My name is Richard Simpson. I am a 2019 graduate of the M2K program at New Century Careers in Pittsburgh PA. Having completed all my class projects and 5 NIMS certifications, I set out to produce a more complicated demonstration of my new skills.

It took some time to work out all the math, gather the tooling, and set up the machine to produce the first part from a rather large piece of scrap. The second piece only took about two hours to produce. Later at my first machinist job site, on lunch breaks and after hours, I made about a dozen slightly smaller cubes and gave them away to family and friends.

The next year, having been laid off due to COVID-19, I returned to school and completed 4 more certifications. I then refined the cube process to use cheaper 1 inch stock and more advanced tooling, reducing production time even further. I then added engraving to highlight the core values at the church I belong to, Grace Life Church in Monroeville PA.

Nate, a fellow New Century student, has helped me polish the cubes and is now learning to perform the CNC operations I’ve programmed as well. Much thanks to Mike Mills for teaching me so much about CNC, and to Chuck Fluharty for the advanced Trak training (and pocket tees).

We have now given away over a hundred sample cubes and hope to take sales orders very soon. Pricing is yet to be determined.