Joe Couitt started at 18, mopping floors in his father's Swiss machine shop. Seven years later, his father let him program the machines alone - not because he was slow, but because that's how long it takes to know what a Swiss machine will and won't do. He's now founder of JMC Swiss Solutions, a CNC Swiss applications engineer and consultant based in Phoenix, and the person shops in Texas and Ohio call when a part isn't holding tolerance and they've run out of ideas. His perspective on the gap between engineering drawings and Swiss machining capability is shaped by thousands of setups and a generation of knowledge that's leaving the shop floor.
It takes five minutes to stand up and go talk to that guy at the machine. Almost nobody does it.
In this episode:
What Swiss machining actually is
The three DFM failures that show up on almost every Swiss part drawing: chamfer geometry that can't be reached on a sub-inch diameter part, threads that run straight to a shoulder without a relief groove, and milling-heavy jobs routed to the wrong process
Why 99% of Swiss jobs run start-to-finish complete in the machine and what it costs when an engineer designs a part that really belongs on a VMC
The 20-25 year age gap between retiring master machinists and today's shop entrants - why it's a knowledge transfer problem, not just a staffing problem
What Joe's seven-year apprenticeship taught him that no programming course covers, and why the machinist who can consult at the design stage is becoming rare
Bonus Content:
Part 3 of the PDX Exhibitor Series: Send the Practitioner
S7E17 Joe Couitt | How to Design for Swiss Machining
Joe Couitt is the founder of JMC Swiss Solutions and a CNC Swiss applications engineer based in Phoenix, Arizona. He built his career from the ground up — mopping floors in his father's shop at 18, working through every role over seven years before programming machines on his own. He now consults with shops across the country, services and aligns Swiss machines, and recently purchased his own Citizen L20 with his father working alongside him. In this episode, he explains what Swiss machining actually is - guide bushing, zero deflection, ±0.0001" tolerances - and where engineers consistently lose that capability at the drawing board. He covers the three most common DFM failures on Swiss parts (chamfer geometry, thread relief, process selection), why 99% of Swiss jobs should complete start-to-finish in the machine, and what the 20-25 year age gap between retiring master machinists and today's entrants means for the knowledge engineers can no longer assume they'll find on the shop floor. For engineers who design small precision parts or work alongside machined component suppliers, this episode reframes where the Swiss machining gap actually lives.
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📣 PDX 2026 - Built on a Different Psychology
Most trade shows are built around exposure. PDX is built around trust.
There's a reason engineers walk past 90% of booths without stopping and it has nothing to do with your product. Salesperson avoidance is a documented behavioral response. Engineers are trained skeptics. A three-minute pitch from someone with a financial interest in your decision is, in their framework, weak evidence.
PDX changes the format. Exhibitors run short, hands-on training sessions at their booths throughout the day. Engineers arrive in learning mode, not avoidance mode. The psychological contract is completely different and so are the conversations.
From exhibitors who were there in 2025:
"The training session brought us attention and gave us a commitment from the attendees to spend more than a few minutes at the booth." - Trimech
"The small group conversations made for better engagement than simply standing in front of a booth watching people walk by." - Spanner
"Our team connected with the exact people we're building for - manufacturing leads, heads of ops, mechanical engineers." - Quarter20
PDX 2026 - October 20–21 · Mesa Convention Center · Arizona
Booth selection is first come, first served. Many are already reserved.
Contact us using the link below or register directly on our website
Swiss Machining Holds a Tenth. Engineers Lose It Before the Drawing Ships.
The guide bushing is the mechanism behind Swiss machining's precision advantage. In a conventional lathe, material extends past the chuck and deflects under cutting forces - which limits how tight a tolerance you can hold over length. Swiss machining inverts this: the workpiece feeds continuously through the guide bushing, and the cutting tool operates right next to it. The cut always happens at the point of maximum support.
Your turning tool is right next to the guide bushing the entire time, and the material is feeding out. So there's almost zero deflection as the force from the tool pushes against the part.
That's how you hold ±0.0001 inches across six continuous inches of turned diameter. Not through exotic equipment. Through the mechanical advantage of where the cut happens.
What most engineers miss is that this advantage disappears at the drawing board, not the machine. The guide bushing can't fix a chamfer that no tool can reach on a 0.375-inch part. It can't fix a thread that runs straight to a shoulder without a relief groove. It can't fix a job that's 80% milling work assigned to the wrong process.
It takes five minutes to stand up and go talk to that guy at the machine and be like, hey, is this machinable? That's the big one.
The machinist who catches impossible features at quoting is doing the engineer a favor. The engineer who called before drawing the part didn't need the favor. Both options are available. One of them is almost never used.
SEND THE PRACTITIONER
Part 2 of the PDX Exhibitor Series made the case that engineers don't stop for pitches - they stop to watch someone think. Part 3 names the structural requirement that makes the teaching model work: the person at your booth has to have actually done the work. One practitioner does three things a sales team can't do at all, and the engineer who finds that practitioner at PDX remembers it six weeks later when it counts.
If you exhibit at engineering tradeshows, this is worth the read.
Read the full article on The Wave.
When Your Machine Shop Says No
Last year, a customer couldn't find a shop willing to make their part. Difficult material, tight tolerances, small quantity.
We tested our internal supply chain. Made the parts ourselves. Sent them as a surprise.
They worked perfectly. That customer has ordered hundreds more since.
Now available: custom machined parts with Pipeline engineering oversight, pricing that outperforms domestic shops, and the same supply chain we trust for our own work.
Want to learn more? Contact us at the link below: