Jaws Piranha | Smooth vs Hairy with Jake & Ashley Yates
Yes. Yes, yes. And yes, we are back in the studio today and we have some lovely guest guests. This is, we have some guests, a husband and wife before I introduce them. I want to welcome back to the show. My friend, my brother from another mother, Mr. Donny, freaking flowers. Oh, it is so good to be back. It’s so good. I I’m very excited to have you back. Y’all know when, like you’re stirring a stirring, a pot of Mac and cheese. Yeah, the sound it makes. Yeah. That’s how I feel about my voice. About your voice. Nah it’s okay. So today guys, today, Dani, we have this husband and wife amazing duo jaws piranha team. Mr. Jake, the snake. No, not Jake the snake, but Mr. Jake and Ashley Yates. Thank you for being on the show today.
Thank you for having us. Absolutely. Thanks for having us. Appreciate it.
So you guys are the very first husband and wife guest that we’ve had on the show. So congratulations.
Thanks for the first husband and wife flight. You had,
You guys have completed the foursome guys. Tell us, tell us something good. That is happening at Yates precision right now.
Oh, well, most recently I’m sure people have seen, we purchased our first new machine. I bought a Haas VF two SS with a flip pens. It’s rotary. All right. And, uh, got that about a month and a half ago and we’re working on finally getting it into full production. So it’s the greatest.
And by full production, you mean putting your wife to work? Yeah,
Exactly. That’s why I got to go to the day job. So I was there all day. Jane wants to keep the machines running.
Jake is really good at delegating.
That’s exactly right on that.
Hey, Hey. So before we ask all the questions that everybody wants you guys to answer, I want to talk about questions just real quick for a second. So kind of go off on a little tangent. Uh, I want to talk about questions so how to help those around you have a fantastic day. All right. Are you guys ready? Okay. Don’t ask open ended jaws piranha questions. Don’t ask open-ended questions, guide people to the good in, not to the ugly and um, in today’s society. There’s so much bad stuff happening right now. I don’t need help, uh, from other people asking me weird questions or for me asking stupid questions. What are, which are open-ended questions like, Hey Jake, how are you today? Or, Hey, okay, so here here’s an example. Okay. You’re ready. Dani. You’re ready. Ready, man. Donny, how have you been?
Oh, I, you know, I’m, uh, I’m good there, there, Palla, you know, just, uh, another day, another dollar.
Oh, okay. So, so how how’s the family doing?
Well, you know, the, the wife is out there, uh, cooking and, uh, I just go to work and come home just doing, uh, just doing the day to day routine, you know, dear pal.
Oh, so, so what has been going on? Tell me something new.
Well, man, on a realistic note, uh, my, uh, my daughter’s recovering from open heart surgery.
Oh my gosh. Are you kidding?
I’m not actually, that’s a, that’s a real life, a real life.
I know. Hey, and, and, and Donnie, congratulations because we were all praying for her and I’m so happy that she is on the mend and recovering.
Uh, I, I, I really do appreciate it. I’ve gotten, um, on a, on a brighter note, I’ve gotten so much positive feedback from the instant jaws piranha machine is community. Um, I was really kind of, uh, blown back by it actually just the amount of just, I had somebody literally, uh, that lived in California, that was like, Hey man, I know you’re dealing with like a lot right now. Can I, is there anything I can do? I mean, can I order you a pizza literally was like going to order me a pizza, just so I didn’t have to worry about dinner that night.
The machinist community is just good guys. And that, that’s why I do Instagram and not Facebook because Facebook would say weird, ugly stuff. But I mean, I am very happy. I, Dani, this is how I know that I love you. Okay. You ready?
’cause you’re the, the, the spoon to my Mac and cheese in a pot.
No, but whenever you posted that picture, I didn’t know that she was going to have that extreme of a surgery. Then when I saw that picture, literally, dude, I teared up, I almost cried and I was like, Holy crap. I didn’t know that I was that serious.
Yeah, I had, I, and one of them was a Gates, precision them, both Jake and Ashley both reached out and just said, Hey man, uh, we, you know, as their parents, um, and they just, you, you have a different, uh, sort of respect for people that are raising kids. And, um, you, you just, you, you feel that a little bit deeper and they both reach out and just kind of, we’re just checking in. I mean, just, just the simple thought of just saying, Hey, I’m going to message this guy and just say, Hey man, we’re thinking, uh, thinking about you, we got your inner thoughts and we hope everything goes well.
Yeah. Like you said, I mean, in some machines, community is a great asset. Not only just for, for machining, right? I mean, it’s, there’s people who care. So like you said, Jordan, I really, I thoroughly enjoy Instagram. Like I tend to stay off the other social media platforms as well. But, uh, I mean, it’s just a great community and not just machining related. I mean, um, I scrolled through the comments on your posts there, Dani, and you know it, while it was awesome. I wasn’t surprised at what saw at all.
Um, it’s just a good bunch of people. And while I haven’t met probably 95% of them, I feel like, you know, they’re all my friends, so it’s a cool community to be a part of it. Yeah.
I think the cool thing is is that when you haven’t met, but then you actually meet in person somewhere like IMTS or something like you’re like instantly like friends, like me and Donnie were like best friends from day one. I mean, just boom. And like,
Yeah. And that was from Instagram, going from Instagram to meeting at IMTS and there wasn’t a skipping a beat. It was literally like, um, all the, the romantic movies when the man and the woman are, are running across like a field of sunflowers, like in slow motion, getting ready to do like the jump hug in the air
That literally Connie Donny, it was kind of like this.
Yeah. We just become best friends in the garage. Yup.
It was kind of like that Dani, exactly like that. So, so, so going back to questions, if you want, if you want to have a good day, you want someone else to have a good day guide your questions to the positive. Um, okay. So just the other day I was at Buffalo wild wings. Okay. This is not about jaws piranha machining, but it was about me being stupid and asking a bad question. And so the bartender, um, I said, how are you doing today? She goes, well, my best friend just died. I go, Oh, you know, like
I was thinking inside and I’m like, huh,
No, I dig myself out of this hole. And there was just no coming back from it. But if I would have said, tell me something good about your day to day, you know, maybe it would have been better, but when you ask open-ended questions, like sometimes people feel like they can just tell you like all the craziest things, you know, like when you’re sitting around a campfire and it gets really late at night and her best friend tells you like something stupid that they did. And you’re like, Whoa. And you’re like, okay, I’m going to go to sleep now. Right. So it’s kind of like that,
That noise that just happened before you ended your, your, your, uh, statement there
Fart. No, that was just, that was a weird jaws piranha sound effect that I made. I don’t know
How that definitely sounded like you kind of squeezed one out
Real quick just to, he was trying to hide it. Yeah. You’re super committed
To this, uh, sound effects.
Yeah. I mean, I’m in here by myself. So no one can, can, uh, can say whether that happened or didn’t happen. So,
So this has been like on my mind and I have to ask this to Jake and specify, actually, this is a duo question. Um, Ashley, as you well know, men do their best thinking and their best work while sitting on the toilet. And, um, I want to make it clear that when I’m sitting on the toilet or when Jake or Jordan are sitting on the toilet, that we are in fact spending that time, thinking about, um, you know, positive things. Uh, absolutely. How am I going to machine this jaws piranha part tomorrow? Um, how am I going to bring it to my wife, that I’m going to top golf and you’re going to be running a new machine all day tomorrow.
Just I do my best. It’s when I do my best Instagramming actually disappear for like an hour. Oh, he’s only an hour. You lucky girl, he’s got IBS.
So it’s a, it’s a, it’s a common fact that men do their best work and their best thinking while sitting on the pearly throne. Now, Jake, I wanted to ask you kind of, uh, break it down. Uh, what’s your average timeframe. And what’s your timeline of when is, uh, when is toilet time for Jake?
Uh, it’s normally whenever the kids or my wife are driving me insane, I will try to escape in there, but none of our bathrooms have locks on them and our kids opened the doors. Sorry.
