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I Tried To Make Something In America (The Smarter Scrubber Experiment) - Smarter Every Day 308
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- Опубліковано 22 чер 2025
- Get a Smarter Scrubber Here: smarterscrubber...
Interested in Wholesale, or helping us tell the story? Here's a link:
forms.gle/XFrL...
I would like to thank the Patrons of Smarter Every Day. They knew about this project early and helped make it happen.
/ smartereveryday
John is a great Dad and a good dude. Check out JJGeorge here:
www.jjgeorgest...
Our goal is to make these things 100% in America. We're going to have to build some machines in order to do this.
Your support is appreciated.
Mantle's 3D Printing for injection molds is a technology I'm very excited to explore.
A huge thanks to Ted for participating!
Here's a video on what they do: • Mantle's TrueShape Met...
A HUGE thanks to our Injection Molder Chris Robson, with tons of work from Jeremy:
www.robsonco.com/
T&C Metal Stamping (Ask to speak to Weston and tell him Destin sent you!)
www.tandcstamp...
Search Engine Podcast:
Episode "The Puzzle of the All-American BBQ Scrubber"
www.searchengi...
Check out Jeremy Fielding's Channel
/ @jeremy_fielding
Check out Tim Cook's comments on China at the Fortune Global Forum:
• Tim Cook Discusses App...
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GET SMARTER SECTION
I recommend learning about the Bretton Woods Accords
www.federalres...
Read about the Bretton Woods system
en.wikipedia.o...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smarter Every Day on Patreon
/ smartereveryday
Ambiance, audio and musicy things by: Gordon McGladdery
www.ashellinth...
ashellinthepit....
Warm Regards,
Destin
This experiment was incredibly interesting for hundreds of reasons. It's not just about America... this is an important thing for everyone in the world to be considering. A huge thank you to everyone for supporting local manufacturing!
If you're interested in getting a scrubber, we have a limited supply at smarterscrubber.com. We are absolutely terrified of how difficult it is going to be scale up our output if there is significant demand, so please be patient with us. Our goal is to invest back into the machines and tooling to see if it's possible to make this stuff work smarterscrubber.com . Also, we are nowhere in the ballpark of being ready for this... but if you're interested in being a wholesaler we'd love to get your contact information in case we figure that out for the future. Also, if you'd like to help tell this story we'd like to hear about that as well. Here's a link to contact us: forms.gle/XFrLTa5b8kxSvPnu8.
I'm beyond grateful to the Patrons of Smarter Every Day for helping make this happen. You (the Patrons) knew about this long before the general public or the Search Engine episode, and you have been nothing but supportive. I'm grateful! Thanks to all who support at www.patreon.com/c/smartereveryday.
Super cool love it
You're right economics is a complicated issue, the best way to fight "IMHO" workers in third world countries from being taken advantage of is through tariffs.
It would make the playing field a little more even.
Now get the rest of your countrymen to do the same thing instead of enriching China...
This has been known for years just not widely I like AKs and when the Chinese AK was available they were dirt cheap because they were thought to be garbage! But they are surprisingly good and now the price for them are ridiculous.
Need a @titansofcnc colab
Should I test grill scrubbers?
YES
Yes
Yes!
yes
Yes!
I’ve had one of these for over a year. As the kids might say, this thing slaps.
I mean scrapes.
You know what I mean.
It’s a good tool.
Oh hey, I didn't expect to see you here!
@@StuffMadeHere you're awesome. Don't ever change.
Thanks for answering all my questions about CNC machining. I'm incredibly grateful man! Also, you were the first official purchase of the Smarter Scrubber...so that's neat too.
I mean, it could probably slap too if ya tried hard enough...
@@NearlyBatman That was the joke.
I appreciate that instead of trying to look like the smartest guy in the room, you let us see all your mistakes so we could get an honest look at what goes into doing something like this. Thank you.
@@MattWhitmanTMBH well he is just a simple rocket scientist from Alabama ;)
Oh wow... you're early to this one buddy. Thanks for saying nice things. You had a backseat view to all this so thanks for the encouragement. It's an honor to be friends with you.
I'm convinced I'm the smartest person on the internet 😂
@@smartereverydaySame. I know how much energy and effort you have in this project. Thanks for the sneak peek at the video this morning.
Matt got a preview?!
Never thought I'd sit through and enjoy a 48min ad for a grill scrubber on UA-cam.
Hi Destin,
We’re a custom injection molder located in Iowa. We have 35 molding machines that were built in-house. All our steel and the majority of our plastic materials are domestically sourced. We would love to give you a tour.
Nice! You should message him on his business email if you haven't already
please please please reach out to Destin/his 'team' in every conceivable way/via every conceivable avenue of communication you can find! I would LOVE to see such a vid, especially with Destin!
Hi, I'm an EE and am tasked with being over manufacturing for a defense contractor (specifically the cable/harness shop and MRO for rotary wing platforms) in Huntsville, AL... we have a handful of shops locally that can fabricate molds, but none of them do it very well. Do you offer help in design of the molds? IE: taking a D38999 connector and coming up with an overmold to replace metal backshells? Also, do you have the ability to make multi-piece aluminum molds for "pour mold style" molding with something like EN-1556, along with steel molds for injection molding too? Lastly, which brand of smaller injection mold machine would you recommend for molding around 5k cables that have shot sizes of at most around 1.5 oz?
@@Crunk99ify bro just call them in the morning
Not only does Destin make us smarter every day and make a quality product in the USA, he also provides networking opportunities in his comments section.
This is awesome
One thing missing from the pitch: show us it scrubs well.
@@michaelvandeborne9382 agreed, never showed it in use once if I'm not mistaken... And someone else mentioned replaceable parts should be purchasable
@@michaelvandeborne9382 but it’s a quality product, and the competition will actively hurt you and your loved ones (insert gory pictures from video). And it HAS to be made locally otherwise people will be homeless and suffer more!
Buy this product because we care about you. If you don’t, then you are a bad person.
/s
A little before the 28 min mark they use it twice. Not in detail but mama said it was nice so I'm in hahaha
I bought one a few months ago and I think it works great. No regrets.
You might also want to check out the price.
I've had to explain this to a lot of people: Chinese products are only low quality if the (often American) company hiring them to make those products specifically asked (or settled) for low quality, to save money. They're perfectly capable of working to high standards, if the buyer requests them and pays for them.
No, it's if the American company doesn't demand high quality.
@@wbfaulk that's... pretty much the same thing. Companies don't demand high quality because they want to save as much money as possible
@@wbfaulk both are true. it depends on both parties.
…and they do that because customers always buy the cheapest piece of garbage. Which is that way because of the bad information consumers get.
did you miss the part where the Chinese manufacture stole the patented design and made cheaper quality knock offs though? kinda defeats what you're saying.
haha, for anyone wandering, the Chinese read '普船-海派' means 'General Cargo Ship - Sea Freight Service'
海派的意思是海运+清关+快递派送
@@jakem_5266 感谢，超出我的知识范畴了，我查出来也差不多是这样，但是对应的英文应该是什么呢？
归根到底还是中国制造
Bro you just been told to report to your local 110 Overseas?
@@TonyWright-tf5zy 😅
I just want to know how many days it is until the inevitable follow-up video "amazon is now selling a knock off of my smarter scrubber"
@@deltaangelfire Cuisinart branded, $40
Already there.
@@RossReedstrom AUGH
Yeah, I found it. It's even "Amazon's Choice". I wonder if Destin can get it taken down as patent infringement.
@@SwordOfApollo As he already showed in the video, its a sisyphean task.
Amazon takes way too long to respond so the knock-off already made their money.
Then even if that one product gets taken down there is nothing stopping multiple other suppliers from putting another one up or just the same supplier under a different name selling the infringing product again.
