On today’s podcast, I interviewed Bryan Batten, CEO of Palmetto Precision Machining, located in Anderson, South Carolina. Palmetto Machining is a precision machining/fabrication shop specializing in tooling and automation for the automotive industry. Bryan, who jokingly refers to himself as a mechanical psychologist, discusses the difference between working with automotive companies in different countries, his experience purchasing a machining company, and the manufacturing boom in the South. Question: Do you have a machine that should go to a shrink?
Author: Noah Graff
We interviewed Brett May of BME Inc. Screw Machine Attachments for today’s podcast. Brett’s mission in business is to make old cam multi-spindle screw machines like National Acmes, Wickmans, and New Britains into productive money makers in today’s competitive machining environment. Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Brett May. Brett builds unique attachments which eliminate secondary operations that many people would put on a mill-turn CNC to finish, or run on an accurate but achingly slow Swiss-type machine. When he does his magic he turns supposed clunkers into enormously valuable machine tools. Brett sees an old Acme and…
On today’s podcast, I interviewed Albert Lettmen, a Lean Six Sigma and Quality Systems consultant and educator who has worked for decades with prominent manufacturing companies around the world. Albert grew up in Jamaica, studied business in Scotland, and then worked for companies in Europe, China, Canada and the United States. I was surprised when Albert explained to me that a company eliminating waste and boosting efficiency does not necessarily translate to firing a lot of workers. Over the years I have heard many people in the machining business talk about incorporating Lean Manufacturing into their organization, but I must…
In today’s podcast, we reflect on the machining world in 2018 through the lens of what went right and what went wrong for Graff-Pinkert’s used machine tool business and Today’s Machining World. Scroll down to listen to the podcast. One key observation from 2018 is that Graff-Pinkert is becoming more reliant on our extensive knowledge of the equipment market rather than the cam machine refurbishing business, which historically has been Graff-Pinkert’s base business. Brokering the sale of modern CNC multi-spindles and consulting with customers on buying and selling machining businesses have become vital revenue streams. As for Today’s Machining World,…
Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Federico Veneziano. On today’s podcast we interviewed Federico Veneziano, COO and CFO of American Micro, a 100 person machining company near Cincinnati, Ohio. In the interview Federico compared the various philosophies he has observed in machining companies throughout Europe, China and the United States. Federico grew up in northern Italy and got his first job as a CNC machine operator when he was 12. He studied engineering in Italy and worked in several shops until he was hired by DMG as a service technician in his early 20s. For several years at…
Scroll down to listen to the podcast with John Saunders. In today’s podcast we interviewed John Saunders, founder of Saunders Machine Works and the creator of the NYC CNC YouTube channel. John is an innovative entrepreneur who lives and breaths CNC machining. When he was 24 he had an idea to sell an automatically resetting steel target for practicing firearms, but he had no engineering background, no CAD experience and no machining experience. After working on a prototype with a contracted engineer he decided that before he would pursue production of his product he wanted to fully understand the production…
In today’s podcast we interviewed Scott Roy, a Senior Staff Engineer at Google who specializes in artificial intelligence. He also happens to be my brother-in-law (Lloyd’s son-in-law). One of Scott’s most recent projects at Google is to improve the way machines communicate with people in diverse human languages—last week he was working on communicating in Bengali. Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Scott Roy. Scott believes that one day machines may have the sophistication and human-like qualities of Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He says there is a good chance machines will be able to…
I am like many people in this world, despite having so many things I should feel grateful for—living in a country with so many opportunities, being born into a well-off family with parents and siblings who love me, having a good career, etc… I still find myself plagued by negative self-talk and being annoyed by what I label as “First World problems.” After getting a recommendation from many self-help books and podcasts I started making a gratitude list almost every morning since July of this year. Most of the time I write down 7-10 things into my iPhone. Often the…
Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Rick Rickerson. Rick Rickerson is in charge of the machining lab at Purdue’s Northwest Indiana campus in Hammond. In today’s podcast he talks about why he loves his job. “It’s all about students” he says. His passion for teaching beams throughout the interview. Rick has been doing this job for 14 years. His department has a half-dozen South Bend lathes (now made in Utah), but the students gravitate to the Haas VF-2 vertical machining centers. The part of his duties that really gets the students’ juices going is the Purdue Northwest racing…
Scroll down to listen to the podcast with Jerry Levine. In today’s podcast we interviewed Jerry Levine. A chemical engineer, Jerry Levine’s working career stretched from polyester to politics. He led the team at Amoco Chemicals that conquered the production problems in making polyester in the 1960s. Jerry then learned what it was like to live under Communism when he helped set up a polyester plant in East Germany well before the Berlin Wall came down. He later returned to Amoco’s corporate office in Chicago, finding his niche as a lobbyist for the company and “Big Oil.” Jerry holds the view…