It seems like every other day as a machinery dealer, I talk to someone who says they would purchase a machine from me, if only they could find a person to run it. Today’s podcast guest, Ann Wyatt, founder of Ann Wyatt Recruiting, makes her living by finding manufacturing professionals for companies. Ann’s journey to becoming a recruiter started in 2010 when she was an unemployed recent graduate of Western Kentucky University without the means for a home Internet connection. Her mom suggested she go to the career center at the local unemployment office where she could access the Internet…
Author: Noah Graff
Dave Polito is my Star CNC guru. He’s always been there when I’ve had questions, whether I was asking about a 1999 Star SA12, or a sweet SV38R located in Asia, or the ever flummoxing Siemens control on an ECAS-20. Dave is the owner of Quality Machine Tool Services, the Star distributor for Illinois and southern Wisconsin. He has been servicing and selling Star Swiss screw machines for over 35 years. For much of his career he did technical service and applications. Quality Machine Tool Services started as strictly a service center and then in 2009 began selling Star machines. Scroll…
Everyday, Graff-Pinkert runs into a myriad of excuses why people won’t purchase a used machine tool from us. Maybe they don’t have the work. Maybe they don’t have the expertise to run a machine. Maybe they are not sophisticated in negotiating with buyers and suppliers. Maybe they don’t have enough money. All of these things can stop a sale of a used machine, and when we do sell a machine we often run into the problem that the customer says they have another option that is cheaper, so we have to lower our price and reduce our margin. If we…
Do you know what is really going on with your machines? Have you actually listened to them lately? Today’s guest on Swarfcast is Jeff Rizzie, Director of Digital Enablement at Sandvik Coromant. Sandvik is renown for its cutting tools, but the company has branched out into selling cloud-based machine monitoring software called CoroPlus Machining Insights. Machining Insights measures the overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE, of a factory’s machines, collecting data such as spindle speeds, axis feed rates, and spindle override frequency. Rizzie estimates that 90% of shops who have used Machining Insights believed their OEE was significantly higher than what…
I get stressed sometimes choosing what tasks to prioritize in my day. Yesterday, I listened to an episode of Grow The Show, my favorite podcast for advice about making podcasts. The subject of the episode was how to deal with the stress that comes with managing a business and a podcast as well as all the other stuff that life throws at you. The show’s host, Kevin Chemidlin, said he had been stressed by all the things on his to-do list that he believed he should do to grow his business and podcast. He brilliantly realized he could cope with…
Our guest on the podcast today is Rogério Mezadri, Director of SAMOT Mexico, a 200-employee automotive machining company in Guanajuato, Mexico. Rogério and I discussed the challenges running a machining company in Mexico. We talked about Mexican manufacturers upgrading technology. We also talked about the difficulty to find enough skilled manufacturing workers in Mexico. Yes, they have that problem too. 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. You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel. Follow us on…
At IMTS 2022, I stumbled upon a booth with an impressive 28 foot rocket on display, constructed by students from the Purdue University Bechtel Innovation Design Center. Anirudh Pal, an operations manager at Bechtel, and Xander Wells, an undergraduate teaching assistant at Bechtel, told me the story behind the rocket’s creation when I interviewed them for today’s podcast. The Bechtel Innovation Design Center is a makerspace, where undergrad students of all different majors have the opportunity to work together on creative manufacturing projects, incorporating a wide variety of manufacturing processes. Participating in the makerspace is completely voluntary, and students at…
At IMTS 2022, I had the privilege of interviewing Bryan Stusak and Steve Vanderink, two product specialists from Iscar Metals, world renown seller of cutting tools for machining. We talked about the latest developments in cutting tool technology that enable faster changeover, and how to save money by using inserts properly when removing small amounts of material. If you’ve been wishing for a more technical episode of Swarfcast, this is the one for you. 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…
I was pumped for IMTS 2022! I went there to listen to the heartbeat of the machining world. I set out to learn about the newest technology, interview people for Swarfcast, and stumble upon as much serendipity as possible. A few things struck me as I strolled the vast McCormick place, gliding my iPhone around on my fancy steady cam. First, everyone was appreciative and enthusiastic to be there after four years away. Exhibitors and attendees were in good moods because business has been excellent lately. Almost all of the popular machine tool builders told me that everything at their…
With the International Manufacturing Technology Show coming up next week in Chicago, we decided it was important to do a podcast about how to get ready for a trade show. 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 a lot of the stuff covered in this interview back…