Machine Shop Mastery

How do you go from being the kid who couldn't sit still in class to leading the machine shop for one of Elon Musk's most ambitious ventures? In this gripping and often jaw-dropping episode, I sit down with Jim Cooney—Head of the Machine Shop at Neuralink—for a raw and refreshingly honest conversation about resilience, reinvention, and the unconventional road to mastery in machining.  While Jim isn...

Have you ever thought about what it takes to make the leap from employee to employer in the machining world?  In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, I'm joined by Adam Zimmer, the founder of Zimmer Design & Manufacturing. Adam's journey is a remarkable one—he went from working as a tool and die maker to owning and growing his own successful machine shop in just three years. What started as a one...

What if understanding the true cost of every part you produce could be the key to scaling your machine shop? In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, Paul Van Metre is joined by Marvin Rodriguez from True Precision Machining to explore the strategies that have driven the company's remarkable growth. Marvin shares his journey from starting with little formal education to leading a high-performance...

In this episode of Machine Shop Mastery, Jason Davis, CEO of D&D Enterprises, is back for an insightful conversation on navigating growth and operational expansion in 2025. With nearly 26 years of experience in the machining industry, Jason shares his insights on scaling operations and avoiding the common pitfalls that come with growth. We dig into three main areas crucial for expanding your shop...

Today's guest is Kirk Phelps from American Precision Partners, a key figure driving the growth and transformation of multiple machine shops. Kirk's journey into machining began as a teenager in his dad's shop, where he started on manual machines while attending trade school. After experiencing burnout, Kirk joined the Air Force and served for six years, eventually returning to machining with a fre...

Greg McArthur's journey in manufacturing began as a child sweeping floors and cleaning mats in his father's machine shop. Over the years, he gained hands-on experience, evolving from a lathe hand to a skilled CNC machinist, estimator, and engineer. Eventually, Greg took a bold leap, bidding on a machine sight unseen on eBay and figuring out how to transport and operate it—foreshadowing his entrepr...

Dave bought two very different precision machining companies. One makes large gears in small volumes, and the other specializes in high-volume contract Swiss machining and other production machining. As an outsider to the industry, and not a technical shop owner, Dave shows that it's not only possible, but an advantage not to be able to do programming, machining and the technical work of a machini...

Bravery, Grit and Can-Do attitude are in ample supply with Steve and Jamie Michon. They started a machine shop with 3 young boys, very little money, lived in Steve's parent's basement, and bought a thrashed Fadal that Steve needed to completely rebuild before he could make parts on it. Similarly, Jamie knew nothing about Quickbooks, or the business side of running a machining company.  But none of...

67. Betting it All on a Dream with Ashley Hunsaker from HTS Coatings Even before Ashley and her husband Jason opened their doors, they nearly had to file for bankruptcy, because an insurance company deemed her more valuable dead than alive - because she was a stay-at-home mom. Thankfully, a wonderful human intervened and saved the business before it started. From there, this mission and values-dri...

66. Passionate Partnership for the Win with Mitch and Brian Olson from OCD The Olson brothers, Brian and Mitch learned about winning, losing and grit on the racetrack. When it came time to move on from the dangers of racing, they decided to start a CNC machine shop, having never even turned on a CNC machine in their lives! Those lessons learned in the race paddock and on the track proved invaluabl...

65. 4 Generations of Machining Legacy with Denny Smith from NMC, Inc. Denny is the 3rd generation owner and President of Northside Machine Company in Dugger Indiana. His son is now working in the business as well making him the 4th generation of Smiths to be involved in the business. This role is one that Denny takes very seriously, and he is determined to continue making NMC Inc the best company...

64. Tribal Knowledge Killed this Shop: A Machine Shop Owner Tells the Story with Jereme Rogers After a near-death motorcycle accident, Jereme Rogers fell in love with the machining industry and decided that he wanted to own a shop someday. When the owners of TK Machine decided they wanted to retire, Jereme and they eventually came to an agreement that he would buy the shop. After finalizing the tr...

63. Solving the Puzzle of Strategic Growth with Jason Davis from D&D Enterprises Jason is the second-generation CEO of D&D Enterprises, an AS9100-certified precision machining company specializing in aerospace and other high-tech industries that was founded by his father and uncle in 1976.  When Jason joined the company 25 years ago, he started focusing on some of the more business-focused aspects...

