Swarfcast

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. I...

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 fail...

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....

With the latest news that unemployment is at its lowest in 54 years, we thought it was important to post this favorite episode about how to hire the employee who fits correctly for a specific position. 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. Bria...

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 trend...

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...

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 righ...

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 integration of the ro...

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 ch...

In light of the current chaos in Brazil, we decided to post a great past interview we did with Ali Jamil Jomaa, Executive Director at Samot, a huge Brazilian automotive supplier. Hearing Jomaa describe how difficult it is to run a company in Brazil I think will give some perspective on why so many Brazilians are angry about their country’s politics. On today’s show we are heading back to Bra...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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 . Machining Insights measures the overall...

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 for today’s podcast. The Bechtel Innovation De...

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 of material. If you’ve been wishing for a mor...

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. Jiga’s mission is to simplify those processes. Scroll down to r...

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 first 5-axis machining center in the country. I was intrigued by his story, so I lo...

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 Tornos USA. At Tornos, Dulio developed skills and relationships that gave him the foundation to...

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 types of parts they produce because it simplifies their oper...

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 getting married, surviving a pandemic, and having my first child a month and a half ago. Scroll...

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 listened to. At 40 years young, Tyler recently retired, closing Twenty6Products , his 1-employee shop, which...

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 in Ukraine is affecting metals prices. What is pig iron, anyway? Scroll down to read m...

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...