Partner news, technical deep-dives, and lessons from the people keeping precision manufacturing running.
83 articles indexed
On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, I talk with Richard Kaczmarek — with experience from Briggs & Stratton, Gulfstream, and GE Aviation — about why maintenance should never be the first budget cut, what happens when technology outpaces training, and how 3D scanning and printing let him recreate a custom aircraft wingtip for a fraction of the usual cost.
Read →
On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Jay Olivo — an engineering and reliability manager, leadership trainer, and author — shares how he cut reactive maintenance to under 20% and hit ~93% on-time preventive maintenance by pairing a CMMS with leadership his team actually bought into.
Read →
Every year around this time things slow down — and the reason is budgets. Martin Engster on the year-end lull, and why Centerline's slow time is still busy.
Read →
In a small, niche shop you can't rely on one person. Martin Engster on cross-training Centerline's technicians — and the bonus they earn as they learn harder spindles.
Read →
I'm back in the guest seat on Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights — talking about a strong year in manufacturing, the year-end budget slowdown, Centerline's three legs, how we cross-train our techs, and the biggest problem in the trades: not enough people who want to work with their hands.
Read →A lot of people know Centerline for spindle repair. Not everyone knows the machine shop also makes parts to print — for its own repairs and for other companies.
Read →Martin Engster explains Centerline's 'tripod' — spindle repair, on-site taper grinding, and making parts — and when on-site grinding can keep you running.
Read →A spindle veteran who trained with Martin's father and brother retired this year, got bored, and now comes back several times a week to teach the younger techs the tricks you only learn by doing.
Read →Martin Engster on a year that started slow, climbed all summer, and brought more spindles into the shop than normal — and why business is always a rollercoaster.
Read →Martin Engster on the people problem in manufacturing: a lot of young people want to work behind a computer, but we'll always need plumbers, electricians, carpenters, HVAC — and manufacturing.
Read →On a family trip to Puerto Vallarta, Martin Engster visited the jungle where The Predator was filmed — and couldn't stop thinking like a machine guy about the logistics of getting the gear up there in the 1980s.
Read →Who repairs your spindle matters — but so do the parts they put inside it. Martin Engster on OEM parts, what he's found inside spindles repaired elsewhere, and why a repair should solve the problem, not create the next one.
Read →Growth in manufacturing doesn't hit every company at the same time. Martin Engster explains why a repair facility like Centerline sits on the back end of the manufacturing cycle — and why he still watches what machine builders are doing.
Read →Martin Engster on what he heard from manufacturers, machine builders, and vendors at IMTS and other machine tool shows: production is coming back to the United States — and why that's good news for the industry.
Read →Some people look at a painting and see art; Martin Engster looks at a machine that moves and sees the same thing. Raised near Stuttgart, he shares where his lifelong fascination with machines comes from.
Read →Centerline currently has a spindle in the shop that weighs more than 4,000 pounds. Martin Engster on what it takes to repair a spindle the size of a desk — bearings, electrical, cooling, alignment, and reassembly.
Read →Not every spindle looks anything like the next. Martin Engster on the range Centerline handles — from 45-millimeter dental and circuit-board spindles to one that weighs more than 4,000 pounds.
Read →A human hair is about 100 microns; some of the tolerances Centerline works in are only 2 to 5. Martin Engster on precision spindle repair, reverse engineering parts, and why every small detail matters.
Read →Cutting corners can look like a solution today and become a much bigger problem later. Martin Engster on why a quick fix isn't always a long-term fix in spindle repair.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Miguel 'Mike' Escobedo — Manufacturing Fabrication Manager at Jackrabbit Manufacturing, who started by sweeping floors in 1999 — shares why great operators truly know their machines, how data (not assumptions) finds the real problem, and why manufacturing is a team effort.
