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 bachelor party that involves mud drifting, bass fishing domination, and aggressively avoiding anything resembling a normal bachelor party.

Somewhere in between:

• A vinyl cutter that definitely didn’t fall off a truck (probably)
• A fishing trip that cured burnout better than therapy
• CNC projects that make you question your life choices
• A Masso retrofit that somehow actually worked
• And just enough questionable jokes to remind you… yeah, this is Episode 69

Also, we tried to keep it civil.

We did not succeed.

If you like machining, bad decisions, and the kind of conversations that start technical and end with “how did we get here?”, you’re in the right place.

Come for the CNC talk
Stay for the chaos
Leave wondering why anyone owns this many stickers

Links Discussed:

• Xteink X4: https://www.xteink.com/products/xteink-x4

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/
• https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

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
• Both of them vibe coding apps they barely understand and definitely shouldn’t be trusted with
• A deep dive into sticker production that somehow becomes a full-blown identity crisis

Somewhere along the way:
• Lasers start doing things that feel illegal
• French designers approve of Jamie’s “pretty parts” (engineering has entered its fashion era)
• Curt realizes tax season means he technically earns money but spiritually does not

By the end of the episode, we’ve concluded:
The future is incredible, nothing is stable, and we are absolutely not qualified to be this productive.

Press play if you enjoy:
Machining, chaos, questionable life choices, and two guys speedrunning the collapse of traditional skillsets using nothing but caffeine and blind confidence.

Warning: This episode may cause sudden urges to buy a printer, build an app, and completely ignore best practices.

Links Discussed:

• Justin Gray Labs: https://justingraylabs.com/

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/
• https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

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 man trying to fit a king-size bed into a shoebox, all while seriously considering trading financial stability for “just one more machine.” There’s anodizing experiments that may or may not dissolve parts into oblivion, discussions about balls, pins, and why nothing ever lines up the way it should, plus a deeply unnecessary but unforgettable segment titled “you poo, I watch.” It’s engineering, it’s chaos, it’s questionable decision-making at its finest, so grab a drink, lower your expectations, and enjoy the ride.

Links Discussed:

• Noughtical Work Holding: https://www.noughticalwh.com/
• caleeys cans hulk pill: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K2lIMSZA_5o

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/
• https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

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 simple edits into 10-minute emotional journeys and making basic machining tasks feel like punishment. If you’ve ever shouted at your CAD software like it personally betrayed you, this one’s for you.

Meanwhile, Curt casually builds “internet in a box” like a doomsday prepper with a Wi-Fi signal, downloads all of Wikipedia, and somehow makes it sound completely reasonable.

We also cover:

• Why copy-pasting G-code is a dangerous game
• The exact moment a missing line ruins your day
• Buying a new 3D printer for “totally valid reasons.”
• Designing print-in-place tools that might actually save your machine
• And why backups (and backup plans) are no longer optional

It’s part machining, part tech rant, part “how did we get here?”

Subscribe if you enjoy:
Questionable engineering decisions
Software-induced suffering
And slowly preparing for the apocalypse… but with good documentation

Links Discussed:

• Noughtical Work Holding: https://www.noughticalwh.com/

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/
• https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

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 "unusable"

We also dive into the oily world of vacuum workholding, where if you aren't pulling enough mercury, you’re just turning your shop into an unintentional oil mist sauna

Plus, Samo the Marmo presses 10,000 rivets by hand, Jamie breaks his resin printer for a Deadpool bust, and we definitely (mostly) don’t talk about Project Hail Mary

Grab your calipers and your patience; it’s just you, the work, and the machines.

Links Discussed:

• Noughtical Work Holding: https://www.noughticalwh.com/

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/
• https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

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 precise, plus a brief but important life lesson: don’t punch people, because court has worse cycle times than your slowest machine. Throw in exploding part-offs, intrusive thoughts about building yet another machine, and a suspicious conversation about “sausage polishers,” and you’ve got an episode that’s equal parts machining brilliance and beautifully engineered chaos.

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 the smarter shop assistant. Meanwhile in the real world, Jamie is busy pressing thousands of rivets a week, chasing a mysterious lathe issue that keeps snapping tiny parts, and discovering that the “slightly noisy” spindle on a friend’s lathe was actually being held together by hopes, dreams, and a very destroyed bearing. Along the way they rant about AI scraping YouTube creators, the increasingly weird world of AI voice scams, questionable surface finishes, and why recording hundreds of hours of yourself talking on the internet might one day be the dumbest or smartest thing you ever did.

Links Discussed:

• Noughtical Work Holding: https://www.noughticalwh.com/
• Toxing: https://tox.com/en-us/technologies/clinching/clinching
• caleys cans: https://www.youtube.com/@cayleependerass/shorts

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/
• https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

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 booting up with ads, ChatGPT hallucinating wiring diagrams, gimbals doing unnecessary 360° flips, and the very real possibility that we’re speed-running the darkest timeline. It’s machining, media, marketing, mild conspiracy, and a healthy dose of “just hold it properly” — all in one episode.

Links Discussed:

• Noughtical Work Holding: https://www.noughticalwh.com/
• Easily Replaceable USB-C Port Spawned By EU Laws: https://hackaday.com/2026/02/26/easily-replaceable-usb-c-port-spawned-by-eu-laws/

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/
• https://www.noughticalwh.com/

• Curt:
• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

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".

In this episode, we tackle the hard-hitting questions, such as:

Can Curt actually read?  Is John a psychic? How many bandsaws is too many? Why are anodizers the devil? The Garage Dream: Waking up at 2:00 a.m. to the sound of money (and Shopify notifications), sipping coffee in a bathrobe, and turning on a phase converter while the rest of the neighborhood sleeps.

Whether you’re here for the two-stroke engine talk, the "dust maker" end mill that evaporates aluminium, or Curt's latest obsession with self-hosting his photos to escape the cloud, there’s something for every machinist who’s ever felt alone with their machines.

Links Discussed:

• Hofmann and Vratny: https://hitech.co.za/products/hofmann-and-vratny
• Engine Trix: https://www.enginetrix.com/
• Mini Monster: https://minimonster.ca/

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jon:

• https://www.instagram.com/2smperformance
• https://www.2smperformance.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/

Curt:

• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

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 kitchen is a lawless wasteland. Meanwhile, Jamie has declared "open season" on expired patents to launch his Nautical Workholding line, including the new Keel Clamps and a control panel he is wiring with exclusively blue wire to ensure maximum "savage" confusion for anyone attempting to troubleshoot it later.

Between reviews of the DC Collet system and its unexpected flex, we dive into the quest for acetone-resistant archival ink for the perfect pen refill and the logistics of punching half a million nails "for her pleasure" on an eccentric press. Whether you are here for the debate on "piss plastic" (Ultem), the shocking logarithmic power of 30W lasers, or Curt’s four-year-old’s deep dive into classic Pokémon, we’ve got you covered.

Links Discussed:

• Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs_UgsQg7Vs/?igsh=MzhnMGEwaTU5MzZz

The Lone Machinist:

• Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
• Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
• Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
• Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

• http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
• https://www.jspeceng.com/

Curt:

• https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
• https://www.confoundedmachine.com/