Swarfcast

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 in your company? To help me clarify these questions, I interviewed Matthew Rassi, founder of Twenty Helping Hands. He’s a lean manufacturing consultant who [...] The post Escaping Your Comfort Zone with Lean Manufacturing, Matthew Rassi-EP 216 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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 [...] The post Innovating New Attachments for Screw Machines, with Elliott May—EP 143 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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 [...] The post Ghosted by a Customer, What Do You Do?—EP 215 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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, [...] The post How to Prevent Fires in Your Machine Tools with Mike Campo-EP 98 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

Our guest on today’s show, Howard Sheldon, grew up working in his family’s third generation precision turning company. He planned to eventually take over the business from his father, but unfortunately succession didn’t happen the way he had hoped. Howard left his family company in his mid-30s, and 10 years ago started his own Swiss [...] The post Leaving your Father’s Manufacturing Company and then Founding Your Own, with Howard Sheldon-EP 214 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

It seems that today’s younger generations of workers, such as millennials, want to understand why they are instructed to do their jobs in a certain way more than their predecessors. Many of today’s employees are not content to just follow orders and take home a check. They want to feel invested in their work, they [...] The post The Benefits of a Manufacturing Business Sharing Financials with its Employees, with Reid Leland-EP 132 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

My guest on today’s show, Thadd Mellott, called us at Graff-Pinkert because he needed a Star SB20 CNC Swiss machine. His company, Circle M Spring, in Warsaw, Indiana, produces medical parts, including implantable orthopedic components. Circle M Spring is currently merging with a medical component design company that specializes in sports medicine. Thadd is incredibly [...] The post Supplying Medical Parts Directly to Hospitals, with Thadd Mellott-EP 213 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

In the last year, our used machinery company, Graff-Pinkert, has been successfully growing our business brokering division. This podcast and Today’s Machining World have played a huge part in our marketing. They have established us as thought leaders in the machining industry, and that is bringing in customers. It only took 24 years of writing [...] The post How to Market a Manufacturing Business by Becoming a Thought Leader, with Joe Sullivan-EP 137 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

Today’s episode is Part II of our interview with Roger Duffy, owner of F&F Machine Products. In Part I we touched on Roger’s natural entrepreneurial instinct and how he loves to push himself to get out of his comfort zone. In this episode, we’re delving further into Roger’s business adventures and philosophies. He believes in [...] The post Breaking Your Machining Business Out of Its Goldfish Bowl, Roger Duffy (Part II)-EP 212 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

How many times has something happened to you that really sucked but then eventually turned out to be a good thing or even a great thing that happened for you? Today, I’m going to tell you a story about when a big machinery deal went to hell and then how its failure led to an [...] The post How to Turn a Business Failure Into an Opportunity—Seeking Serendipity EP 211 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

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, [...] The post How Do You Manage Employees When a Company is Acquired? With Jennifer Fondrevay—EP 175 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

At Graff-Pinkert, I’ve sold a lot of machine tools to successful entrepreneurs, including my guest on today’s show, Roger Duffy, owner of F&F Machine Products. But, just a few people like him really have stood out for their outward ballsiness in business. Roger says he loves being an entrepreneur because it allows him to take [...] The post Growing a Thriving Shop by Creating Chaos and then Organizing it, Roger Duffy (Part I)-EP 210 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

“I can’t hire a cam multi-spindle operator who knows what they’re doing! I’m throwing out my multi-spindles and going all CNC.” “These old Acmes, Wickmans, or New Britains pay for themselves every three months. They’ve left a wide open field for me!” Selling screw machines for our used machine tool business, Graff-Pinkert, we hear both [...] The post Change, Fear, and Screw Machines–EP 209 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

Have you ever dreamed about combining your expertise and passions to become an entrepreneur? My guess on today’s podcast did just that. Erez Speiser is the creator of machiningdoctor.com, a site for professionals in the machining industry to get technical information to simplify their work. The site offers resources such as a sophisticated feeds and [...] The post Becoming the Machining Doctor, with Erez Speiser- EP 208 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

As the housing market has slowed recently in our current economy, alternative types of construction such as 3D printing with concrete have become more and more relevant. It brought me back to a classic podcast episode we did a while back. The technology has advanced since we recorded this episode in 2019, but still you [...] The post 3D Printing Houses With Robots, Jonathan Ladouceur-EP 48 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

My guest on today’s podcast, Jerod Dailey, could have been a mechanical engineer or even a doctor if he wanted to, but instead, he followed his passion and became a journeyman machinist right out of high school. Then he fell into a career 24 years ago, teaching precision machining to high schoolers at South Adams [...] The post Precision Machining Class in Session, with Jerod Dailey-EP 207 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

Have you ever wondered if bone screws could actually be machined from real tissue? If that were possible, where could one get such bone? What animals would be safe enough? Here’s an old favorite episode. If you haven’t listened to it before, it is going to expand your mind. And you get to learn a [...] The post Selling Real Cow Bone to Machine Bone Screws! With Mary and Jim Rickert -EP 105 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

Happy New Year everybody! On today’s podcast, Lloyd Graff and I reflect on the ups and downs of machining world in 2023 and give our thoughts about what we might see 2024. As you would expect, we discuss a number of topics in addition to precision machining, such as the US’s unpredictable economy, anti-semitism, and [...] The post Hard Lessons We Learned in the Machining World in 2023–EP 206 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

We originally published this episode in 2019. It was a better time in Israel’s history, before the country was savagely provoked to go to war to protect its existance. Israel is a country full of industry and world class innovative companies, such as the manufacturing company Ditron Precision. This interview contains insight on how Israel [...] The post Manufacturing in Israel, With Patrice Zamor–EP 45 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.

Today I’m debuting a new episode series under the Swarfcast umbrella that I’m going to put out every so often. From April 19, 2018, until April, 19, 2019, I spent an entire year meeting at least one stranger every day and documented everyone I met. Some days I met 10 people, other days I was [...] The post Meeting People Project: My Fellow Treasure Hunter, Steve–EP 205 first appeared on Today’s Machining World.