Machine Shop Mastery

Wil Jorgensen started a machine shop at 22 with a $4,000 screw machine he found on Craigslist. He's 26 now, running Evolution CNC in Wenatchee, Washington, with seven people and a pallet automated 5-axis machine that runs close to around the clock. What makes this conversation worth your time isn't the growth curve though. It's how he thinks. Wil and his team wrote a four page manifesto before they made the big bets. Not a business plan, an emotional document about what would make betting their careers on this thing feel worthwhile. Then they bought a Matsuura MAM72 35 with 32 pallets when they had almost no money in the bank, overdrew the account by $4,000 to close it, and gave themselves about 30 days to make it work. It worked. Bookings went from $252,000 in 2024 to $1.1 million in 2025, and they're pushing toward $2 million this year. His advice on automation is blunt. Don't wait until you think you can afford it. The smaller the shop, the more automation you should have. The part that stuck with me most is the promise Wil makes to everyone he hires. He will not be angry. He spent a stretch of his early twenties running on anger and determination, and then decided he didn't have time for it. If one of his guys scraps $25,000 in parts and Wil stays calm, nobody else in the building gets to be angry either. That one decision shapes how the whole shop operates. There's a lot in here about buying machines you can't afford, cutting loose customers who don't pay, and getting out of your own people's way. If you're early in building a shop, or you're still touching everything yourself, this one will land. What's Covered in this Episode (0:00) The one promise Wil makes to everyone who works for him, he will not be angry (2:56) Evolution CNC today, and how a job at L.E. Wilson at 17 led to screw machines at Pacific Aerospace (5:33) The $4,000 Craigslist Citizen L16 that started the shop in December 2022 (6:29) Buying Evolution from his mentor Leonard, and working six months for free to do it (8:55) Cutting ties with every customer who didn't pay on time, and keeping the one who did (9:27) Hiring his old boss Ted Keyes, then Dale Siegel and Gerard McGlashan (11:39) IMTS Job Shops Workshop and Networking Reception on September 15 (12:16) Committing to 5-axis and automation before anyone on the team had seen a 5-axis machine (14:09) Todd Newhouse at Selway, and the Matsuura MAM 72-35 that was wildly out of their wheelhouse (15:38) Nobody checked whether the machine would fit through the door until the day before delivery (16:10) Going from a comfortable $2,000 Haas payment to one that could end the company (18:40) Cutting chips before the trainer arrived, and shipping a 100 piece order the week after (19:30) Why one Matsuura carries 60 to 70 percent of throughput across four machines (20:51) Running the Matsuura around the clock, with five hours of downtime over a full weekend (22:05) No credit line, running on cash, and 30 days of runway if the machine didn't work (23:34) Overdrawing the bank account by $4,000, and the four page manifesto behind the bet (27:25) Bookings from $252,000 in 2024 to $1.1 million in 2025, and the push toward $2 million (27:25) Hennig Workflow Automation System (31:51) Why he'd still start with an automated Haas if he were doing it over today (34:11) Turning down work, and the 30 inch ring he ran on a VF4 with the doors removed (38:35) The MakingChips machine giveaway with DN Solutions and Kennametal (41:55) George McCorley and Ty Neff, and trading a drill jig for installing airlines in Illinois (47:22) Everything I touch is bad, and learning to get out of his own team's way (56:44) The shift from running on anger to deciding he didn't have time for it (57:58) Why Gerard pushed him to stop working weekends, and what didn't break when he did Resources Mentioned IMTS Hennig Workflow Automation System MakingChips Machine Giveaway Matsuura USA Mastercam Renishaw REVO Lights Out podcast Connect with Wil Jorgensen Connect on LinkedIn Evolution CNC

I sat down with Randy Swan, who started a Swiss machining shop at 60 after a 34 year career working for other people. Five years in, RPM is growing more than 60 percent a year. Ask Randy what's behind that number and he doesn't start with machines or markets. He starts with the 14 people on his floor. He hires for character, capability, and values, and he puts experience close to last. He looks for people who care and are willing to learn, then trains them through a three tier system at their own pace. One of his strongest operators had never seen a Swiss machine before she walked in the door. She runs multiple machines now and checks everyone else's parts. The other half of it is transparency. Randy puts the financials on the floor, posts the sales and profit thresholds where everyone can see them, and pulls the whole team together every Tuesday to look at the same numbers. Last year RPM paid its first profit