The year is winding down and a lot has taken place this year and we are looking forward to next year. This past year we participated in CIMT in China, EMO in Germany for exhibitions, shipped over 70 machines, and had a healthy group of employees. This is all you could ask for.
Both Shows were successful and we earned business from both. We found that EMO drew a large eastern European audience as well as a large Russian audience. EMO was a good show from a lot of reasons, our world wide competition exhibited and we found that we stacked up well with all of them. The accuracy that our machines can achieve, combined with our smaller footprint was well received. When comparing to our larger machine competition, we equaled their quoted accuracy in less than half of the footprint. We also learned that we are very adaptable to customer requests for special engineering. In one case a potential customer arrived at the booth and we discussed his intentions, and the next day I presented a on-line meeting via my IPAD to review their custom operator assist device. We logged into our server, met with our engineers whom designed their feeder overnight. I received the purchase order for the equipment the next week.
For 2014 we have MDM West and IMTS coming up again. Both are large shows for us and we like to have good presence at each. In both cases we will be introducing new technology to our existing and future customers. We are looking forward to IMTS the most as we will have some really cool technology to display and show off. As the time gets closer we will be letting everyone know more, but I can assure you it is a pretty big deal what we are working on.
Back in October a childhood friend of mine Chris Paulsen who is a professor of automotive restoration at McPherson College in Kansas was invited to participate in an interesting challenge. He was asked to race a Tesla Model S from Detroit, MI to Long Island, NY.in a 1915 Model T Ford. As a pre’15 car enthusiast he could not say no. A very prominent Car magazine sponsored the event and if you would like to follow a thread on a car blog from a few days after the event, click on the link below

I write this as I’m sitting in an airport hotel just having spent a week visiting customers. This was one week that was truly enjoyable to travel. Weather was great, had a couple of great meals at unexpected restaurants at my destinations, and met some really nice customers. I write this blog as a way for customers to get to know us as a company, our personalities and our people. Half of the customers I visited this week made mention of my blog and different stories from it. It was extremely satisfying from my standpoint. After all we are a company made of people, 50 of us. We are 50 distinct personalities, but the thing I am most proud of the company that my Father, Rodney and Myself own is all of these people work hard everyday to build centerless grinding machines. Each one of them not only works for a paycheck, that’s a given, but they believe in the product that we build. If you have ever been to our factory, each and everyone of them is happy to talk with you, show you their little niche, and share their interests out of the factory walls. Its just who we are. This blog is a way to reflect this and I hope it comes through that way.
Just over a year ago Todd our chief engineer was riding his bike lunchtime as he did everyday, and was struck by a car. He was airlifted to the nearest trauma center. After a number of months of critical care, he returned to work fulltime two months ago. To celebrate the one year anniversary we arranged a surprise bike ride for him to mirror a portion of that fateful day’s route. With a local police escort 20 employees and his wife and daughter joined us for a ride with Todd leading the way.

Tomorrow I will leave for EMO and I am looking forward to meeting many customers and also seeing what is new. Others come to our Stand to discuss centerless grinders with us, I also go shopping for equipment when I visit different shows. I am looking for a EDM, as well as a small mill and different technology in cutting tools for milling cast iron. With the worldwide appeal of EMO, there will be many choices and options.
EMO is also know for its outlandish displays. The Ice bars, Cirque De Soleil performances, and Live Tigers, the cutting tool pavilion never lets you down with the one up-man ship. Ill bring back photos and post them.
Following up on the posts of getting rid of the Orion 2200 machining center a couple of years ago, to day we got rid of another relic. A 10,000 pound Cincinnati Cinturn. This was one of the first CNC machines purchased here and originally ran on a punch tape. Over the years we upgraded the control, and other elements of the system, however our Okuma was too fast and efficient, so over the course of the last 10 years the jobs we ran on it dwindled to zero and then it was taking up space. Today with the help of our Longtime scrap guy we shoved it on his truck.
When asked how the heck he was going to get it off, he very matter of fact stated, drive as fast as you can in reverse at the yard, and hit the brakes. He paused and added I better put my seat belt on.

The summer is not quite over however we are getting geared up for the fall season and with a full build sheet and commitments into November . We are excited about the remainder of the year and having another great year of growth.
We have shipped a number of the Generation X3 machines as they have become popular around the world. We have received commitments for purchase from Russian, Korean and Chinese companies as well as the American Company that helped launch the project. The more the word gets out the more sample grinding we are doing on it, producing a revolutionary way to produce micromachined parts that need a sub spindle fourth axis.
We also have shipped our EMO show machine and its is on its way. We are in a small 4.5m square stand in Halle 11, Stand B05. We are bringing a Hi-Accuracy Machine to the show grinding a valve spool. We are enthused to reconnect with our European Customers as well as the many other countries that visit this show. If you have never been, it is like IMTS, however with a much different international flair. The Stands serve coffee, drinks, and food all day. Many are raised off the floor 2’-3” for a much grander stance Most are custom designed and made on the show floor from plywood, then spackled and painted. Royal Master has a much simpler design then we do at IMTS. We use their standard booth, put down our flooring and power up our machine. We bring a simple Coffee maker and buy some cookies at a local grocery store, but yet every time we have exhibited, we gain plenty of business from the exhibition. We have gained sales from Bulgaria, Turkey, and many Western European Companies from this exhibition.
On a much lighter note, Recently we had a long time employee retire. Marilyn was a staple in our company for many years. Replacing Margaret in the mid 1990’s she answered phones then went to work in purchasing. After her retirement I calculated the average tenure of our employee. Our employees have been here for an average of 17 years. John Srt and I take great pride in this as we like to think we provide a nice place to work, with a good group of people who truly care about what we do here, and care about our customers.
When she ...