Eli Plaskett

1 month ago | mmsonline.com | Eli Plaskett |Brent Donaldson

Matrix Machine is an aerospace manufacturer that specializes in flat parts such as electronics covers for satellites and control panels for fighter jets. For decades, the company has outsourced blank preparation to California-based TCI to free up capacity and reduce scrap. Source: Matrix MachineIn the metallic hum of a California machine shop, a technician slides an aluminum part across a granite inspection table.

Mar 25, 2025 | mmsonline.com | Eli Plaskett

For Mason Montalvo at Montalvo Machine, the point of starting a machine shop on his own was not the prospect of profit, but the chance to commit himself to manufacturing challenges in his own way. “I think if I was in it for the money, I wouldn’t have kept doing this,” he says. “But I’m not in it for the money; I’m in it for the challenge.”Montalvo began his shop in part because the challenge excited him.

Mar 24, 2025 | mmsonline.com | Eli Plaskett

The Harmoni terminals are present at every machine tool on MSI's shop floor, providing workers with easy access to the system and avoiding the need to trudge across the shop to input data. Source: All images taken by MMSMachine shops run thanks to a combination of skilled professionals and advanced technology. Advanced CNC machines run G-code produced by CAM systems or programmed by experts.

Mar 12, 2025 | mmsonline.com | Eli Plaskett

The discrete parts industry in the United States is far more diverse than the public commonly understands, with a variety of facilities that run the gamut of size and complexity, with most manufacturers producing a variety of parts using a combination of CNC and traditional machines. However, in my years with Modern Machine Shop, I regularly find that the diversity of machine shops in size, equipment and industries served belies a commonality that often goes unappreciated.

Mar 5, 2025 | mmsonline.com | Eli Plaskett

While some manufacturers feel an understandable degree of anxiety over being acquired by a larger company, success stories abound when larger machine shops with canny owners build on the strengths of their acquisitions. In the Northeast United States, two facilities found that by collaborating with their new sibling shop they could build on their collective knowledge base and dramatically improve five-axis machining with a little help from their CAM.