"Cuisinart 3-in-1 Chainmail Grill Cleaner, Bristle-Free Dual Function Heavy-Duty Grill Brush with Removable Head" -- Yeah, WOW.
So I am a die corrector at a fairly large aluminum extrusion plant in the Dallas area. Would you be interested in looking into the extrusion process and possibly producing a video or two on it? Extruded components are everywhere from construction to automotive to aerospace.
And btw, my brother-in-law got me the smarter scrubber for Christmas, and it works better than anything else I've ever tried! Kudos!
Are you guys hiring? lol
@@LockeandDemosthenes do you have any info I can use to research this? I'm going into Industrial Management and Applied Technologies courses at TAMUK this fall, and I'd love to learn a bit more about this process.
That would be a cool video, I hope Destin sees your comment.
Do you guys make extruded aluminum T-slot rails?
lol
Hey Destin, I’ve been designing injection moulded parts for about 15 years, my pile of failed prototypes looks just like yours every time. I think you did an amazing job, especially with the little support and specialised training you had. No need to be embarrassed at all, great work, love your videos.
Reach out to him via his site too! Maybe you can get involved in his work or spread your knowledge and reach further or something?
Independence is a powerful emotion and feeling.
Thanks for the kind words!
@@auldanmccarthy4827 will you contact @junkyarddave he's try to get an injection molded fan shroud for hellcat. So far everything that was printed can't handle temps so he's looking into other options.
@@smartereveryday Can you give an update video on when this is fully made in America? I would love to support this adventure, but I am looking for made in America 100%.
Young mechanical engineer here. Been working in physical product design for several years.
When I joined the industry, one glaring hole in my engineering education was my lack of knowledge of how to make things (from the design phase all the way to manufacturing).
I went to a BIG10 engineering school, and was surprised how much theory I was taught vs. practical engineering knowledge. I know that many schools now include specific tracks for manufacturing/design engineering that are more tailored towards learning the design process, but I was shocked how much I had to learn from an older generation of engineers who had been in the business for 30+ years. This includes processes like injection molding, casting, blow-molding, rotational molding, extrusion, weldments, sheet metal, mold design...
We have lost the art of how to make things in the US, but not the passion to innovate and improve the world around us. That is still my favorite part of my job.
One of my career goals is to now help mentor and educate the upcoming generation of engineers to avoid many of the pitfalls I faced learning how to turn my ideas into reality.
@@bugmeehan what should we do to help our kids improve in this type of engineering? I have a 7yo and wonder how I can get them better at making things.
@@Bentonrochester kids need to start thinking about the how/why things work the way they do. I think we have all grown accustomed to expecting things to work while also feeling clueless when they don't. For kids, this is a great opportunity to learn. I remember growing up asking my parents questions when they would do any sort of work on our house. I learned the basics of household tools and how to take things apart and put them back together. I actually do this a lot now as an engineer in product design, but would encourage kids to do the same. For me, this was legos (both following the instructions and going off-script).
As kids get older, the emphasis should be on figuring out how to fix/maintain the stuff they have rather than replace it. I learned/discovered so many mechanisms through this process because one way or another, everything around us is made somewhere.
the moment you mentioned you found a supplier from India I thought "I bet it's just transhipping from China" 😂😂😂
I suspect the made in America bolt probably used a stainless steel blank from China
I thought the same thing. My employer was sued over parts being advertised made in India but were actually from china. We found out years later that the first person that filed the lawsuit (turned into a class action) was a family member of a person that built the part in china. Guy bought our product, his cousin or uncle (we’re not sure) said, “hey we make that part”. Guy said no, it says that part come from India. Family member sends a photo of him holding the part in front of the machine used to make the part. Guy goes to attorney and my employer paid out the rear-end. My employer went after the company that lied about the origin but it turns out it’s thought to sue another company not stationed in the states.
@@AZbone that's hilarious haha, was the guy suing based in china or where you're from?
@@TrendyWhistlethe guy that sued was from the states. I don’t remember exactly but I believe he was from New York.
They were incredibly naive about the provenance. You can't just take someone's word that something was made anywhere. @Destin - you could learn something from the conservation sector, where certification and supply chain provenance is essential (e.g. for claiming that Tuna were responsibly caught, or that wood was sustainably farmed etc).
This was eye-opening. How does an American guy make something in America? He gets it made in India. How does the Indian guy make it in India? He buys it directly from China. Wild.
...and most american "suppliers", will cash the difference from buying their supply elsewhere, way cheaper. 😇
@@pankotenders They do the same thing with Russian, "sanctioned" oil & gas, Europe buys a ton of, "Indian" petroleum.
...because america has indians too
It runs deep! Even if the chainmail is made in America, where was the metal wire raw material made? If all those container ships suddenly stopped one day we'd be in a world of hurt.
I've been designing consumer electronics for the last 15 years and I've done few molding models myself (I work for a small European company and it's kind of a "one guy does it all" operation). I am always surprised that this is not common knowledge. Like yeah, we still have the ability to make stuff locally and it's often worth it, but Chinese competition is usually 4 times cheaper and about 3 times faster. So we sometimes use them for cost or speed sensitive stuff, prototyping and accessories that are gonna be produced in small batches.
I ran a kickstarter in 2015 for a set of plastic cookie cutters. The quotes I got for making them in the US were 4 times the money I raised. I ended up teaching myself to make 3 injection molds and plastics and made thousands of them here in Austin Texas. I was late in shipping the product, but I got them out. :)
Made in Texas is better than all other Made In ______
Nice work
I'm more curious how you found people to back a literal cookie cutter kickstarter
@@KeithKritselis how did you miss a golden opportunity to plug your product? Besides now I'm curious 😂
Are you still making them?
Part of your pitch was that this is a product which lasts. If you want to double-down on this then you should also supply replacement parts.
Fascinating video, Destin! I have been trying to make trading cards for my channel and found it borderline impossible to work entirely within the USA as well, even for something as simple as putting shiny ink on cardboard. Everyone I talk to just plays middleman for chinese printing companies.
I love your videos and appreciate that you are trying to support the American workers.
DM me, I know someone who does in hour production for printing. Their warehouse is neat!
Doesn't WotC print their cards in the USA? Are all of their presses owned in house?
Takes a nation not a colony
It says "Printed in the USA" on Pokemon cards. There must be a story behind this.
American Tooling Engineer here -
I gotta say, thank you SO much for showcasing Mantle, Destin. The mold making innovation they have brought to the industry is incredibly exciting. My entire team is obsessed with the detail and speed achieved by 3D printing cavs/cores, not to mention the cooling optimizations that were once impossible with standard machining methods. Too much fun.
Have you seen the silicone molds that some Chinese companies are using? They machine or 3d print prototype parts, use that to make silicone molds, then produce small batches of parts. These are only good for anywhere from a half dozen to dozens of shots, depending on the precision needed, but it is high quality and cheap.
The revolution is that these are *not* prototypes. You can do tiny production runs of high quality injection molded plastic parts. Production grade tooling for tiny runs with near zero startup costs compared to traditional tooling.
The companies that do this have enough in house expertise to use a prototyping process in production for their customers.
This is not to take away from what Mantle are doing, but augment it. There is no longer a barrier of having to pay tens of thousands to millions of dollars for tooling (Lego have eye watering tooling costs, for example). Production technology *technology* has improved so something like injection moulding can scale in a cost effective manner, from tens of units to billions.
@@King-Kazma I have in passing but not explicitly, I’ll have to do some research. What really entices me is 3D printed resin tooling for rapid R&D from places like Fortify. I know the technology has been around for a decade+, but it still amazes me. I have the honor of being able to use our Stratasys polyjet to print hi-temp ABS inserts for my product development projects. The real cool thing is I’m able to model the resin inserts with similar unique features achievable with Mantle tooling such as conformal cooling and creative venting to prove out before we go to metal inserts. All this new technology has truly disrupted the overall product development process in a big way and I am SO here for it. Freeform tooling is the future!
