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

• benevol 4y ago
  If you can mentally handle the next multi-billion dollar opportunity, I suggest: The 1st free & clean energy device: https://www.KryonEngine.org https://www.KryonEngine.org
  • gryfft 4y ago
    How's yours coming along?
    • upstarter 4y ago
      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.
      • gryfft 4y ago
        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?
        • upstarter 4y ago
          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.
          • gryfft 4y ago
            Why would there be mechanical limits to how fast a flywheel can spin? If the wheel is suspended, say, in a frictionless magnetic harness, there should be no limit to how far it can be spun up. Thus, a single device should be capable of cracking the Earth's crust and ending all life on Earth, without the expense and engineering necessary for fusion weaponry. I don't believe you've thought through the dangers here. > 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. The difference is that nuclear engineering is expensive and difficult. Magnets are cheap and ubiquitous. A nuclear reaction can continue only so long as there's fuel. Infinite free energy is, well... Infinite.
            • upstarter 4y ago
              Like Monty Python said: Always look on the bright side of life. Assuming you're right, then your first buyer would be the US Army. You would never have to work a single day in your life ever again. :-)
              • gryfft 4y ago
                > Monty Python Somehow, I don't think you're taking this seriously. If you really believe in the potential of this technology, it should scare the daylights out of you.
  • warrenm 4y ago
    Was looking for some guffaws this morning Thanks for supplying!
  • chasd00 4y ago
    i bet i could bring a kryonengine desk fan to market by monday :)
• haunter 4y ago
  Jet engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJr-RmJxtDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJr-RmJxtDc
  • codegeek 4y ago
    OP did ask "realistically".
    • bartkmq 4y ago
      I mean, building a jet engine from an old car turbocharger is not that difficult, you only have to manufacture the combustion chamber.
• digdugdirk 4y ago
  Many small scale manufacturing suppliers operate on that scale - or at least could, with sufficient organization. And maybe fudging a bit and using the driveway as a loading dock to store materials and outgoing products. Lathe, CNC Mill, Drill Press, Bandsaw, Bend Brake, CNC laser/plasma cutter. That'd be the basics of a fully featured metal shop. Buying used and upgrading as you bring in some revenue would keep you under your price target.
• deviance 4y ago
  I've also been curios, for some time now, but got no concrete good examples. Good question! Hope you'll get some good answers!
• thehappypm 4y ago
  Wall Art, like posters, could be manufactured at home.
• h4waii 4y ago
  I currently manufacturer a fairly niche product with nothing but a 7 year old $250 3d printer, some off the shelf parts, and a bit of custom electronics. Very high profit margin, as I am the only producer of this item (!). I'd love to move to a more "robust" process, but options for materials and widespread access to 3d printing provides a lot of versatility for a single-person business where I want to control the entire product and process end-to-end. Just need to find your niche.
  • SpikedCola 4y ago
    I would like to hear any advice you/others have about finding a product in your niche to manufacture!
    • baremetal 4y ago
      usually you find a market by scratching your own itch. helps if you have breadth of knowledge and experience in a variety of fields also. interdisciplinary solutions still have plenty of untapped market potential other than that there is no magic formula that i know of. its kind of one of those "if you have to ask..." type things.
      • bombcar 4y ago
        To expand on this, make sure you itch like people with lots of money but no time/knowhow. For example, hang out at small-town airports or boat harbors, or with lawyers and doctors. If you can find some small part that would help them use their boat, then $300-500 for it might not even be an extreme price especially if they see you using it first. (This is not an argument to go buy a boat and plane).
        • camtarn 4y ago
          Riders of high-end motorcycles as well. People absolutely love customising their motorcycles with things like GPS mounts, bigger/smaller windshields, auxiliary lights, footpeg extensions to make the bike more comfortable for taller/smaller riders, more comfortable seats, etc etc. The market for luggage and luggage mounts is probably quite well served, but especially for rarer or older bikes, it can be difficult to find the more obscure accessories.
• eimrine 4y ago
  I have a dream of producing custom recumbents. I don't know where to get thin-walled pipes, but a start capital is roughly as you have described.
  • Cieplak 4y ago
    McMaster-Carr supplies thin-wall chromoly tube [0] suitable for fabricating bicycle frames. [0] tube is measured by the outer diameter; pipe is measured by the inner diameter
    • abakker 4y ago
      bicycle tube for making bikes out of chromoly can be bought from many makers. The good stuff doesn't have uniform wall thickness but has thinner sides and thicker top/bottom for lower weight/stiffness. It should also have butted ends, meaning that it has thicker walls at the ends.
    • SpikedCola 4y ago
      McMaster-Carr won’t sell to small companies, my friends and I have tried several times, only to have orders cancelled for the above-mentioned reason. It’s a shame because their website has a wealth of information (CAD drawings, measurements, etc.), one of the best I’ve seen.
      • plegresl 4y ago
        The website and all the part details are amazing. I've made many purchases from McMaster for personal / hobby use so I'm surprised to hear about difficulties purchasing from them.
        • SpikedCola 4y ago
          We are in Ontario, Canada, if it matters. I know Quinn from blondiehacks orders from them without difficulty, so I’m not sure what it is about us that they don’t like. They tend to be very curt/nearing unfriendly in their responses.
• h2odragon 4y ago
  Small batch soaps, candles, "bath oils" and such can be done with minimal capital and little regulatory oversight. Print shop type things, especially specialized like vinyl cutting and large banners, could be a good business depending on where you're at. Might be able to buy used or lease equipment too. Woodworking / furniture shop and / or antique furniture restoration might not be terribly capital intensive.
• fortysixdegrees 4y ago
  Gin
  • spacemanmatt 4y ago
    Weed
  • fxtentacle 4y ago
    Isn't the distillation process prone to explosions? How would one get started? How much capital is needed?
    • noobly 4y ago
      You can buy an alcohol still from Home Depot for $200.
    • HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
      Capital needed for distillation? Just watch an episode of Moonshiners on Discovery channel and you'll be set. Nothing you couldn't buy at Home Depot or the local hardware store for about $100.
    • primax 4y ago
      It's fairly safe if you operate in a well ventilated environment, have fail-safes in your still in case there is a pressure build up, and use electric elements instead of gas. Plenty of people use gas, but I don't see why given the increased risk and cost. For gin you need to make or buy neutral spirit first. Buying it is ideal as larger providers can make it cheaper and cleaner than you, but needs a license so you won't do this while you're developing a product. Then you will likely use a pot still to make your final product. You can use the same equipment to do both processes if you have a modular design. None of the above is set in stone - gin is a bit like jazz and breaking the rules is common.