Read →This month the tables are turned on Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights. Instead of interviewing someone else, I take the guest seat to talk about what I'm seeing in manufacturing, how Centerline works in microns, why OEM parts matter, and a current repair on a spindle that weighs more than 4,000 pounds.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Dan Walker — Plant Manager at Mako International with 40+ years in manufacturing — shares how his 331,000 sq ft plant runs on skilled people, why maintenance and automation talent is so hard to find, and how an apprenticeship with Macomb Community College is growing it.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Kenneth Welch — a manufacturing supervisor with 23 years at Michelin, now at SendCutSend — shares the simple ideas that keep production moving: running a 'pre-mortem' before equipment fails, keeping the right spare part at the machine, and listening to the people closest to the process.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Matthew Edwards — Plant Facilities Manager and Maintenance Manager at First Solar — shares the maintenance strategy behind a highly automated plant working toward 21,000 solar panels a day: predictive and preventive maintenance driven by data, and why great maintenance is as much about building people as maintaining machines.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Varadarajan 'V' Balaraman — a site plant manager at Standex International building a startup operation inside an established company — shares how he turns failures into teachable moments, knows when technology hits its limit and process takes over, and gives operators a real voice in solving problems.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Ivan Getov — Maintenance Excellence Manager at Eastman Chemical Company — explains why AI and predictive tools can't replace good maintenance fundamentals: moving past the reactive 'hero' mentality, building systems for the full work cycle, and remembering that maintenance is ultimately about people working together.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Reinhardt de Jager — a reliability and maintenance management pro — shares how teams move from reactive to proactive: building real failure modes into the maintenance plan, letting condition data buy them time, eliminating root causes instead of re-repairing them, and remembering that the job is to move steel through the door.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Tony Ingram — Senior Maintenance Supervisor at Daikin Applied — shares how his team keeps equipment ranging from decades old to nearly new running: moving toward predictive maintenance, managing thousands of spare parts, finding skilled technicians, and one failure that left roughly two tons of steel 30 feet in the air.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Trevor Kennedy — Plant Manager for Parker Hannifin's HELAC hydraulic actuator operation — shares how a team of eight keeps 280+ assets running: moving toward predictive maintenance, staging critical spare parts and spindles, and treating maintenance as problem-solving, not just repair.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Sean Archer — a maintenance manager in heavy steel manufacturing leading a team of 13 — shares how preventive and predictive maintenance, root cause analysis, and modern controls like Allen-Bradley and Rockwell are reshaping the skills the plant floor demands.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Joshua Kroll — Facilities Maintenance Supervisor at Trinchero Family Estates and a former Marine Corps and Navy nuclear submarine officer — shares how he prepares a winery for harvest season, grows technicians internally, troubleshoots by challenging assumptions, and puts AI to practical use in maintenance.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Nathan Santiago, Facilities Engineer at C&H/New Holland, shares how large manufacturing operations reduce downtime — tailoring preventive maintenance to real operating conditions, positioning tools near critical equipment, and using data-driven process improvements to eliminate hundreds of hours of lost production.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Gabe Little — a maintenance leader whose career spans Jacobson Logistics, Amazon, ThredUP, and Ross Stores — shares how reliability goes beyond preventive maintenance: asset lifecycle management, CMMS documentation, spare-parts strategy, and the growing role of AI in maintenance analytics.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Cory James, Plant Manager at Zeus Industrial Products, reveals the precision medical-grade tubing behind catheters and stents — and how Zeus balances growth with reliability, rebuilds equipment in-house, and trains the next generation of manufacturing talent.
Read →On Maintenance & Manufacturing Insights, Josiah Peterson of Oldcastle Building Envelope shares a career journey from a rural dairy farm to leading maintenance in glass manufacturing — and the strategies that keep specialized equipment running.
Read →Protect your spindle in transit: how to clean, secure, crate, and document a machine tool spindle for repair so it arrives safely and gets diagnosed fast.
Read →New spindles carry long lead times and high cost. See how repair compares on price, downtime, and performance — and when rebuilding to OEM spec is the smarter call.
Read →What causes spindle runout, how it wrecks tool life and surface finish, and how precision repair, bearing replacement, and taper grinding restore accuracy back to OEM specification.
Read →On the Adapt and Overcome Podcast, Martin Engster shares a story spanning continents, military service, and more than 60 years of family legacy in the CNC manufacturing industry.
Read →Korey Mertz of Advanced Machine Engineering explains why preventive maintenance is a culture, not a checklist — from monitoring drawbar pull force to preserving tribal knowledge and avoiding costly downtime.
Read →Maintenance Manager Todd Gibbs shares how lessons from the U.S. Navy's nuclear submarine program shape reliability-centered maintenance, vibration analysis, and planned shutdowns in modern manufacturing.
Read →Unusual noise, vibration, rising temperatures, or creeping runout — learn the warning signs that a machine tool spindle needs repair before a small problem becomes an unplanned production stop.
Read →James Brett of Carbon Aerospace on maintaining 1,200+ assets across a 650,000 sq ft facility — proactive maintenance, CMMS-driven decisions, and preparing for equipment obsolescence in aerospace manufacturing.
Read →Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages supervisor Ian Long on running can lines at 1,300 cans per minute, handling a 2 a.m. Code Red filler failure, and why leadership and people matter most in high-speed manufacturing.
Read →This Memorial Day, reflect on how planned downtime can enhance operational readiness. Learn why prioritizing machine safety and spindle maintenance during scheduled breaks is crucial for uptime.
Read →How Centerline's core principles of precision, performance, and reliability guide every spindle repair — from comprehensive diagnostics and dynamic balancing to rigorous testing that restores machine accuracy and reduces downtime.
Read →Wichita Industrial Trade Show October 22-24
Read →SycoTec Motor Components for Energy Recovery
Read →Spindle Retrofit Increases Machine Production Potential
Read →Ortlieb's New UltraPE Ultra-Precise Clamping Technology
Read →Industrial Mechanic - CNC Machine Maintenance Tech - Spindle Technician
Read →High-frequency motor spindle type 5060 AC-C5-60-30-ESD
Read →Henninger ZS ONE - New Center Grinding Machine
Read →Centerline Precision Spindle partners with KAVO Industrial Drive Corporation in the North American Industrial Market
Read →Centerline Helps Tool Manufacturer Go Green
Read →High-frequency motor spindle type 5060 AC-C5-60-30-ESD
Read →Talk to our spindle specialists about repair, taper grinding, or a custom build. Fast turnaround, guaranteed performance.
