Machine Shop Mastery

A beautifully machined bicycle component might get your attention. But what does it take to build a company that earns that same loyalty for 50 years?

In this episode, I sit down with Kirby Bedsaul, president of Chris King Precision Components, to explore the business behind an iconic cycling brand. From bearing production to the finishing details that make their parts look like jewelry, there's a remarkable amount happening behind the factory doors in Portland, Oregon. And some of their most interesting decisions have as much to do with what they value as what they manufacture.

We get into owning your processes, building a workplace people want to stay in, and finding capable employees beyond the usual hiring pool. Kirby also shares the pressures of keeping manufacturing local—and why an empty factory represents a much bigger loss than the jobs inside it.

Whether you make bicycle components or run a job shop, this conversation raises some worthwhile questions about the business you're building, the people you're trusting, and what your community gains when you succeed.

• (0:00) Kirby on rallying yourself as a leader on a bad day, and owning the apology
• (1:01) Introducing Kirby Bedsaul and Chris King Precision Components
• (6:50) Hennig Workflow: automated pallet delivery that adds spindle uptime without adding headcount
• (7:41) High-end bicycle component manufacturer: products that wear-in, not out
• (10:41) Owning every process so you control cost, performance, and what happens to the waste
• (12:11) The anodizing partnership and why finish is make or break
• (16:42) Walnut shells, dry paste tumbling, and a plant with no wastewater permit
• (19:37) Hire MFG Leaders: recruiters who are current and former shop owners
• (20:06) The benefits package, the bike commute challenges, and funding a program so it works
• (25:56) Hiring for mechanical aptitude instead of experience and explaining the job
• (32:00) Navu: AI chat trained on your own website content so buyers get answers fast
• (33:12) How transparent to be with numbers, and why Kirby shares revenue instead of EBITDA
• (36:46) Working leads on the floor, and the daily scrap, quality, and DMR meetings
• (37:52) The empty buildings in his neighborhood, and what's pushing shops five miles out
• (44:48) Ground Control: automated FAI generation and PO review for aerospace and defense
• (45:28) West Coast costs, tariffs, and exporting without a tariff department on staff
• (48:13) Why you should be targeting an unreasonable amount of margin
• (49:57) Hire people way smarter than you and put the ego in your pocket
• (53:15) Clarity and elevate the team as core values, and why leadership is hard

• Hennig Workflow
• Hire MFG Leaders
• Navu
• Ground Control
• ProShop ERP
• Portland Community College
• Mount Hood Community College

• Chris King Precision Components
• Connect with Kirby on LinkedIn

Plenty of shops machine parts to a tenth and then run the business on guesswork. Sebastian Montalvo is building M3 Aerospace the other way, with the same precision behind the desk as on the floor, and three years in, that's exactly why they're growing as fast as they are.

I'll be honest, this one got to me. He's running a shop that behaves like it's been around for twenty years with a hundred people on the floor, and there are thirteen of them. Every step of the workflow went up on a whiteboard with one question attached to it: where can this go wrong, and what do we put in place so it doesn't? People told him he was exaggerating. He kept going anyway.

We got into the practical side of it too. How he used Xometry to buy himself immediate demand while he learned the market, then deliberately diversified off it. Why he made compliance the North Star instead of an afterthought, and what it took to earn AS9100, ISO, ITAR, and CMMC without hiring a consultant to do it for him. How he's hiring in a city most people overlook, and why paying above the local average is a strategy and not a cost.

The cash flow conversation is worth the listen on its own. He's turned down large RFQs, not because the shop couldn't make the parts, but because he couldn't float a bill of materials that size and then wait months to get paid. If you've ever had to say no to work you were fully capable of doing, you already know how that feels.

And then there's the part I didn't expect. His mom opens the door to every new unit they take on. His dad is there at five in the morning, after three years without a day off. When I asked Sebastian what keeps him going, he didn't say revenue or contracts. He said his parents. I've talked to a lot of shop owners on this show. This one I'll be thinking about for a while.