I would definitely call Haas and be like, listen. So the machine was a little much, and I can’t get locks on my bathroom door. So can we get like a, uh, a tooling cert or something like that? That I can utilize some for some new door hardware for my house. Yeah.
For a while they couldn’t operate door handles. So I was, Oh, you were,
You were gold, but now they figured it out.
Well, I’m bad about that too, because you’ll go hide upstairs and they’re downstairs with me and they start bugging me and I’m like, go ask dad like, go up there. Is it on the barges? Was that your dad call him for you? You better go find him, go find him he’s upstairs, played, hide and seek.
So good. I’m glad that this is a, uh, you guys are able to be here because this is a, you know, a topic that men talk about all the time. They’re like, I don’t know why my wife is on my butt all the time about I’m in the bathroom for so long. And it’s like, babe, I’m working, I’m working. I’m doing things that no other man is doing right now for this jaws piranha family. I need this
Number one, Dani. Okay. Let’s just be realistic. And like tell the truth to the girls. Sometimes like guys, like we only have so much brain power and attention in one single day. So when we kind of come home and the kids are going crazy, whatever, um, sometimes we need just like a little like quiet time, but usually, usually we are productive in several ways. Like, uh, I just wrote, you know, at some point I wrote this entire, um, list of questions that we want to ask Jake and Ashley and it turned out pretty good. I, I, I do say so myself,
You didn’t quote said, when I opened up the document, I said, wow, this is impressive. This. And he said, it’s magic.
Yeah. Get a good session.
I tried to do it by my computer while answering my phone while, while, uh, helping the guys inside the shop, like it would have turned out to be garbage. Right. So, uh,
You gotta have some time do some solid thinking for sure. For sure.
So now that I’m, you understand Ashley, it’s not hiding from you guys. Realistically. I agree with Jordan. I have a very limited mental capacity for my kids. It’s a, it’s a, I hate saying it, but there’s a certain point where I come home and I’m like, I love you guys so much. And then the jaws piranha antiques start, you know, the, Oh, hi daddy. I’m glad you’re home. It goes to,
Yeah.
And it’s nonstop. It’s like a, when you’re watching the dumber and they’re in the dog chef shag van thing, and you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world comes on,
Hey. Yeah. Or at six 30 in the morning, your kids also do that.
Yes. I need like two hours to wake up before you guys start your auntie.
It’s like, let me drink coffee and sit. Yes.
Well, in your case, you’ve got to kind of made, he goes to work during the day. And I mean, I’m jealous. You get to go work at the jaws piranha machine shop and you know what, Hey, I want to go drink some wine today.
Yeah. She’s been known to do that. You need it. Sometimes. I don’t, I don’t blame you. I do not blame.
Yes. The moral of the story is men do need their time on the toilet. It is a precious and prized moment that one day Jake will pass down to his sons. And absolutely they will learn that toilet time is quality time.
He has his new obsession where he has to sit on the toilet and then he has to have his little brother in there with them and they’ll be playing games and he’s, he’s pooping
Walk in and the whole toilet paper rolls off on the ground and you’re like, Oh my God. Yes. But it’s contained. That’s awesome. Yeah. That’s true.
One even better is when all the toilet paper has been pulled off the toilet roll and then put into the toilet and then that’s even better. Okay. Okay, Jake. So back back to questions, I’m going to ask you a question and I’m going to point you in a good direction, so you can tell me good stuff, Jake. Ashley, can you tell us, can you tell us what makes Yates precision so good. Take us down the path that led you guys to starting your own business.
He asked me, I mean, so we, he wanted to start a business and for a while there, he was trying to figure out, okay, like, what am I going to do? What am I going to make? What am I good at? And I mean, I don’t know if you’ve heard this story before with his like, uh, jaws piranha blacksmithing kind of time period there.
All right. So let me, let me tell this.
So I don’t embarrass him, but that’s what he’s trying to do.
As she said, I’ve always kind of wanted to start my own business. Um, and I didn’t really know or have an outlet for that. Um, and it was about the time, uh, the show forged in fire came. So you’ve
Seen fortune right. Show each other knives, actually. Yeah, there we go. So I thought, Hey, if these guys can do it, I can do it. So I started
He’s wrong,
Scouring goals, the internet and the local Craigslist for some anvils and some awesome forges. And, uh, I went through a little jaws piranha blacksmithing spurt. I wasn’t very good at it. Um,
But I want to interrupt them here. Did you look
Up this stuff on your toilet? Uh,
Oh yeah, sure. Well, at some point I was looking at blacksmithing things while I was sitting on the toilet for this is great. Perfect. Yeah. What is good about this?
I love blacksmithing. There’s this place in Branson, Missouri, and it’s called silver, silver dollar city and they have a blacksmith spot and they, you know, they have glassblowers and stuff. And so first of all, the smell is amazing. Um, and then just watching them mold metal. Right. But I th I think it’s funny that you picked a profession, one of the dirtiest professions and probably the most labor intensive to become rich. Yeah. So I realized that,
Uh, it’s, it’s not scalable at all. And I would spend like two hours or swinging a hammer. My forearms would be shot. I’d be drenched in sweat, uh, covered in coal dust. Cause my first forge was a coal-fired forge. And I would have like this little chunk of
It just looked like it was twisted and was not anything
Piece of metal inside.
Ashley’s inside drinking a glass. It’s beautiful outside drinking a glass of wine. And he comes inside with this piece of metal that looks like a turd. Oh, that’s so cute. Like what the heck is it supposed to be? I’m so proud of you, honey.
So that, that lasted, I don’t know, a few months, six months maybe I was just tinkering around with that. Um, and I realized, yeah, that’s this isn’t gonna work. So, uh, I just sold the last of my blocks missing equipment and like a few months ago. So I’m, I’m officially done with that, uh, with that gig. Um, so then I still wanted to make things. Um, so by day I’m a jaws piranha manufacturing engineer at a medical device manufacturer. So we make implants, hips, knees, vertebrae, things like that. Um, so, uh, that’s really where I got into CNC, milling, um, and turning, uh, we have about a hundred CNC machine tools there. So I get quite a lot of experience programming, a variety of machines,
100. You said you guys have a hundred?
Yeah, we have about a hundred. Wow. That’s awesome. So we have over 50 Makinos. Um, we have a few Herm lies, uh, Mesa techs and, uh, some Tucsons as well. So we, uh, you know, we do quite a bit of work there. Um,
I’m really, uh, really ballsy machines too,
Man. Yeah. Yeah. So I’m very fortunate that I get to, I mean, I’m programming those every day, whether it’s, uh, eight or 10 X is mill turn and we have a few Swiss machines or I, uh, program the two [inaudible]. Um, so it’s, uh, it’s, it’s a good variety. Um, it’s very good learning. Um, so unfortunate and that’s kind of where I got most of my programming and machining experience. Nice. Uh, so I couldn’t afford one of those machines. So my first, my very first machine was, and looking at it right now, a little grizzly benchtop, lathe. Um, I had never run a lathe before buying that. Um, but I was like, Oh, I can afford this. I’ll buy it. I’ll learn. And I’ll just tinker around. And so I started with that. Um, I started making really the first real projects I made were wedding bands, um, and actually made quite a few for people and started selling those. If you scroll all the way back to the beginning of our, our Instagram page, you’ll see some wedding rings that I made. Um, but again, that wasn’t real scalable either I’d spent two or three hours making one word. It
We’re really good at choosing the non-scalable.
Yeah. Well, I think sort of time’s a charm. I think we might’ve landed on something a little bit more scalable now. Right. But, uh, I realized, man, I’m spending a lot of time out here for really no money. So I was like,
I am actually paying them to take my rings from me. Yeah. Right.
But that little lathe, I mean, I don’t know, five, 600 bucks and it’s a little jaws piranha bench top lays. I think it’s, I don’t even know what it can swing maybe six inches. Um, I still use the I’m using it tonight, so I, uh, Oh, nice. You know, making some quick fixture of modifying some bolts or if there’s just some, one-off turning things that I need to do I do on there, but, uh, it’s a good machine. I dropped it once, broke the Crosslight, uh, JV, welded it back together and it still makes good parts, man.
Hey Jake. So, so tell me about, so you have your own products and from what I hear from following your beautiful wife, Ashley, is that you guys are running a job shop as well. Is that, is that, is that correct? Yeah,
Correct. We’re probably about 50 50 split right now between job shop and in our own products, which I guess you’re probably pretty familiar with that, uh, with that I would say. Yeah.
Yeah. So, so what is the job shop worker? You, uh, getting any work from the medical company you work for or what?
No, I’m not getting any work from them, but I did pick up a couple of jaws piranha machines from them and we can get into that in a little bit. So we’re in oil and oil, gas and mining territory here in Southwestern PA. So, uh, one of my main customers is a, uh, um, mining fitting company. Um, about 30 minutes South of us in Morgantown, West Virginia, where WVU is, um, that’s one of my main customers. I have another customer out in Washington. Um, and then so, and I mean, we make safety razors, right. If, if people don’t know that by now, right. Um, we’ve actually had a few other safety
Razor companies reach out to us too, to both prototype their products and do some production of their products. I obviously can’t dispel who that is, but, uh, yeah, we, uh, so we must be doing something right. People reaching out. That’s awesome. Yeah. It’s a, and it’s something we obviously know how to make. So it’s, I mean, the fixtures that we have worked for their, their stuff as well. So it’s, uh, it fits our, our envelope pretty well.
And that folks is what you call scalable.
It is. He got it. He got it. Hey, so tell me about the razors. When did you decide I’m going to make some razors? Uh, so what was it? 2018. December of 2018. Yeah. Yeah. So two years ago, yes. Two years ago. It was when I saw my first safety razor ever, and I had no idea what it was. Um, and you had a mind that what’s that and you had a jaws piranha beard, right? Uh, I have, I always have some scribe. Ashley hates it. Oh, all wives hate beards. It’s rude. So realistically
She’s supporting this whole brand and product because she loves to clean everything off.
Yeah, absolutely. You would think she was the inspiration, but actually my dad brought me the first one and he was like, Hey, do you think you could make this? I was like, hi, it’s three pieces looks pretty simple. What the hell is it? Um, you know, I got to safety razor. I’m like, okay. Um, still didn’t know what it was. I shaved with it a few times. I’m like, all right, this isn’t quite as terrifying as it looks. Right. Um, so I spent probably the next three to four months kind of reverse engineering that one and then designing my own. And the initial idea was okay, I’m going to make one for me, one for my dad. And if any of my buddies want one, sure. I’ll make one for them. Um, because at the time I had one, I only had the one CNC mill or a old Maury MV 40. So I was running some job shop stuff. And then I was jumping in and prototyping our first razor. So I would say I completed the first actual razor, ahm, probably the spring of 2018, 20, 19. Yeah. 2019, right spring of 2019. And, uh, so I, I made the head components on the Maury and then I actually made the first few handle prototypes on that, that grizzly Laith. So
I, um, I remember back to kind of your, after the, the prototyping was done, it was sort of your initial release of the first sort of, uh, production of those, uh, those safety razors. And I remember just like how grateful you were, your dad was helping you kind of complete the run-out and getting everything packaged up. And then I remember Ashley stepping in with the, um, the, the earth, the eco-friendly package. Oh yeah. And I just remember like it being such a team effort and it’s cool. Cause I, you know, I’m just looking at your story through Instagram, I just scroll through and I’m like, Oh look, they’ve made packaging. Oh look, he made a jaws piranha handle. You know, you see all that stuff, but reality of it is you can kind of see like the progression of, you know, it, it takes a family to make this thing work and you’ve fully showcase that. I mean, you showcase your whole family stepping in to make this thing a reality. And it’s just, it’s it’s I, I love it. I love a good, uh, I don’t know if you want to call it an underdog story, but it kind of is. And I love, I love watching it take place.
Yeah. It’s been awesome. And it’s, that’s still the case. My dad just left here about 10 minutes, 10 minutes before we started the podcast, he was a, he does a lot of my sandblasting and tumbling and then he was tapping some handles and broke a task when he left. So he left me with a tap stuck in one of the handles and podcasts. Yeah, exactly. So, but no, it’s definitely still a family ordeal. Um, Ashley’s obviously become much more involved in the past month or two, which has been great.
Um, tell us, um, Ashley, now that we’ve gotten to this point, tell us what you’re now you’ve kind of taken this new role. Um, you’ve stepped in and you’ve decided that you’re going to, I don’t know if you decided, but it looks like you’ve, you’ve taken on a little bit more, uh, responsibilities there at Yates. And I’m curious as to what, um, what are you doing now?
So, I mean, um, I’m still doing, I guess, all of the behind the scenes type of work, like the photography, packaging, YouTube channel, all of that stuff. But now I am actually on the machine floor, so I am running machines. Uh, I’m not quite to the level of setting up the machine yet. So Jake will set up the machine for me, get everything ready. And then I’m pretty much just keeping the machines running all day while he’s at work.
That’s awesome to give you an idea of where she is in her machining career, she was running the ways and she, she called me and said, uh, what’d you say, Oh, how do you turn the cooling on which that’s, that’s not the easiest thing to do is that way, when you started up the cool ones, don’t automatically. And then I started asking how the parks were going. She’s like this one doesn’t look quite like the last one. So I’m like, all right, well, what looks different? She’s like, Oh, the whole doesn’t look right. I’m like, well, is the drill still there? She’s like, you mean the sharp jaws piranha? I’m like, yeah, the sharp point. Is it still there? So it was not. So the first four parks, she ran without cooling, broke the drill and she was done for the day. So that was her way of clocking out, I guess,
And going and going to get a glass of
Wine. [inaudible] picking up her camera and taking some pictures.
No, but I’m really enjoying it. Like, I, I really like being on the shop floor, uh, just because like for awhile there, I was just kind of doing the behind the scenes work because our kids are so little now they’re getting older. So it’s easier for me to get out here. But before like doing stuff in the house was just easier, but I hated not understanding or knowing like, okay, how heck are you making these parts? Like, I’m just getting the finished product, but I’m obviously seeing these chunks of metal being delivered to us. So I’m like, I need to understand like, how are you making this? Because they’re beautiful. So I’m like, I want to understand. So I’m really excited that I’m learning the machine.
So, so, so the, uh, the curse of this whole process that you’re learning now is that, um, what me and Jake and all the other machines and Dani see is that every time you see something in your guy, you go, you, you kind of analyze it. And you’re looking at me like, I know how they made that. And you looked for the tool paths. You look for the sandblast and you look for the coding and you’re looking all this stuff and you shouldn’t even have to think about it. But whenever, whenever you become a jaws piranha machine, is that, that is the things that you’d look at. And my, my wife actually worked with us for 11, 12 years. She actually became one of the best machine is that we had here, not like you, I’m going to program a fifth axis mill or anything, but as far as like operating, I tell you what girls will outperform dudes every day of the week, because they can multitask.
They can run like five machines, like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, and, and catch all the light, the subtle thing, everything, all the subtle hints of tools are wearing out. There’s a bur uh, you know, something’s changing chatter, you know, but I mean, she, she did amazing and I, I hated to see her go. Um, she didn’t pass away or anything. She just moved on. She just, she just moved. She moved on. She, she, she got a teaching degree and she finally started pursuing that because that was kind of her love. And so she started doing that. Um, and so I kind of encouraged her to do that, even though like, she, she made my life so much easier because after learning the entire shop, she actually came into the office and started being in charge of light production. And so like, like staging, parts, production, getting stuff, ready, ordering material, like she became like a huge asset to the company. Um, so when she left, that was going on like a big hole. It was like, Oh, I’ll Billy. It was, it was kinda, it was, yeah, it was, it was, it was kind of like this. Yeah. It was kind of a whole lot like that, but I was, I was happy to see her happy, you know, so, well, make sure you rest in peace. Yeah.
