No Mentor, No Problem, He Taught Himself Everything
We took a tour to Protodyne Manufacturing in North Carolina and visited the self-taught machinist whose specialties center around mechanical development and design; 3-, 4- and 5-axis CNC machining; fabricating; and TIG and MIG welding!
Hailing from Illinois, Kyle Hill, once a sprint car racer, found his groove in welding during his youth. In high school, he hit up Danville Area Community College to hone his welding skills, paving the way for a future in engineering. After shifting gears to Charlotte, NC, in 2004, he bagged a Mechanical Engineering degree from UNC Charlotte in 2009, all while working hands-on as a machinist.
Before kickstarting Protodyne in June 2010, Kyle clocked in hours gaining engineering stripes. From testing vehicles at John Deere and the Electric Power Research Institute to rocking it at Duke Energy as a Mechanical/Electrical Engineer. Now at Protodyne, he's the captain steering a manual machine shop ship, diving into everything from mechanical development to CNC machining and welding.
To learn more about Protodyne Manufacturing, visit protodynemfg.com/
or follow them on social media:
Facebook: / protodyne
LinkedIn: / kyle-hill-69a89b25
Instagram: instagram.com/protodynemf...
Twitter: / protodyne
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Don't kid yourself boys and girls this guy is sharp.
Same thing i was thinking
And the 12-16 hour days help too!
Lol he has a mechanical engineering degree. Good place to start with machining 😂
Well he's an engineer
definitely good place to start @@justinb1488
I went to college with Kyle, glad to see his doing well in business, he has come long way from when we used to run the Haas tool room mills with no tool changes in the basement shop of Duke Hall.
This young fella is a genius machinist. Future looks bright for those around him. Best of Blessings
Couldn’t agree more!
I started grinding and cleaning. Was taught the waterjet. Then Ended up teaching myself cad and cam and now I run my cnc department running 2 mills and a lathe.
Same, was doing deburring, forklift parts around, and shipping for month. One of the guy noticed my attn to details and quick thinking so they want to train me one small vertical mazak tomorrow. Started watching basic CNC videos, explanation on Gcodes, different tool bits. What’s your top three subjects you wish you paid more attention to as a beginner?
I did the same thing. I bought the equipment, watched videos, read books and really absorbed any info I could. I've already paid for my machines many times over. I have a heavy truck collision shop commercial sandblasting as my main thing, but adding machining has been a good move for me.
There’s never been a better time to self-teach with all the really incredible resources out there right now!
@@iansandusky417 Exactly right. I feel like I got more out of buying the machines and doing it my way, than any college could have done. Self teaching is WAY cheaper and faster.
This is absolutely awesome. I used to watch this kid sling dirt at our local race tracks here in central Illinois. I have been cutting chips for 25 yrs and recently started my own shop and this is definitely inspiring. Good job Kyle !!!
Moto ?
Very good machinist. I never thought that could be done self taught machinist. Learn a 5 axis mill just amazing
Definitely the one thing he's had is a network of friendships at hand. It's a big leg up for sure.
Awesome looking shop and very inspiring being self taught.
Love the unicycle in the background! Beautiful shop and machinery.
Really great shop tour. Kyle rips!
This is great. Love seeing this.
Really enjoyed this, good luck to this guy, very impressive shop!
no joke about the cost to make parts.. you really have to be willing to give up everything personally to start from scratch on your own. i started with a benchtop lathe and have only been away from my shop 8 days in the last 10 years.
I love this Guy, that's how I tackle things dive in. God bless this Guy.
FANtastic! Great job man 👌
Kyle is a great guy and has a fantastic setup, I was at his previous shop when he was making those water pumps. I know his dad and he's certainly no slouch either.
I wish this guy all the success in the world..... Very inspirational
Humble and smart. Hard to come by nowadays. Great video and wish you and your shop the best
Beautiful set up, well done
Great story to hear when you are on a similar path
Amazing and beautiful shop, really nice manifolds!
Outstanding tool guy with skills that go beyond your standard machinist, degree helped. What a shop, lots of hard work and long hours making thing work. Great video, great tool guy.
You know this guy is a genius as soon as you see the unicycle. 3:32
Cool video. I work at an injection molding shop that is just a few miles from Kyle's. Have to remember to give him a shout for stuff we need in the future.
I thought I was the only one who was self-taught in machining. I got my learning by attending the school of trial and error, mostly error. When I retired in 2018, I sold off my CNC mill and my Gunsmithing lathe; along with alot of my other metal working tools. Since I was retired, I thought I really wouldn't need them anymore. Boy was I wrong. Now I've slowly started buying the kinds of benchtop mill and lathe I started out with.
What brands are you using for the machines?
