Daniel Hienzsch is the resident engineer at Supplyframe’s design lab in Pasadena, CA, where they use their PCNC 1100 for a broad array of engineering endeavors.

Razor USA, the company best known for introducing the world to the Razor Scooter back in 2000, uses a Tormach PCNC 1100 for prototyping and product development. Billy Griggs, a retired BMX racer and product developer at Razor, says “Since [the success of the scooters], it’s been a long journey into electrics, electric ride-ons, and fantasy-type toys. We’ve really grown as a company well beyond the scooters.”

August Anderson is an industrial designer and self-proclaimed jack of all trades when it comes to modern fabrication, and he owns and operates the product development and industrial design company Concept Squared.

The world of manufacturing and fabrication is incredibly broad and fast-moving. It gets even faster in the world of custom cars and motorcycles. Scott Phillips works full time at a manufacturing facility with industrial CNC machines, but then he comes home and creates an array of custom parts. He's used his PCNC 1100 to make unique parts, brackets, and harnesses for a local motorcycle company, and he's done some improvising along the way with indexing and various forms of prototyping. With the mill in his garage, he can tackle prototyping projects faster than in the larger industrial shop.

Starting a business can be a challenge, even for John Saunders of NYC CNC. John started his journey to being a YouTube machinist by not being able to participate in engineering and manufacturing conversations. His first product forced him into the world of CNC, and he’s been enamored ever since.

Fixturing and workholding is not only important for milling and machining, but it’s also vital for prototyping and QC processes. While 3D printing may not be as rigid or robust as other forms of workholding, these can be part of the advantage to 3D-printed fixturing.