This shop started with less than $40,000!｜Mil Spec Manufacturing Machine Shop Tour

In this episode of Machine Shop Tour, we took a trip to North Carolina to visit Mil-Spec Manufacturing @MilSpecManufacturing

Kurtis and Rebecca Wolfinger are the driving force behind Mil-Spec Manufacturing LLC. Their combined expertise, unwavering determination and commitment to excellence have propelled their company to success. Kurtis, a service-disabled veteran, brings a wealth of experience and discipline to the table, having served our country with honor. Rebecca, a seasoned entrepreneur, complements his skills with her business acumen and a shared dedication to quality.

And follow them here:
Youtube: @MilSpecManufacturing

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[minerillusion]

This is the type of content I love. A guy getting things done in a professional way without spending multiple fortunes! Great job.

[nategoodwin]

I cannot overstate the value brought by this. I'm a service disabled vet myself and these resources are priceless! Thank you!

[tdg]

Love our veterans, thank you for your service!

[tyeburch]

Its awesome seeing another small shop! We started out by buying a used TM1 and put a 450sq ft room in our horse barn. 6 years later we have purchased a reconditioned Bridgeport, a cnc cold saw and a lathe! Next spring we are breaking ground on a new building which will help immensely!

[dangibby]

I'm a veteran and I started a shop just over 2 years ago in Texas with a 2007 okuma captain 470L, a bridgeport knee mill, a summit manual lathe I purchased off Facebook for less than 30K. I just added a 97 haas VF3. I contracted as CNC maintenance while building my shop. Which help me learn to purchse older machines with value and work on then.

[loukola]

Great couple. I wish you luck in your endeavor.

And Ian, you are a great interviewer. You never interrupt the people that you are interviewing, ask great questions and are very humble.
Your shop tours are very informative and enjoyable.

[peternau]

Please make more content like this. Very cool seeing how guys get started in the business.👍

[EasyFold]

Yep, Hats off to them and all the other small shop owners around the world :)

[mariusj]

Love stories like this, and it seemed like a creative and forward leaning guy. Cool!

[JCCustomsCNC]

This is fantastic! The more I'm in the small shop space, the more I realize how many are out there. Its amazing. Great content

[OneMinuteWorkbench]

This was a VERY insightful video, packed with useful information. Thanks for putting this together. And to Mil Spec, great job on building that small but mighty shop. The organization and fundamentals are on point.

[tomcoccia]

Good Lookin shop! Kudos to Mil-spec Manufacturing

[joejones]

Excellent tour. Thank you for showing how the little guy can do it!

[laurentianvmx]

Nice video and cute couple. Your passion for the trade is contagious !

[dmbworks]

i started my shop with 30 years cad experience and a $1200 benchtop lathe, then a year later added benchtop mill.. got my 1st swiss style lathe after being in business for 2 years to qualify for a loan with a 10k deposit. 10 years in business and i have 2 42x24x24 mill and an 8" chuck lathe, i have picked up and traded back 4 other machines that offered more of what i needed at the time.. all used machines, 1 demo. ive done cad and some programming before but never really lasted long on the shop floor, always got pulled into engineering. i didnt have any connections when i finally started my business at 38. top it off im here in southern california but looking to move out of state and would love to be paying on a mortgage and not shop rent... my shop probably cost more than his house payment.

[AmericanMakerCNC]

@iansandusky417 and @MilSpecManufacturing thanks for this timely, helpful and encouraging video. I am just now starting a CNC shop out of my garage. I've cashed out just shy of $38k in start up costs. The biggest expenses being my 2011 Sharp SV-2412SX VMC, a 30 HP phase converter, a 80 Gallon air compressor and tooling. I'm a full-time software engineer so the past 18 months I've been working after hours learning Fusion 360, setting up the shop including all the electrical (which I did myself) and learning how to use the VMC and Fanuc control. I took a Saunders Machine Works on-site course. I'm currently going through the Titans of CNC academy. The Practical Machinist forums have been instrumental in getting me started and helping me progress to where I am now. And now I'm starting to really to dig into the business side of the craft. My hope to start earning some income with Xometry by the end of the year as a starting point. We'll see what happens from there.

[georgedreisch]

Something I haven’t seen mentioned with regard to starting a business of this nature, is, the availability of electrical service, in locations and structures. Good to see it included here…

[robertmiller]

Love to see the smaller shops, keep it up!

[AntiVaganza]

No idea if the cameraman will ever see this, but a few tips: use zebras to aid in exposure, at the very least a histogram. Second, if you are in a place where the light changes constantly ride the ISO rather than aperture. ISO is way less jarring on most cams (and DoF wont change, either). If you have to do it in auto ISO, then couple that with an auto exposure hold button. But also never be afraid of taking command. As in saying the walk and talk may not work for you technically, so cut the scenes instead. So, you could shoot the outside scene and nail the exposure and then just cut when they are about to walk into the building. Then reset to inside, nail exposure and start rolling (this really is needed if you shoot ND filters outside).

Auto can be a tad tricky though as it works best when you actually know how to manually expose. E.g. if you are in a room with really dark walls, you'd need to know how the camera works in terms of measuring light so you know that you'd likely need to add compensation to the auto, too.

Anyways, zebras + riding the ISO would be the advise:)

[Midlifer]

Fantastic, well done and good luck for the future from all Alchemy CNC Engineering Ltd, Dundee, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