Yeah, I’m a codger — not yet by definition “old” since I don’t yell at kids to get off my lawn, but I’m getting codger qualified. I can tell because I like some things that have changed, but shouldn’t have, like the nickname of what was once America’s best-selling car. This all began soon after [...]
As an owner of a company that buys a lot of machined parts I often receive solicitations in the form of brochures. I appreciate the time fellow business people take in putting together marketing materials to pursue sales, but correctly pursuing a customer starts well before the stamp hits the envelope. I received a brochure [...]
It used to be that 20 years ago was a significant amount. Not so much now. Haul someone from 1990 to 2010 and there wouldn’t be the same amount of future shock that bringing someone forward from 1930 to 1950 would have. Maybe we’ve become more sophisticated, more technically savvy. But, a 20 year span [...]
In President Obama’s recent State of the Union address he introduced a plan for $30 billion of TARP money to be lent to small businesses through the banking network. This shot in the arm is exactly what small business needs to regain working capital for new investments and expansion. Too bad the average small business [...]
Two more industrial business-to-business magazines have bitten the dust. Penton Media’s venerable American Machinist and Welding Design & Fabrication have ceased print publication. For me, both were within that six-degrees-of-separation. My first editor-in-chief gig was as head honcho of Gases & Welding Distributor, a sister publication of Welding Design & Fabrication. In fact, the WDF’s [...]
Dust is such a dirty thing! But when it comes to machining graphite, dust can be a machine killer. The use of graphite in EDM machining is very common in the US, and is increasingly used in Europe and Asia. It is easy to machine, has excellent wear resistance, and performs well in most EDM [...]
Rumor has it I built my company under the guise of being an inventor. If you ask me I’m simply an engineer that filled some needs for better workholding. Either way, my circle of friends has labeled me as the “go-to-guy” when it comes to answering invention questions. For this reason, they seem to continually [...]
The fax machine is a powerful tool that gained widespread use in the 1980’s, but with email becoming a far superior method of transmitting documents, the fax is quickly becoming an archaic, yet necessary component to the modern office. Though I would personally love to eliminate its use altogether, it remains so easy for anyone [...]
It’s that time of year again. Westec brings manufacturers to the Los Angeles Convention Center. But the real question is, “Will shops bring themselves to Westec?” It’s no secret that this year might just bring new meaning to the term “lean manufacturing”. Maybe “little manufacturing” might be more appropriate. Cynical? Yes! Optimistic? Even more so! [...]
Back in my machinist days I was often asked what I did for a living. The response from the average person was usually the same… they had heard the terms “machinist” or “machine shop” but couldn’t really explain what they were or what they did. The interested people that actually wanted to understand my profession [...]
