This week's episode of the Lone Machinist is basically what happens when the machines start producing faster than the humans can keep up.

Curt is drowning in production, running huge batches of parts ahead of a pre-sale and discovering that the real bottleneck isn't machining anymore — it's finishing. We get into hand-finishing pocket clips, blasting, tumbling, abrasive brushes, custom tooling, and the increasingly ridiculous idea of automating all the bits that happen after the machine stops.

Jamie, meanwhile, is preparing for IMTS, trying to quote a massive recurring machining job, figuring out how to make some questionable drawings less stupid to manufacture, and discovering that his new workshop has a back door that apparently doubles as a water feature.

There's also international shipping, tariffs on stickers, transporting a ridiculous amount of merch to the US, Instagram deciding that photos aren't interesting anymore, and Curt continuing down the ultrasonic-cleaner rabbit hole.

And somewhere in all of this, a bigger printer and possibly a Swiss machine start looking like perfectly reasonable purchases.

Basically: the machines are doing their jobs. Unfortunately, we aren't keeping up.

Links Discussed:

 * Comparing Ultrasonic Units Video: https://youtu.be/rdouvT3zZzg?si=86_zWZ3fT2RyzE_l
 * IMTS Meet Up RSVP Form: https://forms.gle/CQXMmFsTZEytb8gD7

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Ep. 89: Everyone Wants a Willy

This week on the Lone Machinist, Curt finally fixes his titanium anodizing problems—and discovers that the secret was apparently replacing the Multi-Etch he’d been using for years. Suddenly the anodizing behaves, the fades work, and he can leave batches running without turning everything into expensive scrap.

Meanwhile, Jamie has gone completely off the rails with production. A 4,800-piece aluminium order has the machines running practically around the clock, with spindle gripping cranking through parts while Jamie swaps trays, programs jobs and generally becomes the pallet-changing robot himself. There’s also bar pulling, proper spindle liners, 15,000 upcoming parts, a fourth axis hacked into the PLC, and four completely inappropriate pressure switches.

The conversation eventually turns to the real problem with scaling: machining more parts is easy. Finishing, cleaning, anodizing, packing and shipping the damn things is where everything starts falling apart.

Also: Millbilly manoeuvres, questionable purchasing decisions, and the ongoing discovery that Jamie is, apparently, illiterate.

Links Discussed:

 * IMTS Meet Up RSVP Form: https://forms.gle/CQXMmFsTZEytb8gD7

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Ep. 88: Scaling Without Losing Your Shit 

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie has one hell of a week in the shop. A mold job turns into roughly 40 hours of machining in just three days, including a late-night finish, while the machine burns through an impressive amount of coolant along the way. It also sparks a much-needed conversation about pricing, especially when a retrofit or machine job takes significantly longer than expected.

Meanwhile, Curt continues experimenting with anodizing and gets increasingly consistent results before dropping some big news: a 100W MOPA fiber laser and fourth axis are on the way.

Back at the shop, Jamie is working on ways to automate more of the production process, including improvements to the spindle gripper, automated part handling, and a new coolant-level monitoring system designed to survive the reality of life inside a CNC machine.

There's also plenty of discussion about production planning, R&D, getting machines to run unattended, and the eternal struggle of trying to take a few days off when you're the person everyone relies on to keep the machines running.

40 hours of machining. 60 litres of coolant. One very tired machinist.

Links Discussed:

 * IMTS Meet Up RSVP Form: https://forms.gle/CQXMmFsTZEytb8gD7
 * CyberPunk FPV Mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/31642

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Ep. 87: If You Want Me to Do It, Pay Me Properly  

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie and Curt discover that zero-point workholding really is fucking magical.

Jamie has reached the point where swapping between jobs is becoming almost stupidly easy. A tray comes out, another goes in, the machine already knows where everything is, and production can carry on without spending half an hour re-indicating a setup. The Anchor Point system has officially gone from "cool workholding system" to religion.

And there is plenty more happening around the shop.

Jamie is preparing for the upcoming IMTS trip, including a meetup at Justin's shop in Cleveland. The current plan involves landing in New York in the morning and then driving roughly eight hours straight to Cleveland for the meetup. Because apparently flying halfway around the world isn't enough punishment.

Then comes another retrofit.

Jamie discovers that the drives on the machine use a proprietary encoder communication system, meaning the easy solution he was hoping for isn't actually a solution at all. The motors can stay, but new encoder wiring needs to be pulled through the energy chain — approximately 60 metres of encoder cable worth of fun.

Meanwhile, the shop is getting busier, the new workshop continues to evolve, and Jamie is preparing to change coolant on the LK because the existing coolant is getting increasingly thick with tramp oil. The replacement is an aluminium-specific coolant that is about to get thrown directly into a production job — because apparently the best way to test coolant is to put expensive parts in it.