      • fortysixdegrees 4y ago
        Good post, this person know what they are talking about. Source: I make gin
• muttled 4y ago
  T-shirt printing, leather craft, 3d printing long-tail plastic parts for things where spare parts are no longer available, small-scale electronics manufacturing, hydroponic production of fresh ingredients for local restaurants, embroidery, concrete countertop/sink production, glass work for smoking, classic car restoration, kit car production, hobby steam engine production, tiny wood shop, CNC production for sale on Etsy, jewelry crafting. Those are ones I can think of off the top of my head.
• duped 4y ago
  The legality should interest you. I saw someone have their small business shut down by police because they were running it out of their basement. It wasn't the noise or pollution (which realistically are the nuisances you're going to be inflicting on neighbors) but the excess cars parked and delivery trucks coming and going down the street. One neighbor ratted them out. The problem with the space isn't really the capital but noise abatement, waste disposal, and inventory. The ideal product would be quiet to make, not use tough chemicals to dispose, and materials you can buy in bulk and small enough not to take up a ton of space in the worksite.
  • marpstar 4y ago
    In reviewing neighborhood covenants whilst searching for a new home, I was surprised to see some of them make explicit the fact that running a business in your home is allowed, provided that it doesn't generate significant traffic/parking.
    • mh- 4y ago
      This is indeed the case in my HOA as well and I was (pleasantly) surprised to see it codified as such.
    • corrral 4y ago
      Gotta have a carve-out for the folks participating in an MLM scheme out of their house. They're quite popular. Of course it also benefits remote tech workers who have an LLC or whatever. And handymen, et c.
      • bombcar 4y ago
        This is almost always exactly what it's for, and those with ears to hear can use it to their advantage. The key is to fly under the radar and not cause problems.
        • oceanplexian 4y ago
          The key is to never buy a house in an HOA, and write your lawmakers to pass laws to limit their power as much as possible.
• jazzyjackson 4y ago
  cutting gemstones has a pretty low capital cost to get started, a couple of workbenches worth of grinding and polishing equipment plus a diamond-saw there's lots of tutorials on youtube, seems like a gratifying hobby with a potential for profit if you take it seriously as a day job
• spacemanmatt 4y ago
• novantadue 4y ago
  probably jewelry like this https://patrickadairdesigns.com/collections/all-products https://patrickadairdesigns.com/collections/all-products
• mindcrime 4y ago
  An awful lot of stuff. I wouldn't even know where to begin, especially if you're willing to consider a hybrid model where some parts / sub-assemblies are manufactured elsewhere and delivered to you (for example, having PCB's produced by OSHpark or PCBway, etc.) and you do final assembly in the garage. If it were me, I'd also be looking at scenarios that involve any kind of "thing" that I could acquire cheaply and re-purpose somehow. Making lamps out of old wine bottles, that sort of thing. Robots, unmanned vehicles of various sorts, all sorts of small electronic gadgets, probably some auto accessories... really, the range of things you could (at least hypothetically) manufacture in a space that size is huge. Now whether or not you could manufacture the thing at scale may be a different question. You could probably easily accommodate doing something the size of a small home appliance (think: washing machine size) if you only had to do one at a time. But doing that at scale might well require more space. So is the intent to stay in the garage and run an enduring business there, or just to ship a prototype, prove the model, and then maybe expand? Or is this purely an academic thought experiment?
  • SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
    I’m doing something very much like what you describe. Small footprint IoT device, we get the custom designed PCB’s shipped in and most of our BoM is generic off the shelf stuff that is already available on Alibaba/AliExpress. Our enclosure and other plastics are designed in house and injection molded in my two car garage with molds printed on a resin printer. Soldering is custom ordered overseas where possible and hand soldered when not. The Buster Beagle was a real game changer in this space, though if your parts are really small there are other even cheaper options. The goal is to, as you say, prove the prototype and then get a larger dedicated space. The product I have is not super niche and could theoretically grow a lot, but we are planning to be pretty adaptable by focusing a lot on COTS components, the kind that you can go onto Alibaba and find 5 factories for whatever you need.
• cyrusthegreat 4y ago
  Tiny wooden boxes.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• bovermyer 4y ago
  If you're ignoring legality, then the list is very long. Choose something that you know and are interested in. Figuring out how to produce it quickly and in large quantities is a secondary concern.
  • JohnBooty 4y ago
    My understanding is not that OP is looking to produce goods of questionable legality. My understanding is that OP is setting aside legal issues such as zoning, etc for the moment and focusing on feasible business ideas. However, I could be wrong.
• Eigenstate 4y ago
  It's only profitable if your time is worth nothing, but you can build a kit plane like the Vans RV-7 in a garage for around that startup cost.
• betocmn 4y ago
  Smart surfboards!
• thrill 4y ago
  Nuclear reactor? https://kidsdiscover.com/quick-reads/arkansas-teen-builds-nuclear-reactor-garage https://kidsdiscover.com/quick-reads/arkansas-teen-builds-nu...
• 1nd1ansumm3r 4y ago
  Have you ever seen a MagLite flashlight? (Or a clone)? The batteries are kept in place by a threaded cap which is spring loaded. My neighbor manufactures the caps, alone, in his garage. Cuts the threads and installs the spring. As far as noise I do hear his air compressor occasionally. You can buy quiet air compressors but they are orders more expensive than a standard unit.
  • JohnBooty 4y ago
    How would a person with the ability/equipment to do this work at home get matched up with a company that wants to buy such things? This seems like the sort of work that was spun off from some kind of existing business relationship.
    • onceiwasthere 4y ago
      Yeah this seems so strange a thing to do. Maybe they're personalized/ruggedized in some nice way?
    • 1nd1ansumm3r 4y ago
      Yes, that's the hard part. Often times harder than the mfg work. I believe he took over the contract from an acquaintance.
  • zafka 4y ago
    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.
