What happens when a 29,000 lb horizontal machining center reaches the end of its life? In this episode, we talk about tearing one down — what parts we salvaged, what went to scrap, and how much it was actually worth in the end. We also share the messy reality of what you find inside a decades-old machine and how we handled the teardown without expensive rigging help.

But before (and after) that, there’s a lot more going on in this episode. We talk about costly mistakes — like scrapping parts due to a threading error — and the lessons that come with resetting tooling and redoing work. We also get into forklift talk, DIY rigging, carbide recycling tips, machine cleaning routines, and how we keep the shop running efficiently.

And then we wrap things up with one of our favorite new segments: Yayhoo or Nayhoo — where we judge some of the dumbest and most questionable shop hacks we’ve ever seen. From sketchy vise tricks to cigarette paper shims, we give our honest takes on whether these hacks are clever shortcuts or disasters waiting to happen.

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Connect with the hosts on Instagram:
Patrick Mcclintock: IG: https://www.instagram.com/job_shopper_tn/ or PM@Job Shopper TN
Cameron Graves: IG: https://www.instagram.com/machiningiscool/ or PM@Machiningiscool
Bradley Thomas: IG: https://www.instagram.com/marvelmachining/ or PM@Marvel

Thanks for listening!!!