• (0:00) Sebastian on tracking the reshoring shift and getting certified before the demand arrived
• (1:03) Why this conversation with Sebastian Montalvo of M3 Aerospace has me choked up
• (3:09) Going all in with his father while starting a part time MBA at Berkeley
• (5:17) Two CNCs under a tent to 10,000 square feet, 15 machines, and AS9100, ISO, ITAR, and CMMC
• (5:49) Immigrating from Ciudad Juarez at 10, and a father who ran side businesses after teaching all day
• (8:16) Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA)
• (9:07) Why he never claims to be a machinist, and who gives a brand new shop work
• (10:15) Buying immediate demand through Xometry, then deliberately diversifying off it
• (12:53) Why aerospace and defense (and making compliance the North Star from day one)
• (14:27) Earning AS9100 and ISO without a consultant and mapping every workflow risk on a whiteboard
• (18:00) Why running the business deserves the same precision as running the parts
• (19:24) Why you need to talk to Verdant Commercial Capital to finance your equipment
• (21:48) The banks that said no, and the $90,000 job that tied up machines for eight weeks
• (23:08) Growing the team: maquiladora experience, trade schools, and paying above the local average
• (27:42) UTEP, the technical colleges, and the 250 acre advanced manufacturing district breaking ground
• (32:56) Getting a cage code, bidding through DLA, and the city consultants who scrape opportunities for free
• (38:35) Navu: Get reliable and accurate answers in real time
• (39:47) Set aside invitations from primes (and the first bid he and his dad built over Christmas)
• (42:04) Why cash flow, not capability, caps growth, and what supplier net terms changed
• (45:37) How Sebastian learned estimating and pricing for profitability
• (48:40) Moving his desk onto the shop floor and telling the team why he wants the data
• (51:13) Machine sensors, the spindle time gap, and discovering what packaging actually costs
• (55:47) Sebastian's most memorable experience building M3 with his parents
• (59:44) The real story behind the name M3 Aerospace

• CLA
• Verdant Commercial Capital
• Navu
• Xometry
• SAM.gov
• Precision Manufacturing, Precision Business by Paul Van Metre

• M3 Aerospace
• Sebastian Montalvo on X
• Sebastian Montalvo on LinkedIn
• [email protected]

Gavin Giguere went from zero to a running machine shop in a matter of months. A conversation with a childhood friend about wanting his own shop, an LLC filed two weeks later, then five weeks of gutting and renovating a building while two new machines landed on the floor. His first order shipped on time, and so has every order since.

What I wanted out of this conversation was the whole startup sequence, not the highlight reel. Gavin joined the NTMA before he had machines. He had five committed customers and letters of intent before he had machines. He ran an ERP from day one because he didn't want to backtrack out of spreadsheets later. He wrote a quality manual and an employee handbook before he had a payroll to apply them to. Most first time owners build those systems after the pain shows up. Gavin built them first.

There's a buying side to the story too. A Facebook Marketplace trip that was supposed to be one Bridgeport ended with eight machines, and the tooling and inspection gear in that deal has been worth more to him day to day than the iron. If you're running a small shop, there's a real lesson in there about what the stuff you've accumulated over the years is actually worth, and what happens to it if you never write it down.

The startup story doesn't end when the doors open. Gavin would hire two people today if he could find them. He's been at it for two months, on LinkedIn, on Indeed, with his partner helping, offering full benefits, and he's already had a candidate accept an offer and then take a counter from their current employer. Meanwhile he's running both machines himself, quoting at night and on Saturdays, and turning away work he can win but can't produce. He thinks he could double revenue if he could staff up.

