Swarfcast

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 m...

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 use...

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 m...

“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...

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 t...

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 Manufacturi...

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...

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 [...]

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...

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 [...]

What if I told you there’s a tool that can look at a photo of your weld and tell you exactly what you screwed up. The tool could also help you figure out that your machining problem isn’t your end mill, it’s actually your coolant, and it costs less than hiring one person? On today’s [...]

Are you vaccinated against the Virus?  Is your computer system prepared for the inevitable attack? Today’s podcast discusses the scary reality that manufacturers are the number one target of cyber attacks 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. I inter...

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 d...

“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 f...

If you had $100,000 to spend on your machine shop, what would you spend it on? When I polled people on LinkedIn, out of 170 responses, 46% said they would buy a new machine, 33% said “robots and automation.” Only seventeen percent said “hire and train people.” Does this mean American shops have basically given up on finding good workers? On today’s show, Lloyd and I are going to discuss why this i...

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 Mach...

Sometimes great conversations just happen. But what I’ve learned after 14 years selling used machines, and almost 250 podcast interviews, is that most conversations, even great ones, could be guided to be even better. Recently, I heard a podcast with journalist Polina Pompliano that reinforced techniques I’ve been using in business and my own journalism for years. It inspired a new episode from my...

I don’t know about you, but when the tariffs hit on Liberation Day , April 2nd, we were like “Oh @#$%, is this really happening?” We watched our portfolios crash in real time. Our company lost half our profit from one deal overnight, and honestly, we had no clue what was coming next. On today’s show, Lloyd and I are discussing how tariffs blindsided the machining industry and how maybe we’re seein...

Malachi Greb, my guest on today’s show, has a mission, “freeing humans, one robot at a time.” He is the founder of Elite Automation , a company that designs automated systems for manufacturing clients, taking manual processes and automating them with robotics, conveyors, vision, and more. They also provide robotic welding systems. Malachi and I talked about some of the latest technologies in the r...

Most shop owners get comfortable after 50 years. John Griner gets uncomfortable on purpose. John has been making screw machine parts since 1979 while starting countless other businesses, which he refers to as “hobbies.” As a machinery dealer, I’ve bought and sold equipment from John over the years. He’s always a tough negotiator and always interested in trying new equipment and specking on opportu...

On today’s episode we continue our season talking about companies who produce their own products. Our guest is George Breiwa, founder of DynaVap , a company that produces a unique type of vaporizer, using Index multi-spindles and CNC Swiss lathes. George says that one of the keys to the company’s success is growing and nurturing a community of passionate customers. Main Points George describes Dyn...

I know a ton of people reading this will relate to what I’m talking about: starting something that feels completely daunting. So here’s another blog about my new YouTube channel, I Learned It on a Podcast —partly because I desperately need viewers, but mostly because this episode hit me hard.” “For those new to the show: I Learned It on a Podcast is my attempt to create what I always wished existe...

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 thing or two about ranching! Today’s podcast is the first episode of our new season about companies re...

A few months ago, we brokered a Tornos MultiSwiss 8/26 from Germany to a shop in Massachusetts. To make sure the machine was in top shape, we brought in two Tornos experts—my friend Dulio and his longtime mentor, Donato Notaro–today’s podcast guest. Donato had just officially retired after nearly 50 years in the machining world, much of it spent at Tornos in Switzerland. He still works freelance....

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 turning company, Sheldon Precision Engineering Ltd.  Howard turne...