AM Magazine Featured on “Making Chips” Podcast

I recently had the opportunity to discuss additive manufacturing as a guest on “Making Chips,” a podcast focused on industrial metalworking. The conversation appears in episode 51 of this show.

Making Chips was launched at the beginning of last year by its two hosts, CNC machine shop owner Jim Carr and Jason Zenger, owner of an industrial supply company selling tooling. I’ve appeared in one other episode of the show prior to this one, and you can read my article about the podcast here.

Getting to talk about additive with two business owners invested in CNC machining resulted in an energetic conversation. One of the more important points I had the chance to speak to is that additive is not a competitor to CNC machining, partly because the efficiency of machining is hard to beat, and partly because production metal parts made additively almost always need to be machined.

I had the chance to speak to other misconceptions as well. The hosts asked whether 3D printing’s proper role is prototyping, and whether the amount of attention being given to additive manufacturing suggests that its promise is overstated. I gave the best off-the-cuff responses I could to both points.

You can hear the complete conversation through podcast apps from iTunes and Stitcher, or you can listen to the episode directly from the show’s website.

PS. I also made a slip in this episode that I want to correct. In answering Mr. Carr’s question about my background, I said I once worked for an employer “now called Kemble & Rude.” That’s not what I meant to say, because that’s the company’s former name. Today the company’s name is Kemble & Drum.