• (0:00) Gavin would hire two people today if he could find them
• (3:53) How the NTMA brought us together and why joining was Gavin's first move
• (4:38) Picking trade school in eighth grade and getting the town to pay for it
• (6:27) Gavin's career trajectory from running manual mills to Director of Operations and Business Development
• (15:53) Why you can't sleep on the Hennig WorkFlow Automation System
• (16:44) How Gavin turns tooling reps and vendors into actual relationships
• (19:21) Launching a machine shop and buying his first two machines
• (23:37) Why we created (and why you should use) Hire MFG Leaders
• (24:06) Gutting the building and getting machines on the floor in five weeks
• (25:50) A Facebook Marketplace Bridgeport that turned into eight machines
• (26:48) Why the tooling and inspection gear beat the iron in that deal
• (28:30) The thousands of small shops that are worth nothing without their owner
• (30:20) Mike Payne's lesson on itemizing every asset in your shop
• (32:02) Why we love SMW Autoblok workholding products
• (33:16) Building the Reign Manufacturing name in public on LinkedIn
• (36:29) Using AI for business planning, billing rates, and an employee handbook
• (37:57) Getting machines running, setting up automation, and fulfilling orders
• (41:24) Running an ERP from day one instead of spreadsheets
• (42:24) Splitting the day between running the business and running parts
• (45:24) Two months of recruiting, one counter offer, and still no hire
• (49:18) Turning away work and what a robot arm or two hires would unlock

• Hennig Workflow Automation System
• Hire MFG Leaders
• SMW Autoblok
• Reign Manufacturing
• NTMA

• Reign Manufacturing
• Connect on LinkedIn
• Gavin Giguere by email: [email protected]

Assa Gill didn't grow up dreaming about owning a machine shop. He came to Canada from a small village in Punjab, discovered CNC machining through a college course, and spent nearly nine years developing his skills on the shop floor. But the idea of building something of his own never went away.

That idea became real when Assa bought his first CNC mill—before he had a building, a customer, or even a registered business. He started running jobs during evenings and weekends, gradually built a reputation, and eventually left his full-time job to focus on Rise Machine Works. Today, the shop has four CNC machines, an automated saw, its first full-time employee, and more growth on the horizon.

But rapid growth came at a cost. After a year of long days and trying to handle everything himself, Assa realized that working harder wasn't going to build the company he wanted. Reading The E-Myth Revisited helped him begin documenting processes, defining roles, delegating work, and creating a business that wouldn't always depend entirely on him.

In this episode, Assa shares the realities of starting with limited resources, earning customers through relationships and quick turnarounds, protecting cash flow, and building systems early. We also discuss the major opportunity that could take Rise into its next stage—and why machining ability alone isn't enough to create a sustainable machine shop.

• (0:00) Why the cheapest quote never keeps a customer, and what does
• (1:39) Assa Gill's story: From a village in Punjab to rural Manitoba
• (5:50) Nine years at a local manufacturer, running programming and two departments
• (8:25) Learn how DN Solutions can take your shop to the next level
• (9:38) Starting his own shop: buying a machine and getting his first customers
• (14:24) Quitting the day job, going from one machine to five, and making his first hire
• (16:58) The MakingChips machine giveaway with DN Solutions and Kennametal
• (17:43) Finding customers in a town of 600, and the LinkedIn message that turned into a contract
• (19:49) Dropping everything when a customer's line is down: why relationships outlast price
• (22:21) Adding two DN Solutions lathes at six months, then an Okuma mill as a backup
• (25:37) Running four CNCs off a 400 amp phase converter and outgrowing the building
• (26:12) Ground Control: automated workflows for aerospace and defense manufacturers
• (26:53) Reading The E-Myth in year one, and building the franchise prototype early
• (29:40) Acquiring a 20 year old cylinder manufacturer with two business partners
• (30:54) Why 15,000 square feet at 25K a month didn't pencil out
• (33:25) The shop owner who told him to read The E-Myth—and the call three years later
• (37:10) How an org chart sets a vision instead of just a reporting structure
• (39:33) Strategies from my book: "Precision Manufacturing, Precision Business."
• (40:58) Managing growth, guarding cashflow, and the 20 hour days he doesn't want back
• (41:52) The biggest challenges that Assa's worked through and overcome
• (47:00) Assa's message to anyone sitting on the idea of starting a shop