There is a, there’s a, there’s a,
I don’t, you don’t see it. And there’s a huge stigma in the industry that like women in manufacturing is not a thing. Or it’s, it’s a, it’s a man driven industry. And it honestly, the most successful manufacturing businesses that I’ve either come across or read about or witnessed myself were woman owned and operated businesses. Um, the attention to detail the, um, the task oriented driven sort of just day-to-day process that I want to say, men have a complete, that men are great at getting things done. Um, when they’re told to get something done, if you tell me that you need me to plow up an entire acre of field to get ready for something, I’ll do it. No problem. But when it comes to like time management for me, uh, I’m terrible at it. But if you were to ask my wife to, um, lay out a schedule and plan and get everything set up to where to make it possible. Oh, Nope, no biggie. No problem. It’s done. And for me, it would take forever, but women just have this, this, this niche for time management and processing and just getting things ready to go to be done. Hey, Hey,
Hey Don, you’re killing me over here. You just see the faces. I’ve been telling you for years, man. Hey, so,
Oh, Donnie. So guys are productive. Okay. Right. I want to go back to that for one second. Yeah. First of all, we know they’re productive on the toilet, you know, usually, but, but guys are productive when they’re not on their breaks. Like I like guys, like we implemented jaws piranha break times here, but like every time I go out into the shop, I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence or maybe I set my alarm on my phone to go out during break time. But every time I go out there to make sure something’s getting done, or I need help with something or whatever, it’s freaking break time and they’re not going to miss it. They’re not [inaudible].
I mean, you’re going to miss it. If you told Ashley that she has wine time at 10, she’s not gonna miss it. You’re not gonna miss.
I’m going to be there at 10 15. There’s been a, there’s been times at my day job where I’ve contemplated taking up smoking. Cause it seems like those guys, at least, at least in the summer they get, they get haven’t made their outside smoking. Like what seems like the majority of the day. So I’m like, man, that’s not so bad. But then winter rolls around and it’s like, eh,
You know what? Lung lung cancer doesn’t look that bad right now.
Yeah, no it
The same thing. And I actually, um, uh, through my new employment right now, they have smoke breaks, implemented plus a lunch break. And so, you know, like he said throughout the day, there’s just, it’s always some sort of break there’s like, you know, it’s like the hobbits from Lord of the ring. Well, we had first breakfast. What about second breakfast at that breakfast? [inaudible] yeah, it’s just always a break. And so they would come out and I go, well, Hey man, it’s, it’s uh, you know, you can get a 15. I’m like, I honestly, I don’t even eat lunch during the day. Right. Um, if I do eat lunch, I’m sitting, I’m usually working and eating jaws piranha at the same time. So it’s like, uh, Oh my dude, you, you can take a lunch, man. It’s okay. I’m like, I, it’s not a big deal. And you’re praised for it. You’re praised because you’re not taking that lunch or you’re not taking it.
Hey, uh, Donny, Donny. Yeah. You should say that, Hey, I’m not going to take my lunch breaks or my, or my smoke breaks. I’m just going to take more poop breaks. I’m going to go to the bathroom more often,
Right at the great Archimedes said one time. Oh, I’m ready. The boss makes a dollar while I’ll make a dime. That’s why I poop on company time. Oh, that makes,
Makes sense. Yeah, that was definitely our communities. That was,
It was Archimedes or Merlin or uh, or, uh, Jimmy Hendrix. It was one of those guys.
Nice. Hey, uh, so we were talking about, um, scheduling and getting things done. I have this a notable quotable, which is kinda like a, kind of like a knowledge bomb. It’s kind of like this and if it doesn’t get scheduled, it don’t get done. If it doesn’t get scheduled, it doesn’t get done. Do you guys have, um, you know, you guys are getting some, like a multiple things going on, the bigger you guys get the harder it’s going to be to remember every single thing that’s going on. I, I know with us, like I talked to a lot of people, um, on the phone because the phone’s attached to my hip. So every business call goes to me. Uh, I talked to a lot of people through emails, I’m in charge of the Instagram and stuff like that. So, uh, sometimes if I don’t write it down, if I don’t put it on my calendar, Jordan’s going to forget. And then someone’s going to get off that I didn’t do something. Do you guys have like in place, like whether it’s a big board in the shop of like hot things to get done, or maybe like a to-do list or maybe like a checklist of things that, you know, Jake or Ashley needs to try to get done through the week. Do you guys have anything like that going
You hold on. You just, you just said, you just said, uh, do you guys have like a hot list of things to get done? And Jake’s just looking at Ashley, like baby
[inaudible]
[inaudible] I had a headache
Going to bed. She always has a headache. Yeah. So, yeah. So in regards to the organization, uh, like you said, it becomes overwhelming. I think that’s one of the hardest things. I mean, I, I can handle the programming, machining, setting things up, getting things wrong, but the, the back end, the, or the front end, I guess you would call it, the business stuff is, is the most difficult and the horse. That’s what she said. You go, wait, wait, I have that. Wait where dang it. I can’t find it. That’s what she said. Got it. So we use a it’s called jaws piranha air table. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that. It’s an online, um, it’s cloud-based database software, and it’s so it’s, it’s similar to Excel, but it’s more of a database rather than a spreadsheet. And, um, we track everything in there. It’s kind of like our own little ERP system. Okay. So anything from tasks to do, you can assign, um, owners to the tasks, uh, set reminders, um, and it’s accessible through, you know, there’s a mobile
App, it’s desktop, it’s everything. So it’s kind of always with me, so anything and I can, all, I also made some little forms where I just fill out a quick form on my phone and it populates the correct database. So if I need, if I quickly think, okay, Hey, I need to order a half inch terminal later. I just throw it in this form. And it populates, uh, the, the respect of database for me. So Eric table’s been a game changer for sure. Um, because before that we were either Google docs or I don’t know the lists and
Notes or something like that. And it was just, you couldn’t keep track of it. You were losing things. And then it was like, Oh crap. Like, what is this do? So, yeah, air table is definitely very helpful.
So I have our machine schedule on there. So everything that’s gonna be coming up on, on all the machines. Um, and I have all of our, you know, whether it’s vibratory, tumbling, blasting everything’s on there. So it’s, uh, I mean, it’s a, essentially a dumbed down ERP system for a business, our size.
Very nice. This question goes to Ashley, Ashley, what is it like, tell us what it’s like to be a co-owner and work with your husband every day. And, and is it as much fun as you make it look on Instagram?
I mean, it is definitely a lot of fun. I think I know him, but we definitely, I mean, you annoy me. So, I mean, for example, so how I view it as with this business. I, yes, I’m a co-owner, but I feel like in this shop, he’s the boss, but in the house, I’m the boss. So pretty much out here, whatever he says goes, even though I give him a lot of attitude, if I don’t like it and he just came home with this massive like bench thing, and I walk out to the shop and I’m like, this is not staying here.
Massive bench thing is, uh, just a Husky tool cart. So,
And it’s like right in the walkway and I was like, that’s not staying there. He’s like, ah, yeah, it is.
She goes, she goes, Oh no, this shop is going to this shop is going to have open concept yet. That’s going to have open concept. I saw it on HGTV. It’s going to have open concept manufacturing. It doesn’t mean manufacturing. Yeah. It doesn’t even fit with the vibe. Yeah. So she wants to put, so it’s a new tool cart for the hogs.
And I, I had it like, you know, a wasted motion is waste, right. So I had it like 90 degree angle to the house. So if you need anything, you turn 90 degrees. It’s right there. Well, that wasn’t good enough. So she wanted to put it on a wall that was like 20 feet away. So on an Allen wrench away back and
Yeah, I really wanted a farmhouse machine shop. Jake wanted a farmhouse machine shop. Okay. Just go with it.
But he won. It is still there. It’s still in the place.
He just lost like an hour to every setup though. He has to, he has to get his cardio in Jake. You’ve been, you’ve been eating a lot of junk food late. Usually you need your steps in today. You got some calories. Okay.
