{"id":81880,"date":"2026-02-03T08:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?p=81880"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:17:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T18:17:43","slug":"fusion-community-spotlight-adam-booth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/fusion-community-spotlight-adam-booth\/","title":{"rendered":"Fusion Community Spotlight: From Traditional Machinist to Modern Shop \u2013 Adam Booth\u2019s Fusion CNC Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Adam \u201cAbom79\u201d Booth, shares how he blends manual skills, CNC, and Fusion to grow his shop and products, while also offering practical tips for other machine shops.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adam Booth here, though some of you may know me online as Abom79. I\u2019m a third\u2011generation machinist based in Pensacola, Florida, and the owner of a small but mighty job shop where old\u2011school manual machining and modern CNC live under the same roof. My work today combines repair and job\u2011shop projects, CNC production, product development, and educational content many of you have seen on my YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

My roots in machining<\/h2>\n\n\n

I grew up in my family\u2019s machine shop, sweeping chips and cleaning machines long before I ever stood in front of a lathe on my own. Over time I went from helper to full\u2011time machinist, learning the trade on manual lathes and mills and doing the kind of general industrial repair work that keeps local utilities, contractors, and small businesses moving. When my dad retired and sold off the largest equipment, I brought the remaining machines home and built the original \u201cAbom79<\/a>\u201d home shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That home shop became the stage for my videos, where I share real jobs, real setups, and the thought process behind each cut. My long\u2011form videos turned into a resource not just for hobbyists, but also for colleges and technical schools that now use segments in their machining programs to show students what real\u2011world work looks like on the shop floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My CNC shop today<\/h2>\n\n\n

These days I\u2019m running my own operation out of a dedicated space in a business park in Pensacola. On the manual side, I\u2019ve got a Precision Matthews engine lathe, a KBC vertical mill, and a lot of well\u2011organized high\u2011speed\u2011steel tooling that\u2019s perfect for traditional manual work. Alongside that is one of my favorite machines: an American Pacemaker wartime lathe that handles the heavy turning and pays tribute to the heritage I came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the CNC side, the shop now includes vertical machining centers and a CNC lathe, supported by proper workholding, a jib crane, and the usual lineup of shop support gear. That mix of manual and CNC capability lets my company handle everything from one\u2011off repair and custom work to repeatable production jobs and branded products like my drill indexes, which are anodized and ready to ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learning CNC and Fusion<\/h2>\n\n\n

For most of my life, I was purely a manual machinist. A few years back, I started to feel that if I didn\u2019t learn CNC and modern CAD\/CAM<\/a>, I\u2019d be left behind as the industry moved on. That\u2019s what pushed me to expand into a new space and commit to CNC equipment and a new way of working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fusion<\/a> is now at the heart of how I program my CNC work. I\u2019ve been fortunate to learn Fusion with the help of my friend Kevin at Mechanical Advantage, who has been my coach and mentor on the software side. Together, we model parts correctly, pick the right toolpaths, and build workflows that make sense for a one\u2011man shop running real customer parts and products. Every new CNC project in my shop is another step in that learning journey, and I try to bring viewers along for that ride in my videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recommendations to my fellow machinists<\/h2>\n\n\n

Whether you\u2019re a manual machinist, or a one\u2011person shop or small business owner, here\u2019s what I\u2019d pass along from my own journey:<\/p>\n\n\n\n