To begin with, aren't most of the workers in those so-called American factories illegal immigrants? Well, aside from Native Americans, all Americans are illegal immigrants, aren't they?
@@King-Kazma The silicone mold technique is one that has been used in model making for over a decade, and is also used in some small scale production runs in other fields as well.
@@mitchk7655 Sure, it isn’t new tech, but what is new is that they are set up to do it at scale, at an entirety reasonable cost. Per piece is far nearer production run cost than prototype.
The infrastructure around the manufacturing process is what makes it scale. They have a staff of people able to turn around tooling design.
37:55 the 海派 here is probably short for 海外派送 “overseas shipment.” So it does sound as though the stuff was shipped from China to India
hopefully you are right lol
Scammed by an Indian? wow color me shocked
@@Shiznit304 lol they outsourced it after he outsourced it to them 🤦
@@Shiznit304 Not surprised at all. Scamming is a billion dollar industry in India.
@@Shiznit304 The reason why Americans get scammed by Indians is that they think they both are speaking the same language just cause they are speaking English, Get an Indian to talk and find out about Indian shipment. There are many youtubers who would have helped him.
As a patron member I bought one to support you. Mike Rowe is working on getting more young people in trade schools. We are very short on machinist and tool makers. Great success on this project
I am a radiologist. I have seen multiple cases of grill brushes perforating (making a hole) in the wall of the small and large intestine. All of the patients had no idea that they swallowed a grill brushes and most of them required surgery. If you do use a grill brush you should carefully check for broken bristles. I have ordered one of these brushes.
Whoa that is nuts. I would never have considered that risk.
Grill Badger is more effective and far cheaper - and doesn't result in metal bristles puncturing your gut.
@@dreamwraith-84Gee that product seems eerily similar.
@@YogurtSnipe 8:52 seems relevant
ig ill stick with the classic, onion on a stick. cleaner
I think a pretty alarming pattern that I've noticed in these sorts of videos is that all of the manufacturing professionals that Destin consulted with are old, balding men at or nearing retirement age whereas the glimpses we see of Chinese factories show machines and offices staffed with young people.
America transferred to a "knowledge based economy" decades ago - and thus most people with a manufacturing job were screwed. Now "knowledge based economy" is no longer safe - not just from AI, but from countries like India and the Philippines who outsource their "knowledge" (which is basically by getting westerners to train their workers and then the company those westerners worked for makes them redundant)
Western society has literally dismantled itself. Too late to do anything about it.
@@Beer_Dad1975 "Too late to do anything about it" except, you know, you can always do something about it. you just have to do something about it instead of insisting that you cant do anything about it.
I have seen the same thing with engine machining. Been working on rebuilding a car engine for a couple years and literally every person I have worked with in the process from multiple companies is 60+ year old men.
@@nonormies I mean of course it isn’t impossible, but if I’m understanding their point, I can see why they mean-it feels like the trajectory of things just won’t be conducive of western society repairing itself.
As things stand, the US still has a wealth of knowledge and experience to hand down to younger generations. Other countries and citizens see this and flock here in hope of a better life or the skills to obtain a better life. But after that knowledge is passed onto those younger generations, they see in the US that we have low wages, low job opportunities, and a lackluster job market for those jobs. So they take their skills overseas-it is “outsourced”.
And the trajectory is worse because currently, those that have this knowledge and experience often will get better opportunities overseas. Others aren’t able to pass on their skills. And that isn’t mentioning how corporations can often undercut the original product with a cheaper version-which people buy because not everyone can buy a quality product or know which ones are actually fully made in the US (which goes into a complete separate issue of cost of living, wages, and companies moving manufacturing overseas for cheaper labor).
@@nonormies 1000%. Self-defeating people are pervasive. It's the reason why the US is crumbling. It's because people have every excuse to do something about it.
Well done, I'm a 66 year old Mold maker with my own shop in northern Illinois. I tell people I am a dying breed. I felt like you are one of us. You could not have done better, Thanks.
If you start a youtube channel with nothing but your smart phone and a $20 tripod you can pass on the knowledge and make a little money while you're at it
Ask your nephews for some advice or pay them a couple bucks for editing and you're off to the races Mr Moore
@@robertjmoore798 I have a grandson who would like to learn this craft. How can he get involved?
@@wijim1948 get the materials required to start!
@@wijim1948 depending on the age of your grandson one thing you can do is talk with local trade schools, even potentially high schools about opportunities to have a walk-through with a business that has a shop. Another approach could be calling up any local machine shops in letting them know you have somebody interested in getting in the field. I’m sure they would be glad to show people the trade and the art a fabrication & machining.
@@MrHarp71 thanks for your response. The grandson I have in mind is 22. He's having a hard time finding a job that will lead to a career. This would be perfect for him.
Congrats on the PBS News Hour spotlight. That's awesome!
35:00: Software engineer here. AI is not taking software jobs, short-sighted executives who don't understand our jobs are, lol.
As a Software engineer, agreed. If AI were to take Software engineer jobs, then opensource projects should've done that a long time ago.
Also you still need someone to maintain and improve the AI infrastructure and lower level code :D
At the end of the day AI is just another a tool for specific usecases
@@resphantom *a tool to trash your codebase
It's making it really tough for new grads to enter the industry though. For experienced engineers, AI can be a force multiplier.
Or as some coder said; it takes as much time to go through and correct the code that the AI spit out as it would have taken to write it yourself.
@@something3194 True, also to avoid making code vulnerabilities or bad practices. Each code base in each company has it's own pattern.
The idea that every product in the world needs AI is dumb, this includes coding. Why would a toaster need AI?
IMO the most destructive phrase over the past 40-50 years has been "fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value". This is an excellent video Destin, thank you for making it, as well as the scrubber.
Well it is a very good rule and protection against manipulation against the people who payed for a share of the company. Would be rug pull city. The real rule should be maximize shareholder value without the expense of citizen value.
Private equity ruins all that it touches.
I dont see what is destructive in high profits. If you want to change this you have to become rich first, but you either will not become one or will walk the same steps.
the government never had to allow mass immgrtion and free trade with the thrd wrld
@@jimsonjohnson3761 I understand there is a good faith reason for it being the standard... but as with so many things, bad actors can pervert a good thing. Despite leaning right and being a believer in capitalism, over time I've come to believe more in the role of a government acting as a referee for the public interest. I agree with your suggested rule and believe (theoretically) that's what a government (with good faith elected officials and appointees) can help ensure via regulation. Unfortunately, the bad actors show up there as well, and often more so. :(
Great video. I enjoyed watching you develop the idea, and I am honored to participate in a topic as large and complex as global trade. I am glad you are nudging the conversation forward.
Was fun seeing your bit of contribution into this project as well. Love your videos!
Love your robotics videos! Got my son interested in robotics partly using your content to teach ourselves some of the basics. Love from India!
Almost everything I know about motors came from your videos. Sadly, I didn't absorb as much as I would have liked, but I know where to go for a refresher.
I don’t understand why it was somehow ok to use parts made in India, but not in China. I felt that part was glazed over.
its probably because of MAGA lol
Agree. I was like "What part of India is in the USA".
Big no no to China and Costa Rica, but okay if it's India?
because this video its just propaganda
@@tonycezar1645
Well, it is a problem that they just shrug their shoulder at.
I still like the idea that they try to highlight what kind of world we live in and politicians only see tax income as good and money flow, but aren't trying to make sustainable in house made products for their own citizens.
I'm hoping that the right people see this video, and they really try to make a difference, otherwise we are not doomed, but kind of.
That's because in the distant future it's not Indian nuke that the US need to worry about.
