Swarfcast

On today’s podcast, I’m talking with Mike Payne, owner of Hill Manufacturing and Fabrication in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to peek inside the mind of a prolific acquirer of manufacturing companies. Before purchasing Hill in 2018, Mike spent 20 years in M&A, orchestrating over 100 deals across nearly every industry. Since then, Mike has acquired four [...]

The post Manufacturing Acquisitions with Purpose, with Mike Payne (Part 1)-EP 232 (Best of Swarfcast) appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

I often ponder—why do some people own and build companies, while most people are destined to spend their careers as employees. In Part II of my interview with Mike Payne, owner of Hill Manufacturing & Fabrication, we explore this question. Mike comes from a family of six generations of teachers, not business managers or entrepreneurs, [...]

The post Why Some People Build Companies and Others Don’t, with Mike Payne (Part 2) – EP 233 (Best of Swarfcast) appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

Today’s AI conversation is about vulnerability—not automation, efficiency, and replacing jobs. Brooks Canavesi, co-founder of Baryons, is taking AI somewhere different. He’s not trying to replace the human. He’s trying to make the human better. I’ve actually been using ChatGPT to supplement my own life coach for a while now, so when I learned what [...]

The post Your AI Life Coach Is Lying to You, with Brooks Canavesi–EP 262 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

Seems like right now every podcast is doing an interview centered around artificial intelligence. But I waited until I found the right story, one that was truly relevant to our audience in the machining world. Today’s guest on the podcast, George Konidaris, is the cofounder of the startup, Realtime Robotics. He is also a professor [...]

The post Robots that Know Where to Go, With George Konidaris (Best Of) appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

The most interesting things I’ve ever done — the best conversations, the best podcasts, the best calls — they all required me to be confident enough to move forward, when the results were far from certain. Today I’m going to tell you something I just learned that can get that confidence up when you need [...]

The post So You Want To Be More Confident?–EP 261 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

Federico Veneziano didn’t just buy the machine shop he worked for — he became the sole owner of a 70-year-old company and then changed its name, culture, and direction. When Federico bought American Micro three years ago, there were over 25 shareholders. Now there’s one. The company had 86 employees. Now it’s 130. And the [...]

The post He Bought the Shop He Worked For, Federico Veneziano (Part II)-EP 260 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

At 12, he was cutting metal in northern Italy. By 21, he was teaching DMG’s own technicians how to use their machines. At 47, he owns the whole company he first walked into just to set up a machine. Federico Veneziano is the owner of BoldX Industries and an old friend of mine. His story [...]

The post Learning, Teaching, Owning, with Federico Veneziano-EP 259 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

What happens when a mechanical engineering instructor actually comes from industry—not academia? My guest on today’s podcast is Andrew Schiller from Utah Tech, who spent six years at Caterpillar and GE, and studied theology at seminary, before landing in the classroom. He’s teaching students to think like business owners—understanding costs, not just making parts. But [...]

The post Making Engineers Love Manufacturing, With Andrew Schiller-EP 258 appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

Is an Acme-Gridley the mink coat of machine tools? A well made product that still does a great job, but nobody wants another one. In 2025? No. Not yet. On today’s podcast, Lloyd and I talk about our used machinery business over the last year. We saw one customer drop 20 million for five INDEXs to [...]

The post Is 2025 the End of Cam Screw Machines? EP 257 (Reupload) appeared first on Today’s Machining World.

Today I’m talking to a guy who believes every company needs to be built to last—not just to flip. Neil Lansing is a turnaround specialist who left private equity to bet his own money on small, underperforming businesses. He’s taken companies from 18 employees to over 400. From $2 million to $40-50 million in revenue. [...]

The post The Turnaround Formula, with Neil Lansing-EP 256 (Reupload) appeared first on Today’s Machining World.