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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?

#411
post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think Anduril is a great example of the possibilities in the "new" defense space. With "Anduril," are you referring to Toykeeper's (technically deprecated) LED driver (flashlight, torch) interface? If not, then what? If so, then please give me some idea how a flashlight interface may be employed in national defense. Thanks.

Can we not do this sort of thing here? Yes, I get that everyone has not heard of every single company in the world, but a quick web search for "anduril defense" or "anduril company" can solve that particular issue. There's no need to pedantically feign annoyance that someone used a term you aren't familiar with and need to do the most trivial of research.

> Can we not do this sort of thing here?

Can we please not do this sort of thing here?!? HN has mods, and I'm sure everyone would appreciate if you didn't try to do their jobs for them. Thank you.

> but a quick web search for "anduril defense" or "anduril company"

OP gave no hint that it was a company or had anything to do with defense, and was talking about innovation. I'm not going to defend my ignorance, but I'm also not going to apologize for asking for clarification, not will I change my posting behavior based on your irrational sensibilities. Try to be a little tougher next time and not get so bent out of shape by an innocent question.

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

#413
post #410
post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your view on this unique to marijuana or pretty much all plants? I'm looking to grow some berries but would love to avoid some rabbit holes that lead to nowhere. The 'less is more' concept is definitely appealing, but does that mean the latest wave of agtech startups optimizing every part of growth fall under the hype umbrella?

> Is your view on this unique to marijuana or pretty much all plants? >> for my 5 pumpkin plants Is this some sort of code-speak, or marijuana variety, or are they really just talking about pumpkins?

I’m really talking about pumpkins and gardening in general. Sorry I live in Oregon thus I don’t really think of cannabis as any different to other crop plants.

I deffo could have made that more clear though!!

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

#414
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Awesome, will do!

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

#415
Last year I was looking for DIY techniques for waterproofing camping gear and I found this vidy about 'welding' rip-stop nylon. After this I had a few days of daydreaming about making backpacking and camping equipment. I would add 'textiles' to the list of garage-doable manufacturing. You need sewing machine, workbench, and other hand tools.

The thing I got stuck on was inventory. You need to have raw materials (either buying in bulk or buying bulk when you get a good deal) and unless you're MTO, you're keeping inventory. That fills up space and ties up your cash. Not a fun daydream after that point.

For the adventure seekers among us who like to prototype their own gear I found the link: https://youtu.be/Ne2J01h1tZ0

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

#416
post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- drone guys need hardware (electronics and manufacturing gear) delivered as fast as possible into Poland where our volunteers will pick up and move into Ukraine. We need everything from small electronic components to production line that will manufacture plastic or carbon drones. - push for the West to help Ukraine more. More weapons and faster delivery. So call your senator, raise awareness, etc;

Would love to hear more about the specific needs and ways to help with hardware or manufacturing, if you can point me to somebody or drop me an email (address on my profile).

Thank you.

It's a chaos: so many people working on these drones and exploring different approaches. Right now my group is trying to figure out: 1) long range digital link with at least 115,200 baud rate given directional antennae on both sides and 2) different approach re manufacturing of actual planes. So many options ranging from styrofoam to carbon, all with different price tags and availability... chaos.

Anyway, emailing you now.

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

#417
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you going to make the old-timey recombants with the steering below the seat, unlike the modern ones with the huge handlebars? I miss those. Like this one: https://www.cyclingabout.com/heaviest-touring-bike-ever-behe... (I met this guy in Cambridge Mass in the 80's).

Funny how most of that gear could just be an iPhone now! I remember this from the 80’s too, I was 8 when I met him and it was the coolest thing ever.

It's insane, right? GPS antenna tech evolved crazy fast after high-res GPS was made available to the public in the mid-90's. Not to mention all the 3G/LTS/4G/5G investment.

Things could still be made smaller if there were more antennae nearby: hence lower transmit power. But I think the smartphone format is pretty dang near perfect.

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

#418
post #53

I started making jet ski tread mats out of astro turf in my garage last year. Dead simple to cut, margin is super high ($60 for a standard set of three on ~$8 worth of material), and time spent per unit from roll to package is something like 15-20 minutes. It was fun and made about $30k over the summer months but I stopped when I moved back to the west coast. I could have handled the whole operation in a spare bedroo…

Okay, so I'm doing it wrong. Interesting story!

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

#419
post #70

Get a commercial dehydrator. You can make dehydrated fruit and veg, trail food, jerky, dried herbs, tea and lots of other things. You can grow gourmet or medicinal mushrooms with a handmade flow hood, a pressure cooker and two grow tents.

We're in Australia with a very, very productive Meyer lemon tree. Any use in those? We had the fruit fly people around weekly at one point and were paying our kids to bin fruit that dropped so we didn't look too irresponsible.

Any licensing requirements for dehydrated citrus?

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

#420
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 also in Australia. When there is a fruit fly outbreak, it is taken very seriously. There are restrictions on what fruit can be taken to schools, across suburb zones. There are teams of people that doorknock and put up traps on trees or get permission to go into your backyard and inspect dropped fruit, cutting it to look for fruit fly, etc. They wear hazmat-type garb and it all looks a bit dramatic for the suburbs.

Even without an outbreak, there are restrictions on buying fruit and taking it into a particular agricultural zone. Heavy fines for bringing fruit over the state border (my mother copped a $300 fine for forgetting she had mandarins in the car boot on a roadtrip).

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