We interviewed Brett May of BME Inc. Screw Machine Attachments for today’s podcast. Brett’s mission in business is to make old cam multi-spindle screw machines like National Acmes, Wickmans, and New Britains into productive money makers in today’s competitive machining environment.

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Brett May.

Brett builds unique attachments which eliminate secondary operations that many people would put on a mill-turn CNC to finish, or run on an accurate but achingly slow Swiss-type machine. When he does his magic he turns supposed clunkers into enormously valuable machine tools.

Brett sees an old Acme and visualizes value, where others see a candidate for the scrap heap. As part of the BME value proposition, he also rebuilds multi-spindle machines, particularly National Acmes.

Question: Have you given up on non-CNC equipment? Why?

On today’s podcast, I interviewed Albert Lettmen, a Lean Six Sigma and Quality Systems consultant and educator who has worked for decades with prominent manufacturing companies around the world. Albert grew up in Jamaica, studied business in Scotland, and then worked for companies in Europe, China, Canada and the United States. I was surprised when Albert explained to me that a company eliminating waste and boosting efficiency does not necessarily translate to firing a lot of workers. Over the years I have heard many people in the machining business talk about incorporating Lean Manufacturing into their organization, but I must confess that until this interview the concept of “Lean” remained a mystery to me.

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Albert Lettman.

Question: What areas do you think a consultant could help in your business?

In today’s podcast, we reflect on the machining world in 2018 through the lens of what went right and what went wrong for Graff-Pinkert’s used machine tool business and Today’s Machining World.

Scroll down to listen to the podcast.

One key observation from 2018 is that Graff-Pinkert is becoming more reliant on our extensive knowledge of the equipment market rather than the cam machine refurbishing business, which historically has been Graff-Pinkert’s base business. Brokering the sale of modern CNC multi-spindles and consulting with customers on buying and selling machining businesses have become vital revenue streams.

As for Today’s Machining World, Swarfcast is our most exciting addition. The podcast is growing, but we admit it has been more of a challenge than we expected to convert readers to listeners. Many people tell us that they don’t have time to listen to a podcast. To that I reply that the beauty of a podcast is that you don’t have to consume it all in one sitting and you have the opportunity to listen while driving or exercising or doing chores. Also, recorded interviews give us the ability to provide more in-depth stories than blogs.

Sit back enjoy today’s podcast as we reflect on these topics, as well as China, Trump, gratitude and marriage. Happy New Year!

Question: What was the best thing that happened to you in 2018?

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Federico Veneziano.

On today’s podcast we interviewed Federico Veneziano, COO and CFO of American Micro, a 100 person machining company near Cincinnati, Ohio. In the interview Federico compared the various philosophies he has observed in machining companies throughout Europe, China and the United States.

Federico grew up in northern Italy and got his first job as a CNC machine operator when he was 12. He studied engineering in Italy and worked in several shops until he was hired by DMG as a service technician in his early 20s. For several years at DMG he worked on machines in shops all over the world, and in 2005 he was assigned a large project to install a Gildemeister GMC35 at American Micro in Batavia, Ohio. After observing Federico’s work on the project American Micro’s management saw great potential in Federico and he joined the company the following year.

Question: What is the best way for a machining company to find good employees?

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with John Saunders.

In today’s podcast we interviewed John Saunders, founder of Saunders Machine Works and the creator of the NYC CNC YouTube channel. John is an innovative entrepreneur who lives and breaths CNC machining. When he was 24 he had an idea to sell an automatically resetting steel target for practicing firearms, but he had no engineering background, no CAD experience and no machining experience. After working on a prototype with a contracted engineer he decided that before he would pursue production of his product he wanted to fully understand the production process.

He bought a Taig CNC milling machine and put it in his one-bedroom New York City apartment. He quickly realized he was passionate about CNC machining and taught himself to use his machine on nights and weekends for two years. Using resources on the Web, instructional DVDs and New York’s MakerSpace NYC community he eventually gained the skills to machine a prototype of his automatically resetting target by himself. Since his first time experimenting with his Taig until today he has religiously documented his machining projects on YouTube and now NYC CNC has acquired over 273,000 subscribers.

Today Saunders with a staff of six employees, runs a machine shop in his hometown of Zanesville, OH. His company runs an intensive training course on machining and welding, and it uploads at least one YouTube video a week about machining. He also cohosts a weekly podcast where he discusses his challenges running a small machining business.