Just as a helpful note: the smarter scrubber costs $75 while one from Amazon costs $20. Hopefully that brings it more into perspective just how hard it is to get things manufactured in the US.
amazon really needs a big lawsuit
@@rabbitdrink why? Do u want to pay more?🤣
As well as whether it is reasonable to expect every "average" wage earner in the USA would ever be able to afford 375% more for all of their basic essentials.
I really expected it to cost a lot more. I would pay twice that for it if I had a grill.
@@Marceloa2005 For violating patent law.
As someone with both an engineering and economics background, this video sums up a lot of what I am telling people all the time. Something I wish the video highlighted more though is we have to compete on cost with US manufacturing. Ideals are not sufficient. There are many people that will buy your scrubber because it is associated with your name. In everyday life people will not pay 5x the cost of a big box brand just to be made in US, and it is just completely financially untennable. The payback curve is not as simple as your video shows. Most people's budgets are already strapped, they cannot afford to pay 3x for a noble ideal of domestic production. I work for a company that invented a product in the US 60 years ago, and all the product we sell in the US is made in the US. Doing this has required incredible innovation and continued research to make the product and equipment as efficient as possible. Our cost to produce in the US is still cheaper than all foreign competitors, but it has required our equipment to run 5x the production speed and multiple percentage points more effecient from raw materials to do it. This is what is required to bring back manufacturing to the US. Substantial technolgical innvotaion to make things cost competitive on the world stage. It can be done. And this product we are making in the US, is used by 70% of the world population daily, not some niche product or luxury item. The big thing is better education to have highly trained engineers, machinists, toolmakers, and inventors to continue to make machines more efficient. And to not have them so burdened by school debt and lack of resources that they can take big risks to start companies that push the boundaries of productivity.
Yeah even the idea that the people selling you things at a higher price means the item is of higher quality is idealistic.
Money moves the world, and unfortunately some higher priced items are still low quality just to bump up the profit.
Best reply here. Kudos.
Any study of economics shows that price will be the driving force for most every day purchases. The fact is, the wages in the US are too high to make consumer goods (I know there are some exceptions but they do not disprove this fact). If any manufacturing comes back it will be capital intensive because the process with be automated (i.e. very few workers needed).
I’m curious what yall make. Always interested in good engineering.
@@88COR88 wages are a factor but nowhere near the main factor to look at, material and tooling costs are 10-20x higher in the US than anywhere else and that impacts the price per item way more.
I work in injection molding. For the last 24 years, I have witnessed all the problems you highlighted. Thank you for this video.
hey man this video really made an impact on me and now I'm even more curious about the world of machining. I'm 23 and was wondering where to look and how to get into this filed?
Any recommendations for US based Injection Molding companies?
I used to be friends with someone who ran a plastic model kit business. I shared a story on twitter about how they wanted to move all their production to America, and to make it work, they needed to have one facility doing the tooling, the injection molding, the decals, instructions, and packaging. They spent 5 years looking for anywhere that could do it, and came up completely empty. No one believed it. People are in deep denial about how bad this problem is
@picsbyalfred machine operators are a typical way to start. They often don't require much in experience.
Additionally, Autodesk fusion has a free license for students and individuals, and you can learn the basics of design and CAM from their learning resources. You can even get certified in those skills from them. I'm sure solidworks has similar programs.
@@picsbyalfred CNC Machine operator positions are a good entry point. They don't require much in training. There are classes in community college and online resources available to learn the basics.
Beyond that, Autodesk Fusion 360 offers a free license for students and individuals, you simply have to apply. They also have excellent learning resources and certification courses for design and CAM (computer aided machining). I'm certain Solidworks has similar resources available, and it is the industry standard.
This is awesome! I watched this video with my kids and couldn't agree more about the need to manufacture things close to home. Thanks for taking the time to build it right in America!
My son sent me this video, and told me to watch it. I’m a BBQ er and spent my career as a welder/fabricator. I was completely immersed in the video, being aware of the situation with manufacturing in the USA. It wasn’t until the pitch that I was fully aware of what the scrubber was something I’ve been searching for, for years.
I was replying my son and telling him the same… he sent me the order form and said “Happy Father’s day Dufus!
Yuuup, I got that!
My dad has been a tool and die maker for 35ish years. I showed him this video and he agreed and liked the video. Dad also explained the inner workings of the die and presses while we watched. Great video.
That's awesome!
My dad has been a tool for longer than I've been alive.
I work for a German company in the US (precision steering and transmission parts), and I can confirm that American manufacturing is in trouble. In my example, the only reason my company exists is to get the "made in America" stamp on the part. Our German parent company has no desire to train their American workers, and they just ship their people to the US to work on machines and do the engineering work. For operators, the company uses the cheapest American labor they can, rehab/work program people are their favorite. They are currently trying non-English speaking immigrants because they have exhausted the local work force options. This way of hiring Americans leads to everyone basically being disposable.
America is the new Mexico cheap labour for Germany 🤣
I totally agree as a 23 year Machinist, the state of manufacturing is bleak. Companies treat people as expendable only to be hiring less and less talented and motivated people, take more and more from workers to give to shareholders or to save money because they know they will be selling to retire, leaving the good employees to break their backs to get things done. You either work in a subpar role or treated with extremely high expectations day in and day out and expected to perform as such, on top of working 5.5 days a week plus daily overtime to meet their goals and them not want to put anything back into the process to save labor, without any peace of mind as that shop could be bought out, merged, sold, lose work to other markets, etc. I could go on but I'll stop there.
@@cobburn Maybe that's the problem? Working for publicly owned companies - they have a duty to make as much profit as possible.
The Japanese did the same thing to my mother when she worked for them, 20 years and they laid off everyone to move their head quarters to montreal for bi-lingual staff.
@@rokask I'm assuming you mean privately owned, as publicly owned suggests owned by the government (through public taxes).
Awesome video, you nailed the struggle! We're a small business in Germany and know the pressure to manufacture overseas all too well. The tooling costs and supply chain nightmares you documented are very real.
For us, the solution was 3D printing. Instead of investing thousands in molds, we manufacture everything in-house. This gives us full control, lets us offer hundreds of niche products on demand, and allows us to proudly say "Quality Made in Germany." Huge respect for your journey-it's a massive inspiration!
“They can’t make the quantities we need, for a price that makes sense.” That’s why manufacturing doesn’t happen in America.
At a price they think makes sense, yet the whole thing still costs over $70!
@@Jcewazhere they said they couldn't get it for a price that makes sense. Aka that means they acknowledge that the 70+ price is ridiculously high and the main bottleneck is the chainmail
@@jmanius1no 70 dollars is the price with Chinese chain mail, and will only come down when there’s a liquidation sale lol
@@Yosser70 Did you not pay attention to the video? The Indian/Chinese chain is a backup if their American supplier isn't able to keep up. All of the ones they've made so far have American chain.
@@Yosser70all in all, its an idealistic project that makes no economic sense but thats the point since its his passion. Im just stating the facts that its not cheap because he's literally making the worst moves possible from a financial standpoint. Also dont forget how much it costs to manufacture your own mold designs. Their one time costs alone would make any sale under 50 bucks insanely risky even with all foreign parts.
I’ve had a few brands. Making things in China is not just easier because of tooling but because the mindset is they want the business. I tried to make in France and the factories just didn’t care. In the end we found a factory in Germany. But it took about 50x more work to get a reply. Chinese factories replied in hours. There’s really a mindset we need to shift. Great on passing through.