And, as always, the episode eventually reaches the Google Box, where Curt has drones, transmitters and AliExpress purchases waiting for a sale, while Jamie has tiny screws, pneumatic check valves and yet another reason to spend money online.

Links Discussed:

 * IMTS Meet Up RSVP Form: https://forms.gle/CQXMmFsTZEytb8gD7
 * Kens Keyboards: https://notsuspicious.com/
 * Lego: https://www.reddit.com/r/DontPutThatInYourAss/comments/1nd8ant/legobutt_plug/

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Ep. 86: Spindle Grippers and Questionable Decisions

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie discovers an important new limitation in his manufacturing capabilities:

This week we're also talking about the reality of running production when customers apparently expect you to know which parts they need urgently without actually telling you which parts are urgent.

"I'm not telepathic, motherfuckers."

Jamie is trying to impose some sanity on the workday with a hard 7 PM cutoff and a maximum of 540 minutes of production time per day, because allowing customers to constantly turn everything into an emergency is a fantastic way to end up working every night.

Meanwhile, the new 3D printer has gone from "cool new toy" to a legitimate production tool. In just five days, it's already clocked around 45 hours of printing, producing tool tags, trays, gripping fingers and other shop hardware. One batch of 75 small parts was made possible by printing custom trays, getting everything prepared while another machine was running, and then putting the CNC into three hours of unattended production.

Of course, the printer now has one major problem:

The CNC is spraying coolant all over it.

So naturally, the solution is to build a giant lid for the LK out of square tubing and plastic sheet rather than doing anything remotely sensible.

So grab a coffee, check your quantities twice, and hit Cycle Start.

Because apparently 28 does not come after 27.

Links Discussed:

 * nimble gripper: https://nimblegripper.com/
 * tool audit: https://jspeceng.github.io/Tool-Audit/
 * How ELRS Works: https://youtu.be/ssmQkRkXE84?si=FisbQeGbXOltDpLv
 * IMTS Meet Up RSVP Form: https://forms.gle/CQXMmFsTZEytb8gD7

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Ep. 85: Coolant, Calendars, and Counting Errors 

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie celebrates another trip around the sun the only way a machinist knows how—by spending it surrounded by machines, projects, and just enough chaos to keep life interesting. Because apparently birthdays don't stop production schedules.

The guys catch up on everything happening in the shop, from ongoing product development and production runs to the constant balancing act between making parts, designing new products, and finding enough hours in the day to do both. As always, every solved problem seems to reveal two more waiting just around the corner.

There's plenty of discussion about running a small manufacturing business, the realities of launching new products, and why building a successful shop is often less about having the perfect idea and more about consistently shipping good work.

Along the way, the conversation wanders into birthdays, family traditions, workshop stories, and the little moments that remind you life exists outside the machine shop... even if only briefly.

Whether you're running a one-person shop, dreaming up your next product, or just trying to make it through another production week, there's something in this episode for every machinist.

In This Episode:

 * Birthday celebrations, machinist style
 * Shop updates and production progress
 * Product development and what's coming next
 * Running a small manufacturing business
 * Lessons learned from another busy week
 * The usual machining stories and terrible jokes
 * Why coffee is still the most important shop tool

Grab a coffee, hit Cycle Start, and remember:

Birthdays are temporary... unfinished shop projects are forever.

Links Discussed:

 * nimble gripper: https://nimblegripper.com/
 * applied science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyIQkqBXhS0

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Ep. 84: Birthday Cake and Broken Machines 

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie and Curt discover that making great machining videos is almost as difficult as making great parts.

After another week of production, Jamie is finally looking at upgrading the workshop camera setup. The problem? His current action camera has all the image quality of a potato with a lens, which isn't exactly ideal when you're trying to film chips flying inside a CNC machine. The guys compare cameras, lighting, low-light performance, and whether an old cellphone might actually outperform a dedicated action camera.

Meanwhile, the shop keeps moving forward. Jamie is preparing to run another batch of parts, making a new bar puller, and juggling product development while trying to find enough hours in the day to actually make chips. As always, production has a habit of getting in the way of all the exciting projects.

The conversation also takes a hilarious detour into AI-generated search summaries after discovering that one of Jamie's websites has somehow been identified as a podcast hosted by AJ and Harrison instead of... well... the actual hosts. It's a perfect reminder that AI can be incredibly useful... and incredibly confident while being completely wrong.

As always, there's plenty of discussion about shop life, content creation, product development, and the ongoing balancing act between building cool things and actually having time to show them to the world.

So grab a coffee, hit Cycle Start, and remember:

The part only takes five minutes to machine... getting the camera angle right takes forty-five.