@lmoser3482 I started out with the cheap Harbor Freight mini mill and mini lathe. I sold the mini lathe and moved up to a Grizzly 9x19 metal lathe and from there I upgraded to a Grizzly gunsmithing lathe. I still own that original Harbor Freight mini mill that I bought way back when. I kept it as a drill press while at the same time breaking down and buying a Tormach 770 with all the bells and whistles. I just picked up a cheapo Vevor mini lathe. What a piece of crap that turned out to be. I bought it off of Amazon. They sent out a completely demolished mini lathe. I sent it back and they sent out another identical brand new lathe that arrived busted up enough to require replacement parts to get it up and running. That was about two months ago and once I got the replacement parts installed, five minutes into its' maiden run, one of the brass studs that holds one of the smaller gears just sheared off. The only reason I've kept that piece of crap Vevor mini lathe is because they reimbursed me forty-percent of the cost of that lathe. Most of my time on that mini lathe so far has been spent installing replacement parts and making higher quality replacement parts for it. By next week I should have it up and running again with all new, more robust DIY fabricated parts in critical areas of the mini lathe. Don't buy a Vevor Mini Lathe. They can be more trouble than they're worth. I'm still waiting for that sheared off brass stud part to be shipped to me. In the meantime, I've already fabricated two of the same parts with this semi functional mini lathe.
Well sir you have a super nice shop congratulations thanks for creating so much hope for people trying to start a business I wish you success
Very inspiring mindset, awesome
It shows how important a positive attitude is. Seems like he has the potential to be a good machinist over time.
Humble man
Impressive stuff
If I was a much, much younger man, I would move to this fellows shop and beg to work for him. Next lifetime.
Nice looking shop.
good video and good shop
Dude, I envy you. I so bad want to start my own shop. I don’t want to go into debt, making almost 100k a yr driving truck and saving for a cnc mill. I’m studying everything I can, I’m like a sponge because trucking is terrible for my mental health. Congrats to you!
Get a loan , maybe look into used cnc
Looking at getting a Langmuir MR1 . What’s your opinion on it? Seeing some hate by some machinists
@@Houcnc "I don’t want to go into debt"
If trucking is bad for your mental health, running your own machining operation is going to wreck you.
@@jakeaustin901no need to go I to debt? You also don't need brand new machines. I've got a few machines and do everything with cash.
I bought a cnc router and learned on that plus 3d modeling and programming. Took a job at a start up job shop after that and taught myself on a brand new vf2ss. Had to learn more complex stuff and metal milling. Also had to figure anodizing, powder coating, heat treating, passivating, and electropolishing then wrote the instructions for that shop. From there moved to another shop and got tossed on cnc lathes. Taught myself manual gcode and cmm. Now i'm waiting for them to let me move over to the big boy auto load 3+ axis lathes. Heavily debating on just starting my own shop after that.
By all means, have faith and jump into your own shop!
Lord have Mercy.. If this man had a quality machine like a Makino or DMG Mori... He'd rule the world.
Awesome shop. Kyle seems really sharp. I piece of advise I might suggest. The 12-16 hours a day is great in short bursts but be careful or you will end up getting “Burned Out”I did 12-16 hours for over 8 years and I got pretty burned out. I still have some regrets about all that. Beautiful shop, nice equipment hopefully he can cut down the hours just a bit and find the Balance Great video, thanks for sharing!!!😊
If it’s 5 days a week, that’s nothing dude.
Would love to see you visit my friend’s shop, Ace Machine, located in Florence, KY (just south of Cincinnati).
Ad like to work for Him,he is very inspiring,am a young machinist from Kenya.
Water jetting the profile of the header flanges will definitely save you some time if do bulks. Leave .03 then get it setup in the mills boom, not much material to take off
I’ve worked at one of the best high speed prototype shops in my area and our tooling department doesn’t play around with quality, time, and efficiency
I was a machinist for fifty years. News flash, most machinist are self taught. It is a great ojt carreer. And that was before computers and insert tooling.
I'm not gonna lie. Saying the Bridgeport and manual lathe were basically toys made me a lil jealous lol
I have an important question to ask. I was tearing down a Chrysler 3.7L V6 out of a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. I haven't done anything with an engine in 30 years, before that I was a Chrysler Tech. Times have changed and during teardown, I stamped the rods and caps with the position they came from. I started going through an online manual to get the specifications. That's when I noticed the warning not to stamp the rods or I could possibly damage them. I would like to know from an unbiased machine shop. Should I replace them, just reuse them or should I get them checked by a machine shop for cracks? Please let me know I do not know what to do. Thank You! Steve
make 1 hour 2 hour tour videos of milling machine shop
❤he's great with Maths 😊
This is better than sharp. This is impressive
using Mastercam to make these parts is amazing lol
I work with turning machines all day. I love mill-turns. I hate milling... Is that normal.
Did the samething at work. 5 axis is easier with mastercam accessories.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
No doubt those self taught people are the best but extremely rare , Frank Loyd Wright was self taught and Paul McCartney can’t read music he’s self taught. For most stay in school but the best you will find are freaks and rare birds.