    • paulmd 4y ago
      I think super-niche small-run hobby/lifestyle/specialty products are the big answer if you want to monetize your skills and experience. I'm really into analog photography and I can think of several products that people (including myself) would pay for but that it's just not economically feasible for a big company to hire a bunch of people and pay them wages, health insurance, and 401ks to make, on top of the actual cost of the product. I'm looking to gradually put together a workshop to try and make some of them, and if I do them, I might as well sell them. Even if it's $100 out the door for a $5 piece of metal, there's actually a market for that in terms of hobby income, it's just not a market that will sustain full-time employees and mass production. Between 3d printing, stamping, a CNC mill and lathe, casting, a laser cutter, and a vacuum oven, you can really do a tremendous amount of stuff in your garage, especially if you are willing to leverage these tools together. 3D print a part and then cast it in a durable metal, machine it to clean it up. CNC mill yourself a stamping die. Use the vacuum oven to cure things, or dehydrate your filament, etc. Like on paper that's pretty much a tool-and-die shop, given sufficient effort you can make things that will let you make whatever else you want - much like chemistry you're never more than a couple tools away from the thing you want, you just have to make the thing that will let you make the thing you want. Optical lithography is not that hard either as long as you're not working at semiconductor scale. There's that kid that is making chips in his garage over in the UK or something. But you can use that as a manufacturing technique for other stuff. Or use resist etching like for PCBs. In a lot of cases, really the only limit is when you bump into something that's restricted or too hazardous to keep around even if it's unrestricted. Like boy, mercury intensifier works great but... I like my nervous system the way it is. Even selenium intensifier or pyrocat developer are pretty yikes in terms of the MSDS, very much a "better have a fume hood" thing, or do it outside (in a daylight tank). Incidentally, but, my most insane "I'd love to do that in my garage" is custom lenses. I know the accuracy is probably just not there compared to what you'd realistically need for good results, but it really seems like single-point diamond turning should be something that is achievable with a high-end setup (say $25k) in this era of solid CNC mill or lathe setups for half that price. Maybe it's something you could build out of a CNC setup but again, is it accurate enough to make it worth it (not sure of the tolerances required, at least 1/1000th, probably 1/10,000 is better, 1/100k or finer should do it, which I guess isn't too far out of what you can do with a lathe, it's all just end work and you have to be precisely optically centered and aligned). Coating is one where you'd need the vacuum oven for sure, assuming it wasn't too toxic (iirc coatings are fluoride based). Growing optics-grade fluorite or calcite crystals also might be possible for lens blanks (although again, maybe too nasty) - or glass casting too. You'd need an optical bench too of course. There is definitely a market for that I think - all-fluorite lenses are excellent for wide-spectrum photography (UV to IR in the same lens without focus shift - see the Coastal Optics lenses f.ex) and people (companies) pay big bucks for those, like $50k is entry-level for something in that class if you go out and buy it new. And with single-point you can make aspheric lenses as easily as spheric, so you could do all-aspheric designs that aren't commercially viable for mass-market lenses... as well as super-high-quality repros of classic lenses that are obscure or just classics. People would pay for a neo-retro Hypergon or modern takes on sonnar/heliar/etc if you could produce good results. Or you could make tools that let you do it in the traditional fashion with spheric surfaces. http://www.savazzi.net/photography/coastalopt_60.html http://www.savazzi.net/photography/coastalopt_60.html https://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/special/105UVmm.htm https://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkor... http://www.company7.com/nikon/lens/0105f4.5uv.html http://www.company7.com/nikon/lens/0105f4.5uv.html https://jmcscientificconsulting.com/testing/asahi-pentax-ultra-achromatic-takumar-85mm-lens-apochromatic-imaging/ https://jmcscientificconsulting.com/testing/asahi-pentax-ult... Anyway though another place where some of this ends is "too difficult to make at home"... that's actually a more interesting question in some ways, a dedicated hobbyist with tool-and-diemaker level machinist skills fluency with modern CNC and 3D printing and the techniques enabled by that, and enough knowledge of chemistry/optical/electrical/RF to get yourself in trouble, can of course make an enormous amount of stuff. But things like single-crystal turbine blades for micro-turbine designs are difficult and without the "real deal" you are leaving performance on the table. In some cases (again, things that are too toxic to handle, or illegal) you do basically hit a wall, not all projects scale down to the hobbyist level.
• soared 4y ago
  Seeds, saplings, etc. Small houseplants and barely sprouted houseplants sell for a lot on Etsy and other sites and require very moderate amounts space and money. The difficulty is skill. Plants can be hard to grow and it’s easy to make a mistake that ruins lots of your crop!
  • zafka 4y ago
    Plus 1 on this! I use my back yard in this way, but plan to set up some indoor areas also. So far I have not been trying to sell things, just playing and seeing what works best. There are some plants that are very easy to propogate that people enjoy such as rosemary.
  • ethbr0 4y ago
    Or, you know, marijuana. > ...not particularly interested in the legality of this...
    • aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
      Selling cannbis clones and support etc could be very lucrative. And potentially legal, depending on locale.
      • asdff 4y ago
        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.
        • jamiek88 4y ago
          Yep, you start off buying obscure soils and obsessing about ph levels and light and moisture and years later I use the cheapest 4-4-4 fertilizer I can find and water when I stick my finger in and it’s dry. I get better product now than I used to. Mostly it’s about genetics anyway. The number one bit of advice I give to new gardeners (my garden is pretty well developed) is ‘less is more’. Basically leave the plant alone as much as you can. Water deeply instead of frequently and use many seeds to start with whittling down to the best genetics. For example for my 5 pumpkin plants I planted around 50 seeds from last year. Waited a couple weeks and then pulled the smaller plants. Do the same again a couple weeks later. Then when transplanting cull once more. Plant three in every hole. Two weeks later cull until there’s one plant in each spot. Then for advanced mode you use the seeds from this selection process next year, and they get more and more adapted to your micro climate.
• joeld42 4y ago
  With a really good graphic/packaging designer you could make small batch, die cut and laser cut packaging. Stores flat, materials are cheap. Bring some fancy samples to farmers markets and craft fairs, pitch people who want prototype or short run packaging on Kickstarter, etc. You'll never outcompete a large market, but for people making < 1000 of a thing, there's not a lot of options.
• r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
  Small aircraft. https://www.kitplanes.com/17-kits-for-under-25k/ https://www.kitplanes.com/17-kits-for-under-25k/
  • Enginerrrd 4y ago
    Dude, yeah, fixed wing VTOL drones airframes/kits. The margins are really high.
• coding123 4y ago
  Zombie box type stuff. (generator quieting devices)
• wiseleo 4y ago
  A machine shop with a lathe and a mill, especially CNC, can manufacture just about anything. I personally refurbish electronics. It's nice and quiet.
• JohnBooty 4y ago
  Here's a tour of the late Grant Imahara's workshop. He worked on robotics and, I believe, props in there? He's got a pretty significant amount of capability -- "CNC mills, laser cutters, lathes, paints, electronics, work tables, and, of course, multiple 3D printers" -- built into a space that looks closer to a 1-car garage than a 2-car garage. edit: here's the actual link https://youtu.be/hsCSTO8SaQU https://youtu.be/hsCSTO8SaQU
  • mwint 4y ago
    Link: https://youtu.be/hsCSTO8SaQU https://youtu.be/hsCSTO8SaQU
    • JohnBooty 4y ago
      Oh my gosh, thanks, can't believe I forgot it.
  • northwest65 4y ago
    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.
    • JohnBooty 4y ago
      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 running all of the power-hungry machines at once as he was (to the best of my knowledge) working on bespoke one-off projects.
      • bussierem 4y ago
        In the video, they call out that it's "about 5 or 6 hundred square feet". An average 2 car garage is ~360 square feet, so it'd definitely closer to a 3-4 car garage.