@@martinsoler396 I understand this sentiment. But is the conclusion that we should work more hours and be begging for business? This might just be the outcome of a high income society
@@weasaldude imo the only solution is further automation of manufacturing in the west. We refuse to work like slaves, and because of that we can't afford to pay workers living wages
@@aaron9inch we could, but the billionaire class are unwilling to give up their hoardes of gold, and if the automation is done by the billionaires, you can bet those benefits aren't trickling down
@@aaron9inchThe thing is China is leading in automation and AI manufacturing…the advantage they have is the supply chain. Instead of waiting for a part to be shipped here to fix a machine, or raw materials for production, they have it in the same industrial park. Just the logistics cost is hard to beat.
This has been my experience too. Its about service, ive worked for small startups and am currently doing independent development. i cant get european and american or even other southeast asian companies to reply. If i need something cut with cnc, a spring made, a die cut, glass or other special materials made on a small scale for prototyping, china is the place, full stop. us companies wont even talk to you unless youre talking orders in 4-10k $ range - difficult when youre small. Just ordered some cnc cut prototypes from a chinese company for 250$ id have to spend 10x on in the us. Same thing for custom springs, Chinese companies seem more willing to invest in their clients.
As an engineer, I love seeing this, but a very important topic was not mentioned....are spare parts going to be available? I can see that this scrubber will last for a very long time, but accidents do happen, and thing do break.
Please please please promote Right to Repair as a part of this product launch.
THIS 😐👍
Yes
To continue the boots theory, it's worth resoling a good pair of boots.
@@andrewcronin8215 even though most of my clothes come from these sweatshop countries, it's definitely a life mission for me to keep them in good repair with a simple hand sewing needle and thread, no machines necessary
Great question! Hope we get a positive answer
Some more insight to manufacturing from a first hand experience here in the US. I didn't know anything about manufacturing until I met my spouse and started really seeing what makes products. We have a family owned, very small, injection mold manufacturing company. Getting people to find us, without having to spend so much money on Google advertising that eats into the small margin we have is one of the hardest hurdles we face. When we DO get people who find us, they ask for quotes that we can't compete with - sometimes they want prices that are less than what the material costs. Sometimes the volumes they request would be maybe an hour of our time and no guarantee they would come back next year to order more and still have to warehouse their mold. And, more often than not, they don't have the tooling, or are unwilling to pay us to make the tooling for them.
What ISN'T touched on in this video is also crucial to mention - the skills to repair the molds themselves and recycling the rejected material.
In my state, there is ONE person who has the skills to repair molds when they crash, crack, etc etc and they're in retirement age.
I would love to hear how you found some of your manufacturing partner prospects, as this might also help other, smaller, companies like mine to get themselves out and be found so we CAN make you these cool parts.
I grew up in Turkey. We and everyone I knew used onions to clean grilles. You cut an onion in two, stab a fork at the outer side, and scrub with the cut surface. It works very well.
Love the video. Major likes.
Mangal havasi sogansiz olmaz
We used Lemons in LA.
Acid cleans grease
Same in Mexico, you could use the cheap scrubber to clean most of it and then finish with an onion to get the bristles and the seasoning 🤔
Just make sure it's an American grown onion.
Hi Destin -
I’m a engineer that works in the injection molding industry in the United States. I work on the product design as well as the mold design side. A few things I’d like to mention because I loved the video you made and I feel like I may be able to provide some information that others would be interested in hearing.
1.) there are a decent amount of mold makers in the United States. I have connections with several. The main issue isn’t their capabilities it’s the price of the mold. In my experience it can cost anywhere from 3x-5x more to build a mold in the United States compared to China even with the current tariffs.
It’s difficult for a company to justify spending 4x more on tooling when you don’t know how a product will be received in the market place when you can lower the entry cost by going to China.
2.) a lot of US mold makers actually farm out some of the simpler components that go into making a injection molding from China to lower their costs and be competitive. They fly in these components and assemble them in the United States to claim they are made in the USA. From my experience most mold makers are up front about this and don’t try and hide it.
3.) no where in the United States can you find a company that builds injection molding machines. They are all built in China and Europe. With Europe using China as a manufacturing source to build larger castings.
Overall it’s really exciting to see manufacturing returning to the United States but we need to find a way to incentivize US companies to purchase from other U.S. companies.
Great video.
If I may ask you, what software tools are used in your industry? Is it just some off-the shelf CAD/CAM package or do you have something more specialized for mold design and optimization?
@@cogoidI use solidworks as well as autodesk mold flow.
@@cerdafiedDeveloper The reason I was asking is that I have seen one advanced "amateur" making rather impressive molds at home, using just basic mechanical CAD software, and tweaking the product and the mold based on intuition. (Of course he was only making relatively simple things, like a spoon.) I assumed professionals might have some tools to make the process more productive.
Dustin turned into Scrub Daddy. hehe Jokes aside, I think that it's important that more young people go to vocational schools teaching specific job skills like tools and die making etc, as it's more becoming important in today's geopolitical environment.
I feel like they didn't really search that well or just wanted someone in Alabama. There are tons of engineers that make molds and have experience here in the USA.
As a German who has worked in a company that had electronics produced in China, I can tell you they can go to real high quality, but you have to explicitly tell them to and it's going to cost more accordingly. Most stereotypical "Chinese quality" products are either sold by companies directly from China (over platforms like AliExpress, Shein, Temu, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, etc.), or by companies that do not WANT higher quality. Our first sample iterations were cheap and didn't look or feel great, but we requested quality improvement changes and they absolutely can do that. Best example is they printed the red parts of our logo on dark blue plastics, and it looked dull. We asked them to improve the print quality and they said they'd first print it white and then red, which really improved the saturation, but now you could see a super tiny white outline on the side because the red was offset by maybe a width of a hair. It is tiny but you'd see the bright stripe with the naked eye against the dark blue plastic. So we told them about it, and they re-adjusted the print matrices and it turned out perfect. They can absolutely deliver top-notch quality if you insist, but most of the times the selling company doesn't care enough.
yes. because as businesses, so long as they have identified you as a big buyer, they will adhere to u. end of day, it is a demand and supply issue. if ur demand is above their supply, they will do everything they can to give u what u need. thats how hardworking many china companies are. u request it, within 24h they will let u know. except for major public holidays in china, the china factories are contactable even on sundays.
I think you folks are missing the point here. No one is questioning Chinese quality, just encouraging more local capability.
As I often tell people in the US, "made in China" doesn't mean bad quality; it means ANY quality.
@@brettcooper8963 except I see people all the to saying that all Chinese products are CEOs and that they can’t produce quality items. Which is false.
low IQ human are not real human and they just look like human.
Thank you for an extremely in-depth and insightful journey on a subject I've had little idea about. Gotten yourself a new subscriber!
The chinese on the box is "普船-海派" stands for "普通船隻" (Ordinary Vessel) and “海運派送” (Sea Freight Delivery).
That's some mistranslation lol
Could it be by a Chinese shipping company
Rhymes with grug
@TomiWebPro Google Translate doesn't work with industry specific abbreviations. This isn't a common phrase. Even Chinese people who aren't in the industry wouldn't know what it means but can only guess.
in mexico we just put half an onion to the end of a fork, we scrub with that. works every time. harmless.
nice
Works great in the US too.
😂😂 just came to see of some would mention this, to bad onions can’t be patented
This is why Mexico is the past, present, and future of North America.
Fortunately you can grow onions locally :D
I watched the pitch and totally agree with the "buy once, cry once" theory. The other thing I highly desire in products is the ability to repair them. You need to sell ALL of the individual parts of the product, so If something breaks I can fix it!
I absolutely love that you referenced Terry Pratchett's character's theory in this product pitch!😂😂
That Mantle company is exactly what I have been looking for and shouting about for a few years. How awesome is that tech!!!!
Now try making an Arduino with the whole supply chain USA sourced.
@@disposabull I bet that is impossible. Even if you can source made in US PCB and passive components (which you probably can) I doubt you could find any Microcontrollers or USB to Uart converterz made in America
Chips will be coming back now that we are at the limit of the current processes.
