Capturing the Human Side of Manufacturing with Chad Schmidt, 482
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Release Date: 09/08/2025
We Put AI in the Hot Seat: Machine Shop Advice from Chatbots, 502
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
We’ve kicked off a lot of years on MakingChips, but never quite like this. To start 2026, we decided to try something completely different. Instead of bringing on a shop owner, a technology provider, or an industry expert, Mike and Paul invited three artificial intelligence chatbots to join the conversation. No prep calls. No talking points. Just live questions and real-time answers from Miles (from Sesame), Gemini, and ChatGPT. The result was equal parts fascinating, funny, and just a little bit eerie. In this episode, we explore what happens when you ask AI the same...
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Building Shops That Last: The Final Lesson of Machine Shop MBA, 501
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
As we close out 2025, we’re wrapping up more than just a year. This episode marks the conclusion of the Machine Shop MBA series, a collaboration with CLA and Modern Machine Shop built around insights from the Top Shops benchmarking program. What started as a practical exploration of shop metrics ends with a much bigger question: what truly separates shops that survive from shops that endure? For this final chapter, we’re joined again by Brent Donaldson of Modern Machine Shop, who helped kick off the series earlier in the year. Drawing from hundreds of shop visits and...
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At the Boring Bar: Rare Perfection, Real Talk, and the Systems That Separate Top Shops, 500
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Some episodes are planned. Others are produced. And then there are episodes like this one—where the setting, the people, and the moment all collide into something memorable. For the 500th episode of MakingChips, the team gathered once again At the Boring Bar for an unfiltered, bourbon-fueled roundtable with leaders from across the manufacturing ecosystem. Recorded live at Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions during the Top Shops Conference in Charlotte, this special annual episode brings together shop owners, executives, advisors, and industry partners for the kinds of conversations...
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From Scarcity to Sales Pipeline: How Smart Shops Take Control of Growth with Factur, 499
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
What happens when a machine shop does everything right operationally but still feels exposed when markets shift, customers pull back, or one industry cools overnight? In this episode of MakingChips, the conversation turns squarely toward one of the most uncomfortable and misunderstood areas of manufacturing leadership: proactive sales and diversification. We’re joined by Gabe Draper, founder of Factur, and Alan Hartmann, CEO of Hartmann’s Inc., a multi-generation Texas manufacturer. Gabe shares a raw and honest origin story that starts with growing up in a manufacturing family, fighting to...
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Chaos, Curiosity & Chipmaking: Larry Robbins’ Wild Ride Through Manufacturing, 498
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Some conversations feel scripted. This one… absolutely did not. Larry Robbins walked in ready to talk life, passion, family, culture, workholding, philosophy, and whatever else popped into his head — and somehow it all connected back to manufacturing. This episode of MakingChips is one of the most unhinged, hilarious, honest, and wisdom-packed conversations we’ve ever recorded. Larry has been in the industry for nearly 46 years, and he’s collected enough stories, scars, and laughs for ten careers. From his father dragging him into the business (“long hair doesn’t work...
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The Double Your Value Mindset: Planning, Growth & Real Talk from the EGS Event, 497
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
In this special episode of MakingChips, we broadcast from the EBITDA Growth Systems Double Your Value Planning Event—a gathering designed to pull shop owners out of the day-to-day grind and force intentional thinking about long-term growth. This year’s event was hosted at the Sandvik Coromant facility in Mebane, North Carolina, creating a perfect backdrop for conversations about planning, strategy, and culture. Paul is joined by three key voices who bring decades of hard-earned manufacturing wisdom: Jim Carr, a founding voice of MakingChips; Zach Overton, who is deep in the trenches of...
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Forged Through Fire: How Phoenix Heat Treating Rebuilt Its Culture, Systems & Leadership, 496
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
In this episode of MakingChips, we sit down with Charlie Hushek, President of Phoenix Heat Treating, whose family has been in the heat-Treating world for over a century. Charlie is a fifth-generation heat Treatinger—but his leadership story is anything but inherited. When he stepped into the business in 2020, he wasn’t handed stability. He was handed a crisis. Within a matter of months, Phoenix Heat Treating lost its NADCAP certification—twice—suffered major operational setbacks, faced COVID turmoil, and endured the tragic loss of their general manager. For a company where more...