• Rise Machine Works
• DN Solutions
• MakingChips Machine Giveaway
• Kennametal
• IMTS
• Ground Control
• The E-Myth
• Precision Manufacturing, Precision Business by Paul Van Metre

• Rise Machine Works
• [email protected]

Alex Fitzgerald got the keys to his first factory on January 6, 2025. Eighteen months later Isembard has 14 factories across the US, the UK, France and Germany, just under 100 people, and a business model nobody in this industry has run at scale. Ten of those factories he doesn't own. They belong to franchisees.

The franchise piece is the part I keep turning over. Before he started, Alex went through the McDonald's franchisee process himself, worked in a restaurant, got all the way to an interview with the chief restaurant officer for the UK. He doesn't look at McDonald's and see a burger business. He sees heat treatment and assembly, run to the same SOPs in every location, for a customer who knows exactly what he's getting. That's the bet. Build the systems once, then hand them to people who own their own shops.

I gave a talk at the Top Shops Conference back in 2017 arguing something close to this. Even if you never open a second location, run your shop as if there's one a thousand miles away that you'll never visit. If it only works because you're standing in it, it doesn't really work. Most shops fail that test, and Alex named the reason. Too much of the business lives in the owner's head.

We get into the practical side too. How he found his first four people, why he spends about half his week hunting for the next one, the hiring process that ends with a candidate standing in front of the entire company, how work gets funneled across 14 sites, and the two setbacks that actually hurt, an AS9100D audit and a machine crash.

You may never franchise your shop. But the systems thinking here is 10% worth the hour.

• (0:00) Learn more about Alex Fitzgerald and his journey to Isembard
• (4:24) What Isembard makes in 14 factories (and the franchise model behind the growth)
• (7:39) The two books that made him care about manufacturing and the manual mill course that sealed it
• (9:56) The MakingChips machine giveaway with DN Solutions and Kennametal
• (10:41) Sourcing locations, hiring great people, and finding customers
• (14:57) Sean in Exeter, from a LinkedIn DM to a live factory in under 90 days
• (17:09) Justin, the Green Beret who ran a Chick-fil-A, and the first US factory in Dallas Fort Worth
• (18:52) The two kinds of franchisee, new builds and conversions, and what they screen for
• (21:55) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions + automation
• (23:07) Building a business development team that goes and gets demand instead of waiting for it
• (26:39) How the SOPs got written, and making the happy path the only path
• (28:16) My 2017 Top Shops talk on shop franchising, and why consistency is the product
• (29:46) The real problem with most shops—everything lives in the owner's head
• (32:16) How they've been able to hire 100 people in 18 months
• (35:41) Kennametal's Next Level Shop at IMTS 2026
• (37:13) Narrowing down machines to purchase versus work they're winning
• (38:31) The two setbacks that stuck: The AS9100D audit and the machine crashes
• (40:58) Map the employee journey like a customer journey—including the way people leave
• (44:21) How Alex funded this franchising venture with investors
• (45:54) How work gets funneled across the network and what a franchisee does with overflow
• (48:00) The franchisee conference Alex launched for training
• (50:09) Vibe coded internal tools and hiring software people from outside manufacturing

• Isembard
• MakingChips Machine Giveaway
• DN Solutions
• Kennametal
• IMTS
• Freedom's Forge
• Material World by Ed Conway
• The E-Myth
• Manufacturing Technology Centre

• Isembard
• Connect on LinkedIn
• Mention mastery2026 for an exclusive discount

Wil Jorgensen started a machine shop at 22 with a $4,000 screw machine he found on Craigslist. He's 26 now, running Evolution CNC in Wenatchee, Washington, with seven people and a pallet automated 5-axis machine that runs close to around the clock. What makes this conversation worth your time isn't the growth curve though. It's how he thinks.

