The Science Behind Better Welders and Better Shops
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
Release Date: 12/17/2025
What 'Green Steel' Really Means: The Hidden Economics of Tariffs, Carbon, and the Data Center Boom, Ep 68
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
I sat down this week with Randy Charles, a metallurgist who's spent his whole career watching the steel industry reinvent itself, and he's not done yet. Randy graduated as a metallurgist from the University of Pittsburgh and started out at a plate mill at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point. From there he jumped to Nucor's Crawfordsville plant right as the industry was arguing over whether compact strip production, a brand new way to make flat rolled steel, would ever actually work. He was living proof that it did. He went on to help start up one of the first Steckel mills in the South down in...
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The Culture Playbook for Keeping Good People, Ep. #67
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
I'm filling in for Brendon this week, and I decided to dig into the topic I probably know better than anyone on this team: shop culture. Not the stuff that shows up on a quote or a spec sheet, but the stuff that decides whether your best people stick around and whether your shop floor actually runs without you standing over it. Joining me is Jason Davis, CEO of D&D Enterprises, a CNC machine shop that just turned 50 years old and is now three generations deep. His team runs 50 people through aerospace, firearms, defense, marine, and industrial work, and he's also a co-host of our sister...
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The Content Marketing Mistakes Costing Manufacturers RFQs, Ep #66
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
This week I sat down with Brooke Laing, who's just joined the MakingChips team full time as our new Content and Community Developer. You're going to be hearing a lot more from her. Brooke didn't come up through marketing school. She spent five years boots on the ground, working as a fitter and welder on job sites, before she ever touched a content calendar. She built a following doing something nobody else in the trades was doing: showing what the job actually looks like, day to day. One 15-second clip she posted on a break, without thinking twice about it, ended up with 600,000 views by the...
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From Healthcare to Welding: One Woman's Path Into the Trades, Ep #65
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
This week I sat down with Nico McTague, a soon-to-be welder up in Toronto who's about to finish an eight-month intensive program and walk straight into her first welding job. What makes her story worth your time isn't just where she's headed, it's where she came from. Nico spent years in healthcare caring for people with special needs, a career she loved until burnout, and the addiction that came with trying to cope with it, forced a hard reset. A family friend offered to get her into a steel mill. She walked in expecting to hate it. Instead she fell in love with the noise, the heat, the...
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From Dirt Track to Job Shop: How a 23-Year-Old Sprint Car Racer Built a Woman-Owned Fab Business
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
In this episode, I sit down with Emme Hughes, the 23-year-old owner of EH Metalworks in Enid, Oklahoma. She runs a woman-owned custom job shop that does laser cutting, plasma cutting, tube bending, and fabrication in aluminum and stainless. What struck me is that she has been around metal fabrication her entire life. Her Paw Paw taught her to TIG weld when she was six years old, and by 18 she was running her own plasma table and hiring her first employees. Emme's story starts in her Paw Paw's shop. He spent more than 50 years in fabrication, ran an ASME code shop, and did work for...
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He Built a Fiber Laser in His Garage. What does that Means for Fabrication? #63
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
In this episode, I sit down with Travis Mitchell, a full-time creator who has built a flat-sheet fiber laser, tube laser, metal 3D printer, CNC equipment, and more from his garage. Travis did not come from a machine-building background. He started in graphic design, got hooked on 3D printing, and followed that curiosity all the way into building machines most people would assume require an OEM, a factory, and a much larger budget. We dig into what it actually takes to design a DIY fiber laser: starting with the controller, finding compatible components, decoding manuals, studying commercial...
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Should You Really Buy That Laser? The Hidden Math Behind Modern Fabrication, #62
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
Fiber lasers have completely changed what's possible in metal fabrication, but here's the part nobody puts on the brochure: speed alone doesn't make a shop profitable. In this episode I'm joined by Mike Peterson, owner of Critical Laser and Spire Ranges, for an honest conversation about what it actually takes to run a successful laser cutting and sheet metal business in 2026. Mike's story goes all the way back to 1992, when Critical Laser brought one of the first lasers into Utah, a 1,600-watt Mitsubishi CO2 machine that felt more like magic than manufacturing. Since then he's watched the...
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From Curiosity to Career: How SparkShop is Building the Next Generation of Makers, Episode #61
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
What if the biggest challenge in manufacturing isn’t technology, but timing? In this episode of MakingSparks, host Brendon DiVincenzo sits down with Shonali Ditz, co-founder and executive director of SparkShop, to explore a powerful idea: we’re trying to solve a talent pipeline problem far too late. Shonali’s journey from engineering student to nonprofit founder started with a realization that many in the industry share—there simply aren’t enough people entering manufacturing and engineering. But instead of focusing on recruiting at the college or job level, she and her team...
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Passing the Torch: The Next Chapter of MakingSparks, Ep #60
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
Change in manufacturing rarely comes quietly—and neither does progress. In this special episode of MakingSparks, longtime hosts Matthew Nix and Casey Velker take a moment to reflect, rewind, and ultimately pass the mic to the next voice of the show: Brendon DiVicenzo. It’s not an ending—it’s a handoff mid-stride. Matthew and Casey revisit the origin story of MakingSparks, from a short-run idea built around 100x growth to a full-fledged podcast embedded in the MakingChips ecosystem. Along the way, they’ve built something bigger than episodes—a platform for honest...
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The Hard Truth About Pricing Your Work
Making Sparks Podcast for Fabrication Leaders
In this episode, hosts Matthew and Casey sit down with Codie Aljets, owner and artist behind Sage Country Customs, to talk about the realities of building a business around custom metal art. Codie shares how he turned his passion for high-detail metal artwork into a full-time career, the lessons he’s learned about pricing creative work, and why relationships, storytelling, and value matter just as much as the craftsmanship itself. From navigating the business side of being an artist to building meaningful pieces that clients will treasure for generations, this conversation dives deep into...
info_outlineMost fab shops say they can’t find good welders.
Nate Bowman says that’s not the real problem.
From outdated training models to unclear career pathways to leaders expecting loyalty without direction, this episode breaks down why shops struggle to hire and retain talent and what to do instead.
Live from FABTECH 2025, host Casey Voelker sits down with Nate Bowman, aka The Weld Scientist, to unpack the real science behind training welders, building sustainable career paths, and adopting technology without falling for hype. This conversation connects people, process, and innovation in a way every shop owner and leader needs to hear.
It’s not just about welding technique.
It’s about creating an industry people actually want to stay in.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
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Why most shops don’t have a hiring problem, they have a pathway problem
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How helping new welders win early changes long-term retention
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What outdated welding education gets wrong and how shops can fix it
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Why showing up in person still matters when hiring
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How to structure clear pay and growth paths from day one
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Which welding technologies are worth the investment and which are overhyped
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Why training and culture matter more than any new piece of equipment
Timestamps:
01:05 – Meet Nate Bowman and the mission behind Weld Science
04:55 – Why early wins matter when training new welders
08:45 – The culture problem in welding education
12:10 – Teaching real-world skills vs outdated processes
15:50 – Why “apply online” isn’t enough anymore
17:15 – Building clear pay and career pathways in your shop
25:20 – Cobots, laser welding, and separating hype from reality
Resources:
Follow Nate Bowman (The Weld Scientist) on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weldscientist/
Lights Out Podcast by Making Chips: https://makingchips.com/show/lights-out/
Buy the Numbers Podcast by Making Chips: https://makingchips.com/show/buy-the-numbers/