Links Discussed:

 * nimble gripper: https://nimblegripper.com/

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Ep. 83: Nimble Gripper Has Entered the Chat

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie and Curt dive into one of the less glamorous sides of making products: the internet. Between first-come, first-served launches, Reddit outrage, and the inevitable flood of "you should have made more" messages, they discuss why selling a popular product sometimes means disappointing more people than it pleases. And yes... rage comments still count as engagement.

Jamie shares an update on Noughtical Workholding, where the next generation of products is already getting redesigned before it's even released. What started as a compact BT30 design has evolved into a Cat40 side-lock version after conversations with beta testers exposed a few practical realities. Sometimes the best feedback is the question you didn't think anyone would ask.

The conversation also turns to the realities of growing a manufacturing business. Instead of chasing every custom job forever, Jamie explains why the long-term goal is investing in products and R&D that can scale, while still keeping the machines busy enough to pay the bills. It's the balancing act every small manufacturer knows all too well.

Meanwhile, Curt talks about the emotional rollercoaster of product launches, why you can never build enough inventory, and how the internet somehow manages to be simultaneously your biggest marketing tool and your biggest headache.

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Ep. 82: Reddit Is Mad Again

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie and Curt are joined by Al Whatmough, whose career has taken him from apprentice machinist to educator, software leader, and one of the driving forces behind modern CAM. It's a conversation that's less about software and more about how great ideas actually happen.

Al shares the journey from teaching machining and CAD classes to helping grow Autodesk's CAM products from a niche offering into a platform used by hundreds of thousands of machinists around the world. Along the way, he explains why teaching turned out to be the most valuable skill he ever learned—and why being able to communicate ideas is often more important than having the right answer.

The discussion dives into apprenticeships, learning from the quiet machinists who never stop making chips, and why engineers have a habit of disappearing into problem-solving mode when sometimes the fastest solution is simply asking someone a question. As Al puts it, innovation happens at the speed of communication.

The conversation also explores the evolution of CAD and CAM, breaking down why connecting previously separate workflows changed manufacturing forever, and how AI is beginning to create another generation of connected tools. Jamie, Curt, and Al compare how they use AI in their own work, from research and programming to image generation and designing machine controllers.

Whether you're running a one-man shop, leading a manufacturing team, teaching apprentices, or simply trying to become a better engineer, this episode is packed with practical lessons on communication, learning, and continuous improvement.

Grab a coffee, hit Cycle Start, and remember:

The best tool in the shop isn't always the newest machine—sometimes it's the five-minute conversation that saves five days of work.

Links Discussed:

 * Concrete Lathe: http://instructables.com/Concrete-Metal-Lathe
 * Unitwist: https://unitwist.com/

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

Al:

 * https://www.instagram.com/al.whatmough/
 * https://www.g28.io/

Ep. 81: Teaching Engineers to Talk with Al Whatmough

This week on the Lone Machinist Podcast, Jamie discovers that running a machine shop while fighting off a brutal cough is a lot like running production with a worn-out end mill—you'll get there eventually, but it's going to make some unpleasant noises along the way. Curt spends most of the episode wondering whether he's going to catch the illness through the internet, while Jamie repeatedly reaches for the mute button to save everyone's ears.

Despite feeling like he'd been hit by a freight train, there's still plenty happening in the shop. Keel Clamps are finally back in stock, another batch of Barnacles is making its way through production, anodizing is underway, and an elusive APO machine issue is proving that CNC controllers always know the worst possible time to misbehave.

Meanwhile, Curt has been battling relentless storms while grinding through production work and shares one of those brilliantly simple workshop discoveries that makes you wonder why you didn't think of it years ago. The guys swap stories about productivity, shop organization, software, and the reality that every problem you solve immediately introduces two more.

Later in the episode, they compare approaches to product development, discussing why it's often better to get an idea into customers' hands quickly rather than endlessly polishing it in CAD. As always, it turns into a discussion about making cool stuff, simplifying workflows, and shipping products instead of perfecting them forever.

Grab a coffee, hit Cycle Start, and remember:

Machines don't care if you're sick... they just pick that moment to break.

The Lone Machinist:

 * Website: https://thelonemachinists.com/
 * Bonus Content: https://thelonemachinists.com/#bonus-content
 * Merch: https://www.jspeceng.com/online-store
 * Patreon: https://patreon.com/TheLoneMachinists

Need Work Done? Check out Subtract Manufacturing at: https://subtractmanufacturing.com/

Want to try out Toolpath [https://toolpath.com/]? Give it a go and get 10% off by using the code TLM10 at checkout: https://toolpath.com/

Jamie:

 * http://instagram.com/jspec_engineering
 * https://www.jspeceng.com/
 * https://www.noughticalwh.com/

Curt:

 * https://www.instagram.com/confoundedmachine/
 * https://www.confoundedmachine.com/

The Lone Machinists