The Fabricator

09/11/2026

Jo Mackiewicz once was the only woman at Howe’s Welding and Metal Fabrication. Today, the entire shop crew is women, but learning the trade still comes down to questions, practice, and experience.

“Gaining proficiency involves incremental lessons and subsequent practice over multiple projects—and multiple years,” she writes. “That’s true for everyone, no matter the gender.”

Jo Mackiewicz once was the only woman at Howe’s Welding and Metal Fabrication. Today, the entire shop crew is women, but learning the trade still comes down to questions, practice, and experience.

09/10/2026

Tube bending can feel like black magic. 🔮

Randy Krickeburg of Sharpe Products joins The Fabricator Podcast to talk about the tooling, experience, and know-how it takes to make difficult tube bending a little less mysterious.

09/09/2026

The average machine operator is getting older, and replacements arrive with less experience. Every retirement takes decades of judgment out the door. But how do you document an operator’s knowledge, and how do you keep it from dying in a binder like the last set of work instructions?

Diego Echenique, CEO/co-founder of SenseiLab and an expert in developing work instructions for manufacturers, offers six steps to capture valuable institutional knowledge before veteran workers retire.

An expert in developing work instructions for manufacturers offers six steps to capture valuable institutional knowledge before veteran workers retire.

09/04/2026

Cleaning slats on a laser cutting machine is a necessary function, but it also can be a time-consuming effort. And every hour spent cleaning, repairing, or replacing slats is an hour the laser is not cutting blanks and generating revenue.

Claudio Schutz, vice president and general manager at Richardson Electronics, Ltd, highlights common slat cleaning methods and preventive maintenance options to minimize laser machine downtime and ensure part quality.

Cleaning laser cutting slats is necessary, but excessive slag buildup can consume valuable production time. Preventive maintenance can help improve throughput.

09/02/2026

Slow quoting isn’t always a quoting problem.

Join CADDi’s Marcin Zmarzly and Sid Srivastava as they break down common quoting myths, uncover hidden cost drivers, and walk through a real RFQ from drawing to price in this FREE webinar.

Register now: https://ow.ly/cZB450ZIjo3

08/28/2026

A quick scroll on social media reveals many examples of phenomenal welds completed by very talented individuals. But no matter how many likes it generates, if a weld doesn’t meet quality expectations, it’s a bad weld.

“Regardless of how good the Instagram picture is, lack of fusion doesn’t show up well. That cover pass doesn’t show the inadequate pe*******on, improper joint preparation, or a procedure that was completely ignored,” writes Greg Siepert, program coordinator/welding instructor at Hutchinson Community College. “On the other hand, a weld can be less than photogenic … and still meet every requirement placed on it.”

Siepert says the goal shouldn’t be learning the motion to make a good-looking weld but understanding the how and why of making a good weld.

A picture of a weld on Instagram might generate a bunch of likes, but that doesn’t mean that the weld meets quality expectations.

08/26/2026

ERP systems, automation tools, and AI applications promise to make fabrication shops more efficient, but workflow needs to be fixed first to help ensure success.

“Replacing paper-based processes with digital ones isn’t a bad thing, but if the process itself is inefficient, you’ve simply digitized the inefficiency,” writes Kevin Saboori, founder of Optima Workflow Consulting LLC.

Find out how to simplify workflows, standardize processes, and eliminate inefficiencies to set the stage for successful technology implementation in your shop.

Before investing in ERP, AI, or automation, sheet metal fabricators should simplify workflows, standardize processes, and eliminate inefficiencies.

08/21/2026

After 106 years in business, contract manufacturer Amerequip has about 67,000 active files with drawings, but it had no good way of organizing and retrieving them.

“Let’s say when we’re designing a product and there are some parts that are similar to what we’ve used in the past. At that point, we would have to use the memory of engineers to help with the manual searching to try and find that file,” said Vice President of Engineering Tim Dorn. “And frankly, that didn’t happen that often because it was such a challenging process.”

Editor-in-Chief Dan Davis shares how Amerequip found and implemented CADDi Drawer software to organize its files and make them searchable, shaving significant time off certain projects.

Amerequip thought it had a good way of managing design files and part drawings, but those numbers kept growing. A new data search software is changing that.

08/19/2026

What started as a tool to help welding students quickly verify material thickness and electrode diameter has become a useful tool for welders of all skill levels.

Don Smith designed the Pro Welders Gauge to help prevent material and electrode mix-ups, but experienced welders have embraced it, too. Because no matter your skill level, doing the job right and avoiding rework matters.

Weldersgauge.com
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The Pro Welders Gauge helps welders quickly identify material thickness, electrode diameter, and common fillet weld sizes to avoid costly mistakes.

08/18/2026

In the digital age, video can inform, educate, and build awareness in a matter of minutes. But are marketing videos doing enough to fill the sales pipeline?

For metal fabricating companies on tight marketing budgets, video production efforts should focus on sales more than brand building, says Robert Weiss, president of MultiVision Digital - NYC Business Website Video Marketing Services.

Find out how fabricators can use sales videos to showcase capabilities, answer buyer questions, build trust, and turn website visitors into qualified leads.

Metal fabricators can use sales videos to showcase capabilities, answer buyer questions, build trust, and turn website visitors into qualified leads.