• yellowapple 4y ago
  One of my friends does 3D printed and resin casted cosplay armor/props out of his garage. Low volume, high margins.
• csteubs 4y ago
  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 bedroom if I didn't have a garage, and there are plenty of areas where I could have dropped the time required or the cost. I never bought the turf in bulk and I used household scissors to cut from a template so buying a roll and cutting with something more effective may have netted me more. Niche leisure products in spend-y verticals typically do well.
  • at-fates-hands 4y ago
    My buddy did something similar. He lived near a town where a mine had shut down a few years earlier. Him and his buddy went out and found a ton of heavy duty, industrial conveyor belts. They took as much as their two trucks could haul. Went back and cut them into lengths suitable for truck beds. Sold them at $100 a pop for any truck. Same thing. They'd just told the customer to measure their bed and they'd cut them to fit. Not sure how much they made, but the rubber was like an inch thick, heavy enough to stay in place without any glue or tie downs and the rubber was really grippy on the one side. It was prefect for what they did with it. You could put a tool box smack in the middle of the bed it wouldn't move an inch on that rubber. I've always wondered if you could do something similar with wholesale conveyor mats these days or if this was just a "right place, right time" kind of a deal for my friend.
    • smm11 4y ago
      "Found" a ton of heavy duty, industrial conveyor belts. On my way to the rust belt with a hackszall right now.
      • a2tech 4y ago
        Might as well steal some copper while you're at it
• mepian 4y ago
  Sam Zeloof alone managed to manufacture chips with the early 1970s technology in his garage using old fab equipment bought cheap (sadly don't remember the exact budget): http://sam.zeloof.xyz/ http://sam.zeloof.xyz/ Maybe with more people and more capital this could be scaled to something that can be sold, like replicas of classic CPUs.
  • bleuarff 4y ago
    That was my first thought upon reading the title, but you have ton ponder it, though. Does it fit the "reallistically" criteria? I mean, sure it's been done already so it is possible, but this is advanced work and probably not really accessible to the average hacker.
    • jeffreyrogers 4y ago
      It's definitely one of the cooler ideas but there are much easier ways to make money if that's one of your primary goals.
• bombcar 4y ago
  That size and capital outlay could be the basis for a very nice custom furniture/woodworking shop; but the skills necessary would require some work to gain. Someone is basically doing that for keyboards, though they mainly rebox/ship from China.
  • bluedino 4y ago
    I know guys that make small tables in their garage and they sell for a thousand bucks each
• henning 4y ago
  Small mechanical and 3D-printed parts. Lockpicking kits, custom engraved objects.
• Fargoan 4y ago
  Delta 8 vape carts. The license to do it legally is easy to get. You can buy all the material you'll need from Marijuana Packaging and Fresh Bros. I used to run a small CBD business out of a rented shop in Minnesota. https://marijuanapackaging.com/collections/filling-machines-and-replacement-parts https://marijuanapackaging.com/collections/filling-machines-... https://freshbros.com/product-category/bulk-products https://freshbros.com/product-category/bulk-products
• Panther34543 4y ago
  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 defense contractors to smaller, innovative companies. The Air Force has even opened its own venture capital arm and is actively investing in small businesses. Most, if not every, branch in the military publicly posts contracts for small businesses to bid on. I think Anduril is a great example of the possibilities in the "new" defense space. What's interesting is this shift is very reminiscent of military manufacturing in Japan during World War 2; much of the manufacturing was actually done by small businesses of < 30 employees in "garages" scattered around the country instead of very large factories. That was one of the reasons American bombing by Superfortresses was so ineffective at first, and one of the reasons incendiary bombs began being used. Happy to provide more detail on this. I've been thinking about this space for awhile.
  • blinkingled 4y ago
    Hi, if it's not too much to ask, could you please post some direct links for the open contracts for small businesses? I am merely curious but others might find those more useful.
    • TecoAndJix 4y ago
      On the SAM site above you can do an advanced filter for small business set aside and leave the search string empty. Not in this space so someone correct me if this is not what it means.
      • jimmygrapes 4y ago
        Former DoD contract specialist here, Sam.gov is the correct jumping off point for both information on how the process works and for where to find opportunities. The small business set aside is very important, since the regulations require that small businesses be considered to the maximum amount practicable, before larger companies can even be considered (Federal Prison Industries gets first dibs though). Veteran, woman, and minority owned businesses also get higher precedence, and those qualifiers can stack up - a minority woman veteran owned small business is golden, assuming the company can actually bid and perform properly. There are some other areas, such as HUBzone/economically disadvantaged areas that are also considered, but that's better to learn about direct from the information on Sam.gov than from a HN post. It is a daunting task to register and follow the procedures, and you must be very attentive to detail as a small business owner; however, there are a ton of resources from the Small Business Administration to assist. Don't hesitate to contact them. Be persistent, patient, and proactive. It used to be much harder than it is today, which is why it might seem to most people that federal contracting is a corrupt good ol' boy network; newcomers simply didn't follow the instructions right, due to complexity and/or confusion. Today though, it's a perfect time to get in the door.
• golergka 4y ago
  If you're not interested in legality, then technically cooking meth or something similar (amphetamine, mephedrone or other drugs popular in the neighborhood) would bring the best ROI, but it might not best from safety perspective for a variety or reasons.
• jjk166 4y ago
  I used to work for a manufacturing company that started out as a married couple making Christmas ornaments with a $2000 laser cutter/engraver. Screen printing is a pretty easy business to do out of a garage - you can either print and sell your own designs or print for others. Unless there are already a lot of screen printers in your area odds are there are businesses and organizations that would love to make some cheap swag with their logos. I haven't checked but I have to imagine there's a "xometry for screen printing" service out there that you could probably get semi-consistent work from. Honestly though, so long as you don't need to quit your day job today, you can probably find some good deals on some used cnc equipment that will let you make anything while staying in your current price range. The difficulty is not in determining what's possible but rather what's profitable. Most garage manufacturing companies tend to make some incredibly niche thing like a bracket that allows you to stick a camera on a particular item used for a particular hobby; stuff that anyone could make but no big companies care enough to develop. Most of the time these are tinkerers who make lots of little widgets to solve their own problems and one of them eventually takes off. If your goal is just to make money, I would suggest selling products that can be made by some service like xometry until you stumble across something that's popular, then you can bring manufacturing in house to increase your margins.
  • bombcar 4y ago
    > The difficulty is not in determining what's possible but rather what's profitable. If you troll Etsy or eBay or places like that, you'll quickly begin to realize the quantity of things that are obviously made on a CNC milling machine, or a laser cutter, etc. The customizability can be the selling point - and if you can fit everything on a trailer, you can even haul it to state fairs, town fun fests, etc. Think those fancy wood name plates you can buy at Disneyland kind of thing. But the big advantage can be you are local instead of some online thing.