Wil and his team wrote a four page manifesto before they made the big bets. Not a business plan, an emotional document about what would make betting their careers on this thing feel worthwhile. Then they bought a Matsuura MAM72 35 with 32 pallets when they had almost no money in the bank, overdrew the account by $4,000 to close it, and gave themselves about 30 days to make it work.

It worked. Bookings went from $252,000 in 2024 to $1.1 million in 2025, and they're pushing toward $2 million this year. His advice on automation is blunt. Don't wait until you think you can afford it. The smaller the shop, the more automation you should have.

The part that stuck with me most is the promise Wil makes to everyone he hires. He will not be angry. He spent a stretch of his early twenties running on anger and determination, and then decided he didn't have time for it. If one of his guys scraps $25,000 in parts and Wil stays calm, nobody else in the building gets to be angry either. That one decision shapes how the whole shop operates.

There's a lot in here about buying machines you can't afford, cutting loose customers who don't pay, and getting out of your own people's way. If you're early in building a shop, or you're still touching everything yourself, this one will land.

• (0:00) The one promise Wil makes to everyone who works for him, he will not be angry
• (2:56) Evolution CNC today, and how a job at L.E. Wilson at 17 led to screw machines at Pacific Aerospace
• (5:33) The $4,000 Craigslist Citizen L16 that started the shop in December 2022
• (6:29) Buying Evolution from his mentor Leonard, and working six months for free to do it
• (8:55) Cutting ties with every customer who didn't pay on time, and keeping the one who did
• (9:27) Hiring his old boss Ted Keyes, then Dale Siegel and Gerard McGlashan
• (11:39) IMTS Job Shops Workshop and Networking Reception on September 15
• (12:16) Committing to 5-axis and automation before anyone on the team had seen a 5-axis machine
• (14:09) Todd Newhouse at Selway, and the Matsuura MAM 72-35 that was wildly out of their wheelhouse
• (15:38) Nobody checked whether the machine would fit through the door until the day before delivery
• (16:10) Going from a comfortable $2,000 Haas payment to one that could end the company
• (18:40) Cutting chips before the trainer arrived, and shipping a 100 piece order the week after
• (19:30) Why one Matsuura carries 60 to 70 percent of throughput across four machines
• (20:51) Running the Matsuura around the clock, with five hours of downtime over a full weekend
• (22:05) No credit line, running on cash, and 30 days of runway if the machine didn't work
• (23:34) Overdrawing the bank account by $4,000, and the four page manifesto behind the bet
• (27:25) Bookings from $252,000 in 2024 to $1.1 million in 2025, and the push toward $2 million
• (27:25) Hennig Workflow Automation System
• (31:51) Why he'd still start with an automated Haas if he were doing it over today
• (34:11) Turning down work, and the 30 inch ring he ran on a VF4 with the doors removed
• (38:35) The MakingChips machine giveaway with DN Solutions and Kennametal
• (41:55) George McCorley and Ty Neff, and trading a drill jig for installing airlines in Illinois
• (47:22) Everything I touch is bad, and learning to get out of his own team's way
• (56:44) The shift from running on anger to deciding he didn't have time for it
• (57:58) Why Gerard pushed him to stop working weekends, and what didn't break when he did

• IMTS
• Hennig Workflow Automation System
• MakingChips Machine Giveaway
• Matsuura USA
• Mastercam
• Renishaw REVO
• Lights Out podcast

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Evolution CNC

After more than 300 conversations across Machine Shop Mastery, MakingChips, and Manufacturing Transformed, I wrote a book.

It's called Precision Manufacturing, Precision Business, and I keep saying "we" wrote it because that's the truth. I got the words onto the page, but the hard lessons, ideas, and wisdom came from this community.

The premise is simple: you'd never ship a titanium part at 99% accuracy, so why run your business that way? Shops obsess over holding dimensions, but that same precision doesn't always carry into quoting, planning, scheduling, procurement, or contract review. That gap is the opportunity.