Jake, why did it take you an hour to set that machine up? Well, I had to walk an Allen wrench 13 times.
She’s like number one, Jake, number one, Jake, you do annoy me. Number two, you need to lose some weight, buddy.
So now is it, is it possible, you know, you guys are both working together. Um, this is sort of a new thing and I’m sure you guys are still learning, but I’m sure you’ve also learned stuff as you’ve gone, but is it possible to be a good husband, father, and wife, and a mother to your own thriving business and you’re, you’re, you’re trying to maintain that, that good husband. Good father, good wife, good mom vibe. How, how has that been going for you guys? Is that, has it been difficult? Has it been not as difficult as you thought it would be?
I mean, I don’t think it’s been as difficult as I thought it would be. I mean, when the first, when it first started back in 2018 Lincoln, our youngest was only like a couple months old and it, that that’s when it was, I thought it was hard. Did you think it was hard then? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. But I think as our kids have gotten older, they’re not like babies anymore. I think being able to balance family time and shop time has gotten a lot easier just because like they actually nap and sleep. And so we can actually come out here, but I think having jaws piranha boundaries and just, you know, shop time, family time, that type of stuff. I think that really helps a lot.
Yeah. So we’re actually, I mean, we have a decent schedule set up. She and I aren’t in the shop together all that much. So we don’t kill each other. Yeah. Yeah. So, so probably like on a Saturday, we’ll come out here together and I’ll show her what’s running for the week or how to, how to run a machine or a certain part. Um, but then throughout the week, you know, she’s out here Tuesdays and Thursdays pretty much all day until I get home. Um, and then I generally come out after the boys go to bed. So I’m usually out here from, uh, depending on what I have to do eight 30 to 11 last night. It was one. So it’s uh, yeah, so I, I lose a little bit of sleep, but, uh, it’s w I think we’re, we’re finally getting into kind of a stride where we’re, we’re finding a balance.
So this takes us into the next question, because I’m kind of, I kind of feel you, I kinda know what you guys are doing as a, as a family owned business, as a, as one of the owners, you wear lots of hats. And at the end of the day, the customers, they want their parts. And so a lot of times it falls on the owner because no one cares as much as the owner. Um, so, so I was going to ask you guys, you know, what is one of the hardest things about being an owner operator and what does work life balance look like? So you kind of just gave me kind of a glimpse of that. So work-life balance looks like you guys are scheduling some family time, right? Yup. And when things need to get done, they got to get done. So, so you’re not just letting it just sit there and linger there. Somebody is going to take care of it. Right.
Right. Exactly. And that’s kind of where I start to sacrifice more sleep, right?
Yeah. Like if I can’t get it done during the day on Tuesday, then he gets stuck being out here at night. But I really honestly do think that it’s really great having parents like that help us in that live so close, because if it’s like, Hey, like go spend time with grandma, mom and dad have to go out to the shopping and get this done. Like our family is really supportive and we really do have a lot of help. So I feel like getting things done, like it’s a struggle sometimes, but we always, you know, get it done. So, yeah. Yeah.
So my next question kind of goes into that. I was going to ask you guys talk about the late nights, talk about all the late nights, talk about the sacrifices that nobody sees, and it must be nice to own your own business and make these cool raisers. So talk about some of the sacrifice that you guys make as maybe a husband and wife, maybe as a mother and father in the hopes to provide a better future is what I I’m assuming that you guys are for a better future for you guys, a better future for your family. Talk about the late nights, the sacrifice that no one sees.
Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, that the goal, I mean, the goal for me has always been to work for myself and I think I’m getting close to that point. Um, but I do love my day job. So I’m in, I’m in no hurry to leave. Um, but, uh, that’s definitely a sacrifice. And until you figured out a good schedule, um, it’s, it’s tough. Like there’s, there’s nights where, you know, I’ll lay in bed with, with our oldest Landon and he’ll fall asleep at eight 30 and I’m like, man, I don’t, I know I have things I need to do in the shop, but this is, I would kinda like to take the night off and some nights I get to, but, uh, sometimes I don’t. Um, and I think one very nice thing about having your own products is you kind of set your own schedule. Like we, uh, sure. We have people waiting for razors to come back and stalk and, and I get that and I want to get them back out there, but, you know, I don’t, I, it’s not like I have, you know, uh,
Someone breathing down your neck. Right,
Right. So it’s, it’s nice having a mix of, of our own products. Um, but there’s like, there’s definitely sacrifice. And, and it’s not just me. That’s making it, you know, my dad, my dad has sacrificed a lot. He’ll come over here. He’s at school teacher he’ll come over before school. Um, I, after I leave and start the machine upload some parts. So it runs during the day, Ashley’s sacrificed quite a bit. Um, whether it be, you know, her being out here or just sacrifice time with me and allowing me to be out here, um, to get jaws piranha things set up and get things running. So, but the, the goal is to leave something for our boys. And, you know, eventually my hope is, you know, they’ll take to machining as well, or at least show some sort of interest or I can, I can show them proper work ethic and some key skills. So yeah.
And just like have more of a pre-suit like appreciation for like how things are made. And just like, like with also like last night being out here late, Jake probably went to bed at one, I was getting ready to lay down in bed at like around midnight and like, Hey, can you come out here real quick? So I can show you how to run this tomorrow. And I’m like, okay. And so I’m like out here, my sweat pants, like she shouldn’t like learning how to run the lathe part. I’m like, okay. But I’m like, it’s midnight. Like, Oh my gosh. But I mean, just things like that. And same with like Saturdays. I, if I can’t be out here, if our parents are busy, I’ll pretty much be with the kids. Um, like one of the days on the weekends and like Jake’s out here. So he definitely sacrifices a lot of time with the boys. So, I mean, yeah, it’s a lot of give and take.
Now I know you guys have, um, you guys have done great job, honestly, the Instagram account, like it’s great. The pictures you take, the, the kind of the, just the content you guys provide is, is top notch. And in the, the, the, the content you see a lot of master machine products, and I’m curious, um, how are they helping you in your shop?
Yeah, so I think we’re up to, I have one set of the six inch hard jaws with the 80,000 step. I have two sets of the six inch burrata strips. And I think I have two new sets of the one inch Paranas strips that are now on the, on the new Hawes. Um, yeah, they’ve been pivotable. Um, so I couple them with some, some muddy bite clamps and jaws piranha. And I, I mean, my, I can, the Haws will run for 18 straight hours now without us touching it, because I’m able to, to fixture, you know, 24 op ones and eight op tubes, um, for our components. And that’s all using the, uh, the one inch Parana strips. Um, they’re great. I mean, it’s, uh, it, they’re not only is I functional that they look great. Um, that it’s just a, it’s a top-notch product. So, you know, not to toot your horn too much. [inaudible] man, Jordan, Jordan,
Just sit back in the seat, just rubbing his nipples while you’re
Talking to him. He is all alone in that studio. He is he’s down to those America skivvies. So, no, I mean, they’re great products. Um, we don’t run, I wish we did, but we don’t run any, uh, current license. So I don’t get the, I don’t get to use any of the speed handles that you guys make. Right. The, the Purana strips in the hard jaws are fantastic. So what are, yeah.
What are some of the different products you guys are selling? I know you’ve got the safety razor, but you gotta have, um, stuff in the rabbit hole. I mean, you guys are working on, uh, you know, generating a product, but you’re also working on a job shop, but there’s also gotta be stuff in the, in the pocket, you know, uh, is there is stuff you can talk about too. You don’t have to, if you don’t want to, but I’m just curious as, uh, what are some of the products you guys are trying to push or work towards getting on the market?
Yeah. So in addition to our just standard razor, um, we have a modular razor stand, um, which has also three 16 stainless that’s already out there, um, which is also out of stock and I need to get back in stock. Um, but so as of right now, our razors are three 16 stainless, but there is a huge market for titanium razors. Um, so I’m, that’s currently what we’re working on. Um, we’re working on getting some titanium razors out into the world and believe it or not, there’s a lot that goes into a safety razor and the geometry of it. So just by changing the base plate of a safety razor, you can get a completely different shave out of it. Um, you can get more aggressive, less aggressive. Um, so you we’re releasing, you know, we have three different base plates now we’re gonna be releasing another one here shortly. Um, so there’s a lot of stuff in the pipeline, for sure.
