cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/41318971
Destin Sandlin examines the systemic engineering and economic hurdles involved in manufacturing a grill scrubber entirely in America. Through a deep dive into sourcing components like injection-molded knobs and specialized chain mail, the project highlights the complexities of maintaining domestic supply chains and preserving vital technical trade skills in a competitive global market.
Absolutely. The interesting thing to me was the lack of institutional knowledge remaining in the US. For example, finding a machinist based in the US was one of his biggest challenges as most of them have retired. I think he was only able to locate one still in operation that could make the parts he needed.
And that person just retired and he ended up buying all his equipment so he didn’t have to look for a new supplier.
That’s wild I didn’t know that!
It was in the latest video. They also brought the laser etching in house.
uh…because parts like that are not made by machinists any more, they are made by techs running automated CNC machines. Faster, cheaper, better.
Not always better. In his video about stamping, his host illustrates the difference between a one piece stamping die from China compared to the ones made in house. Basically when the single piece one starts to wear out, you have to replace the whole thing. However; with the ones designed and manufactured in house, all of the wear surfaces are replaceable.
So the CNC option may be faster and cheaper up front, but in the long run investing in the tooling to last long-term is more cost effective.
You can have both.
There’s no reason why you couldn’t have a well designed, CNC made part.