Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware Product

Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by pinkmuffinere on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @11:36PM (#46881512)

I would not advise jumping to mass production for your first deliveries, i think your story would have had less stress and more lower risk of failure of the first n (maybe 10?) units was bespoke, made lovingly by hand in a machine shop somewhere. I don’t think this is unusual advice, it matches the ethos of the lean startup, and pg’s “do things that don’t scale”.

We made our first hardware by hand, i believe we did 15 units. I remember my cofounder broke down because he couldn’t take the pressure of receiving fifteen orders and now we had to make FIFTEEN by hand, lol. But we were able to figure out SO MANY issues before mass production. And of course even then many slipped through

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by lylejantzi3rd on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @05:20AM (#46883979)

The product in question has a cast part. How do you do that in low quantity by yourself? Sand casting?

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by phasetransition on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @07:08AM (#46884886)

There are a number of pressureless casting techniques available. Investment casting is widely used, for instance. https://www.harmonycastings.com/ is a fancier example.

For this specific application, the manufacturing method determines the porosity of the material, and therefore the heat transfer.

CNC prototype parts will have better heat transfer than pressure die cast, and the pressure die cast will perform better than pressureless cast parts.

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by NooneAtAll3 on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @08:02AM (#46885333)

I wander what's the cost of (renting) metal 3D printers nowadays

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by Joel_Mckay on Thursday February 05, 2026 @12:15AM (#46895933)

Word of advice, never tool up unless you absolutely have no other options left.

https://jlcpcb.com/3d-printing/?gad=1

But if you must:

https://iro3d.com/#products

Metal printing has been available for awhile. =3

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by NooneAtAll3 on Thursday February 05, 2026 @10:54AM (#46901035)

you sound like a bot

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by Joel_Mckay on Thursday February 05, 2026 @10:58AM (#46901067)

Text makes sound in your universe?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

Have a glorious day =3

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by bartlettD on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @06:25AM (#46884499)

I'd CNC machine that part, which is much more expensive in-quantity than the casting option but for a handful of prototypes gets you there quickly.

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by RataNova on Wednesday February 04, 2026 @11:50AM (#46888185)

In some sense it seems like hardware has two cliffs: the handmade one, and the factory one. You need to fall off both to really know what you’re doing

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Re:Lessons Learned Shipping 500 Units of My First Hardware P... by Joel_Mckay on Thursday February 05, 2026 @12:11AM (#46895909)

DFM is a skill like any other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_for_manufacturability

Some are good at designing to factory capabilities, yet others try something slick and get schooled the hard way. =3

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