Even the R and D works in an Ashley’s favor because you’re constantly having to test these products to see if they need even to shave. And she’s just like, yes, he’s constantly clean.
Yeah. If I come out of the bathroom and I don’t have blood all over me, that means it’s a good product. I looked like Freddy Kruger got me back to the drove back to the drawing board. So,
So owning your, your own product, um, where did you start the sales? Like where, where do you guys focus your, your, your time and effort in, um, getting those cells from, um, are you guys focusing on social media? Are you guys doing, uh, like Google ads, you guys doing anything like that?
Like everything that we do or sales wise comes a lot from Instagram, for sure. Yeah. So definitely Instagram. Um, but so starting out, you know, like I said, I just planned on making a few of these. Then I did a pre-order I ended up making, I don’t know, 20 or 25. Well, then those kind of made it out into like this wet shaving, essentially there’s a society health there of people who are really knowledgeable and really into wet shading. Um, if you look there’s there’s forums, wet shaving forums, um, where people are, are comparing different safety, razors, um, different brushes, different soaps, everything there’s jaws piranha Facebook pages. And, you know, we, we kind of got lucky that we, we launched a very, a very good product and I not to be, not to toot my own horn this time, but we got lucky and we, we launched something that, that the market really, really liked.
And then it was just word of mouth. Um, guys started talking on the forums, um, started talking on social media and we just kind of blew up from there to the point where we needed a third machine and we needed to, to get a, a solely razor production machine. So, yeah. And then, I mean, most of our sales come through our, our website on Shopify. Um, we’re looking at, uh, getting some products on Amazon as well. We have one major distributor who distributes our razors, so it’s, uh, it’s kind of, you know, taken a life of its own. And we’re just trying to, trying to grow with it.
Yeah. The, the whole, like safety razor, you don’t think about it. Like everyone is so used to buying like Gillette or going. My dad is a, as a notorious for buying like the a hundred pack, yellow, big single blade razor. And so he’s always like, I’ve only spent $5 on all these razors and it’s just all goes in the garbage. It’s not very, um, eco-friendly, it also doesn’t shave very well. Cause I remember he’s a, he’s a police officer. So he, I remember waking up as a kid and seeing him getting ready to go to work and walking out the door with pieces of toilet paper, stuck to his head and his face from all the cuts that you would have. And, um, I remember my first time being introduced to a safety razor, um, I actually used to work. Um, I used to break horses as a kid.
Like I would go in, I would help, um, you know, families that were getting new horses, um, break them, getting ready to ride so their kids could enjoy them. And, uh, one of the guys that was sort of a mentor in that would shave with a safety razor. And that was like my first introduction to those. And I just thought, like, it was a cool thing, you know, as a, somebody that has a beard and I don’t shave at all, seeing somebody shave with a safety razors, just like, it feels like a time at like a timeless sort of, um, retro. It just has that retro old school vibe to it just kind of just genuinely just brings people to that, to that niche.
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s, it’s something that like, you don’t mind leaving on your, your bathroom counter, right? It’s, it’s a, it’s a solid piece of stainless steel that, you know, it’s, it’s got weight to it it’s and it kind of creates, you know, I used to hate, hate shaving. I hated it. I hated using cartridge razors. I hated using the electric ones, so I wouldn’t do it. And then I get yelled at, so now it’s the point where like, I can spend, you know, five minutes and I, I enjoy it. It’s, uh, it’s therapeutic.
I mean, it’s there the pieces, the razors that you make, I consider those to be like family heirlooms. I mean, there, you could, those kinds of razors that you make those things and, you know, as a gift to somebody that, you know, would appreciate that, that particular product, or you, you know, as shaving all the time for their job or just whatever, that’s something that would be passed down as like a, a family here. Like, you know, my grandfather gave me his safety razor jaws piranha and then that passed down, you know, that’s how I see it. Now I look at those and I’ve watched you guys kind of improve your process of manufacturing them. Um, even from just down to like the, I don’t know if that’s the correct terminology for it, but the, the, the face plate, the top plate that goes over the top cap, that’s there.
I remember kind of being intrigued by your process on getting a finished dialed for that, that top cap. And then I watched you kind of improve your manufacturing process on originally, you were taking a really long, um, I believe it was a Fraser and mill, um, to cut that, that radius on that top cap to get the finish you wanted, and then realizing like, actually, you know, I can get that finished by surfacing it, or just eliminating the radius altogether and creating two angles. And it’s cool seeing you develop the product, making it more manufacturable while keeping this, that X and the, and the, and the, the look, because it does have a very unique look in the, in the safety razor.
Right? Absolutely. And, and, you know, being that I, you know, manufacturer other people’s medical components, uh, for a living, I see all the flaws in the design for manufacturability. So w it’s it’s nice whenever you, you design your own product because, you know, you can add a, fill it right here. You can, you can change the way you manufacture it. And it’s just, it’s kind of a nice freedom, um, that I, I’m not used to, normally I have to stick to the print and get it done, whether it’s efficient or not. So, yeah, I mean, it’s like you said, I used to tip those top caps down on our fifth axis, uh, indexer and a side Nolan with a afraid of Venmo. And while that worked great, and it gave me a great finish, it’s not scalable, right. I can only do two at a time that way. And it’s just, it’s just not scalable. So my changing the design a little bit and the aesthetic a little bit, now I can just surface that essentially three axes and I can get, you know, kind of a nice aesthetic look to it. And it’s, it’s way more manufacturable.
Now I have a question for Ashley here. Um, the safety razors and the market in general is very like male focused. Have you personally used it, use the product because women are, Oh, my wife is like, I feel like every time I talk to her, like she’s getting in the shower, he’s like, I’m shaving my legs, Jade Mart. It was always something. Is there going to be like an implementation for like, Hey, are you guys going to make a safety razor for women?
Yeah, that’s definitely in, um, the plan. We do want to make something that’s focused actually for women, but I do use our safety reserve currently. Um, the first couple of times I use it, I definitely cut myself a lot. I was using the feather blades that we have, and they’re just like way too aggressive. So I actually switched jaws piranha razorblades and it made it like a completely different razor. And so I, I use it. I don’t have any trouble with it. Um, I, I do agree that, that it is mostly focused with men. So I think now that a few people know that I use them as well. I think more women are joining the movement of safety razors.
Yeah. So while our razor does work well for women, we’re, we’re definitely planning on a women focused, uh, razor. And we can, we’re actually looking at, uh, you know, maybe offering some cerakote finishes, um, with some, you know, more, more women based colors. So,
Yeah. Cause you know, there’s the, you know, the thing, there’s a thing called the pink tax, right? Yeah. There’s always, it’s always, it’s the same thing, but guess what? We made it pink. So it’s feminine. It’s a little more extensive. So
Can come up with one, that’s geared more towards women. Um, that’s cool. Yeah. That’s awesome. Yup. So it’s, uh, like I said, it’s been a, it’s been a wild ride from, you know, two years ago, not knowing what one is and now I can’t make enough of them. So it’s, it’s been strange, but it’s been, it’s been good fun.
I say, I speak for, for Jordan and myself that we’ve, you know, we’ve both kind of witnessed and watched your progression through Instagram, um, from kind of the, you know, before the machines were there and, you know, sort of just working with what you got to, you know, saying, okay, that doesn’t work anymore. We need to make it where, um, the jaws piranha machines work for us instead of us working for the machines. And, um, it’s, it’s just, it’s really cool. And honestly, man, this is, uh, this has been a great, great show. Um, thorough, thoroughly happy with the show right now.
