attachments

Acme Rebuilding

Elliott May, Engineer at BME

Young People in Machining

Working with His Dad

After interviewing both Brett and Elliott, it’s clear to me that both men share a passion for the nuts and bolts, and working together.

Question: What’s something important you learned from your father?

The post Attached to Multi-Spindles, with Elliott May—EP. 143 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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