    • CarbineBuffer 4y ago
• primax 4y ago
  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.
  • qbasic_forever 4y ago
    I'd do a lot of research in the market before starting a food business at home. Rules and regulations are pretty intense and if you're selling stuff for people to consume it usually has to be prepared in an approved and inspected kitchen, which is very difficult for home chefs. It's not impossible but prepare for a _ton_ of roadblocks. Most folks end up renting time in commercial kitchens that take care of crossing all the t's and dotting the i's so they are properly inspected and certified for commercial food prep, but you'll pay a premium for their service. And the next major hurdle is actually selling product to stores. Good luck getting into real grocery stores, if you don't have a relationship with them or some kind of major in they won't even give you the time of day. You'd have to start small and super local, like an indie grocer that is willing to take a chance (and almost certainly have you take on 100%+ of the risk and pay to take back any unsold product). I've listened to some folks on cooking podcasts that tried successfully (and unsuccessfully) to get into selling their own sauces, condiments, etc. and it is a hell of a difficult journey. They all spent easily six figures of their own cash to get it all bootstrapped and off the ground too. I don't think a single one ended up being happy in the end or felt like it was worth the trouble.
    • primax 4y ago
      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 fruit fly, and found we couldn't keep up with demand. From there it's gone really well. We are in Australia though, YMMV.
• aetherspawn 4y ago
  You need the correct property zoning to operate a business from your basement. Your house is very likely in a residential zone, which limits it to residential use only (some exceptions apply, allowing home office scenarios for people who live there, but limits employees from travelling to your house for work). Why do these rules exist? Well, to regulate industrial expansion, limit noise, traffic and road congestion (parking) in residential areas. YMMV
• caramelcustard 4y ago
  Outside of small scale Etsy-tier tech/non-tech stuff? Nothing. What a garage is good for though is prototyping and prototyping related R&D. Given that you have a 20k-50k USD budget, perhaps you should look for cheap commercial property for rent.
• seszett 4y ago
  I convert old photo negative enlargers to UV enlargers for printing with alternative processes (cyanotype in particular). It doesn't take much space and I do it out of my small European town house basement. Which also serves as my photo lab for demonstrations.
  • paulmd 4y ago
    That's neat. What do you use as the source? A bank of UV LEDs? Never really thought about that but can you get larger "flashlight" style UV-spectrum LEDs from cree/etc? Of course you need to diffuse it and fewer larger elements are harder than more smaller elements but the output power is probably higher with the big LEDs, and I seem to remember some of the alt-processes are quite insensitive (like, leave it outside in the sun for a half hour). The other way you can do it is, of course, printing a big negative and contact printing outside. It's a little lame with film since you have to go through an interpositive to get back to a negative (unless you use positive B+W slide process or similar - but those processes aren't great either in terms of quality), but ironically those processes are now extremely accessible through digital or hybrid-digital workflows. Scan your negative, print the scan (still negative) onto a transparency, and contact print, done. Or you can take a random digital image and invert it and then print it onto a transparency. I should give laser-transparency cyanotype a go one of these days, that would be a few fun afternoons. On the "how do I put out enough UV light for cyanotype enlargment" thing, I wonder if there's a way to get flashbulbs to put out UV light. One of the reasons older flash photos don't have the modern digital "flash" look is because the whole flashbulb lights up, and then the reflector actually spreads out the light from the flashbulb, so you don't have a point source like the xenon tube, it's a highly diffused source. And it's actually relatively intense by modern standards - another weird niche where flashbulb still is viable is infrared photography, IR flashbulbs put out a pretty massive amount of light.
    • lightedman 4y ago
      There are UVA flashlights with insane output already in existence. Cree does not make UV but Nichia does and has some of the best 365nm high-output LEDs out there with some of the lowest visible light output/generation. Another contender is Prolight. I have one of their 60 degree UVA LEDs in a light I use for mineral exploration, it will make things glow from almost 50 feet out, but it also has some considerable visible light generation that interferes with detecting weaker fluorescence. If you want a HUGE UVA bank, look at Wild Fire. They make UV LEDs for party places, like cosmic bowling nights, and such. One of those could likely be easily adapted to your purpose, though it might be a little pricey.
• efxhoy 4y ago
  With some woodworking equipment you could make loudspeaker enclosures. Add a CNC machine and you’ll be making enclosures just as good as the big brands.
  • JohnBooty 4y ago
    I will add that there are a lot of excellent publicly-available DIY loudspeaker designs out there. Many of which do not have readily available flat pack DIY kits. There might be an opportunity there.
    • steve_adams_86 4y ago
      The kits are frequently sold out, so I assume the demand is decent. It could be that margins aren't great so producers aren't eager to keep stocks high, but I've never looked into it. I just know that when I want them, they're sold out.
• 0xfeba 4y ago
  Niche, NLA car parts for older cars. 3d print to prototype, machine with a mill and/or lathe. Or better, CNC mill.
• cpill 4y ago
  I guess at that scale your not looking to beat anyone on price. Your going for bespoke quality, I'd say. So you want something that people pay a lot for already so you can charge more and put the word "bespoke" in front of it. One idea I had was bicycle frames, if you know arc welding. Custom size frames or of unique design go for a lot. I guess it depends on how fiddly they get, but if you can bang out the standard fittings then the main part should be quite quick to put togther.
• lvass 4y ago
  >not particularly interested in the legality Counterfeit board games.
  • pxx 4y ago
    Board game mechanics aren't copyrightable anyway. You can make this fully legal if you don't infringe copyright on any of the artwork.
• baud147258 4y ago
  well, you can manufacture a gun [0] from materials procured from your hardware store. Of course that would likely be illegal in many juridictions first to manufacture, then to sell. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Luty#Firearms_design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Luty#Firearms_design
  • vorpalhex 4y ago
    Manufacturing tends to be legal in most states as long as it's not an NFA item. Selling requires the appropriate FFL license and often times a fairly high class, requiring a business address. There are a few makers who operate as small "satellite" FFLs but typically it's more profitable to just be a reseller or do transfers for $30 a pop. Making and selling accessories though is very doable and can probably make solid money. Lots of random little connectors or mounts that you can charge an arm and a leg for.
  • philwelch 4y ago
    With CNC machines and/or 3D printers, you can make much nicer guns than Philip Luty could pull off.
• mgarfias 4y ago
  I know of at least a few businesses that got off the ground in a garage with a little 3-axis CNC mill and a few ideas. Find an area thats underserved and come up with a better idea.
• HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
  You're thinking of this in reverse. First find something you want to manufacture, then figure out how to build it in your garage. Don't be the solution searching for a problem!
  • wnolens 4y ago
    Isn't a job a solution to the problem of needing money? You take stock of your skills, hit the job boards, ...