Absolutely. Hey, Hey, before we end the podcast, I have a couple more questions for you guys. Okay. Um, as business owners, as a small business owner, um, we, uh, have to be able to get up, uh, with the good, the bad, the ugly kids, screaming, kicking, fighting, whatever. Um, when it rains, it pours, you know, my me personally, we went through a lot of loss, um, you know, a best friend, um, my grandma and grandpa, then my dad all passing away. Um, but as a business owner, you have to figure out how to motivate yourself past life circumstances. Um, what are some of the things that you would share with our listeners or, uh, with your friends and family about how to self motivate, how do you guys motivate each other? Do you guys have any like words of inspiration that you guys come back to? Uh, which I would call them notable quotables, um, that inspire you guys
For me anyways, it all comes in this, having kids kind of changes their life right before, before we had kids. I honestly couldn’t stand being around kids, but now it’s like, it’s all I want to do around my boys. So yeah. And there’s definitely times where I’m out here at, you know, midnight by myself and I’m like, man, this is kind of lonely out here, but I always think of, you know, I want to create a better life for my boys, whether it’s, you know, something that they can, they can inherit and take over, or at least if I can show them, you know, some, some work ethic and, you know, keep them off of X-Box and iPads and, and get them out here working with me. Um, so I definitely have some, some, some down moments where I’m like, you know, I’ve got a deadline coming up it’s late.
Um, and I’m not even close to being done. I, I, I usually come back to family, I would say, as cliche and corny as that may sound, it’s kind of, it’s kind of what, what typically motivates me, that, that in the fact that I really want to get to the point where I wake up at seven and I take the 50 foot walk to my shop rather than jumping in my car and go to my job. So that’s, that’s the goal in life is, is to get me here full time. Um, like I said, I’m not in any huge hurry to do that, but, uh, it’s definitely go. I think that’s most people’s dream is to work for yourself and set your own schedule and then to do something you’re proud of, which I think we’re, I think we’re doing that. So, um, it’s just a, it’s a long road. It’s not an easy road. So I think one, one thing about social media is, you know, no one, no one posts the crappy moments, right? No one, no one posts the kids screaming, you fighting with your wife. So it’s
Kind of everybody’s highlights reel. Yeah. It’s
A highlight reel. Honestly, you got to remember that. It’s not, you know, it’s not rainbows and butterflies for everybody, so everyone’s battling something. Um, so that’s why it’s nice to reach out on Instagram, you know, and check in on people, make sure everyone’s doing okay. Um, because it’s, yeah, we’ll post, we only post the good stuff out here. I mean, I try to, I try to post some bad things, but it’s hard. Right. You want to showcase jaws piranha like the good things that you’re doing, so yeah. Yeah. You got to keep in mind that, that, you know, you see other people’s social media and like, man, their life must be awesome, but they’re, they’re battling something as well. So it’s, you got to remember that and keep everything in perspective.
It’s like keep the big picture in mind, like your goals. Yeah.
Yeah. Now speaking of social media and just, um, seeing what other people post, I mean, I have, as well as Jordan, we both have, um, people we can sort of follow on Instagram that we draw inspiration from and we’ve actually had, I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of those people on this show. So I’m super grateful for that. Um, you guys included, what are, um, some of your inspirations, what are some of your, um, your social media inspirations that you, um, you sort of view as like either a social media mentor or somebody that just, um, makes you strive to be better or, or, or do better?
Yeah, sure. So I’ll go first. I’m sure Ashley has some as well. Um, so I, you know, you guys obviously, um, I’ve been following, uh, Jordan of him following you guys for a while. Don’t we, uh, you, uh, just like my short shorts, don’t you? Yeah, I do. Like, I was sad. We didn’t get to see the, uh, the American flag suits at, at, uh, IMTS they show. Yeah,
I know me too worry. They’re coming back so strong and in 2022.
Yeah. All right. I can’t wait, but, uh, so some other guys and gals that I follow, um, I follow, um, so we’re, we’re fans of your podcast and then machinists therapy hotline as well. So we follow all of those guys there,
Shout out a shout out Tony Jodi and all the, all the guys at machinists there,
Uh, Harry boomer. But, uh, yeah. So, and then, um, Katie Clouser, so, so Tony’s wife, I think she’s, uh, you know, kind of what we’re striving to be. Those two work well together. And they’re a great husband, wife couple, definitely. Um, and what else?
A woman machinist. She’s awesome. She’s really been messaging me a lot and like, just like helping me with things and just like, just like supporting me, like I am a woman getting into this machine is another lens. Yeah.
Is her name. Um, and then your, one of your previous guests, uh, Eddie from, uh, Nueva. Eddie is awesome. He makes, yeah, he’s a good dude. He makes, he makes them all, some parts too. Everything’s beautiful. Um,
Eddie is one of those guys that when he posts his stuff, I just want to fly there and hang out. Yeah. I don’t even want to do anything. I just want to go sit on his back porch and look at nothing, just open fields. And just, if I could hear a jaws piranha machine running in the background and just looking at open fields, it was be the best of both.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There’s I mean, there’s so many health there and the machine as communities grow,
Everyone’s just so supportive. Like you post something or any, like, they just like help you. Like they really do help you, like, they would help you, like, like you don’t know them in real life, but you know, like if they did, like they would be at your door, like to help you, if you ever needed like something
100%, it ties all back into my, just my recent experience. And it just goes to show that the community is 100% great. And I’m really thankful that we’re a part of this giant big, um, big family of just crazy, crazy machinists. Yeah.
So before I ask you my last question here, guys, uh, Jake and Ashley, thank you so much for being on the show and making a poor life choice today and being with us on the podcast. Is there any questions that you’d like to ask me and Donnie while you have us?
So, yeah, I guess what’s, and maybe you mentioned that on a prior episode and maybe I missed it, but what, how did you and Donnie start your relationship? I mean, I Don he’s in Florida now. I mean, Donny, did you previously live in Oklahoma with these guys or what’s that backstory? Jordan? You want me to take this man? Yeah, take it. All right.
So I actually started working at a, um, a tooling company in central Florida. Um, and IMTS was approaching. It was my first IMTS and I was a, uh, sort of like an application specialist was my title. But really what I was doing was showcasing like the performance of the tools, um, customer service and support and all that good stuff, all the things that are, I was taking the brunt of the phone calls and making their day better by making the tools work. I was told that I was going to IMTS, they’re going to stick me in front of a machine. And I was going to run my first product demo. Yeah. I’m in front of all the people that I follow, it was a huge weight on my shoulders because it’s, so it was just a lot of pressure. I’m supposed to like show these people that, you know, I could run these tools and they’re doing this daily.
Um, and I was fairly, I’m fairly new to the community. I mean, I’ve only been machining for, um, five years machining and the community for about eight. So I haven’t been machining it really, really long. And in retrospect to how long you can. Um, and I mucked up and I ordered material that wasn’t going to work for my demo. And the only way that I was going to be able to do this was utilizing master machines. jaws piranhas. I ordered flank. I ordered flame cut material, plane cut three 16 bar verses extruded stock. So it was rounded and I had no way to hold it. It was going to pop out of the fixture every time at the speeds and feeds. I was running to showcase the performance of the tools. So I called him cold, called him at last minute. And he was at a Chili’s I believe sitting at a bar at a Chili’s and he was like, what can I do for? And I said, man, I’m screwed and I need you to bail me out. I don’t know you, you don’t know me. I saw you on Instagram. You were American flag stuff and you look pretty cool. So can you please help me and send me product? I’ll be at home.
Yes. First of all, Donnie, first of all, I never answered the phone and say, what can I do for, I always say, this is my line master machine. This is Jordan. Every time.
That’s all you answered your phone today. That’s super
Dani. I never know who’s calling me. I don’t know if it’s a personal phone call or a business phone call. So even my friends, they get mashed machine. This is Jordan.
And another Testament to master machine is that who answers their phone anymore? Everyone lets it go to voicemail and you call them back. If you want to. I mean you can call. So the fact that he answered my call, it wasn’t even like the phone rang and rang. It was like two rings and he answered national machine. This is Jordan, how can I help you? So I’m like, Hey dude, I’m my name is Dani. You don’t know me. And you have no incentive to help me other than I’m going to be at IMTS. And I want your product in the machine to save my butt and save my job. You’re what it came down.
