Dylan Jackson on Building a Shop and a Community

Episode 4 of Chips and Tips just dropped, and it is a good one. Tim Paul sat down with Dylan Jackson — co-owner of Proteum Machining and the voice behind the Within Tolerance podcast — to talk about his path into machining, the early days of the shop, and how he ended up becoming one of the most trusted voices in the community.

Dylan does not do a lot of long interviews like this, so hearing him open up about how it all started was a treat. No script, no polish — just real stories from someone who has been in the trenches.

Here are a few takeaways that stood out:

From Hobby to Full-On Shop

Dylan talked about how Proteum started small — really small — and slowly grew into what it is today. There was no huge funding round, no flashy launch. Just a love for making things, a lot of grit, and the willingness to figure things out as he went.

That kind of growth story is what makes this industry what it is. People who start with one machine, one job, and slowly build something they can be proud of.

Within Tolerance Was Never the Plan

The podcast started as a side project. Dylan wanted to connect with other machinists, learn from them, and give them a place to tell their stories. He didn’t expect it to become a go-to for the community — but it did.

Now, Within Tolerance is one of the best windows into what is happening across the machining world. Shops of all sizes. All types of work. And conversations that always go deeper than just tooling and feeds and speeds.

Dylan Brings People Together

One of the best parts of the episode is when Tim and Dylan talk about community. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of running a shop. But Dylan keeps finding ways to connect people — whether it is through the podcast, Instagram, or just DMs back and forth helping someone figure out a problem.

That mindset matters. It is one of the reasons Toolpath exists in the first place — to help more people in this industry learn from each other and build better systems together.

Big thanks to Dylan for taking the time, and to Tim for keeping the conversation easy and honest.

🎧 Episode 4: Dylan Jackson

Listen here: Chips and Tips – Episode 4