    • 1-6 4y ago
      Came here to say something similar. First, the ask is to help find things that can make money in the garage. I think that would be like finding ‘problems’ then applying a ‘location:garage’ filter to narrow the choices down. Then, after choosing the product, it’s to tool the garage to manufacture the ‘solution’
      • wnolens 4y ago
        New framing: the problem is "convince partner that I need a sweet shop in the garage", solution is "become entrepreneur requiring sweet shop in garage" ;)
        • beckingz 4y ago
          I'm going to use this in the future.
    • throwaway787544 4y ago
      That's one kind of person. A different person sees what they want to do for their lifetime and figures out how to live off it. The problem is wanting to make art for a living and the solution is figuring out how to get paid for it.
  • systemvoltage 4y ago
    Prototyping can be done easily. CNC or 3D Printing? Protolabs. PCBs? Oshpark. Get a prototype made first, it is going to be a little expensive, but less than investing in a bunch of manufacturing equipment.
• lrvick 4y ago
  I would suggest looking at the mechanical puzzle community. A quick look around https://puzzleparadise.net/ https://puzzleparadise.net/ will reveal many people willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for bespoke homemade sequential discovery puzzles made with laser cutting, woodworking, 3D printing, CNC, mill, lathe, custom PCBs, etc. To go further down the rabbit hole see: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j5V0nECn9hqUCmPmxPqiAtq5o5ptLHbemtn0nyOCd1E/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j5V0nECn9hqUCmPmxPqi...
  • palmetieri2000 4y ago
    This is so cool and a niche I never knew existed, thanks for posting.
  • StillBored 4y ago
    I stumbled on this place, https://puzzledabq.com/ https://puzzledabq.com/, in Albuquerque earlier this year. Probably one of the busiest establishments in the area from what I could tell. So the retail side is probably pretty solid right now too.
• johnchristopher 4y ago
  Either an electromagnetic gadget that reduces any object's weight or a wonky time machine. /s
  • sbf501 4y ago
    Is that what the thing in Primer was supposed to do? Reduce weight?
    • sambapa 4y ago
      Well, it was MacGuffin, but yeah.
    • NickNameNick 4y ago
      I thought they were making jtag headers, at least to start with.
      • sbf501 4y ago
        Yeah, I think readers. Like cheap SEGGERS. Gotta watch than again.
• sbf501 4y ago
  Lionheart Kombucha in Portland Oregon started in a garage, and now is made out of his basement! He has a 3000gal fermenter down there that gets inspected. He used to give lessons at his house on how to make your own.
• _8j50 4y ago
  Hot sauce or other condiments or pastries. Tech augmentations where you add features to a product, tear down, solder up, assemble back and QA.
• aynyc 4y ago
  My old neighbor makes custom collars for pets (and for certain group people as well). He lost his shoe repair business a few years back, but using his skills, he’s doing pretty well. His collars aren’t just leather bells. He adds engraving, GPS, jewels and vegan options. it’s crazy how much people are willing to spend on their pets.
• mrandish 4y ago
  If you want to create an economically viable business, focus first on how you're going to profitably locate, attract and sell to a growing pool of new customers. The vast majority of businesses which fail, do so due to a lack of Customers not a lack of Product.
• smm11 4y ago
  HP started in a garage. So did Apple. And some dude built a nuke in his. Have fun.
  • mikewarot 4y ago
    >And some dude built a nuke in his. David Hahn[1] made an EPA Superfund site, not a nuclear weapon. Generally, the resources of a nation-state are required to build nuclear weapons. I hope it stays that way. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn
• mise_en_place 4y ago
  That was the stated goal of Defense Distributed, to allow manufacture of firearms in your garage. Dunno what happened to them after one of the founders got arrested for personal legal problems. Thought it was an interesting concept, though.
• 8bitsrule 4y ago
  I saw a pontoon houseboat built in a 2-car garage by a shop teacher. Assembled outside of course. People even live in these puppies. Can beat a lake-cabin, especially for people who live near lots of connected lakes.
• rovingEngine 4y ago
  Almost anything smaller than a breadbox. I’m not trying to be flippant, but those are better starting conditions than I had for the moderately profitable craft kit or outdoor product manufacturing businesses I’ve run. Inventory is more likely to constrain your space than equipment, and power supply is more likely to constrain your equipment than budget.
• julianlam 4y ago
  Live edge wood tables.
• sliceform 4y ago
  I used to be the education director at a makerspace and now run a 3D printing company selling small plastic parts and teaching entrepreneurs how to start small manufacturing businesses at home. Few thoughts: - Focus on your hobbies and other industries you know well. What problems exist? Where can you make things better? Are there problems people mention over and over again? - CAD modeling is often THE fundamental skill needed for people to bring their ideas to market. You can make CAD models that look almost real using software you can get for free. This allows you to work backwards, first determining if there's a market, and also working out many of the design flaws before making something If you're just excited to make stuff, and want to get your hands on something, you can do all kinds of things in a tight space. - 3D printers are small and provide many automated opportunities - Laser cutters are dead simple to set up and use to make real products and are easy to automate. - CNC machines can be had for under 5k and are super powerful - Portable MIG welders have a small footprint and welding tends to be in high demand - Leather working tends to be high perceived value though automation is limited - Soldering and electronics repair requires little space but again, automation is limited I've got loads of other ideas too but I'm guessing that's good for now. My contact information is in my profile if you'd like to talk more.
  • CallMeJim 4y ago
    CNC machines for under $5k? Where might we find some of these?
    • minimalist 4y ago
      MPCNC and friends
      • CallMeJim 4y ago
        Wow, TIL — homemade CNC for under $500! The same project also covers homemade 3d printers. Are there any other projects similar to this, making normally-expensive pieces of equipment approachable for hobbyists?
        • 4y ago
• formerkrogemp 4y ago
  Shrooms. Good stuff.
• adrianmonk 4y ago
  An apartment. Might or might not be legal. The disadvantage is you can only make one, but the advantage is recurring revenue once you've made it.
  • elevaet 4y ago
    Similarly, storage lockers. Might be simpler to set up, but probably less income.
• Pakdef 4y ago
  > I am not particularly interested in the legality of this at the moment. But safety considerations could be important. Very illegal: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/ar-15-full-auto-sear-switch https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/ar-15-full-auto-sear-...
• teledyn 4y ago
  Beer!
• silisili 4y ago
  Made in USA safety razor. There have been a few pop up, seemingly sell really well, then disappear for unknown reasons. I think Weber was the last one, and they became highly sought after. Charge 150 bucks a pop, people will buy it.
  • tehlike 4y ago
    Don't have any insight, but likely getting acquired.
