Most of us don’t have a knack for pivoting. We follow the standard curriculum, and we keep going forward when we get in a lane, whether we believe it’s the right direction or not.But for Michael Gimbel, my guest on today’s show, seeing setbacks as serendipity and then pivoting is a natural gift.Michael built a CNC r...

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, th...

“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 Manufacturing Cu...

I stare at the artistic montage of Today’s Machining World covers that rests against the wall behind my son, Noah. Boxes filled with old issues of Screw Machine World and Today’s Machining World lay behind my chair. We moved Graff-Pinkert’s offices last week, 700 ft. down 166th Street in Oak Forest, Illinois, and th...

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 at an auction. The ...

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 out there are like me. You’re on LinkedIn and...

My guest on today’s show immigrated to the United States from Mexico at 18 years old, went to tech school, worked his way up in job shops, became one of the top technicians at Tornos, and then founded his own successful job shop.Dulio Arellano is the founder of Premier Swiss, a Tornos Swiss screw machine shop in Add...

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...

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 in Addison...

Our used machinery business, Graff-Pinkert, is in the process of moving its headquarters down the street this week. Right now, I am sitting outside our warehouse with Noah, looking at my beloved 35-year-old apple tree, remembering the stories of the history of Graff-Pinkert. It all began with my grandfather Louis Gr...