This!
A scrubber is HARD.
An iPhone is probably IMPOSSIBLE 😅.
The components to build the PCBs are often only made in China, as well as the screws and components to repair the machines that build & inspect the PCBs... can only be sourced from China.
@@Xuyesi Because chip fabs and PCBs are icky and dirty, the US pushed them overseas as hard as they could to keep the filth "over there".
Love the user test with the grandmother. "This is great!". Enough testing :)
This video is _really weird_ to me and I'm struggling to figure out exactly what it is. I keep re-writing this comment. I think it kind of reminds me of some undergrad essays I've graded where they set out a thesis, make some claims or put forth some arguments, and then never really try to support any of it with proper data or research. In particular, that middle section that goes on for a bit about how kids should get into tool and die, and that it's declined in terms of being a prosperous career path, but that somehow that means it'll go back up. Absolutely no supporting evidence for if that's anything more than a hope. At best it was supported by "well, AI is taking everyone's jobs in software and robots won't make dies any time soon and AI can't make hardware and robots are falling over ha ha ha" which were just naked claims. "And you need a person in your hometown that can injection mold. You need to be able to do that locally." Many claims like this are just not backed up with "why?" I think the subject matter is fascinating, and the experiment offers an interesting data point. But the essay part of this video feels like it would earn a failing grade. And not because the thesis is bad or wrong or anything. But it's just not well-supported at all.
For what it's worth: as a consumer, I _badly_ want to be able to pay a LOT MORE for most things I use, if that means they're going to last forever. I despise disposable products. I wish this video or another video attempted to sell me on this being that product. Everyone says theirs is, and yours is just another claim. Let's see an engineer _prove_ it engineer style. Show me that the brush works. Show me that it lasts a long time. Use your engineering skills to demonstrate this without need of a time machine or to wait a few years and see what the market has to say.
sadly true
I agree. Something felt very emotional about the video.
yeah with higher priced "last forever" products you are taking a much higher risk because a lot of times marketing is BS and if you just spent 75$ on something you could have spent 10$ on and it doenst even function or last as advertised, you just lost out on a LOT more money than trying out a 10$ brush that you will replace soon anyways if it doesnt work as well as you hoped. for a poor person, that potential loss/risk of paying for a "high quality" product and being burned is a big point of fear
@@LostLargeCatsthe emotion is pretty justified. We are talking about an issue that’s slowly strangling the nation at best.
You have very valid criticism for this video. Also, it's hard to compete with China for ANY product, not just cheap ones. People have already said how there's a nearly identical equivalent to his chainmail grill brush on Amazon. The design IS different, but only SLIGHTLY so. Notably, they didn't use a bolt for the removable head, but a metal clip built into the handle design. It's a Cuisinart, and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't last just as long as the one Destin made, but it only costs $40 instead of $75. So now people have almost zero reason to buy the American produced brush, OTHER than supporting the American supply chain.
That's a great journey to a great product. I have a friend who got one of those bristles stuck in his intestine. So much pain and suffering. I always wipe the BBQ with a paper towel after I brush it.
Holy, it's electoboom.
@@ElectroBOOM we need electronics 101 . Continue with op amps 101 .
Jonny said 3 videos a week would be a dream
Don't do BBC - and you live much longer ..
Now you need to make an electric BBQ scrubber
That sounds so nasty. To be stuck in any part of your body 😬
Ending the video with "We are trying to sell this in Europe and other places too in the future" feels a bit funny after stressing the importance of buying local, and not outsourcing manufacturing.
Manufacturing all the pieces and the assemby is different than selling then the ultimated product. He spoke about it the whole video, were you absent?
@@RogerOver9000 the whole point was local manufacturing. Selling to Europe is denying Europe the chance to manufacture locally. I agree with the sentiment of the video, but that last bit was heavily ironic.
We don’t have a non wire version in the UK, so why shouldn’t he sell it in Europe?!
Selling a 75USD grill scraper in Europe: Will not work at all. For the job to be done there are way cheaper solutions which my work slightly less efficient but this wont compensate the illusoric high price of a litte chain mail on a to be bent metal staff.
@dsurge8758 There’s even a photo of the scrubber being proudly displayed in London…
I’m not sure what message it resonates in UK displaying a US flag and all…
I agree 100%. I'be been saying this for over 10 years. Its great that you make a video about it !!!!
This video is so true. I worked for 9 years at a Rubbermaid facility in Greenville TX. We used to mold 10s of millions of injections molded parts for storage containers, waste baskets and large garbage cans. We sold into all the major retailers, Walmart, Target The Home Depot and Lowe’s. We had 95 injection molding machines ranging from 30 tons to 3,000 tons. In 2012 the facility was sold and closed down. Now you hardly find any Rubbermaid products in stores and many of our talented mold makers and technicians retired. What a loss.
@@seanconant2543 hello greenville from quitman 😁 GOD Bless Texas
@@seanconant2543 thats truly a shame, rubbermaid products always seem pretty good and you would think with all machinery already existing the cost would have just gotten lower over time
That’s brutal. You’re right though, I recall pretty much any large plastic item (carts, step stools, etc) at stores having a Rubbermaid option, and you could buy it without having to worry about quality.
And Rubbermaid is one of the best plastic brands around! Their dishes last forever, their tubs/totes/whatever-they're-called are sturdy, and the plastic even survives weather better than most -- even in Mississippi!
If the material supply chain has moved and the labor has moved it doesn't make sense to manufacture in the US. It's amazing that it held on to 2012
As a younger Canadian tool and die maker this video made me feel very seen which is extremely rare in my industry. People have really forgotten how much of the modern world relies on mould making and tool and die. Door hinges, pots and pans, sinks, most appliances as well as the obvious automotive industry. Without these careers and knowledge staying in a country/society we lose the ability and knowledge to make just about everything. While a connected global supply chain has its values, keeping smart people and the physical talents of building every day items and the the, 'things that build things' is extremely important.
@jakewhite4556 honestly, im in software support and we are seeing the exact same thing, im guessing with a delay of a couple years, systems people rely on but dont think about are rotting everywhere
Where in Canada is this industry still alive? Anywhere outside of the ~3-4 major cities?
Southwestern ontario, definitely still in this province where it was the strongest. There's some mould making in Quebec still and some stamping shops here and there in other provinces. Personally in the automotive sector though it's mainly still situated nearest the detroit market as has been the case for decades @thewolfin
How well are you being paid? Are your wages also well below average, as Destin has shown for the US? Would you recommend your job to kids finishing school?
@proesterchen at my current shop they're alright, journeyman wage is right around $40/hr which is definitely much better than any minimum wage or entry level job. But there's definitely jobbing shops where you do more die building that cap out closer to $28/hr. I'm in a production shop right now though so much more pressure and expectations go along with that higher pay. Largely though wages still have stagnated. I feel like something he doesn't mention enough is that all other wages have also stagnated in addition to trade wages not keeping up with what they should have - even making my wage I think its extremely important that everyone makes a living wage. In all honesty I find the term, 'to make a living' insulting to all of our humanity, as if not working means you shouldn't live. I lean very hard to the left so I'm a bit of an outlier as far as my concern for labour and wages of others. I'm not part of a union but heavily believe in the importance they have in our ability to keep everyone making good wages.
Destin, I worked for a company that bought parts from China. As a mechanical tinkerer I thought why are we buying this stuff from China. It took time but I convinced the company to let me make a machine using 2 100W CO2 lasers to produce our own parts. Overall, there was a cost for the equipment, but once running it ran nonstop over 3 shifts 5 days a week. The CFO of the company finally told me I was saving the company big bucks, and I got a $5000 bonus. I also built a packaging system and the people that operated it were the ones who had to hand package all parts. I had no formal schooling beyond high school, but using my brain I did it myself and it felt great.
wow... a $5000 one time bonus in exchange for their massively increased productivity earning them exponentially more than that. Your talent is wasted on that company, but unfortunately I think that's the case for most talented people at most companies.
