Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 428 posts

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

#351

Post by jacquesm »

bladegash wrote: post #250
jimmygrapes wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, see my other comment here, but you make a good point about the definition of "owned" - it can't just be a name, it has to be a legally binding level of control over the operation s and finances. Unfortunately there's not really any standard metric for that which is enforceable. Claiming a preference can be fraud, and is often abused, but... in reality, nobody's really checking unless there's a justifiable reaso…

Of course, and you are right on many/most accounts. However, it is worth mentioning that it is definitely a dangerous game to play, even if the government doesn’t do anything. Government contracting world is pretty cut throat and all it takes is a competitor, a partner, or an employee catching wind of the foul play and you make your company pretty vulnerable to a few things: 1) extortion for work share (e.g., a partn…

Disgruntled employees and competitors can do that regardless of whether or not it is true.

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

#354

Post by DoubleGlazing »

I know a few people who make stuff to do with hobbies. For example I know one person who makes fishing lures and another who makes ham radio antennas. Oh, and another friend who make rubber melee weapons for LARPing.

What they do is fairly simple and doesn't need CAD experience or the use of CNC machines/3D printers. The key thing is to make a good quality product, offer good customer service and work to get word of mouth advertising.

People with hobbies and disposable income are a good market to target.

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

#355

Post by upstarter »

gryfft wrote: post #353
benevol wrote: post #352

If you can mentally handle the next multi-billion dollar opportunity, I suggest: The 1st free & clean energy device: https://www.KryonEngine.org

How's yours coming along?

I'm not a mechanical engineer at all, unfortunately (most of HN readers are probably working in IT). And I don't have access to mechanical engineer friends, or the budget to pay people. So I hope someone is getting on it really fast now, because I'd say we need this urgently.

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

#356

Post by mschuster91 »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #249
systemvoltage wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge benefits: Increase competition, overthrow incumbents, equip populace with basic skills and manufacturing capacity in case of when shit hits the fan, cheaper parts. Downsides I can think of: Exploitation of the program through various means by bad actors. It is no different than SBA low interest loans, just instead of capital, you get machines for specific purpose. Another one is injection molding, the entire ind…

How would this possibly be achieved when everyone in congress has pockets lined with defense contractor lobby money?

Keep the pork projects and run the investment aids as a separate program.

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

#357

Post by rodolphoarruda »

Meal kits for low income groups. Buy ingredients directly from producers. Sell the kits directly to local consumers if you can reach them. Sell indirectly via regional resellers that could be registered online and place their orders via a web channel as simple as a Google form. About the meals, don't worry about anything fashionable or attractive to middle class consumers like "low carb", "organic" or the like. Make something hunger oriented. A meal that could satisfy an empty stomach as a priority.

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

#358

Post by mschuster91 »

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

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

We live in dangerous times, with multiple situations that can devolve into all-out wars very VERY quickly, and as Ukraine has shown it is extremely wise to prepare:

- obviously, everyone with a border to Russia has to fear invading orcs. Moldavia and the Baltic nations are at particular threat, given the speeches by Russian officials and think-tank representatives that suggest Russia wants to build back its Russian Empire glory days. Additionally, everyone is at threat from Russian cyber actors and Russian-backed separatist and far-right organizations.

- China has not only the Taiwan question, but also ongoing border skirmishes with India and resource-grabbing operations in the entire Pacific - hell they have been caught illegally fishing in waters as far away as Africa [1]. The risk of Chinese cyber attacks is just as high as Russia, although China seems to focus more on industrial espionage for now.

- The entire situation around Israel and Iran is highly volatile. Israel routinely strikes against targets both in Iran and Syria, and at least for the latter Putin has pretty much clarified that they won't keep looking away for much longer. And everyone in the region is worried about Iran, to the tune that it's likely that the idea of a "middle Eastern NATO" is already reality in secret.

- Almost all of Africa is under threat from internal conflict, both ongoing and future. Dictatorships of various kinds, border fights, civil wars, religious wars - name your idea of conflict cause and you will find it in Africa somewhere. Add to that economic insecurity and pressure from the effects of climate change, and the entire continent is an explosion just waiting to happen. The US doesn't have to take care much, but Europe will have to deal with a lot of refugees sooner or later (and to make it worse, we still haven't decided on how to deal with refugees in a way that doesn't threaten to destabilize our interior politics and complies with the ideals laid down in various international treaties).

- Half of South America is a similar bomb waiting to explode. Failed states (Venezuela), narco states (Mexico), states collapsing to gang warfare (Haiti), and the open possibility that it might need world-wide military intervention to stop Brazil from burning down the Amazon rainforest.

[1] https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/gambia-chinas-trawler-fischen...

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

#359

Post by gryfft »

upstarter wrote: post #355
gryfft wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's yours coming along?

I'm not a mechanical engineer at all, unfortunately (most of HN readers are probably working in IT). And I don't have access to mechanical engineer friends, or the budget to pay people. So I hope someone is getting on it really fast now, because I'd say we need this urgently.

What are your thoughts on the potential for this technology to unlock absolutely untold devastation? As with the fission and fusion atomic reactions, the weaponization of this technology could potentially threaten all life on earth. An ICBM-delivered payload of a gyroscopically stabilized flywheel spun up to arbitrary (relativistic?) velocities would have literally no ceiling on potential yield with infinite free energy. Might Iran and North Korea already be working on such a doomsday weapon now?

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

#360

Post by upstarter »

gryfft wrote: post #359
upstarter wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a mechanical engineer at all, unfortunately (most of HN readers are probably working in IT). And I don't have access to mechanical engineer friends, or the budget to pay people. So I hope someone is getting on it really fast now, because I'd say we need this urgently.

What are your thoughts on the potential for this technology to unlock absolutely untold devastation? As with the fission and fusion atomic reactions, the weaponization of this technology could potentially threaten all life on earth. An ICBM-delivered payload of a gyroscopically stabilized flywheel spun up to arbitrary (relativistic?) velocities would have literally no ceiling on potential yield with infinite free ene…

Well, this is only my humble opinion, but what I see here is a pretty low-tech (and thus rather easy to build) way to produce free energy. Which means 0 pollution (once it is built), which to my knowledge doesn't exist elsewhere in this manner.

I don't see "arbitrary (relativistic?) velocities" as you say. There must be mechanical limits to the speed of the rotation here. What is unlimited is the duration that the engine spins.

When you say "weaponization of this technology could potentially threaten all life on earth", I actually think of nuclear energy, as in the one we have right now.

Post reply on HN