Paul J. McCain
@PaulJMcCain
CEO @ http://www.diodedynamics.com Manufacturing automotive lighting in St. Louis, MO 🇺🇸
"Why is it so expensive to make molds in USA?" Exhibit 1: an extremely simple 2-part mold.
CNCs and fiber lasers are cool and all, but how many label printers do you have? #manufacturing #madeinusa
"Good / fast / cheap" is a myth. If you rely on it as truth, you're never going to be competitive. None of these things are binary. A company should optimize for all three. Many have done it in the past, and today's technology makes it more possible than ever.
Protip: Buy $15 USB-C laptop chargers for all your charging needs. Durable 6-foot cables included, fast PD charging, and they are reliable. Tiny wall bricks that overheat are dumb.
It's not much, but it's honest work. Had to change the color of my LED post lights on my deck. Didn't want to spend $80/ea.
Re-industrialize!
In collaboration with @reindsummit and @newindustrials, we are releasing a request for startups motivated by a simple belief: America needs better physical technology, and startups are the best way to build and scale it. We are looking for founders interested in applying modern…
Designed and printed these prefilters for my pool drain today. Somehow the original one wasn't long enough to cover the whole inlet? Long story short, there's some toy letters stuck in my return pipe. No more will join them now.
I'm not even mad, I'm impressed. Blindly sending $0.02 via Paypal to make your pitch. That's something.
The patent wall is growing! #manufacturing #patent #madeinusa
This thing is great! Set up and cutting in just a couple hours. Very pressed with the ease of use. #water #waterjet
Shipped parts to a $10B customer today. Special requirement, custom harness with LED PCB. Delivered in just over 2 weeks start to finish. Don't bet against US #manufacturing!
It is WAY too difficult to purchase industrial commodities in the US. This is a problem. Meanwhile I could get dozens of quotes from Chinese vendors in one day. Where can I buy Makrolon 2407 resin in the midwest US? The distributors I can find don't even list contact info…
Need to change to warm white LEDs on my fence post lights. $80/ea from the mfg. What? Let's design new circuit boards instead. Problem solved!
I build electronics. I just bought an injection molding machine. Time to make our own parts. Re-industrialize!
How can we solve bare board PCB manufacturing in the US? Super limited supply. Cost differential is currently 5-10x vs overseas. Way harder than molded, cast, or machined parts.
Just bought a Wazer waterjet. Excited to start cutting. Any tips and tricks I should know first? #manufacturing #madeinusa