62. Automating Your Way to Success with Scott Harms from MetalQuest Unlimited Scott Harms knows a thing or two about highly automated CNC machining.  Since he started MetalQuest Unlimited at the age of 22, he's made millions and millions of parts on highly automated machines that he and his team have integrated themselves.  Acquiring his first robot in 2011 and doing all the integration themselves...

61. Growing Well at Massive Scale with Peter Doyle from Hirsh Precision Growing any business 80% over a few years is a major achievement.  Doing it with a precision machining organization is nearly unheard of.  And doing it well, without too much collateral damage, takes serious skills. Those are skills that Peter Doyle has, although he might not admit it.  The growth story of Hirsch Precision und...

60. Running Machines 168 Hours a Week with Jim Goerges from Precision Tool Technologies Jim is a finance guy with a passion for machining and never giving up on achieving maximum production. Those passions have helped fuel the growth of Precision Tool Technologies and 168 Manufacturing which Jim leads. In this episode we go deep on the concepts, strategies and tactics of getting maximum production...

59. Buying and Growing a Machine Shop Part-time with Gillen Young from Custom Tool Gillen Young and his brother bought Custom Tool in 2010 and have grown it fourfold since, including buying another shop as well. One of the most interesting parts of this story is that Gillen has a regular full-time job and leads Custom Tool as CEO and President part-time. Gillen is also the Chairman of NTMA and has...

58. How to Find, Buy, & Grow a Shop with Mike Fritz from Quick Tek Machining Part 2 In this Part 2 episode with Mike Fritz of Quick Tek Machining, we first learn about the factors that make a shop saleable and valuable. Mike then shares his process for deciding what type of shop to buy, where the sources of possible deals are, and which specific shop he wants to buy. Then how to value the business...

57. Buying 4 Machine Shops in 2 Years with Mike Fritz from Quick Tek Machining Before Mike Fritz bought Quick Tek in 2022, he had been a speaker and consultant on building high-performing teams. He's taken that skill set and decided to go all-in with the precision machining industry. After buying Quick Tek, he has quickly bought 3 more additional shops in the next 2 years. His approach is a model...

56. From Startup to Industry Leader with John Newman from Athena Manufacturing Paul sits down with John Newman from Athena Manufacturing, a 200-person machining and fabrication company in Austin, Texas. John shares his remarkable journey of growing two successful companies in the manufacturing industry. Starting with a small six-person shop in 1995, John and his partner Bill Johnson scaled their f...

55. High Spindle Uptime & Happy Employees with Nathan Byman from Wolfram Manufacturing Before Nathan Byman started Wolfram Manufacturing in 2011, he learned a lot about what he liked and didn't like about machining and management, at other businesses.  He's taken the best learnings (and a TON he's learned since) to make Wolfram into a fast-growing powerhouse business that is extremely focused on t...

54. The Virtues of Niche Manufacturing Excellence with Matt Gustafson from Clinkenbeard Matt grew up on the shop floor of Clinkenbeard, a business his father bought in the late 70s and he became a pattern maker. He is now the President and leads this incredible AS9100-certified company that specializes in highly complex 5-axis machined parts and highly specialized training devices for the defense...

53. Father & Son Fun = Success at Mactech with Joel and Luke Wittenbraker from Mactech Mactech is a fascinating business that specializes in on-site machining services and equipment.  It's a very different type of business than a traditional machine shop where all work is done in a facility.  Their company history is a fascinating one, and a fun one, where we learn that hard work and fun can go ha...

52. From Founding to Exit with Keith Bernardo from M&K Engineering The M&K Engineering story is a fantastic American Dream Story.  From immigrant founding parents, to the kids taking over the business, leading to an eventual successful exit to a much larger manufacturer.  Keith digs in deep on their story and the decisions and strategies that they employed to grow the team, the culture, and the cl...

51.  From Supply Chain to Shop Owner with Mark Heston from Colinear Machine Mark Heston is the President of Colinear Machine in northern New Jersey. Colienear specializes in precision machined components and assemblies for the helicopter and aircraft landing gear industries. Mark and his partners bought the business in 2022 and have engineered huge changes and growth in the business in the past 2...