John Saunders
ANCA's Tool of the Year contest is once again underway for the fifth year in a row. The competition is based on the passion and the craft of tool making and celebrates the highly skilled tool grinding community.
This year the panel of judges will include John Saunders, Saunders Machine Works, among a select group of industry experts.
John Saunders, President of Saunders Machine Works (SMW) and founder of YouTube channel NYC CNC, started his business about 15 years ago when he was trying to bring a product to market as a young entrepreneur. Admittedly not knowing anything about machining or even manufacturing, he ended up purchasing a benchtop CNC machine while living in New York City. At the time, his sole goal was to try to understand what machining was and how it worked. He was not planning on making parts himself, but wanted to be able to better communicate with engineers and machine shops on what parts they needed, and ended up becoming passionate with the industry. This led to him documenting his journey on his well-known YouTube channel, called NYC CNC.
About seven years later, Saunders left New York city and moved back to central Ohio where he grew up. It was there, in Zanesville, OH, he started Saunders Machine Works as a "proper" brick and mortar business.
In the early years, the company did some job shop work and other projects, but now focuses on its line of Fixture Plates, as well as accessories, like the Mod Vise. The Mod Vise is a modular workholding system that allows one to hold small parts, big parts, dual station parts, etc. In addition to that, SMW continues to publish a lot of YouTube videos and offers hands-on CNC training classes where interested parties can learn CAM and how to operate CNC Machines.
"I feel the biggest development in the machine tool industry, and the part I care about most, is the knowledge people can now gain from YouTube and other online resources, and how that learning may be enough to actually prepare them to take the next step to buy a machine or start a side business. Or a young person can get guidance on how to get into a trade or an engineering program," said Saunders. "I think that is only going to continue."
Saunders first became familiar with ANCA while on a shop tour for NYC CNC in a facility using ANCA machinery. He will attend IMTS 2022 for his role as a judge in ANCA's Tool of the Year contest. He says competitions are important to the industry because "they bring a sense of community and a community bonding-plus, it is really about having fun and showing off what you can do."
NYC CNC (www.nyccnc.com) has published over 1,000 videos and regularly posts new videos on CNC machining and manufacturing entrepreneurship.
For more information contact:
Saunders Machine Works
1554 Fairview Road
Zanesville, OH 43701
740-487-0705
support@saundersmachineworks.com
www.saundersmachineworks.com
ANCA Inc.
31129 Century Drive
Wixom, MI 48393
248-926-4466
usainfo@anca.com
www.anca.com