• bijection 4y ago
  A friend and I manufacture a laser party light that makes your feet glow in a space smaller than most garages. Just a 3d printer, some custom cut metal pieces, the actual electronic components and some soldering irons. [0] [0] https://toeglo.com https://toeglo.com
  • camtarn 4y ago
    Hah, that's a really cute little product :)
  • anewpersonality 4y ago
    Where do you purcahse the laser beam from
    • bijection 4y ago
      We buy them wholesale from various Chinese manufacturers. I believe the first ones were through Alibaba or Ali Express.
  • chasd00 4y ago
    you know, that could be a very useful nightlight for the middle of the night when you can't see your feet, stairs, or... lego pieces.
• asdff 4y ago
  Check out your local farmers market and flea market. Everything there will be game. I bet granola would be pretty cheap. Inventory doesn't rot, shelf stable product, potential to automate the entire thing too.
• akeck 4y ago
  I make pine bookshelves using 1"x12"xN" boards with dados.
• throwaway787544 4y ago
  About a million things? Art, furniture, metal gears, food, seedlings, chickens, printed t-shirts, shoes, electronics, bicycles, pottery, brooms, woven fabric, a bespoke suit. A car. It'd be easier to list what you can't manufacture in a 2 car garage.
  • mikewarot 4y ago
    >metal gears It is surprising how much you have to know to make gears to be used in mechanical power transmission. It's not magic, and definitely doable, but you can't just cut them out out of sheet stock on a CNC router and expect them to work for years.
• ww520 4y ago
  3D print tabletop game pieces. Lots of tabletop games use cards. Having physical pieces adds a nice touch.
• Prcmaker 4y ago
  I've a good few friends that either started or run small mnufactruing businesses out of a garage or spare room. Those that moved to dedicated premises only did so once it made sense financially and were already supporting their family. Some moved rural, supporting a bigger workshop. I have 3 car garage, with one car in it, the rest is workshop. That fits ample tracking, several metalworking machines, bench space and tool storage. I don't run a full fledged business, just hobby jobs, but it could easily support as much. I've seen clean rooms, home built automated manufacturing rigs and labs I'd wish for at work, all in people's sheds. I truly believe a small workshop can do wonders. The capabilities of small modern equipment, and the ability to outsource jobs/parts by email only makes this easier. (edit: formatting)
• a_t48 4y ago
  A family member of mine did motorcycle trailer hitches and other related things for years out of a two car garage. Eventually they got big enough that they needed to expand and did so, at least to some success.
• gwnywg 4y ago
  I don't know if this would be within your budget but custom enclosures made of hot-bent plexi. they look really nice and I think there is demand within hobby electronic makers.
  • ttyprintk 4y ago
    With 20-50k, poster could get the tools, heat tape, hydrogen torch, cyanoacrylate and plexi.
• supercoffee 4y ago
  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.
  • ja27 4y ago
    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.
    • thoughtpalette 4y ago
      Can confirm. I've definitely bought some high end dice found on reddit/etsy. Helped there was a big DnD comeback after S1 of Stranger Things.
• senectus1 4y ago
  Cosplay gear
• ska 4y ago
  I suspect you would avoid things that could be automatized, and rather focus on something that has relatively high margins due to either customization/personal touch or fit & finish reasons. It probably helps if the overall market isn't massive too, just plenty big enough for a small team. e.g. find a sport or hobby that requires tools/components that can be manufactured in your 2-car/2 person setting. Then give them customization or very high quality. CNC is basically commodity now, as are 3D prints - you need something outside that box I think, or at least have it only be a component of what you are doing.
• jesse__ 4y ago
  One thing I've wanted someone to start making for years is good ski/snowboard racks for snowmobiles. The ones that (almost) everyone I know have break frequently. They would be easy to make out of stainless with a couple small jigs. https://cheetahfactoryracing.com/products/board-ski-bracket-kit https://cheetahfactoryracing.com/products/board-ski-bracket-... The market is probably pretty small, but I'd definitely buy two sets ;)
• anewpersonality 4y ago
  JTAG boards.
• anewpersonality 4y ago
  - Kombucha leather - LSD
• djakaitis 4y ago
  Soap
• guidoism 4y ago
  Airplanes. E/AB are slow enough to build that even if you are working full time they are still one-of-a-kind creations and can be built and sold.
• LargoLasskhyfv 4y ago
  Black Garlic maybe? But it's energy intensive, because it needs constant high temperatures for months. Saying this because I recently discovered it, and like it, because it's basically garlic without the 'stink', useful for spicing up many things, again without the stink. Hard to describe. Anyways, it's seen as a gourmet thing. So one maybe could make some money with it, without much volume. OTOH energy isn't getting cheaper. Dunno. See and search for yourself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_garlic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_garlic
• walrus01 4y ago
  You can CNC cut carbon fiber for custom UAVs.
• roeles 4y ago
  A car? Google wikispeed
• lightedman 4y ago
  You can manufacture metal-core PCB LED modules and fixtures with your starting mentioned capital. For power, you can either do an on-board solution or provide external power drivers matched to your LED layout. Bare unbranded extruded aluminum fixtures can be had COTS and cheap, and you can either get a board house to design boards for you, or link up starboards to populate the fixtures. A small SMT oven can be had for starting at $500 out of China, though making an SMT oven to solder components to a metal PCB is as simple and cheap as a couple of half-silvered halogen bulbs in a workshop fixture, and a reflective metal top replacing the cage. Due to the nature of metal-PCB rework and how it basically ignores thermal profile recommendations, don't worry too much about following a specific thermal reflow profile on the first reflow attempt, just make sure you're getting hot enough at a decent-but-not-blistering speed to ensure all solders down, and then back off the heat immediately and allow the board to cool down. Adjust the height of the board from the light fixture or adjust exposure time or both as necessary to deal with soldering issues. Plastic stencils that match your LED/component pad profile/layout are easy and cheap to manufacture (or buy pre-made.) Solder paste is fairly cheap (though there are some that get expensive, like the indium-bearing solders.) Most components are relatively simple to hand-place as long as your solder stencil job is properly-done and the components aren't too tightly-packed together and tiny, though small high-speed dual-nozzle pick and place SMT machines can be had for around $5K ($2500 or so used.) I suggest looking into servicing the UV market, as that is the market that is blooming. The pandemic has boosted the need for disinfection-capable UV LEDs (specifically UVC,) and also this becomes a boon for other markets, like fluorescent mineral photography, minerals location (things like scheelite are easier to find via their glow when excited by UV radiation at certain wavelengths.) UVA is also showing some experimental results at disinfection, and despite the need for more power to achieve the results, UVA LEDs are much more efficient than UVC, and much cheaper to obtain, so there might be potential there as well if more research is performed and validated. Alternatively, you can go the simpler route of being an assembly house instead of a manufacturing house, buy fixtures, and pre-populated boards that are designed to mount in said fixtures, make working units, sell those. I did precisely this with another person, literally out of their garage, making aquarium lighting for a while - LED strips, screws, extruded aluminum heatsinks, plastic 'lens' inserts, power wire with switch, water-sealing grommets, power supplies, extrusion end caps. If you work hard, make the right development decisions, and advertise effectively, you can easily grow into something that is sustainable and rewarding.