In this episode, I share my journey in manufacturing, starting in 1997 with six college friends, a second mortgage, one Haas VF4, and very little idea what we were doing. The discipline I write about didn't come from a textbook. It came from getting things wrong and having people willing to tell us why.

I'll also give you a sneak peek inside the book, covering everything from niching down and estimating to culture, compliance, and quote-to-cash. It's about building a business that runs with the same discipline as the machines and has real value whether you ever sell it or not.

Precision Manufacturing, Precision Business launches September 1, just before IMTS, at disciplinetoprofit.com. More than 50 people from the shows are quoted in it, and if you want a signed copy, come find me at the ProShop booth or the MakingChips booth in the South Hall.

• (0:00) I announce the book, and why the credit belongs to the metalworking nation
• (1:02) Why a book after more than 300 conversations across three podcasts
• (3:21) The premise behind "Precision Manufacturing, Precision Business"
• (4:19) What changes when you apply shop floor discipline to business processes
• (6:26) My journey in the industry, from Pro CNC to ProShop ERP, and podcasting
• (13:16) Part one: Why manufacturing is the hardest business in the world
• (16:37) Part two: The E-Myth, the Goal, and the machinist to owner gap
• (17:09) Part three: Sales as a system, niching down, and the riches in the niches
• (19:10) Part four: People, culture, growth ceilings, and compliance
• (21:03) Part five: Quote to cash, Top Shops, and building a business worth buying
• (23:11) Mitch Free on leadership and accountability outrunning technology
• (24:36) Who the book is for, the September 1st launch, and disciplinetoprofit.com

• Discipline to Profit Website
• IMTS
• ProShop ERP
• The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
• The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt
• Top Shops benchmarking program by Modern Machine Shop

• ProShop ERP
• Connect on LinkedIn
• Machine Shop Mastery
• MakingChips
• Manufacturing Transformed

I sat down with Randy Swan, who started a Swiss machining shop at 60 after a 34 year career working for other people. Five years in, RPM is growing more than 60 percent a year. Ask Randy what's behind that number and he doesn't start with machines or markets. He starts with the 14 people on his floor.

He hires for character, capability, and values, and he puts experience close to last. He looks for people who care and are willing to learn, then trains them through a three tier system at their own pace. One of his strongest operators had never seen a Swiss machine before she walked in the door. She runs multiple machines now and checks everyone else's parts.

The other half of it is transparency. Randy puts the financials on the floor, posts the sales and profit thresholds where everyone can see them, and pulls the whole team together every Tuesday to look at the same numbers. Last year RPM paid its first profit sharing. When the shop does well, everybody does well, and people behave differently when they can see the target.

The results back him up. Seven Swiss machines running seven days a week plus a night shift, ISO in the first six months, AS9100 in under three years. Sales does its part too, because as Randy puts it, nothing happens until somebody sells something. His 70 year old salesman lives by the shop's rule that no doesn't mean no, it just means not right now, and he keeps checking back with buyers until the work shows up.

We also get into the flow mapping he's doing with the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance to strip the waste out of processes that made sense when he was doing everything himself, and why he'd rather be the best shop in Oklahoma than the biggest. Grab a pencil for this one. There's a lot of hard won wisdom packed in.