Where’s that sounded so handsome that I just sent you free jails.
I
For Pell to send you jaws. Yeah. And then, and then we met when we met in person and we’re both like, Oh, I didn’t have this opened. Uh, and we, and we knew that we were each other’s loss brothers. Yeah.
So we, uh, we, we met up at IMTS. He came to the booth, we introduced ourselves. Um, he GRA he groped me. Yep. Um, I was grabbed in places that I haven’t been grabbed before, but it was welcomed. And then we, we went out drinking that night at, uh, at, uh, the jaws piranha machine is meetup. Yeah. Um, did unmentionable things, G really unmentionable things. And um, it’s just been like, it was like the brother from another, it’s just, it felt like a brother.
I don’t think different Dani. I don’t think friends should let each other do things like that.
No friends don’t let friends take tequila. Belly shots. No.
Oh, they don’t off another man’s belly and that should not ever happen. No
It shouldn’t. But it did. And you know what? Look at where it’s gotten us.
Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s like a friendship that will last for eternity. I think.
No, whoever goes first, if it’s me in the coffin or you, yeah. I’ll be sure to do it. Tequila, belly shut off of your dead body. Nice. Thank you. I appreciate that. But I hope you do belly. So anyways, Jake, to answer your question, man, it was literally just a, I was scared of losing my job and I, this guy was nice enough to reach out and, um, helped. And it just turned into this, uh, this awesome friendship that has, you know, brought me to Oklahoma. I got to witness the, the brand new release of their new grill. Um,
Uh, nothing, nothing.
It’s great. It cooks the steak, like you’ve never had before in your life. Um, it just as a, it’s just been a really cool experience and I’m super, again, it all comes down to the instant machinists community. If, if it hadn’t have been there, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing right now. I wouldn’t be interviewing you guys. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go over core to commercial for their product and, you know, go and interview a bomb 79 and uh, run a jaws piranha machine for him for his YouTube channel. I got to record for him. You know, that’s just kind of, it’s just kind of a where it’s taken me and it’s all because of dance machine is community. So it’s really just a matter of how you, how you look at it and just, uh, how you approach it. Yeah. Yeah.
Dani, I feel like you would have had a hole in your heart and you might, would have made a poor life choice, like taking up blacksmith in or something like that. Yeah. I can’t disagree with you there.
And many times where I’ve been sitting on the toilet and I watched some guy make a, make a Damascus, you know, Oh, Curry knife or something like that. I’m like, man, I could do that. I have a, I’ve got a giant 13 by 40, uh, China bomb laid sitting in my back room here that has no power that needs to be running, but let’s get blacksmithing going to,
Yeah, it is pretty therapeutic. If you have a crap day just to like go heat up a piece of metal and smash it it’s pretty good.
Yeah. I think that machining goes along with that as well. Machining was seemed always to be very therapeutic to me. I just liked, um, it took my mind off of the real world because I was so focused on watching, you know, something run, listening to the tool, uh, making sure that it was cutting correctly. There was just so much that goes into machining, that it took my mind. It was like a drug. It took my mind off of the real world and allowed me to kind of escape. And it turned into like this addiction to where my family was annoyed with me because that’s all I talked about. It’s all I watched on YouTube. It’s all I looked for. It’s all I looked to for photos of. And it turned me into a better jaws piranha machinist because I was so you know, so immersed in it and so dedicated to it. But other aside from just being good at being a machinist, it also allowed me to meet just really cool people, um, listened to their story and it’s honestly, it gives me, um, courage to know that it’s, it’s tough. It’s tough for everybody. It’s not just tough for me. It’s not just tough for Jordan or you guys everybody’s dealing with the same struggle and just a slightly different way.
Hey guys, here, here is our last question. Are you guys ready? Okay. Cause we don’t want to hold you guys all night. Cause we know that you guys got to go load some more parts. Um, we do. How does someone get a little
More parking,
Someone get a hold of those amazing raisers. And where did they find you guys on social media?
Uh, right now you can’t get ahold of one of our razors. Cause all slacking, I’m slacking and they’re not in stock, but the new machines taking care of that. Uh, so our goal is to have everything back in stock or most of our stuff back in stock prior to the end of November. And definitely prior to Christmas,
I want, I will sell my razor back to you at an inflated price. And then you can, you can upcharge that. Yeah.
I’m not giving him the jaws back there. Okay. That’s fine.
I actually don’t have a razor, but I’ve recently since I have two girls now actually I have three women in my house. I have no hair on my head and um, I have to shave it a lot, so I could definitely benefit from
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. There’s a few people that shaved their heads. Yeah. We have quite a few customers that, that shave their heads with it. Um, it’s, there’s a learning curve and you gotta find the right blade, but it’s the right angle. It’s definitely doable.
It’s definitely doable. And actually I meant to tie it into this a minute ago and I hate extending this, but I think it, it, it serves the community. Good. Um, Brandon has been helping you guys with some of the lasering.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think that’s just another Testament to the instant machine community.
Yeah. So, so Brandon who’s machine shop outlaw did our laser engraving on our stands. Um, and then he actually just released a pretty cool product. Uh, so those little Knipex pliers that he’s laser engrave. We, we purchased some of those. Hey, Hey, in addition. Yeah. Do you guys want to know a secret before you continue? Sure. Okay.
I just sent him the instant machinist, not the instant machine. That’s wrong. Okay. I’m going to start that over.
I,
I just sent him the machinist therapy hotline. Barbecue vest. Oh
I did. Yeah,
I did. So it, it, he was scared to follow up the teen Wolf video, but I, I, I told him, I believe in you. Yeah.
That’s my second choice, but I couldn’t skip you guys out. It was just, we, we were going to, when we got the vest, we were going to make it like an all-in-one thing. And with timing, with the grill, getting here and a lot of stuff happening, it just didn’t make sense to do it. But I didn’t even think about that. We have all of us on here have all been machinist therapy, hotline, barbecue vest, winners. We have investors.
So just real quick in regards to Brandon. So yeah, he does, he did our lasering. Um, we support him. He supports us. He’s bought pretty much all these products. Um, in addition to that, we have, uh, some leather travel cases and head covers. I’m not allowed to worker, I’m not going to do the blacksmithing thing where I try to learn how to work with leather. So I found a guy who’s also in Pennsylvania who does leather working, um, just as it on the side. And I worked with him to, uh, his name’s spaceman leather on Instagram. If you want to follow him, he’s he does some cool stuff. I do follow him. Yeah. So he makes sort of other cases. Um, and then I’m working worth a, a wood Turner now to develop and offer some, uh, some brushes. So he’s gonna be turning the, uh, the wood handles for the brushes.
Nice. So we’ve been in his name is, uh, Hearst woodworking. So he’s, uh, he’s a good dude as well. So yeah, I mean, I’ve, I’ve learned that I don’t have enough time to learn how to do everything. Um, and I don’t need to learn how to do everything, but there’s plenty of people out there who are experts in other fields are awesome at it. Yeah. So I, I would much prefer to, you know, share the profits and, and, you know, help them make a name for themselves too. And, and again, it comes back to Instagram. I’ve found all those people through Instagram and, uh, it’s just, yeah, it all comes back to the machine as community.
So to bring it back to where can people find you? Where can people find you at on social media, Jake and Ashley, where can people find you?
So you can find me at, just at Yates precision on Instagram. And our website is Yates, precision.com and on Instagram I’m Ash underscore Gates precision.
Very nice guys. Thank you so much for being on the podcast with us tonight. We’re going to end this like we, every other podcast it’s with the boom. It means big overwhelming, optimistic momentum. You guys ready? Three, two, one, boom. Thank you for joining us on episode number nine. If you also do your best thinking on the toilet, then you should recommend this to one of your friends until next time. We’ll see you later.