As Graff-Pinkert has gotten more into consulting machining businesses who want to sell their companies, we are constantly learning new things about what determines the value of machining firms. Wednesday, I flew home after visiting a client we are helping sell its Swiss machining operation. On the plane, I thought back to a favorite episode of Swarfcast in which we interviewed John Habe IV, who has grown his machining company Metalseal significantly by way of acquisition the past few years. In the interview, John discusses the difficulty in buying companies, which often have emotionally attached owners. It’s often the only…
Author: Noah Graff
Imagine a sheet metal prototype shop that was so fast and reliable it never turned down a job if it were physically possible to complete and the customers were willing to pay the price. My guest today, Jay Jacobs, built his former company RAPID from a team of five to over 300. Before being acquired by a publicly traded company for a price he couldn’t refuse, RAPID was manufacturing over 30,000 unique part numbers annually, 24-7-365 days a year. Then Jay co-founded Paperless Parts, a cloud based estimating and quoting software platform. On today’s show, Jay is going to tell…
Nine years ago, I traveled to Sweden to see some old Wickman multi-spindle screw machines for sale at one of the country’s largest automotive suppliers. The machines were ok, but we decided not to buy them. I stayed the night in the sleepy town of Värnamo, a screw machining hotspot of Sweden. The next morning, I knocked on a few doors of screw machining companies in the area, asking if they had any used machines for sale. They usually gave me the time of day because I had come from so far. A company called Ezze turned out to have…
Today’s podcast is the fourth episode of our season interviewing people involved in CNC Swiss machining. Our guest is Mike Reader, owner and president of Precision Plus, a CNC turning company in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Mike came into the machining business at 31 years old following a career in the fast paced finance industry. When he first arrived, the company was using old school Tornos cam Swiss machines and running a lot of commodity-type parts. Over the years Mike has built a world-class machining company, diversifying the company’s product lines with the help of newer technology. All the while, his original…
Josh Hacko is a fourth generation watchmaker. He says he was born into his vocation, but in reality his work is truly his own. Josh is Technical Director of two sister companies, NH Micro and Nicholas Hacko Watchmaker, which manufactures high-end wrist watches in Sydney, Australia, that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. The company can manufacture up to 85% of a wristwatch’s components in-house, including the watch’s movement, a feat that only a handful of independent watchmakers around the world have accomplished. With his team, Josh engineers and machines his watches’ components, and he and his dad come…
I love this classic episode because it emphasizes how having fun with your product (or service) and feeling free to experiment with it can lead to success and happiness. Mike Taylor inquired on a Tornos GT26 Swiss lathe Graff-Pinkert had for sale. He told me that for him the machine would be like buying a new motorcycle. If he bought it, he would spend months learning how to use it himself before expecting to make any money with it, and it would be a lot of fun. If Mike buys the machine it will be used to make screws that…
This podcast has been going for five years now, and those people who listen to it frequently might be tired of the Graff-Pinkert ad at the beginning of the show. I was tired of it, so I finally created a new ad. For people who are listening to this show for the first time, I’m a used machine tool dealer with a family business called Graff-Pinkert. We specialize in selling equipment for the precision machining industry. Recently, Graff-Pinkert started a new service, Graff-Pinkert Acquisitions and Sales, in which we consult precision machining companies who want to buy or sell their…
Editor’s Note: This podcast was recorded in Spring of 2022. Tyler has now been retired for over 2 years, and Noah is the proud father of a 1 year old. In early 2022, Tyler Jarosz sent me an email 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 retired, closing Twenty6Products, his 1-employee shop, which had been lucrative enough over…
George Konidaris is the cofounder of the startup, Realtime Robotics. He’s also a Professor of Computer Science and the director of the Intelligent Robot Lab at Brown University.
Right now, programming a robot arm to perform a repetitive task typically requires a robot integrator to program where every joint of a robot should go. It’s a ridiculous and tedious process.
But with Realtime Robotics’ AI technology, you can instruct a robot to do a task and you don’t have to tell it a zillion steps explaining HOW to do the task.
On today’s podcast we continue our season talking to successful companies who produce their own products. Today’s guest is Joel Trusty, co-owner and President of Trusty-Cook, a company that manufactures a diverse group of industrial polyurethane products such as dead blow hammers and spindle liners for bar loaders. Joel says one of the keys to the company’s success has been talking to customers about what they need. Listen with the player at the bottom of the page or at your favorite podcast app. …