The Lone Machinists

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie discovers that running a machine shop while fighting off a brutal cough is a lot like running production with a worn-out end mill—you'll get there eventually, but it's going to make some unpleasant noises along the way. Curt spends most of the episode wondering whether he's going to catch the illness through the internet, while Jamie repeatedly reache...

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast , Jamie is fighting on two fronts: a mystery illness that's trying to end the episode early, and a CNC controller that's decided now is the perfect time to develop an attitude. Somehow, despite the coughing, month-end admin, and machine diagnostics, the show goes on. The guys dive into the latest shop updates, including another batch of Barnacles , fresh ano...

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast , Jamie returns from the chaos of moving an entire machine shop, only to discover that the universe rewards hard work with paperwork, broken internet, and even more work. The new shop is running, production is back online, and somehow an employee is shipping orders while Jamie isn't even there — a concept so foreign it feels suspicious. Meanwhile, Curt celeb...

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast , Jamie and Curt discover that modern machining is really just thousands of lines of code standing between you and catastrophic stupidity. After a mysterious edge case causes a surprise Z-crash, Jamie finds himself debugging macros, reading error logs, and remotely killing machines at three in the morning because apparently sleep is optional. Meanwhile, the...

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast , Jamie drags Ben from Black Fox Machining into an emergency guest appearance after recent developments sent the machining community into full rumor mode. Running on almost no sleep and questionable amounts of enthusiasm, the guys dive into everything from home-built CNC machines to the strange reality of becoming accidental role models. Ben shares how a bur...

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie finally gets the keys to the new workshop and immediately discovers that moving a machine shop involves approximately 4,000 decisions, 7,000 trips to hardware stores, and at least one full-scale CAD model of the building. Floor plans are taped out, paint is being thrown around, machines are getting shuffled, and somehow there's still time to argue abo...

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie accidentally speedruns manufacturing because he misread an order and panic-machined a batch of anchor point bodies before realizing they were the wrong version. Meanwhile, Kurt discovers that machining titanium from round bar is somehow less efficient and more efficient at the same time, which feels spiritually correct for machining. We also dive deep...

This week on the The Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie fights anodizing for three straight days, accidentally makes the wrong color parts, redesigns a bandsaw out of pure spite, and discovers that South African customs agents apparently moonlight as package demolition experts. Meanwhile, Curt declares war on bubble mailers after the packaging industry collectively decided quality control was optional....

Ever wondered how a conversation about burgers turns into industrial automation, toaster engineering, and titanium butt plugs? This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast: Jamie survives a wedding weekend, immediately goes back to abusing the LK with horrifying amounts of tool steel, and starts planning how to automate 400,000 fence clamps without losing his sanity. Curt discovers the joy of dual-wiel...

Ever wondered what happens when two machinists get slightly too much caffeine and absolutely no supervision? This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast: One of us falls headfirst into an ERP system that started as “just a quick tool”… and is now basically a full-blown operating system  The other accidentally becomes a sticker manufacturer and nearly buys a $2000 mistake off Marketplace There’s a...

In this episode of The Lone Machinist, Jamie and Curt are joined by Trevor from Titan Ring Designs, and things get deep… like “question your entire life path while holding a mic” deep. What starts as a simple chat about machining quickly turns into a full-blown masterclass on creativity, risk-taking, and why making tiny, ridiculously intricate titanium parts might actually be the most logical life...

In this absolutely respectable and definitely clean Episode 69 of the Lone Machinist Podcast… things go off the rails in under 2 minutes. We kick things off with Curt accidentally spending what could’ve been a small mortgage payment on sticker equipment, because apparently “I can make my own stickers” is a perfectly valid financial strategy. Meanwhile, Jamie goes full outdoorsman, hosting a bachel...

This week on The Lone Machinist Podcast, Curt and Jamie set out to talk about machining… and instead accidentally reinvent software development, question modern civilization, and nearly bankrupt themselves with printers. Highlights include: • Curt buying a printer “just for one thing” like every responsible adult ever • Jamie discovering his fourth axis is not a tool, but a supernatural entity • B...

