Comment by jjk166 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jjk166 | Hacker News Reader

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> You need tool and die companies to build parts for your manufacturing machines, but almost none are left. There are only a few plastic injection manufacturing companies left, and they are either fully booked or on the path to shutting down.

> Young people think of trades and manufacturing jobs as fall-backs that only drop-outs who couldn't hack college get into.

As an engineer running a factory in New Jersey doing, among other things, injection molding, this is way off base. There are plenty of tool and die shops. While they do exist, injection molding job shops are a miniscule fraction of the injection molding market. The machines are so cheap and so easy to use that everyone in-houses their molding operations.

I don't personally see a shortage of young people in manufacturing; I'm in my mid 30s and I'm the old man in my department, and my past employers and the various companies I interact with seem to have similar demographic structures. Our job postings are flooded with kids fresh out of school applying for jobs. My job requires a degree; and it is quite rare to find someone who does not hold a degree compared to say software development. A lot of manufacturing companies will pay to send mid-career employees to school. Post secondary degrees are not uncommon.

> Destin from Smarter Every Day encountered all of this when he tried to make a better grill brush using only a handful of parts and _still_ did not manage to make the whole thing using only US-originated parts. It's a fascinating window into how hard it is to make anything at all here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTGwcHQfLY

This video is a very poor representation of american manufacturing, likely due to Destin not having any prior experience in that space, and for entertainment value. The process could have been much easier if he talked with a manufacturing engineer early on. Further, he seems to not recognize the concept of comparative advantage. The truth is that international supply lines are actually incredibly beneficial for domestic manufacturing.

Have you considered getting in touch with him?

I get the impression that he's committed to being truthful. He might really like getting your perspective for his coverage of the issue.

I'd be more than happy to talk with him if I had a chance; been a fan of his channel for years. I presume however that a youtuber of his caliber has little interest in hearing from yet another random person on the internet.

It's okay that the video is not a great representation. The whole premise of the channel is that he's not a subject matter expert, but he gathers some information on a topic and presents it so everyone who watches is a little smarter everyday. It's a starting point for those viewers who want to dig deeper. The same is true for infotainment in general, much of which is presented as far more authoritative than Destin's content.

So you haven't attempted to contact him, then.

What do you consider cheap? Last time I looked, injection molding machines were decidedly not cheap. Furthermore, the cost of a set of molds can run into the range of 6 to 7 figures.

Molds intended for large production are expensive, but it's going to be expensive no matter where you do it (and can be procured internationally if you want). If you're making something with injection molding, you will need a mold.

(Aluminum or even SLA tooling is possible for smaller batches). That said, even good steel tooling does not necessarily cost above low 5 figures. It all depends on what you're trying to do.

Real injection molding machines are $10k-300k, depending on what you want / need. This is not very exciting or scary from a capital expenditure point of view. Yes, you can spend a lot more if you're producing a -lot-. That $200k machine can get you to thousands of shots per day.

Many moons ago, we looked into doing molds for injection molding in US and China for a simple plastic part. The US based companies quoted 10x more expensive, while the Chinese company we ended up with offered more features (over molding with TPU) at cheaper initial and unit prices, and really great customer service walking through optimizing the part design with us. We were very happy with them. It made it possible to get our product to be economical.

Might be worth doing a test and order from your Chinese competitor to see how things look from your customers perspective.

The injection mold machine is typically less expensive than the tool you put in the machine. The largest one I have is a $150k (new) machine, it runs a $200k mold which makes 2 million parts per year for a $14 million per year production line. This isn't the sort of thing you buy for the home shop, but as far as business capex goes it's nothing. If you buy used you can get a decent machine for $20k, assuming what you're making isn't stupidly large (bigger parts need bigger molds which need bigger presses). There's some labor to do mold maintenance, but for the most part these things run themselves. As long as you can sell what you're making, they're about as close as you can get to a money printer.

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