The first quarter of 2026 stunk for Graff-Pinkert’s used machinery business. But fortunately, in the last few months, we’ve made some really good deals, selling old Davenport and Acme screw machines, as well as some expensive late model CNC multi-spindles. Today, Lloyd Graff and I give our take on why the year unfolded this way and what we predict the machining industry will look like for the rest of the year. We’re optimistic because it seems like onshoring is real and tariff surprises are no longer a surprise. Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.     . View the podcast at the bottom of this post or on our YouTube Channel. Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swarfcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swarfcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/todays-machining-world Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmwswarfblog ************* Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion! It’s Hard to Sell Expensive Machines Noah: We purchased an INDEX MS22-8 CNC Multi-Spindle, manufactured 2019, with a partner at an auction. Brand new, that machine goes for over three million. We were asking less than half of new. And the thing is, even though something is worth that, it’s hard to find someone to actually buy it. Lloyd: Who’s to say it’s worth that? It’s worth it if…

We’re on vacation this week.  So we’re publishing one of my favorite Blog/Videos that’s been on my mind lately. I highly recommend you watch the video version of this podcast. Click on the link to go to the video. I won a few big matches on my high school Tennis team, but I was never awesome. I never won the big tournaments. What killed me was that I always had more fun and played better in practice than in big matches when pressure made my muscles tight. For the last few months, I’ve been fascinated by a discovery a tennis pro made 50 years ago that’s revolutionizing how people perform under pressure. It started when I listened to “The Coach in Your Head,” an episode from Michael Lewis’s “Against the Rules” podcast. Check out the video I made breaking down the whole story on my YouTube channel, I Learned It on a Podcast. We all experience this. Job interviews, presentations, equipment demonstrations. We “play tight” when stakes are high, performing worse at the very things we’ve trained for. Tim Gallwey figured out why this happens. In 1974, he published The Inner Game of Tennis, decades before today’s coaching boom. Like me, he was…

I love baseball. We’re a week from the trade deadline. Teams are texting back and forth, hunting either for the crucial piece that vaults them into the World Series or the unpolished kid who blossoms into a star a few years down the road. My team is the Chicago Cubs. I’ve rooted for them since I was 6. I tried out for the team at Wrigley Field when I was 21. The Cubs won the World Series in 2016 after 108 years of trying. By the summer of 2021 that core had peaked, and management started trading off the players who won the championship, looking for younger ones to rebuild around. The Cubs had a charismatic infielder named Javy Baez from Puerto Rico. Baez made electric plays in the field that made you shake your head and smile, and at his peak he was a dynamic power hitter who could also steal bases. Pitchers eventually figured out that he couldn’t hold back on a breaking ball, even one headed a foot outside the zone. In his last stretch with the Cubs he was chasing more than 40% of the pitches thrown out of the strike zone. He struck out 184…