Crystal Allen
A Curious Mind Moves Like the Wind
From sailing the Pacific Ocean to co-owning the Cutting Time prototype company, Crystal Allen's journey has moved with the wind. Allen is wired by curiosity, a trait that became obvious during her Alaskan upbringing, to her interest in wind power, to her work at Cutting Time, where she helps take designs and ideas to the next level.
Cutting Time's client list is diverse – to put it mildly. The companies and organizations that they make parts for are spread broadly across science and manufacturing like scattershot. They include Astranis, Boeing, DARPA projects, Google X, Intuitive Surgical, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Neuralink, Tesla, SpaceX, Muon Space and other satellite companies, various U.S. government and university labs, and global leaders in green energy and energy storage.
Like the wind, Allen's journey is anything but linear. “There wasn't a clear path getting into machining and manufacturing,” she says. “It was more of a spark of curiosity that I followed – wherever it led.”
Allen demonstrated talent as a painter in high school and obtained a fine arts degree with a dual emphasis in robotics at San Francisco State University. After college, Allen found a job at Makani, where she worked with a team developing airborne wind turbines, but her interview process was non-traditional: It began with a happenstance meeting while doing volunteer work on a friend's farm.
“The guy I was paired with was the controls programmer at Makani,” she recalls. “After eight hours of digging a hole together, he goes, ‘I think you'd really like it at Makani.' A week later, I showed up and volunteered because they were a small team of mostly MIT Ph.D.s operating with little funds and tons of enthusiasm. I kept showing up, and eventually, they offered me a role.”
Allen began in the electrical engineering building, wiring harnesses and soldering circuit boards, then went over into fabrication, welding test stands. From there, she started machining, beginning on the manual machines and eventually moving on to CNCs once rapid prototyping was needed for the growing project. Her prototype work involved using a giant DMS 5-axis gantry router to trim composites and cut fuselage parts.
“At the start, I was doing it on my own and doing it after hours. I was fortunate to work somewhere that encouraged us to work on home projects,” Allen remembers. “We were all working on stuff after hours and helping each other out, and it was to their benefit because our skills were growing, too. Autodesk Fusion has made learning very accessible when you don't know how to program. I also used Siemens NX, and that was a powerful programming atmosphere for CAD-CAM.”
Endurance
One day, near the tail end of her time at Makani, Allen found herself hanging out at a marina in San Francisco. She noticed a wooden sailboat that, while operational, obviously needed work. She struck up a conversation with the crew and learned that they were looking for a place to work on their boat. She recommended the Berkeley Marina, and she ended up visiting them there as well, offering to help with repairs.
“I brought tools over, and we just started forming a friendship,” she recalls. “A year later, after working on the boat, they invited me to join them as they sailed the Pacific coast. Of course, I said yes. When am I ever going to have the opportunity to just set out on an adventure like this? To me, it was the closest thing to being an astronaut.”
Cutting Time
Back on shore after her sailing adventure, Allen reconnected with Jeff Tiedeken, whom she met at Makani while he was helping with machining (see Jeff's story). Tiedeken had helped Allen learn design software and operate a CNC.
The two clicked, their adventurous natures commingling and eventually leading to the formation of Cutting Time in 2020 (see story). The shop specializes in building models and prototypes for West Coast tech companies. Allen machines, welds, fabricates, quotes, ships finished parts, and makes sure the company gets paid.
“I get to meet some of the most brilliant and interesting people. I learn a ton by proxy just working with them,” she says. “These people have so much specific, focused knowledge in areas like nuclear and energy generation and medical devices. I feel like I am getting to go to a master class every single time I work with them.”
Allen believes she's made for this environment, and if girls and women were exposed to this type of manufacturing, they would see it as a place where they could belong and contribute.
“Women belong in a machine shop as much as anyone. It's a great space to be creative and to be curious,” she says. “Women can offer an outside-of-the-box perspective, and that's unfortunately not as available or encouraged in education early on.”
IMTS Experience
Allen has been to IMTS four times. Even with her curious mind and after working with headline-grabbing innovators – or perhaps because of these things – IMTS awed her.
“When I first went to IMTS, I was in shock at the size and complexity,” she says. “It was a true spectacle, and I thought that it was just going to be some machines on a showroom floor.”
To Allen, the personal connections made at IMTS mean as much as the technology. With two Matsuura MX-330 5-axis CNCs in the shop, and by influencing other shops to purchase Matsuura, she and Tiedeken have had the opportunity to connect with the company's executives. Matsuura always invites them on a Lake Michigan boat cruise during IMTS. In August of 2025, Allen and Tiedeken visited Matsuura's factory in Japan, where they spent personal time with the family-owned company.
Allen and Tiedeken are also particularly close to Al Whatmough, CEO of Toolpath. Toolpath software is an artificial intelligence-driven solution that operates within Autodesk Fusion and offers tools to improve quoting and tool selection, automatically develop tool paths, and improve CAD-CAM efficacy.
“Solutions like Toolpath help make quoting more accurate by choosing the right tools. Quoting takes a ton of time, and you don't get paid for quoting,” says Allen. “Artificial intelligence is that annoying micromanager that does everything better than you. Don't be afraid of it; make it work for you.”
Allen notes that IMTS 2024 was special because it was Toolpath's first show. To help Whatmough with booth attractions, she and Tiedeken built a popcorn machine shaped like a Haas mill and drove it to the show. Because fun is what you make it, each IMTS, Allen and Tiedeken also help organize a bowling party inspired by the cult movie “Kingpin,” take spontaneous bike rides around Chicago, and enjoy exhibitor-sponsored boat cruises on Lake Michigan.
“Some years, IMTS is the only vacation I get,” says Allen. “IMTS is worth shutting down the shop because I come home inspired. I'm ready to make more stuff. It's my personality to find the next thing to learn, and emerging technology is at the forefront of IMTS.”
Register now for IMTS 2026, September 14–19, 2026, in Chicago.