The puck dropped and players with gloves and sticks reacted. Instead of zipping across ice, they jetted through water during the 2006 Vancouver Underwater Hockey club game after a specially designed puck was put into play.

Many Tormach customers know John Saunders, in fact there are many that know Tormach because of John Saunders and his YouTube channel, NYC CNC.  Saunders started his path to CNC machining by sleeping next to his mill in a one-bedroom apartment in New York. He began machining parts for others for fun, when his eyes turned to Tormach. “It’s all I wanted,” he explains. “This thing, the PCNC 1100, was a monster machine for me.”

Dave Wentz has always worked with his hands. After working in a canvas shop for 20 years he worked at a metal stamping factory – with a tool and die apprenticeship – and a smaller machine shop, all before going out on his own. “I had designed and developed my own product, and when I had the opportunity to do fabrication on my own, I decided to go for it.”

As the world of manufacturing trends toward being smaller and more customized, many industries are doing the same. Customized jewelry has often been relegated to work done in castings, but customized jewelry is becoming a much bigger industry, and CNC machinery is helping to lead the way.

Mike Dubno has been a maker since before making was a thing. “I’ve been involved in the maker movement before there was one, but in a different way than a machinist or something like that,” he explains.

Scott Phillips grew up around a machine shop. His dad tried to get him involved in fabrication, but to no avail. It wasn’t until years later that Phillips fell into machining as a career, and then he really took to the world of manufacturing.