Yea again capitalism and millionaires are the problem
$5000 bucks as a bonus is a joke, but based on your knowledge, I can tell you’ve done a lot done. Keep up your good work.
That's another big issue in America. The education system and businesses found out they could profit off training us to make money for them. However, there's a difference between learning something in a book and having experience "tinkering" with things and gaining practical expertise. My grandpa had an 8th grade education, was a sheet metal worker his entire life. Retired, opened his own shop and I spent my summers making parts for NASA with him because there was no other shop that had the knowledge to make it due to most shops going to automation and the workers didn't really understand the "why" behind what they were doing. Just pushing buttons. I'm a lead automation "engineer" (job title, no degree) now working on robots and automated systems design and operations. Everyone I work with assumes I'm an engineer because I have all the practical experience and gained knowledge. Tons of self-learning because I'm a nerd. I've been rejected from multiple jobs in final round when they realize I don't have a degree despite working as a "lead engineer" for a fortune 500 doing the exact same thing. I get auto-filtered out of by most HR AI filters.
We're hindering ourselves by AI filtering resumes, putting HR over hiring and necessitating degrees for things in an age where the worlds combined knowledge is at our finger-tips. Degrees are awesome. Engineers are necessary, but book smarts and practical gained knowledge should be valued the same.
@@OnlyForThePriceOf999 Not like we get a choice - we labor for the capitalists or end up hungry and homeless :/
Bravo Destin! thank you for a very educational and scarily thought provoking video.
In Chile, we use an onion attached to a metal bar (usually is the same that we use to move the coal) to clean the grill.
Hey @smartereveryday, here is the design for Smarter Scrubber heavy. I would so buy a charcoal ash tool with spikes to hold a cut onion and can be used as a self defense weapon. Make it 5 lbs
In Mexico we do the same.
@@gabrielriveros4284 I personally just use a wad of foil
In Brazil, some people use the same method but with lemon (over the hot grill)
I think you guys are pranking us to see how many idiots you can get to comically scrub their grill with an onion!
Like the "dry your phone in the microwave" prank. Not falling for that one again! 🤣🤣🤣
43:50 we have a saying for this where I come from, it's "En fattig har inte råd att köpa billigt" which translates to "A poor can't afford to buy cheap", and this perfectly aligns with this segment.
@@WhackyCast 🇸🇪🇸🇪
That's a very true statement
Jeg skjønner ikke helt logikken der. Det er jo det fattige gjør; de kjøper de billigste alternativene når det gjelder alt, selv om det hadde lønnet seg å kjøpe ETT BRA produkt som, med litt vedlikehold, hadde holdt mye lenger enn billigversjonene.
@@strangelman Du må tenke litt lenger. Det er nesten det samme som vi sier på norsk - "det er dyrt å være fattig". En som er fattig, har ikke råd til å kjøpe det ene, "bra" produktet som lønner seg over tid, men må kjøpe det billige som går i stykker fortere og må erstattes eller repareres. Det lønner seg f.eks. i lengden å kjøpe seg en ny elbil i stedet for den gamle Mazdaen som bruker en liter på mila, men er man fattig, har man ikke 500k til en ny elbil. Så en fattig har ikke råd til å kjøpe billig, for det er dyrt i lengden, og det er dyrt å være fattig.
@@strangelman The logic is that you lose money in the long run by buying cheap - something a poor person cannot afford to do.
The photo of Shane using the scrubber on his CNC machine at 47:53 cracked me up
Funny how you found a local manufacturer in a pinch… I know what Chris was holding and that makes it even funnier!
Been in manufacturing for 20 plus years 18 at the current company. We have brought a lot of our fixture and tool making inside. By having it in-house it allows us to modify and improve things at a surprisingly fast. I am grateful to be a part of made in America manufacturing.
apart or a part? Quite the important difference in this case.
That's one of the biggest issues with manufacturing in the US. It wasn't just that assembly jobs were shipped abroad. China very quickly upskilled the labor market from assembly line workers to a thriving skills ecosystem of knowledge of tooling design, automation engineering, and hardware manufacturing (think heavy equipment like presses to CNC tooling mills or 3D printers). During the same time, the American economy focused on upskilling those in the middle class further upwards towards high-margin industries of marketing, software (e-commerce, productivity tools, social media, and middlemen "platforms"), financial engineering (bankers & MBAs), along with some boundary-pushing traditional engineering (robotics, space/aeronautical/automotive, semiconductors); but the American economy also side- and down-skilled workers into the massive service gig economy.
Back to manufacturing, I don't think the solution to American manufacturing is simply to in-house the entire knowledgebase of manufacturing at each firm; we need more distributed & adaptive and less walled-off & proprietary knowledge throughout the process of manufacturing & machinery servicing. There should be less friction in having other firms assist as part of an economy-wide sharing of knowledge. Companies may have less efficiency due to having to hire more engineers to handle peak demands, or having to endure extra "wasted" resources of extra manufacturing lines for testing or employee time for process refinements & training; it's not just about driving down marginal cost for the bean counters, but ensuring that progress is always happening.
EDIT: addendum: For example, it shouldn't be the case that if one needed a bottling/labeling line for your sauce factory, that the "best" (i.e. cheapest for the financial analysts) option is to spec out and request a semi- off-the-shelf solution shipped in from China or worse, sold to you by a middleman who sources from China but can provide minimal after-sales support. Yes, I know that for higher-reliability situations, engineers in the US are well-equipped to handle larger-scale, or higher-speed production. But the case is that as more engineers are working in-house with corporations like Kraft or ConAgra, there is a gap in knowledge between new demand for skills and what is available in the market. This is great for the corporations that can gatekeep the knowledge as a competitive advantage, but terrible for say new entrants in food packing & processing.
I too have been in tooling for the last 20 years but for semiconductor mfg in USA. In house is the only way to keep control of the molds and to ensure the quality needed. I can pay to keep it in house or pay twice as much to make it outside with last minute changes.
19minutes in (I replied after only watching a couple minutes of the video), and Destin's exactly stating my analysis of the manufacturing economy. The coverage and politics of lost "jobs" as a number always hits at the masses of assembly workers, but overlooked the next tier up in manufacturing.
@@SimonWoodburyForget not always true. Lots of die shops are willing to take people in with zero experience because of the lack of true tool and die makers. I am one of those people who started in the die shop of a custom plastic extrusion company having never touched a CNC mill or lathe, EDM machine or grinder. Now I do it all, have learned CAD and am starting to write my own programs.
The problem isn't even manufacturing, it's wages. I am not paid enough to even joke about spending $75 on a scrubber, I will just buy some cheap iron wool and hope that does good enough. I might get one for $5 and that's 99.9% likely going to be Chinese. I don't care where my product comes from, I care that it's a reasonable cost in comparison to my income. If workers were paid more, they would spend more. A tariff will not fix that, if the Chinese scrubber is also $75, and even the iron wool is $50, I will buy nothing. I will also not use a grill, I will not buy gas for that grill, etc.
Yet you probably buy beer or soda every weekend.
@@deslow7411 I always find it funny that people have to make up stuff just for a gotcha. Like do you have any evidence to prove your point? No, but you have to make up stuff otherwise you sound crazy 🤣
@@deslow7411so, is he supposed to give up things he enjoys to placate your need to buy American. How about you give up the beer and soda and buy him a scrubber.
@@mannyperez4010exactly American usual comment. They forgot peoples with more healthy diet or society dont drink those
100% this comment.
37:08 The Chinese text is 普船-海派, short for "Normal Boat - Sea Freight + Express Delivery". It is *possible* that they are using a Chinese shipping company to do part of the logistics, maybe when it is packaged into containers in the port.
