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Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

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Re: Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

#171

Post by Kaze404 »

jpindar wrote: post #144
Kaze404 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's custom Guitar Hero guitars I'd like to get in touch to buy one. If not, I hope someone reading this does.

I've thought of making various custom (and ruggedized) game peripherals. The electronics and switches I could do (assuming the ICs are available), but designing housings to be 3d printed might be tricky. For a guitar, however... possibly having the body made of wood like a real electric guitar could be a selling point.

There are plenty of guides for 3d printed guitars specifically, and from the perspective of someone who's never 3d printed anything they don't seem too complex. Not sure about other controllers though.

Re: Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

#173

Post by jimmygrapes »

1-6 wrote: post #110
Panther34543 wrote: post #63

I've given this advice elsewhere, and I'll give it here. Go look at the small business initiatives by each branch of the U.S. military; many are now posting lists of open contracts that you can bid on for an incredible array of things. Browse through those lists and find something you can build. I really believe the U.S. military is in the midst of a large scale transfer of military spending from traditional large de…

What type of issues are involved when you don’t deliver to the government on time?

Other poster summed it up nicely, as there's a range of remedies from fees to lowering the payment you get to investigation to prison, but by far the most significant impact is this key metric:

Past Performance.

You can probably get away with screwing over the government once, maybe even twice. But good luck once you're legally and nationally blacklisted.

Re: Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

#175

Post by CarbineBuffer »

bombcar wrote: post #153
jjk166 wrote: post #68

I used to work for a manufacturing company that started out as a married couple making Christmas ornaments with a $2000 laser cutter/engraver. Screen printing is a pretty easy business to do out of a garage - you can either print and sell your own designs or print for others. Unless there are already a lot of screen printers in your area odds are there are businesses and organizations that would love to make some che…

> The difficulty is not in determining what's possible but rather what's profitable. If you troll Etsy or eBay or places like that, you'll quickly begin to realize the quantity of things that are obviously made on a CNC milling machine, or a laser cutter, etc. The customizability can be the selling point - and if you can fit everything on a trailer, you can even haul it to state fairs, town fun fests, etc. Think thos…

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

#176

Post by daenz »

12ian34 wrote: post #138
Panther34543 wrote: post #63

I've given this advice elsewhere, and I'll give it here. Go look at the small business initiatives by each branch of the U.S. military; many are now posting lists of open contracts that you can bid on for an incredible array of things. Browse through those lists and find something you can build. I really believe the U.S. military is in the midst of a large scale transfer of military spending from traditional large de…

hmm facilitating war, even if it means defence just doesn't sit quite right with me. shame we live in a world where this is even a thing

>even if it means defence

Can you elaborate on why you feel uncomfortable with the idea of defense? Related[0]

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_operations_other_than...

Re: Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

#177

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

mindcrime wrote: post #21

An awful lot of stuff. I wouldn't even know where to begin, especially if you're willing to consider a hybrid model where some parts / sub-assemblies are manufactured elsewhere and delivered to you (for example, having PCB's produced by OSHpark or PCBway, etc.) and you do final assembly in the garage. If it were me, I'd also be looking at scenarios that involve any kind of "thing" that I could acquire cheaply and re-…

I’m doing something very much like what you describe. Small footprint IoT device, we get the custom designed PCB’s shipped in and most of our BoM is generic off the shelf stuff that is already available on Alibaba/AliExpress. Our enclosure and other plastics are designed in house and injection molded in my two car garage with molds printed on a resin printer. Soldering is custom ordered overseas where possible and hand soldered when not.

The Buster Beagle was a real game changer in this space, though if your parts are really small there are other even cheaper options.

The goal is to, as you say, prove the prototype and then get a larger dedicated space. The product I have is not super niche and could theoretically grow a lot, but we are planning to be pretty adaptable by focusing a lot on COTS components, the kind that you can go onto Alibaba and find 5 factories for whatever you need.

Re: Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

#178

Post by atourgates »

paulmd wrote: post #112
zafka wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my favorite ideas was told to me by my uncle who works in the die cast industry. He met a guy who made lug nuts for Semi tractor tires in his garage. One item, and he made a living off of it. I have always thought that this idea was the perfect example of how to get started in an industry. If you were ambitious you could start adding more spare parts one at a time.

I think super-niche small-run hobby/lifestyle/specialty products are the big answer if you want to monetize your skills and experience. I'm really into analog photography and I can think of several products that people (including myself) would pay for but that it's just not economically feasible for a big company to hire a bunch of people and pay them wages, health insurance, and 401ks to make, on top of the actual c…

Similarly - I was recently looking for a replacement pivot for my mountain bike, and found a machine shop in Whistler, BC (arguably the current Mecca of mountain biking) that specializes in making upgrades for parts that regularly fail in current models, as well as specialized accessories.

https://pinnermachineshop.com/

Re: Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

#179

Post by steve_adams_86 »

JohnBooty wrote: post #141
efxhoy wrote: post #77

With some woodworking equipment you could make loudspeaker enclosures. Add a CNC machine and you’ll be making enclosures just as good as the big brands.

I will add that there are a lot of excellent publicly-available DIY loudspeaker designs out there. Many of which do not have readily available flat pack DIY kits. There might be an opportunity there.

The kits are frequently sold out, so I assume the demand is decent. It could be that margins aren't great so producers aren't eager to keep stocks high, but I've never looked into it. I just know that when I want them, they're sold out.

Re: Ask HN: What can you realistically manufacture in your garage?

#180

Post by bussierem »

JohnBooty wrote: post #137
northwest65 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's more 4 car garage than 2 or 1 car. It also has quite a tall ceiling and industrial power and ventilation hookups.

I have a workshop/gym in my 2-car garage and his space doesn't look much bigger than mine. (It is, however, infinitely cooler than mine) He's got the tall ceiling, yeah, but he wasn't using it in any way that I can see. Power hookups likely wouldn't be an obstacle if one was recreating this in a residential garage. Would just need 220V for some of the machines I bet. Key here is that for Grant's line he surely you ru…

In the video, they call out that it's "about 5 or 6 hundred square feet". An average 2 car garage is ~360 square feet, so it'd definitely closer to a 3-4 car garage.
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