sharing. When the shop does well, everybody does well, and people behave differently when they can see the target. The results back him up. Seven Swiss machines running seven days a week plus a night shift, ISO in the first six months, AS9100 in under three years. Sales does its part too, because as Randy puts it, nothing happens until somebody sells something. His 70 year old salesman lives by the shop's rule that no doesn't mean no, it just means not right now, and he keeps checking back with buyers until the work shows up. We also get into the flow mapping he's doing with the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance to strip the waste out of processes that made sense when he was doing everything himself, and why he'd rather be the best shop in Oklahoma than the biggest. Grab a pencil for this one. There's a lot of hard won wisdom packed in. What's Covered in this Episode (0:00) "No does not mean no—it just means not right now." (1:26) Learn more about Randy Swan and why he started a Swiss shop at 60 (7:01) Ground Control, automated FAI generation and PO review for scaling manufacturers (7:41) Passing the five year mark, leaning on old relationships, and a 70 year old MSC salesman who outworks everyone (9:46) A snapshot of RPM today and why they do in-house training (11:52) The secret behind 60 percent year over year growth (13:42) Building the playbook and getting ISO certified in the first six months (14:30) Running seven days a week to offset heavy capital investment (15:06) Moving into aerospace and earning AS9100 in under three years (15:51) Bringing in the Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance to map the process flow (17:26) Doing more with less, and protecting ten percent of the week to think, plan, and play pool (20:14) Kennametal's Next Level Shop and the bike giveaway at IMTS 2026 (21:22) Cutting duplicated work and over documentation by treating process like a risk register (23:54) Over-documenting every material receipt when a few fields would do (26:17) Breaking into aerospace on trust and machining the specialty hardware other shops no quote (28:57) Why relentless follow up wins the work (and the touches most salespeople never make) (31:00) Hiring for character, capability, and values, and building talent internally (34:50) DN Solutions, high end multitasking and five axis machining with automation (36:01) Diving into their three tier training system for new hires (39:22) Transparency, shared financials, and benefits from 401k to fully paid health insurance (42:45) Yearly budgets, two five year plans, and choosing to be the best shop, not the biggest (47:00) His biggest lesson, build a team with the right character and check egos at the door Resources Mentioned Ground Control Kennametal IMTS DN Solutions Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance ProShop ERP Connect with Randy Swan RPM (Revolution Machine) Email Randy directly at [email protected]

Some businesses have a founding story. HFW Industries has an 80-year one, and it starts in a World War II foundry. I sat down with Jack Watson, the fourth generation to work in his family's business in Buffalo. HFW does turnkey thermal spray and hard facing, the coating work that keeps power plants, turbines, and other critical infrastructure running. But the throughline of our whole conversation was the journey: how a company gets from a spray gun bought out of the back of a salesman's car to a 70,000 square foot shop still serving customers it first won three generations ago. Jack's great-grandfather Harold spotted thermal spray as a brand-new technology during the war, and when his boss wouldn't buy in, he bought the equipment himself and sold the service out of his car. His grandfather took over at 26 with the business four weeks from closing. His dad rebuilt half the company when the print cylinder business went to zero. Every generation faced a crisis that could have ended the whole thing, and every generation found the next opportunity. What carried through all of it is a focus on people. Jack half-jokes that you need a psychology degree to run a shop, and he tells a story about a simple thank you that brought one of his guys to tears. Management by walking around, treating people well, training patiently for years: that's the culture his grandfather built and Jack is protecting as he brings in the next generation. We also get into why they carry almost no debt, how Jack balances his own hunger to grow against everything the generations before him learned the hard way, and where thermal spray and precision machining are headed with gas turbines and AI driving demand. If you care about building a shop that lasts, this one's worth your time. What's Covered in this Episode (0:00) Introducing Jack Watson and HFW Industries in Buffalo (4:50) What HFW looks like today: 60 people and a full thermal spray lineup (6:43) Industrial AI Conference at IMTS: reality-based AI for the factory floor (7:31) Back to the beginning: 4 generations of HFW Industries (11:44) Selling thermal spray out of the back of a car (with donuts to GE every Monday) (14:32) The industries HFW serves and machining materials above 50 RC (17:00) The coolest work they can never show share (18:26) Navu: AI chat for your manufacturing website (19:41) Solving near-impossible coating and machining problems alongside demanding customers (21:10) Rebuilding the apprenticeship program, meshing generations, and letting young guys make cheap mistakes (26:50) Building the HFW way: a structured curriculum beyond trade school (29:45) Recruiting tactics that work: word of mouth, being a good employer, and social media (33:02) Pay, benefits, 90% tuition assistance, and small surprises (34:55) What great listening actually looks like on the shop floor (35:51) The thank-you that brought a machinist to tears, and why the little things matter (37:05) Connecting customers to the guys who do the work (38:22) Hire MFG Leaders: recruiting built by shop owners (38:54) Using social media as your true self to build a real network and win work (40:58) Grandfather's money philosophy: conservative growth, no debt, and cash on hand (42:55) How his dad rebuilt half the business when print cylinders went to zero (46:34) The succession plan, the demand outlook (48:37) The demand outlook and opportunities for growth Resources Mentioned Industrial AI Conference at IMTS Navu Hire MFG Leaders HFW Industries Connect with Jack Watson HFW Industries Find Jack on LinkedIn HFW Industries on Instagram HFW Industries on X

This one's a first for me. In over a hundred episodes I've never had someone from a public company on Machine Shop Mastery, and Randy Altschuler from Xometry turned out to be exactly the kind of guest I hoped he'd be. Down to earth, honest about what's hard, and genuinely fired up about the industry we all work in. We spend a good chunk of the hour on something Randy says out loud that I've felt for years, that manufacturing is finally having its moment. He calls it the next Silicon Valley, and he lays out why the money, the students, and the policy attention are all starting to point in the same direction after decades of hardware getting ignored. From there we get practical. Randy walks through why Xometry went public, what the most successful shops on the platform actually do differently, and how getting found has changed now that buyers search with AI instead of flipping through a catalog. If you've ever wondered how to make your shop more discoverable, there's a lot here. We also dig into the stuff that keeps shop owners up at night. Cashflow and net 90 terms, the CapEx gamble on automation, and building a bench deep enough that one person leaving doesn't sink you. Randy even shares the mindset his mom gave him growing up, the one about never being the victim, that's carried him through every hard day as an entrepreneur. Whether you run two machines or twenty, I think you'll take something from this one. Give it your full hour. What's Covered in this Episode (0:00) I open a milestone episode with Randy Altschuler of Xometry, my first public-company guest (3:51) Digital manufacturing, 3D printing, and the origins of Xometry (6:51) Navu: AI chat trained on your own content so buyers get answers before they call sales (8:03) Going beyond 3D printing into machining to be a customer's one-stop shop (9:36) The decision to go public and the hundreds-of-billions custom manufacturing market (11:22) Manufacturing as the next Silicon Valley and why hardware got ignored for so long (14:13) The staffing crisis, attracting talent locally, and redefining what success looks like (20:05) Finding suppliers in the age of AI search and keyword-rich content that wins RFQs (24:57) What AI-native manufacturing really means for a small or mid-sized shop (27:44) IMTS Job Shops Workshop and networking reception (28:36) Reshoring, multi-sourcing, and automation closing the labor gap (30:47) What the best shops on Xometry do differently to stand out (36:16) Xometry's payment system and how they manage cashflow (38:08) Transparency, KPIs, and why every employee being a shareholder drives real buy-in (42:20) SMW Autoblock and the seven habits of highly effective workholding (RASRAM) (43:04) Living your core values, meeting every new hire, and a flat, everybody-matters culture (48:21) Starting a shop today: a veteran machinist, automation, and owning your niche (51:02) Headwinds ahead, building a bench, and the young talent shaping American manufacturing (54:25) Randy's stand-out moment as an entrepreneur (56:15) Randy's mom's lesson on never being the victim, and what's next for Xometry Resources Mentioned ThomasNet National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) Navu IMTS SMW Autoblock MakingChips podcast: Stop Complaining About the Skills Gap and Do This Instead Connect with Randy Altschuler Xometry Email Randy Altschuler Connect with Randy on LinkedIn