Charlie Brumfield was an old-school Dungeons and Dragons player looking for a gift for some of his gaming buddies when he decided to start up Artisan Dice. “Within 48 hours I found myself in the dice-making business,” Brumfield says. “Our first day in business I built a website, put it up Sunday night, and by 6:00 AM Monday morning we had $1700 in sales. It’s been rockin’ and rollin’ ever since.”

In an attempt to maximize work space, Eric Tate of Tate Machine Works took to finding a new place for his Tormach Jog Shuttle. And the Shuttle Stow was born.

Kickstarter has become one of the better ways for startups to test the market with their products, and many of these startups have utilized the capabilities of their Tormach machines to develop and create their goods – it’s happened several times already.

Here at Tormach, we are big fans of start-ups and entrepreneurs, but for many would-be businesses, the leap from an idea to making money can be daunting. That’s where crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter come in. Crowdfunding isn’t just a buzzword around start-ups and Maker communities.

Garage Manufacturing Grows Up For much of history, manufacturing has been the work of artisans, craftspeople, and trades workers. The products created were made by hand in short runs, and often with customized elements.

Tormach products keep popping up in cool Kickstarter videos!