What's Covered in this Episode

• (0:00) "No does not mean no—it just means not right now."
• (1:26) Learn more about Randy Swan and why he started a Swiss shop at 60
• (7:01) Ground Control, automated FAI generation and PO review for scaling manufacturers
• (7:41) Passing the five year mark, leaning on old relationships, and a 70 year old MSC salesman who outworks everyone
• (9:46) A snapshot of RPM today and why they do in-house training
• (11:52) The secret behind 60 percent year over year growth
• (13:42) Building the playbook and getting ISO certified in the first six months
• (14:30) Running seven days a week to offset heavy capital investment
• (15:06) Moving into aerospace and earning AS9100 in under three years
• (15:51) Bringing in the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance to map the process flow
• (17:26) Doing more with less, and protecting ten percent of the week to think, plan, and play pool
• (20:14) Kennametal's Next Level Shop and the bike giveaway at IMTS 2026
• (21:22) Cutting duplicated work and over documentation by treating process like a risk register
• (23:54) Over-documenting every material receipt when a few fields would do
• (26:17) Breaking into aerospace on trust and machining the specialty hardware other shops no quote
• (28:57) Why relentless follow up wins the work (and the touches most salespeople never make)
• (31:00) Hiring for character, capability, and values, and building talent internally
• (34:50) DN Solutions, high end multitasking and five axis machining with automation
• (36:01) Diving into their three tier training system for new hires
• (39:22) Transparency, shared financials, and benefits from 401k to fully paid health insurance
• (42:45) Yearly budgets, two five year plans, and choosing to be the best shop, not the biggest
• (47:00) His biggest lesson, build a team with the right character and check egos at the door

• Ground Control
• Kennametal
• IMTS
• DN Solutions
• Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance
• ProShop ERP

• RPM (Revolution Machine)
• Email Randy directly at [email protected]

I sat down with Chris Beck, the founder of Innovative 3D Manufacturing in Franklin, Indiana, and the line that stuck with me was simple. Everything he owns is leveraged into this company. That is what skin in the game actually looks like, and it is the reason his team shows up at 2 a.m. on a Sunday when a job is on the line.

Innovative is one of the few shops built around metal additive, laser powder bed fusion, with a full CNC machine shop bolted right alongside it. Chris started in 2017 with two engineers and a plan for ten printers and ten people. Today he is running 25 metal printers, 8 CNC machines, a handful of wire EDMs, and 32 employees out of a brand new 30,000 square foot facility, and last month they shipped more than 20,000 metal parts.

What I loved about this story is how unglamorous the middle was. Chris bootstrapped the whole thing with no private equity, and he spent years running equipment himself and chasing what he calls 4,000 rabbit holes trying to find work that would pay for million dollar printers. He watched private equity backed competitors dump 30 to 50 million into the same idea and end up with their machines at auction two years later. The difference, he will tell you, is that his people care because they have something to protect.

We get into the parts of additive that actually make money. The three boxes a part has to check, why qualification is the real bottleneck for the whole industry, and how his machining and foundry backgrounds let him design parts that come off the printer 80 percent finished. If you have ever wondered whether metal additive is a real business or a science project, Chris makes the case as clearly as anyone I have talked to.

We also get into his team. Why he mostly will not hire book smart engineers, how he keeps his culture free of bad seeds, and the small perks that matter more to his guys than a raise. This one is a masterclass in grit.

• (1:19) Introducing Chris Beck and Innovative 3D Manufacturing
• (3:42) A snapshot of the shop: 25 metal printers, 8 CNC machines, wire EDMs, and 32 employees
• (6:04) DN Solutions and Kennametal SVM 4100 giveaway and the IMTS scavenger hunt
• (6:45) From Purdue and the big automakers to a small Okuma machine tool distributor
• (8:15) The lowest paying offer that taught him the most, and why wearing every hat mattered
• (10:55) Quoting turnkey lines and cycle times, then moving into sales
• (11:55) A wire EDM dream, a twelve year detour through financial services, and his own brokerage
• (14:40) Getting pulled back into manufacturing and starting 3D printing and rapid prototyping
• (17:34) Flipping from prototyping to production and shipping more than 20,000 parts a month
• (19:21) The Job Shops Workshop and networking reception at IMTS
• (20:21) Has industry caught up to additive? (Acceptance versus qualification)
• (20:58) Where additive already wins: implants, space and rocket, and GE's fuel nozzles
• (23:14) The defense qualification maze and the firearms market printing a million suppressors
• (25:25) Running 100+ prototype jobs a month, 400+ NDAs, and the fast make program
• (30:28) Design freedom and the three boxes a part has to check to be a good additive candidate
• (32:48) Why qualification is the real bottleneck, AMS 7032, and America Makes
• (34:55) Kennametal's Next Level Shop and the bike giveaway at IMTS 2026
• (35:58) What finally cracked sales: one foot in the door and relentless past performance
• (38:51) Building a team of farm kid problem solvers over book smart engineers
• (41:21) Old school hours, tryout Saturdays, and keeping the culture free of bad seeds
• (50:16) What turned the tide: surviving, staying flexible, and bootstrapping without private equity
• (53:22) Skin in the game, profit sharing, and the small perks his guys value more than a raise
• (58:17) The machining edge and vertical integration that let him ship parts 80 percent as printed

