John Mikulas is the chief engineer who develops CADplans products, and it is his job to make available the plans for the machines our customers request. John has been engineering equipment for 20 years and the new products we have recently introduced are by far the most exciting we have been associated with.

The mixture of his Manufacturing Engineering experience, Design Engineering experience and his natural love for equipment, enhanced CADplans Corp. John states, “As a Manufacturing Engineer, I spent 10 years writing instructions for shop personnel that interpreted engineering drawings to easily understand steps for the manufacture of all types of mechanical devices. As a Design Engineer, I spent another 10 years designing new products using Computer Aided Design (CAD) and my knowledge and education to ensure the designs were correct.”

John continues, “I initially wanted the machines to use on our 11 acres, but, like others, could not justify the cost. This resulted in the first CADDigger being fabricated in the early 1980’s. A magazine published an article about it and readers asked for the plans. With my experience at writing shop instructions and designing, I put the plans together for the first machine. We then had requests for larger and smaller versions of the CADDigger and requests for tractor mounted 3PT hitch versions. With a background of welding in the Navy and several summers of working on a 1000-acre farm, I was able to develop the plans for these new requests. I knew that the majority of our customers had limited shop facilities, so the designs could not require extensive equipment, which is not usually a limitation of manufacturing operations. This was the main design goal of our new products.

All CADplans products are designed for the builder that has limited shop equipment, a welder, bandsaw, torch and hand tools. Also, we knew our customers did not want to spend time deciphering engineering drawings or working with micrometers. This was also the basis for all of our designs and their drawings.

Soon we learned that the CAD software would have to be the first class to help us develop the new designs. We switched to 3D “solids” software that allows us to design new products that are so perfect in the computer, we even know the weight before the first piece of steel is cut. Other software is used to show the range of motion and the forces on the machine being designed. All of this, plus our knowledge, lets us bring the new products to you at a low cost.”

CADplans Corp. is located in the rural Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia which surrounds us with the types of activities that further inspires new designs. We see the needs of the small landowners and small business owners close up and continue to develop the products our customers want. John tries to personally answer all technical and inquiry calls so we can best service our present as well as future customers. We accept customer feedback on an ongoing basis and use it to continue to add the necessary information to the existing plans and develop the new products most requested by our customers.

Feel free to call John if you have any specific questions at (540) 992-4758.