Question: What practical skills have you learned on the Internet?

In today’s podcast we interviewed Scott Roy, a Senior Staff Engineer at Google who specializes in artificial intelligence.  He also happens to be my brother-in-law (Lloyd’s son-in-law).  One of Scott’s most recent projects at Google is to improve the way machines communicate with people in diverse human languages—last week he was working on communicating in Bengali.

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Scott Roy.

Scott believes that one day machines may have the sophistication and human-like qualities of Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  He says there is a good chance machines will be able to feel emotions like love or the joy of watching baseball, and people will be able to teach them ethics.  Although he recognizes the risks of possible harm to humans by super intelligent machines, his work is motivated by his vision of a relationship in which machines enable people to thrive.

Question: Are you more excited or afraid of super intelligent machines?

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Rick Rickerson.

Rick Rickerson is in charge of the machining lab at Purdue’s Northwest Indiana campus in Hammond.  In today’s podcast he talks about why he loves his job. “It’s all about students” he says.  His passion for teaching beams throughout the interview.

Rick has been doing this job for 14 years.  His department has a half-dozen South Bend lathes (now made in Utah), but the students gravitate to the Haas VF-2 vertical machining centers.

The part of his duties that really gets the students’ juices going is the Purdue Northwest racing team.  Every year students all over the country build a Baja-type racing buggy with the same Briggs and Stratton engine.  They build it from scratch and are responsible for every nut, bolt and weld.  Thousands of hours go into the preparation for two races in the spring presided over by SME judges.  The preparation is strenuous, and the races are exhausting for the students and Rick, but he loves it.  The judges grill the student builders and racers about the vehicles.  Once they get on a track the buggies invariably break down, and the kids have to rebuild them on the spot.  It’s a fantastic learning experience.

Question: Is building a Baja-type racing buggy from scratch a good way to learn machining?

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Jerry Levine.

In today’s podcast we interviewed Jerry Levine. A chemical engineer, Jerry Levine’s working career stretched from polyester to politics. He led the team at Amoco Chemicals that conquered the production problems in making polyester in the 1960s.

Jerry then learned what it was like to live under Communism when he helped set up a polyester plant in East Germany well before the Berlin Wall came down.

He later returned to Amoco’s corporate office in Chicago, finding his niche as a lobbyist for the company and “Big Oil.”

Jerry holds the view that Global Warming fears have been fueled by faulty and sometimes deliberately contrived data to protect scientific jobs and reputations, and to build political careers. He feels that ardent advocates of Global Warming theories often have “no growth” philosophies which mask hidden Socialist agendas.

Question: Do you believe global warming is mostly caused by human activity?

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Armand Barnils.

In today’s podcast we interviewed Armand Barnils, plant manager of the U.S. division of Ventura Precision Components, a multinational precision machining company headquartered in Barcelona, Spain.

Armand grew up on the outskirts of Barcelona and studied Industrial Engineering in Spain. Through a foreign exchange program he came to the United States and earned a Masters Degree in Industrial Technology and Operations at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

At age 23 he moved to Pasadena, Texas, just outside of Houston, to work at Ventura Precision Components. Two years later his boss left, and at just 25 years old he became the shop’s plant manager.

In the interview Armand recounted his life’s journey from Barcelona to Chicago to Pasadena, Texas, and opined on the career opportunities he believes are unique to the United States.

Question: Do you believe in the American Dream?

Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Bill Cox.

In today’s podcast we interviewed Bill Cox, owner of Cox Manufacturing in San Antonio, Texas, a job shop that makes parts for a variety of industries—oil and energy, medical, and defense to name a few.

Bill’s father started the company in 1956 but died when Bill was age 12. The evening of his father’s funeral a customer had the audacity to ask Bill’s mother if he could buy the company. She asked Bill that night if he was interested in going into the family business and Bill said he was. From that day forward Bill’s mom, a sharp business woman in her own right, taught him the management side of running the company, while the guys in the shop developed his technical skills. By his 20s Bill was taking the helm at Cox Manufacturing.

We at Graff-Pinkert have had the pleasure of dealing with Bill for decades, on both the buying and selling side of the equipment trade. He continues to impress us with his business savvy and grasp of the trends in the machining business.

Question: Are current wage levels too low to attract good enough good people for machine shops?