In high school, it was shop class. In college and early in his career, he learned how to make airplane parts and aviation equipment. “I’ve always been interested in making and building things, but I’m just getting started in CNC,” Aaron Rogers, a CNC hobbyist, said. “I’ve just been doing some basic stuff, like making tools for the shop, - just odds and ends as I’m learning to use the Tormach.”

The puck dropped and players with gloves and sticks reacted. Instead of zipping across ice, they jetted through water during the 2006 Vancouver Underwater Hockey club game after a specially designed puck was put into play.

There are Tormach enthusiasts all over the Internet. From CNCzone.com to social media and YouTube – the community for personal CNC machines is growing faster than ever.

As many brick-and-mortar stores are seeing sales drift online and websites like Kickstarter are helping to decide where the market is headed, personal manufacturing has moved from the wave of the future to a tool of production. The “Now Economy” has produced consumers that expect their goods to be high-quality and arrive quickly, which can sometimes be a challenge for traditional manufacturers.

Anybody who has ever worn glasses knows the struggle when your new specs don’t quite fit correctly - the bridge is too tight, the frame is too wide, they fall off your face, etc. That’s why Randy Barnett created Indivijual Eyewear, a company that custom produces eyeglasses for the 80 percent of us that just don’t fit into bulk-design frames.

Check out these pictures of cool thread milled wheel nuts from California PCNC 1100 owner Adam Silver.  Silver uses his Tormach PCNC 1100 mill to machine these and other parts for vintage formula racecars.  Often working without prints and precise details from the original 1970s designs, each part he makes ends up being custom to the unique race car.