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Inside the Winners’ Circle: Top Shops 2025 Live from the NASCAR Hall of Fame, 495
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
Top Shops 2025 brought together the most innovative, forward-thinking leaders in manufacturing—and this year’s gathering at the NASCAR Hall of Fame felt like stepping directly into the winners’ circle. Surrounded by the energy of hundreds of top-tier manufacturers, we sat down with the four shops recognized as the crème de la crème in their categories: Technology, Shopfloor Technology, Business Strategy, and Human Resources. Together, these honorees represent what’s possible when ambition meets execution. In this special episode of MakingChips, recorded live in Charlotte, we talk...
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IMTS Insider: Building the World’s Largest Manufacturing Show, 494
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
When you walk into IMTS—the International Manufacturing Technology Show—it’s easy to be awestruck by the machines, the energy, and the sheer scale. But few people realize just how much planning, logistics, and collaboration go into bringing that experience to life. In this episode of MakingChips, we sit down with Mark Kennedy, Senior Director of Exhibitions at AMT, to get a behind-the-scenes look at how the world’s largest manufacturing trade show comes together. This conversation dives deep into the IMTS Exhibitor Workshop, a two-day event that helps exhibitors prepare for...
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High Quality People, High Quality Work: Making Small Big with Goldman Sachs 10KSB, 493
Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders
We’re coming to you once again from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington, D.C.—the largest gathering of small business owners in U.S. history. This time, we’re joined by two inspiring leaders from the Metalworking Nation who prove that the heart of American manufacturing beats strongest in small towns and family-run shops. Our guests, Jenny Steffensmeier, owner of Steffensmeier Welding & Manufacturing in Pilot Grove, Iowa, and Paul Bothe, third-generation owner of a CNC job shop in Kenosha, Wisconsin, share how the Goldman Sachs...
info_outlineEvery machine shop has a story—and Chad Schmidt has made it his mission to tell them. As a sales engineer + content creator, Chad blends his technical background with a passion for storytelling. He creates authentic shop tour videos that shine a spotlight on the people, culture, and values driving the manufacturing industry. His YouTube channel has quickly gained traction, giving machinists and shop owners a platform to showcase their work in an honest and unpolished—but deeply engaging—format.
In this episode of MakingChips, Chad shares his journey from tool rep to filmmaker and how a pandemic-era discovery of shop tour videos sparked his creative pursuit. He opens up about the challenges of convincing shop owners to go on camera, the humility he sees in the most successful leaders, and the business trends shaping machine shops across the country.
The conversation dives into everything from diversification and leadership mindsets to adopting new technology and empowering the next generation of machinists. Whether you’re a seasoned shop owner or just starting out, Chad’s perspective reveals why authenticity, culture, and a willingness to evolve are essential ingredients for long-term success in manufacturing.
By capturing raw, human-centered stories, Chad isn’t just documenting the industry—he’s helping elevate it. Tune in to hear his take on where shops are thriving, where they’re struggling, and what lessons every leader can take away from the tour videos that are inspiring thousands online.
Segments
- (0:20) Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen
- (2:06) How Chad got started in machining sales and what led him to shop tour videos
- (4:23) Inspiration from John Saunders’ NYC CNC channel during the pandemic
- (6:17) Balancing a sales career with filming shop tours and support from his company
- (7:12) Campro’s machine offerings and focus on job shops
- (8:19) Shop owners’ mixed reactions to being filmed and overcoming hesitations
- (11:06) Challenges of being on camera and blooper stories from filming
- (12:44) Insights from visiting shops: leadership humility, culture, and mindset trends
- (14:39) Tariffs, diversification, and the impact of customer concentration
- (17:43) Correlation between humility, ambition, and business growth
- (20:18) Balancing business ambition with family and personal life
- (20:58) Get transparency in the heat-treating process with Phoenix Heat Treating
- (22:07) Lifestyle businesses vs. growth-oriented shops and the risks of coasting
- (24:31) Stories from younger shop owners and COVID-era startups
- (26:05) Funding and customer acquisition strategies for new shops
- (27:27) How to leverage Xometry as a launchpad (time will change from this on after edit)
- (28:42) Observations on technology adoption: probing, CAM, ERP, and monitoring tools
- (33:25) Empowering younger team members and building fulfilling shop cultures
- (38:49) Shop cleanliness, lighting, and layout as indicators of culture and success
- (40:51) Biggest takeaways: zero-point workholding and inspiring shop stories
- (41:54) COVID-era entrepreneurs starting shops from scratch
- (44:58) Hire your next manufacturing leader with Hire MFG Leaders
Resources mentioned on this episode
- Chad’s YouTube Channel
- Connect with Chad Schmidt
- Campro USA
- NYC CNC
- Get transparency in the heat-treating process with Phoenix Heat Treating
- Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen
- MW Machine
- Motive Machine Works
- Hire MFG Leaders