You might think chopping up steel bars would be a fairly mundane business, but for one of the biggest choppers of them all, it’s been, well, awfully choppy in recent years. Last week, Central Steel & Wire broke ground to become our neighbors in the Southern Suburbs of Chicago. Central Steel & Wire has been synonymous with steel distribution in the Midwest since its founding in 1909 with seven employees by Mandel Lowenstine. His son Maurice joined the firm in 1933, and his younger son Jim joined in 1945 after winning a bronze star in World War II. Jim took…
Author: Noah Graff
I am a bullet, penetrating all resistance! I embrace my discomfort zone! I try to say this statement to myself out loud every morning. It is part of my I Am List I created with my life coach. The principle is that if you repeat something enough it will eventually become your reality. I’m blessed with a lot of natural gifts to help me reach fulfillment and success in my life—at least I think so. I believe I’m smart, creative, and open minded, and I feel like I have a natural ability to connect with other people. But, I know…
I am celebrating the 60th anniversary of my high school graduation with the Class of 1962 on Zoom this Thursday. I remember a surprising amount from my four years at the Lab School, part of the University of Chicago. A lot of the kids had family affiliated with U of C, but more than half the class came in to avoid lousy public schools in the surrounding neighborhoods. I didn’t talk much as a kid, but I loved sports and found a niche as an athlete. It was a dramatic change from my grammar school that had 48 in a…
I wonder. How many people in the world do I already know who I’m missing out on doing great things with? The used machinery business is quite good lately for Graff-Pinkert, though I’m probably jinxing this prosperous period by saying that. Sometimes I ask myself how I have contributed to make these deals happen. I know that sounds like a comment from a business person lacking swag, but it’s good to ask oneself why things are working while they are working. It often seems like we luck into our best deals. We just happen to serendipitously find the one person…
Should I sell a CNC lathe to some company in Iran, not knowing if they are making missile parts which may be used against the United States or Israel? Should Blackrock, one of the biggest investment firms in the world, try to influence the corporations it makes huge bets on to follow its notion of climate change behavior? Should I invest my child’s college funds in Philip Morris because of its reliable quarterly dividends, even if I believe tobacco products cause cancer? Does money care where it comes from or where it goes? Because I am a sports fan, I…
Today we’re celebrating the milestone of 150 episodes of Swarfcast. This is actually Episode 155. We just didn’t get around to doing this one until now. I hope you enjoy as we look back at four of our favorite past episodes spanning the last four years. Four years! Not much has happened for me? Besides getting married, surviving a pandemic, and having my first child a month and a half ago. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. Follow us on Social and…
It’s strange how at Graff-Pinkert we sometimes can be so tentative about specing on a used machine that we’re supposed to be experts on but then surprisingly decisive buying something more obscure that we know very little about. Sometimes we find a used machine that we are unfamiliar with, but still the opportunity seems intriguing. We often have to decide how much to bid for machines at auctions of which we have only seen a few photos on the Web. We have to decide whether or not to trust strangers overseas selling machines for $50,000. Then, even if the machines…
Tyler Jarosz sent me an email about a month and a half ago to ask if Graff-Pinkert would be interested in a used little parts washer he no longer needed in his machine shop. He found out about Graff-Pinkert from listening to Swarfcast, which I’m proud to say is the only podcast he has ever listened to. At 40 years young, Tyler recently retired, closing Twenty6Products, his 1-employee shop, which had been lucrative enough over the last decade and a half that he can now spend his time doing whatever he wants. For the most part, that’s going mountain biking…
I am a proud dad! I promise not to write too many blogs about becoming a father, but today I am because it’s quite an amazing experience and often thought provoking. At this very moment, I’m battling grogginess from a lack of sleep. Since the day Abraham was born, doctors told us to wake him up every two and a half hours to feed him because he needed to eat eight times a day. It all seemed so ludicrous to us. It’s unnatural for both the baby and the parents. Why interrupt sleep we asked? Forty-eight hours after Abraham was…
Our guest on today’s show is Steve Tamasi, owner and CEO of Boston Centerless, a distributor and manufacturer of ground bar stock. I asked Steve why there is such a shortage of raw materials for precision turning manufacturers and what companies can do to deal with this problem. We also talked about how the war in Ukraine is affecting metals prices. What is pig iron, anyway? Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. Main Points Boston Centerless Steve characterizes Boston Centerless as a…