• MakingChips Giveaway
• IMTS
• Kennametal
• America Makes
• Renishaw
• DN Solutions

• Innovative 3D Manufacturing
• Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
• Email Chris directly at [email protected]

Some businesses have a founding story. HFW Industries has an 80-year one, and it starts in a World War II foundry.

I sat down with Jack Watson, the fourth generation to work in his family's business in Buffalo. HFW does turnkey thermal spray and hard facing, the coating work that keeps power plants, turbines, and other critical infrastructure running. But the throughline of our whole conversation was the journey: how a company gets from a spray gun bought out of the back of a salesman's car to a 70,000 square foot shop still serving customers it first won three generations ago.

Jack's great-grandfather Harold spotted thermal spray as a brand-new technology during the war, and when his boss wouldn't buy in, he bought the equipment himself and sold the service out of his car. His grandfather took over at 26 with the business four weeks from closing. His dad rebuilt half the company when the print cylinder business went to zero. Every generation faced a crisis that could have ended the whole thing, and every generation found the next opportunity.

What carried through all of it is a focus on people. Jack half-jokes that you need a psychology degree to run a shop, and he tells a story about a simple thank you that brought one of his guys to tears. Management by walking around, treating people well, training patiently for years: that's the culture his grandfather built and Jack is protecting as he brings in the next generation.

We also get into why they carry almost no debt, how Jack balances his own hunger to grow against everything the generations before him learned the hard way, and where thermal spray and precision machining are headed with gas turbines and AI driving demand. If you care about building a shop that lasts, this one's worth your time.

What's Covered in this Episode

• (0:00) Introducing Jack Watson and HFW Industries in Buffalo
• (4:50) What HFW looks like today: 60 people and a full thermal spray lineup
• (6:43) Industrial AI Conference at IMTS: reality-based AI for the factory floor
• (7:31) Back to the beginning: 4 generations of HFW Industries
• (11:44) Selling thermal spray out of the back of a car (with donuts to GE every Monday)
• (14:32) The industries HFW serves and machining materials above 50 RC
• (17:00) The coolest work they can never show share
• (18:26) Navu: AI chat for your manufacturing website
• (19:41) Solving near-impossible coating and machining problems alongside demanding customers
• (21:10) Rebuilding the apprenticeship program, meshing generations, and letting young guys make cheap mistakes
• (26:50) Building the HFW way: a structured curriculum beyond trade school
• (29:45) Recruiting tactics that work: word of mouth, being a good employer, and social media
• (33:02) Pay, benefits, 90% tuition assistance, and small surprises
• (34:55) What great listening actually looks like on the shop floor
• (35:51) The thank-you that brought a machinist to tears, and why the little things matter
• (37:05) Connecting customers to the guys who do the work
• (38:22) Hire MFG Leaders: recruiting built by shop owners
• (38:54) Using social media as your true self to build a real network and win work
• (40:58) Grandfather's money philosophy: conservative growth, no debt, and cash on hand
• (42:55) How his dad rebuilt half the business when print cylinders went to zero
• (46:34) The succession plan, the demand outlook
• (48:37) The demand outlook and opportunities for growth

Resources Mentioned

• Industrial AI Conference at IMTS
• Navu
• Hire MFG Leaders
• HFW Industries

Connect with Jack Watson

• HFW Industries
• Find Jack on LinkedIn
• HFW Industries on Instagram
• HFW Industries on X