[Prcmaker]

Mech eng here as well. This advice is great. I work in a high tech firm, prototyping through in-house production. Stuff breaks and we fix it. We make prototypes with the wrong parts, the wrong tools. We do our design, send out parts for machining, and often end up fixing stuff by hand because of a design oversight (it happens, it's prototyping, not production).

[donkeyofd00m]

Cool!

I work in R&D in heavy mfg

I find when people outside the "handy" diciplines (factory operations, industrial setting eng, skilled trades), they think mfg and engineered components are much more elegant than they really are

Perhaps things like apple, F1, dyson and defence distort that view. They do make their products with "spaceship" technologies. But it's critical to understand they are the exception, not the norm... plus... the treasuries and workforce they can utilize to pull it off

It's hilarious how products like Yeti, cammelback, premium razors are just permutation of very simple products (not knocking them one bit and great marketing). x2 the quality of standard products for x4 the price (and often that's just fine)

Usually products start out a little jank just like software. Red bull and lululemon come to mind. Start small leveraging available things, start local markets, scale from there. Just like FB with Harvard students

[Prcmaker]

High voltage and radiation equipment here. Our products are sleek, or prototypes you literally would not touch with a 10ft pole. Jank is part of the game. If we can run a bunch of sketchy tests for $100s to find a path forward, and do pre production on the order of $1k to $10k, we might justify that $100k purchase down the track. On the other hand, we might find our own method that means the $100k solution is never required. We fail fast when we can and learn what we can.

[donkeyofd00m]

Lol sweet... so even you guys with highly dangerous stuff too

Hey, my favourite jank tip: an O ring blew but you don't have a replacement? Bubble gum works pretty well for a few days

[Prcmaker]

If it gets it through the test, it did its job.

Ratchet straps can be a good insulator, when clean and used properly, to higher voltages than you'd suspect.

[donkeyofd00m]

Sometimes I wish there was an archive of all the small tips like these

But other days I kind of like the piecemealed nature of sharing "tribal knowledge" when you bump shoulders with others

[digdugdirk]

Okay, but maybe lets not share that particular tip with the dude who works on radiation equipment?

[Prcmaker]

There are stacks of subsystems that can be tested quickly, janky, yet safely. Safety is always paramount, but a relative term. Safe for an end user, and safe for a prototype engineering test need not be comparable. Similar safety, for sure, similar longevity, ease of use etc., potentially very different.

[donkeyofd00m]

For tests on prototype subsystems like a cooling system? Totally fair game

Live full production systems? Usually no one will be willing to risk the OSHA or ISO violations where critical failure affects safety. Or, if they do, that company won't last long