Swarfcast

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

“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 [...]

Today’s episode is Part II of our interview with industrial auctioneer Robert Levy. In Part I, I tried to get an understanding of what’s going on inside the mind of an auctioneer. In the second part of the interview, I asked Robert to give me some practical advice on how to be a successful bidder [...]

Auctions are always on our mind at Graff-Pinkert. Since Internet bidding became ubiquitous in the last 15 years they’ve become more of a challenge for dealers like us to capitalize on. But sometimes you still can still find a hell of a deal. In today’s episode we’re going to discuss how. If you like this [...]

I’ve had a LinkedIn profile for a long time, but I didn’t pay much attention to it until two years ago when I started using it to promote this podcast. I know it’s been helpful for me, but like all social media, the way it works is an enigma. I’m guessing that many of you [...]

The concept of an ESOP to me has always seemed extraordinary yet at the same time a little hard to grasp. E-S-O-P is an acronym for Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Basically it means an employee owned company. Our guest on today’s podcast is Rich Gaffney, Vice President of Commercial Operations at Sentry Equipment, a 100-year-old [...]

My guest on today’s show is Kris Fugate, President of Revolution Machine Works, a prominent rotary transfer machine rebuilder, specializing in Hydromats. Hydromats can seem strange and overwhelming to those unfamiliar with them. Some say they their circular shape with 12 or 16 work stations reminds them of a UFO, and the machines can crank [...]

Using savings to buy a 20-year-old Swiss machine that’s been sitting idle for year is a gamble. Buying one to start a machining company without any customers yet or a place to put the machine means really going ALL IN. Today’s podcast is Part II of my interview with Dulio Arellano, founder of Premier Swiss [...]