I think one of the mistakes machinists make is they don't try to invent products and bring them to market.
304 easier than 316. Likes to warp when less than 1/4” thick or so, cut it every day
Absolutely love it! I'm also a self taught machinist located in ABQ NM Mega Corp. WWG1WGA 🇺🇲
incredible guy hopefully he ends up filthy rich
That’s a hard road being self taught.
He is a Mastermind ! This is the type of guy where the baby mommas want kids from......
90% is common sense. 90% of the people do not have it.
Common sense is uncommon.
Common sense is destroyed in the institutional schools.
Пожалуйста. Спрашивайте про трудности.
Dude still has a lot to learn
Every machinist does
God I didn’t understand a single word of this. Very interesting though
I Would work for minimum wage just to learn
Damn, i more like Turning it’s so easy how can people have Problem with turning?
8:14 - You're able to make parts like that all in one go with a Hass CNC?
You can learn anything .........I mean ANYTHING with today's internet. All you have to do is not be a dumbass :D
Well, shit.
smart dude , agreed with him on cnc turning , its just not fun.
Thought I wouldn’t like it but I loved it, reason being is because you don’t need master-cam for complex parts you can hand program crazy parts a lot easier than on the mill don’t get me wrong I love the mill but you need like 400 lines of code just to square up a block, add a few chamfers and to cut a semi complex pocket. Mastercam is practically a necessity due to time and math.
That's pretty much the only way to learn. Otherwise, you're taught, and you still have to learn how to do it your own way.
The difficult thing about being self taught is you are unaware of what you don’t know.
The difficult thing about being taught by someone else is you don't know what they taught you wrong. See how easy that was...
@@derrick_v so, the blind leading the blind? I guess. Someone successful enough to be teaching might only be wrong about 10 percent of what they teach. But starting off knowing nothing and teaching yourself as you go is going to be 80 percent things you don’t know and aren’t aware you don’t know it.
And don’t get me wrong I’m not bashing this guy. It’s just a paradox of being self taught.
The learning curve pales in comparison to other hobbies or career paths. Lots of Machine Lords around here haven’t done anything else in their lifetime so they have zero idea. It’s amusing.
Only mill guys hate turning 😜
Made in 🇺🇸!!! 🫡
Thank you for the video! Now I know how to get started with my own business. Engineering degree -> Successful friends that need parts made -> Machine shop. now to start on that engineering degree.....Actually does a Bridgeport fit into a 3rd floor apartment? Oh no....
Victim mentality at its finest 🤡
Self taught but went to college for mechanical engineering 😂
50 years cutting metal, 38 years running my own shops. Got into business with manual equipment. Couldn't afford nc/cnc back then even though I had the knowledge to run/program/setup and build fixturing for them I had to breakout on my own. Tough to compete against automation, had to do the one offs and low volume jobs bigger shops didn't bother with. 10 years in I started buying new cnc lathes/ milling centers, 12 in all along with the manual machines that always come in handy at times. High volume production paid the bills and then some. Start out with what you can afford, avoid the banks if you can. A small shop will give you an education along the way in other areas you may not have at present but certainly will need. As far as that M.E. degree, a handy thing to have but not necessary. I spent the last 20+ years of my career teaching M.E.'s how to design and spec components for efficient manufacturing. I believe anyone wanting that degree should spend 4 working years making chips before they enter that classroom, then they'd be a real M.E.
WTF!! INCORRECT TITLE!! DUDE HAS BS IN MECH ENG! NO METORZ DURING THAT? AND HE SAID HIS "PEERS" FROM SCHOOL GAVE HIM A BUNCH OF WORK! WTF IS THE DEFINITION OF A MENTOR THEN? CUZ IM CONFUSED
Most people don't have a Mentor and teach themselves everything ??
What is it with blue collar shops and the American flag? 40 years in shops I never saw a flag in the 50's 60's or 70's. And what's up with wearing the flag and graphically altering it into all most unrecognizable bug guts on a windshield. I thought the flag is sacred? Then why is it turned in to beach towels and underwear?
wait wait lol he's a mechanical engineer. fake title
No mentor? He legit says he has an engineering degree and used to do this work back in high school.
machining is not hard. its almost as easy as sawing
Lol
Self taught. Isn't every machinist? Very independent and probably don't get along well with management.
The bigger the flag the more patriotic you are.
He has worked in a machine shop since highschool, and has mechanical engineering degree. So no mentorship, not even from the cnc shop where he worked at in high school? Not even from the old bearded, long haired machinist dude that looks like he is retired and just hanging out by his machine, but he actually still works there; he never mentored you either?
Not to be a dick, but as a 30 year fabricator and 15 years of self taught machining practices, i can honestly say, you dont know everything yet, nor should you....
WORST "INTERVIEW" EVER
That's a laugh, really, another stupid youtube video.