Noah is attending IMTS this week, so we are resharing one of our favorite podcasts from last year. This episode of Swarfcast was recorded in March of 2023. The second part is also available online here. On today’s podcast, we talk about how you can apply the artistic side of your brain to solve engineering challenges. Our guest is aerospace engineer, Dr. Onome Scott-Emuakpor, founder of Hyphen Innovations, a firm that develops new advanced aerospace components for the Department of Defense and other clients. Onome’s family immigrated from Nigeria to Lansing, Michigan, before he was born. In high school, he…
Author: Noah Graff
Terry Iverson is a lifer in the machining industry. His grandfather sold machines for Hardinge over 100 years ago, and for 40 years he ran the Hardinge machinery distributor for the Midwest. Today Terry focuses his efforts on getting young people in America into manufacturing. He wrote two books directed at parents to open their eyes to manufacturing careers for their children. His latest project is a machining camp called Camp CHAMP, in which middle school kids are mentored by high school kids running CNC machines. Even though Terry is 20 years older than me, I feel like we really…
This podcast episode is the second part of our interview with Will Healy III about how to get the most out of trade shows, which we did before IMTS 2022. It’s a great time run the best of, as IMTS 2024 is coming Sept. 9! We suggest you listen to Part I of the podcast before you tune into this one. 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 never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points Participate and…
The 2024 IMTS International Manufacturing Technology Show coming up in two weeks in Chicago! We did an awesome podcast two years ago about preparing for trade shows and IMTS in particular, so we will be rerunning both this week. The following is a summary of our 2-part interview with Will Healy III. Will has been going to machining industry trade shows such as IMTS for a long time, as an exhibitor, a speaker, and attendee. I myself have been to quite a few trade shows over the years, including IMTS, and I have to say, I wish I had known…
Most of us don’t have a knack for pivoting. We follow the standard curriculum, and we keep going forward when we get in a lane, whether we believe it’s the right direction or not. But for Michael Gimbel, my guest on today’s show, seeing setbacks as serendipity and then pivoting is a natural gift. Michael built a CNC router in his garage by age 12. He dropped out of an elite university after one year to start a company selling 3D printing technology that he invented. When the company failed, he picked up the pieces, shifting to contract manufacturing and…
Our guests on today’s show are Michael Ottenweller and Terry Hanson, of Ottenweller Company, a medium-sized fabrication and machining company headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Ottenweller is a 108-year-old fourth generation family business. I spoke with Michael and Terry about how a family business can grow and thrive for over a century and continue to find new quality talent. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points Ottenweller Company was…
What’s your favorite smell? I asked the question on a LinkedIn post, and everyone said something different. I got the ocean, a farm, a forest in the morning after rain. My wife said her mother’s pie, the cinnamon rolls we bake together, and our two-year-old son of all things! Personally, I’m all about food smells. Chocolate chip cookies and pizza first come to mind. It’s clear that these examples are strongly connected with childhood memories. I got fascinated with this phenomenon when I heard a an awesome podcast interview with Dawn Goldworm, an olfactive expert with more than 20 Years…
Often the best deals and business decisions happen when you’re doing something that seems crazy to other people and even a little bit crazy to yourself. As used machinery dealers, putting our money down to stock old, dirty machines that we’re only interested in for resale, we have to have chutzpa. To some people, the business model seems a bit ridiculous, but it’s how we eat. These days I often question if it even makes sense stocking machines. Often we make a good profit brokering machines we’ve spent no money on, selling them right off the owner’s floor. ************* Listen…
Today’s show is the second episode in our season about Swiss machining. I interviewed Chris Armstrong last week while he was parked at a rest stop somewhere in Texas. He was en route on an all day trip to service a customer’s Citizens. I met Chris and his partner, Ryan Madsen, owners of Texas Swiss, a few years ago, trying to sell them some Citizen L20s from Asia. Texas Swiss, formerly named Mad Science, is a CNC Swiss job shop not far from Houston that focuses primarily on Oil & Gas and Defense, along with some medical and other work…
“This is how it’s always been done.” Businesses sometimes can do OK with a philosophy like that. Maybe even make good money. But it sucks being just ok, because you know you could be so much better. Today on the podcast we are joined by Jim Mayer, founder of the Manufacturing Connector and host of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast. Jim is a manufacturing advocate who helps companies break free from the “it’s always been done this way’ mindset. He specializes in transforming workplaces where the culture is “just OK” into awesome places to work, where employees are engaged, people trust each…