The Mind-Blowing Machines that Stamp Millions of Metal Parts - Smarter Every Day 288
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended for factory-process fans and as part of a series on how US manufacturing is losing tooling capability.
What it is
Destin Sandlin tours a progressive metal stamping factory, showing machines that stamp millions of metal parts and the tooling behind them.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2023 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends greggyb · 2023-08 · on “See How Pencils Are Made in a Japanese Factory”
In a similar vein, but for different products, but also with much more focus on the "back end" of the process: [this video]
Recommends Caligatio · 2025-08 · on “The decline of high-tech manufacturing in the United States”
SmarterEveryDay has a whole series[1] on manufacturing that covers how the US is losing/lost the ability to create tooling. I believe the "Smarter Scrubber" episode[2] is the one that explicitly talks about how not only has the US lost manufacturing capacity but it also lost the ability to spin up manufacturing. The tool and die episode also touches on it[3]. [1] [LINK] [2] [this video] [3] [LINK]
Cites Zren · 2025-06 · on “I tried to make something in America”
It's neat finding out that his earlier video on stamping sheet metal and bending it into shapes was actually him doing research for the handle of this scrubber. [this video]