Gene Gibson owns G & S Machining, a small, family-owned business in Nelson, Minnesota. After years of working for a machining company, Gibson decided to open his own shop and “see what happens.” He pulled the trigger on a Milltronics VM4020 and hasn’t looked back.
G & S Machining works with mostly aluminum, but also machines some stainless and cold rolled steel. The shop does a lot of one-off parts and custom work.
“I do a lot of ones and twos. I don’t get 40s and 50s,” Gibson said regarding his shop’s part volume.
With such a high mix of parts and typically small batch sizes, the straightforward programming of the Milltronics control is critical to the shop’s success.
“I like the hand programming. It’s great. I program all day long; I mean part after part after part,” explained Gibson.
The VM4020 has X, Y, Z travels of 40 x 20 x 20 inches, a 10,000 rpm, BIG Plus®, ISO #40 spindle, and a 24-station, double-arm tool changer.
Gibson credits his VM4020 machine with helping get accurate parts to his customers on time.
“I love them. They’re absolutely top of the line in my opinion. I wouldn’t order any other machine, no way man. I just think they’re fast, they’re true, I mean, they’re quick, man,” Gibson said about Milltronics machines.
He has worked on Milltronics machines for over 10 years and has no plans to explore other options.
“That’s all I’ve ever used, that’s all I want to use — Milltronics.”