This week on The Lone Machinist Podcast, things go exactly as planned, which is to say, absolutely not at all. Curt successfully fixes a lens right up until the exact moment he completely destroys it, proving once again that “if it ain’t broke, fix it till it is” is less of a motto and more of a lifestyle. Meanwhile, Jamie is deep in tolerance stack-up hell, rearranging his entire workshop like a...

This week, everything works… except the things we actually need. We start off optimistically with solar power plans and dreams of energy independence, before immediately spiraling into real-world problems like rising fuel costs, questionable ROI, and whether running a machine shop on sunshine is genius or just expensive optimism. Then Fusion 360 decides to absolutely ruin Jamie’s week, turning sim...

This week on The Loan Machinist Podcast, Jamie and Curt battle the literal "Demon" of Tolerance Stack-Up, because apparently, adding up a bunch of "tents" actually equals one giant headache Curt scores a $600 lens for sixty bucks and plays a high-stakes game of "Did I just buy a paperweight?" while Jamie contemplates becoming a full-time electrician because Fusion 360’s latest update is officially...

In this episode of The Lone Machinists Podcast, we remove 94.6% of a perfectly good piece of aluminium just to prove we can, debate whether a bandsaw is the solution to all of life’s problems (it is), and discover that titanium will happily destroy your patience before your tooling. There’s vacuum workholding wizardry, Ultem experiments, and just enough tolerance talk to keep things dangerously pr...

In this episode of the Lone Machinists Podcast , Jamie and Curt once again prove that running a machine shop is mostly problem-solving, mild chaos, and questionable purchasing decisions. Jamie explains how Curt bullied him into buying a gimbal and why filming smooth shop footage is apparently harder than flying a plane, while Curt announces he’s defecting in the AI wars and claims Claude is now th...

This week on The Lone Machinists, Jamie and Curt spiral (responsibly) through ultra-paranoid RAID backups, fiber lines getting excavated into oblivion in South Africa, and the launch of the brand-new Noughtical Workholding Shopify store. We dive into mirrored drives, M-Discs, offsite backups, and why losing your childhood photos is a trauma you only need once. Then things escalate: Haas machines b...

This week on The Lone Machinist, the "Original Kurt" returns to reclaim his throne (or at least a guest spot) as we welcome Jon Dillehay from 2SM Performance and Engine Trix. We dive deep into the mechanical prowess required to maintain a garage-based empire, the tragedy of the Harbor Freight bandsaw graveyard, and why Jamie is currently machining at a feed rate of "boobs millimeters per minute"....

Welcome to the Loan Machines Podcast, also known as the Schrödinger’s Guest Episode, where we ponder whether John is actually joining us or remains a ghost in the machine. In a harrowing turn of events, Curt recounts his battle with a porcelain ramekin that nearly claimed his eye during a routine oatmeal delivery for his rats—proving that while he wears safety glasses in the shop all day, the kitc...

Buckle up for another episode of the Lone Machines Podcast, where we discuss the fine line between professional machining and absolute shop chaos. In this episode, Jamie recounts his harrowing experience performing spindle surgery with tweezers to float solder into a corroded via—all because his probe decided to quit after being "slightly squished" at 12,000 RPM. He also explains how he's balancin...

In this episode of The Loan Machinist, Jamie and Curt dive into the chaotic reality of running a machine shop while battling the elements and outdated technology. Jamie recounts a rough Monday in South Africa where 30mm of rain and a lightning strike claimed a workshop monitor, while his wife "swore at him" over comments regarding his machine's nicknames. Meanwhile, Curt reveals his seizure-induci...

In this episode of the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie and Curt dive head-first into shop chaos, questionable safety decisions, and machines that just won’t stop printing money. Jamie introduces the Bukkake Blaster 7000, a new coolant manifold upgrade that blasts hardcore, while Curt reflects on the joy of a machine running nonstop for hours—hot, moist, and perfectly intolerant from the first part t...

In this episode of the Loan Machines Podcast, Jamie and Curt bounce between small wins and absolute disasters in the shop. Jamie dives into poking around a PLC “just to see how hard it could be,” accidentally saving himself hundreds of dollars and making his machine do exactly what he wants. Curt, meanwhile, declares war on an inkjet printer in the name of responsibility… and loses badly. Along th...