

Swarfcast
Today's Machining World
Noah Graff, used machine tool dealer and editor of Today’s Machining World, interviews machining company owners, equipment gurus, and experts with insight to help and entertain people working in the machining field. We discuss topics such as how to find quality employees, customer acquisition, negotiation, and the best CNC equipment options for specific jobs.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 10, 2024 • 39min
How to Prevent Fires in Your Machine Tools with Mike Campo-EP 98
On this week’s classic episode of Swarfcast, we’re talking about preventing fires inside of machinery. Our guest is Mike Campo, Midwest Regional Sales Manager with Firetrace International, makers of fire suppression systems and solutions. Fire suppression systems keep businesses, people and equipment safe by automatically detecting and suppressing fires in high-risk equipment, like CNC machines, [...]

Mar 27, 2024 • 30min
The Benefits of a Manufacturing Business Sharing Financials with its Employees, with Reid Leland-EP 132
It seems that today’s younger generations of workers, such as millennials, want to understand why they are instructed to do their jobs in a certain way more than their predecessors. Many of today’s employees are not content to just follow orders and take home a check. They want to feel invested in their work, they [...]

Mar 14, 2024 • 37min
How to Market a Manufacturing Business by Becoming a Thought Leader, with Joe Sullivan-EP 137
In the last year, our used machinery company, Graff-Pinkert, has been successfully growing our business brokering division. This podcast and Today’s Machining World have played a huge part in our marketing. They have established us as thought leaders in the machining industry, and that is bringing in customers. It only took 24 years of writing [...]

Mar 8, 2024 • 43min
Breaking Your Machining Business Out of Its Goldfish Bowl, Roger Duffy (Part II)-EP 212
Today’s episode is Part II of our interview with Roger Duffy, owner of F&F Machine Products. In Part I we touched on Roger’s natural entrepreneurial instinct and how he loves to push himself to get out of his comfort zone. In this episode, we’re delving further into Roger’s business adventures and philosophies. He believes in [...]

Mar 1, 2024 • 13min
How to Turn a Business Failure Into an Opportunity—Seeking Serendipity EP 211
How many times has something happened to you that really sucked but then eventually turned out to be a good thing or even a great thing that happened for you? Today, I’m going to tell you a story about when a big machinery deal went to hell and then how its failure led to an [...]

Feb 22, 2024 • 54min
How Do You Manage Employees When a Company is Acquired? With Jennifer Fondrevay—EP 175
Recently, we have seen a growing number of mergers and acquisitions in the manufacturing space. After these deals are finalized there’s a lot of uncertainty for the employees caught in the middle of reorganization. Our guest on the podcast today is Jennifer Fondrevay. Jennifer is a best selling author and the Founder of Day1 Ready, [...]

Feb 14, 2024 • 38min
Growing a Thriving Shop by Creating Chaos and then Organizing it, Roger Duffy (Part I)-EP 210
At Graff-Pinkert, I’ve sold a lot of machine tools to successful entrepreneurs, including my guest on today’s show, Roger Duffy, owner of F&F Machine Products. But, just a few people like him really have stood out for their outward ballsiness in business. Roger says he loves being an entrepreneur because it allows him to take [...]

Feb 8, 2024 • 6min
Change, Fear, and Screw Machines–EP 209
“I can’t hire a cam multi-spindle operator who knows what they’re doing! I’m throwing out my multi-spindles and going all CNC.” “These old Acmes, Wickmans, or New Britains pay for themselves every three months. They’ve left a wide open field for me!” Selling screw machines for our used machine tool business, Graff-Pinkert, we hear both [...]

Jan 25, 2024 • 37min
3D Printing Houses With Robots, Jonathan Ladouceur-EP 48
As the housing market has slowed recently in our current economy, alternative types of construction such as 3D printing with concrete have become more and more relevant. It brought me back to a classic podcast episode we did a while back. The technology has advanced since we recorded this episode in 2019, but still you [...]

Jan 3, 2024 • 42min
Hard Lessons We Learned in the Machining World in 2023–EP 206
Happy New Year everybody! On today’s podcast, Lloyd Graff and I reflect on the ups and downs of machining world in 2023 and give our thoughts about what we might see 2024. As you would expect, we discuss a number of topics in addition to precision machining, such as the US’s unpredictable economy, anti-semitism, and [...]