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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?

#301

Post by toomanybeersies »

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…

This is basically the origin of the M16 rifle, in its original incarnation as the 7.62mm chambered AR-10. The original prototypes were designed and built by Eugene Stoner and half a dozen other people in basically a garage.

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

#302

Post by potatofarmer45 »

Small powerboats. The biggest market for recreational boats is the 3.5 to 5m trailer boats. What people don't realise is while the market appears to be saturated with generic boat manufacturers, almost every boat buyer wants some kind of customisation that is often trivially cheap and quick to do with the right equipment.

The key skillset required is the ability to weld (for aluminium boats) and a garage set up to hold up boats while they're being assembled or customized.

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

#303

Post by primax »

asdff wrote: post #194
aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling cannbis clones and support etc could be very lucrative. And potentially legal, depending on locale.

The issue is that business teaches people how to fish. People can take their own clones from the first clone. If you sell fancy fertilizer eventually people will realize they can get away with regular cheap dry amendments once they realize what they are actually doing with fertilizing.

I want to say something between "There's a new sucker born every day" and "In a gold rush, sell shovels" to this comment.

There will always be new customers

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

#304

Post by ja27 »

supercoffee wrote: post #222

My brother used to cast resin pen blanks in the garage. It's a pretty simple process that just needs a few silicone molds, a pressure vessel, and a vacuum pump. He sold them wholesale to a woodworking supply place for $5-10 each. He made enough over a couple years to pay for college.

I know a few people that must make good money resin-casting RPG dice. Some are super-fancy with all kinds of embedded decorations but one is just a clone of original D&D Basic Set dice (aka "Holmes dice"). Can't keep them in stock.

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

#305

Post by primax »

bombcar wrote: post #166
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.

To expand on this, there are entire "fan clubs" around old military trucks - for example https://www.steelsoldiers.com - so you could infiltrate said groups and find what parts are starting to become rare/hard to find NOS anymore (new old/original stock) and start making replacements.

There is a big fan club for Kubota kb250 tractors on Facebook with people making custom mods and implements. I'm sure there are lots of similar things out there

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

#306

Post by primax »

markdown wrote: post #280
primax wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've spent about $50k getting going, but we are on a farm so have options others don't. Our equipment was $10k, the rest went into refrigerated containers we turned into a kitchen grade dehydration space, prep room, coolroom and storage. I'm fortunate to have a sister in the food retailing business who was our first customer. We started dehydrating lime slices to use up the excess limes from our yard and control fru…

> rest went into refrigerated containers we turned into a kitchen grade dehydration space, prep room, coolroom and storage. I need to do something like this (I'm in Fiji). Do you happen to have any pics or videos showing your dehydrator and prep room? I assume you used Reefer containers. BTW what does dehydrating limes have to do with fruit fly control?

I'm currently on holiday and don't have good photos on hand, but email me via leigh@stillard.com and I'll send you some when I get home.

Fallen fruit can be a reservoir for fruit fly, so I'm forever picking up fruit to bury it in compost so fruit fly can't get to it, or grow in it. By removing fallen fruit I'm not keeping fruit fly around to get into my orchard and ruin 50-70k of fruit. It's only a little orchard but we value add it by dehydration and add 75% margin on top. It adds up!

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

#307

Post by kragen »

Lammy wrote: post #130
Nextgrid wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what legal issues are we talking about here? What is not legal about running a business out of one's basement, and what law were they "ratted out" for breaking?

You need a "Home Occupation Permit". The details will vary by municipality, but here are the requirements for Sacramento CA, just to pick a random example: https://www.cityofsacramento.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/EDD... "The following occupations are eligible for a Home Occupation Permit subject to restrictions discussed in the next section. If the occupation is followed by an asterisk, the use is also subject to spe…

Keep in mind that most of the world and even most of the US doesn't have to deal with this level of totalitarian regulation, simply because they won't tolerate being treated like livestock or prisoners.

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

#308

Post by chubs »

mcsniff wrote: post #224
chubs wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m very intrigued, as I have a couple ideas for things I could manufacture with my 3D printer + some custom electronics too, but have never invested the time into. Could you by any chance please share what you’re making? Or just a rough idea if you want to protect your niche? Thanks

I sell the only "generic" version of an item that is both costly in money and time to obtain. Imagine you had a bunch of arcade machines with a proprietary button to turn each on. You can buy the button, but the manufacturer requires their service people physically install and bind it your arcade. Most operators want multiple buttons cause they always break, but they also don't want to deal with downtime during repla…

Thanks for explaining! That indeed sounds like quite a niche. Can I trouble you to ask how you discovered this niche? Is it very difficult to interface to these propriety systems?

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

#309

Post by 55555 »

Dietary supplements. US regs are lax as hell and a capsule filling machine is 20k. Tablet making machine is cheaper. But if you’re not worried about legality, pressing ecstasy pills is a better business lol. But seriously, you can make your own blends of herbs etc according to market demand.

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

#310

Post by SoftTalker »

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…

At a point, machine tools need three-phase power, which may not be available in a residential area. Little hobbiest machines don't, but heavy duty commercial grade machines often do.
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