• 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
  https://www.80percentarms.com/ https://www.80percentarms.com/ Build unfinished receivers for firearms. Might not stay legal much longer though.
• justinlloyd 4y ago
  I don't know what you can do in your garage, but in my two car garage I can do: * Basic blacksmithing (small furnace & anvil) * Woodwork using power tools & manual tools (table saw, miter saw, router table, band saw, planer, etc) * Metal working * Ceramics casting * Jewelry making * 3D printing (resin and reel) * Laser cutting (48 x 24) * Vacuum forming * Robotics * Paint spraying (just bought a five stage paint blower) * CNC (small format, would like to add a 5-axis eventually) * Shoot build videos * Electronics design & diagnostics (just finished my new ESD workbench with component storage) * Laundry * Mini-CostCo with freezer section Will be adding a 48x48 CNC in the coming weeks, once I finish some more cabinets What I cannot do in my garage: * Park a car * Find enough time to do what I want If you've got a 4x8 CNC and/or large format laser cutter, you pretty much have a small business at that point. It is then up to you how you monetize it.
  • evanthayer 4y ago
    my garage looks like yours. noice.
  • lucb1e 4y ago
    That's not a garage, that's better equipped than many hacker spaces where people pool money to finance shared equipment. This is not like an ordinary thing everyone can just do if they want to, at least not if it's not part of a business plan to manufacture a particular thing with it.
• potatofarmer45 4y ago
  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.
• 55555 4y ago
  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.
• otikik 4y ago
  Grow medical weed or mushrooms.
• ropable 4y ago
  With a fairly basic set of woodworking tools, you can turn out high-quality cutting boards and charcuterie boards pretty easily. Advantages of these include the fact that they're easy to produce in batches and don't take up a lot of space to store (so it's straightforward to keep some inventory on hand). I've done this and ended up with a steady drip-feed of local sales. It's a nice source of pocket money, though not a reliable one.
  • brailsafe 4y ago
    You can do this with knives as well, and probably other things that you can either lathe or piece together with a bit of value added craftsmanship.
• King-Aaron 4y ago
  Drugs.
• philbo 4y ago
  Beer!
• egorfine 4y ago
  In Ukraine we are building combat drones and UAVs. Lots of these startups around the country and some will successfully monetize after the war, especially given track of success on the battlefield.
  • throwaway787544 4y ago
    How can we help? (With anything, not just drones)
    • egorfine 4y ago
      - 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;
      • Zanfa 4y ago
        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).
        • egorfine 4y ago
          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.
• dncornholio 4y ago
  Stupid question if you'd ask me. You can build anything, really. Whatever you set your mind to mate.
• mikewarot 4y ago
  Given the nature of technology these days, with the ready available of grid power, next day shipping, and wide variety of information on demand, it's easier to describe the limits to what can be made. Obviously - illegal stuff. Anything bigger than about 8 foot in length, or more than 1000kg in mass. If you can pick it up solo, you might be able to build it. Machining wise, you can buy tools to measure down to a micron, and harbor freight has stuff to get you to 25 microns. Used machine tools are widely available. Integrated circuits are outside your time and dollar budget. But Sam Zeloof could give you pointers. It's an amazing time to be a maker!
• jacquesm 4y ago
  Anything you can 3D print or make with a small machining center I would assume. It's amazing how compact and efficient that stuff is. Have a look at 3dhubs. (www.hubs.com)
• DoubleGlazing 4y ago
  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.
• rodolphoarruda 4y ago
  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.
  • culopatin 4y ago
    Anything food related at least in the US is incredibly difficult. Things like needing an alcohol license to sell kombucha and having to go to an industrial kitchen to even qualify to sell it.
• yetihehe 4y ago
  Small customized souvenirs for local tourist attractions or shops. Ask in nearby townhalls if they would like some souvenirs for visiting important guests, some commemorative stuff for various contests. Ask local hardware shop owners if they have ideas for custom brackets or some parts that could be easily machined but are unreasonably expensive. Ask nearby sawmill owner if they need anything machined, typically they have requests from clients for some simple parts but don't have resources to have own people manning cnc's. Typically they will have requests for wooden or metal ornaments or curved parts of wooden windows, maybe artistic cabinet doors or house doors. Wooden and metal signs for various shops.
• culopatin 4y ago
  3D printing for vintage cars. But you sorta need to be embedded in it to know what’s needed.
• cheerioty 4y ago
  New kind of transport/sports devices.
• delgaudm 4y ago
  Here's an idea: Maybe look around for You Tubers who are creating one-off 3d models and pitching them to do a product run. If you want to see what something like this could look like, Aaron Parecki designed a very clever stand for a video device called an ATEM Mini, and started with one-off 3d prototypes he was printing. He validated the idea, then sourced up to a small -- just a bit bigger than a garage -- "factory" that would be like what you're describing. Here is a tour of the "factory" https://youtu.be/ljaEnoJZ8OY?t=1071 https://youtu.be/ljaEnoJZ8OY?t=1071 Might help you source ideas by looking at what some creators are prototyping on their channels, then pitching a small scale factory run of the devices.
• kaivi 4y ago
  Custom length power/data cables like SATA/SAS with various connectors. The biggest obstacle would be that you'd need to test them, but you could start doing so with second-hand hardware. Pair it with a nice website with instant pricing calculator, and I bet you will see business.
  • lucb1e 4y ago
    Low resistance across each of the pins in the finished connector is not enough for testing? That's how cable tester devices, like for CAT5, work afaik. Maybe add another test for ground (like add another multimeter that is connected to ground and make sure it's not being shorted to ground) but that's all you need for most regular dumb cables, I would think? Of course, if the cable itself is also a device and the cable has a protocol of its own that it needs to speak (looking at USB-C here, I read these stupid things need chips now to indicate they can safely carry more power), then things get more complicated
• albrewer 4y ago
  A CNC plasma cutter, sand blasting, and paint booth (with additional supporting equipment) can support a business for making really fancy signs for businesses. This guy on YouTube is basically exactly that: https://www.youtube.com/c/42Fab https://www.youtube.com/c/42Fab
• JoeAltmaier 4y ago
  My son manufactures pattern-welded steel billets for knife makers (so-called Damascus). In his garage.
• dunefox 4y ago
  This might be the scifi author in me speaking, but I think fungi and other similar natural resources are a valuable target. This is actually something I want to look into in the future, even if only in theory.
• xtiansimon 4y ago
  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 https://youtu.be/Ne2J01h1tZ0