Tom Lipton is a career metalworker. He learned to weld at the tender age of nine and has worked in many different job shops that required machine and sheet metal work, along with welding fabrication skills. His industrial experience encompasses consumer product development, laboratory equipment, medical devices, and custom machinery design. Along the way Tom refined his metalworking skills to a high level. He has been awarded six U.S. patents for unique designs. Tom's hobbies are, no surprise, mostly metalworking projects. He's also an avid backpacker and motorcycle rider. Between his wife's requests for custom machinery and his own inventions, Tom is a busy guy in the shop. Nonetheless, now and then he accepts requests to give private lectures and in-plant demonstrations related to the metalworking field. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife, who is also a metalworker and a fine artist besides, together with their Australian cattle dog.