They left the customer number and shipping tracking number on the label you showed, so if you check who the processing company is on the other tag, you can probably check the shipping routes and logistics history.
Yeah. It's also possible that it has Chinese lettering on it for the same reason it has English writing on it: they sell their product to (or through) China. India is a pretty big player in specialty metalwork like this, so it would not be at all surprising for something like this to be manufactured there. But of course it would also be unsurprising to find that they were made in China.
Chinese characters are very consise it would seem
@@cat-.- Well - yeah, normally one word = one character. Ideogram language aot Latin / Cyrillic / Greek alphabets that use letters to construct words.
@@cat-.- Yes and no. They are abbreviations, 普船-海派 is more like "Norm. Boat - Sea & Exp". That's why the translation app couldn't figure it out. A normal translation would look like "普通船 - 海运 + 速派" even then 海运 and 速派 are both common shorthands that can be expanded into 海上运输 and 快速派送
Yes. Americans are paranoid. They jump to random conclusions before doing a full analysis.
When I started in life as a young adult, my mother told me: "You're too poor to afford cheap stuff".
That resonated with me since then.
43:35 We have no data on how long yours will last. If it lasts only 3x as long as the "cheap" alternative that graph looks very different.
agreed
@@Not-The-Status-Quo at the very least, the parts look to be easily replaceable if one part of the scrubber gets damaged. As long as you sell parts for repair
@@forgehe making something easy to dismentle doesn't mean the parts are easy to find individualy. that graph was absolutely wack, he should have skipped it that makes him look like a fool. There is no "rational" reason why someone that isn't ideologicaly motivated would buy a 80$ brush. sure if I was so well off, I'd pick it instead of the chinese one, but it can't be justified by any real rationality
@@forgehe but then it's extra cost, which should be calculated.
@@Not-The-Status-Quo It was only an example graph to represent a high quality item, not this specific case.
One side that people don't realize, is that the most common buyer/usage of actual made in America industrial commodities likes nuts and bolts are in the defense industry, where often for security purposes (risk of disruption, sabotage, inconsistent material...etc), will actually have to be made in America. And since defense contractors have far far higher budget than average american inventor, they can afford the 4-6x cost increase to get it made here.
It's not just "the government is willing to overpay so we'll charge more." The raw and processed material costs are enormous here, and aren't likely to change any time soon.
@@VideoOfMike exactly! I work on DOD stuff. I'm not involved in the purchasing realm of things, but in my job I sometimes have to look at stock information. It's absurd. Certain screws and things are over $10. There are even things that they have not been able to get because they need in small quantities and the people who make them aren't willing to make them because it's just not worth the effort no matter how much they're willing to pay.
I like to call that kinda stuff "taxpayer pricing"
There is another element. It's called volume. You increase volume you decrease cost. That is another reason to bring as much manufacturing to the US as possible.
@@bdkj3e So you want your taxpayer dollars to go to China when the government wants to buy something?
You ...forgot to show the product in use... If someone pitched this to me I would want them to show how it worked...
Grandma tested it.
I do recall grandma using it
He did show it in use, it's just that it's hard to show a scrubber actually in use. It just looks like waving it over the gridiron, even when the correct muscles are reacting for pressing it down against the surface.
Aww John’s mom was so cute saying “this is great”
Dude, thank you for giving an example of how this can be done and why it should be. You made me want to build a little factory in my backyard. I think it could fit between my barn and pear tree...
Congrats on the product launch! I can't tell you how many times I've started the process and dropped it because manufacturing is so daunting. That's a big deal. Just bought a scrubber, and you didn't even mention there's a sweet deal on that awesome torch also! Picked that up too
Factory of Ambient Cooling Tiles?
Love your channel so much!
Hmm... the space might be a bit restrictive... might have to pull a Colin Furze and make it below ground instead... have to watch for roots tho. 😆
Thank you for always being so supportive Ben. I really like your style. Text me about the projects you're working on.
Yeah, truly a great example of what you need to have it done: you just need a 12M yt channel to have access to know-how, initial investments, and free marketing. It's an amazing video, it will probably save a ton of time and money for people who thought it might be a financially a viable idea.
@Nighthawkinlight with @smartereveryday 🎉
As a citizen of the USA this may be the most important video I've seen in quite some time. I was a machinist in the 80s and 90s and enjoyed the fruits of my labor both mentally and physically. I then became a cutting tool salesman helping shops with the latest tooling, to be more efficient and compete against their Chinese competitors. I wish you luck Dustin..
Not to rain on the scrubber parade, but my grill scrubber is just a half plank of softwood, like a split cedar fence board about 12” - 16” long. Just heat up the grill, and run the short edge of the cedar plank along the length of the grill bars at a 45° angle (ish). Soon your plank will have grooves burned in it exactly the width of your grill. It cleans the grill really well, and you can refinish it when the grooves get too big by just cutting the end off and starting over. Made locally, cost pennies, and lasts years!
Grandma won't be doing that. Most women also likely won't. They will however use this scrubber.
@@NamelessONEMail Aren't men mostly the pit masters?
Just make sure you aren’t scrubbing it with treated wood lol
@@NamelessONEMailwhy wouldn't Grandma do that? Mine would. This is also a product targeted toward men. Selling grilling components to women would be a good niche but it's entirely different from a market segment. If you don't believe me study the gun market after pink guns were introduced.
Agree. Best scrubber I've used is the one I've been using for the last 7 years. It's a wooden paddle.
I just went to the store. It's sold out! Good job all! lets get it made in America! I've preordered.
I notice the patent number (visible at 38:32) starts with a "D". That means it's a design patent. NOT a utility patent.
Which means someone else can make a different chainmail scrubber that looks exactly the same except the handle is a half inch shorter, and this patent does NOTHING to prohibit it. To say nothing of other changes like a wider head, a finer/thicker chainmail, a different attachment method, etc.
Everyone going "But they steal our ideas!" ... you are right in many cases, but you have to know this stuff. Don't expect protection to hold if it didn't apply in the first place.
(Also I don't know why he would insert the commas like that, making it "# D1,021,3125". And can't find that number in the USPTO search, so the formatting makes me even more confused.)
That "5" at the end is actually an "S", full designation is "USD1021312S1" on Google Patents or "US D1021312 S" on USPTO, super easy to find since there's Destin's full name on there.
Also that format with commas is directly from patent's text, only difference in text there's a space before S (i.e. "US D1,021,312 S")
Yes. I found it: D1021312
He wouldn't be able to get a utility patent because this product already exists. The Cuisinart 3-in-1 Chainmail Grill Cleaner.
The premise of this video was to make everything in America. He didn't do that, but is still claiming it's made in the USA.
Chainmail scrubber already exists, and they have the annoying feature of getting greasy quickly and then they don't clean anymore, so you have to clean them basically after every use and can't be on a too greasy grill or too big or you risk needing to clean it halfway through.
This UA-camr is suspected of plagiarizing Chinese design. As early as 2019, the Chinese company issued a patent covering the brush.
The applicants are all: Chizhou Siqun Plastic Products Co., Ltd.
The patent application number, name, type, and application date are as follows:
1. CN201930281545.8 Short handle magic brush appearance design 2019.06.03
2. CN201930281603.7 Long handle magic brush appearance design 2019.06.03
3. CN201930281534.X Double-headed magic brush appearance design 2019.06.03
4. CN201930546899.0 Brush appearance design 2019.10.09
5. CN201921876483.6 A kind of efficient cleaning brush utility model 2019.11.01
VI. CN202021175216.9 A metal mesh chain for washing Utility model 2020.06.22
VII. CN202110447038.3 A cleaning device and a handheld cleaning brush Invention patent 2021.04.25
8:05 Dustan->India: Hello India, we'd like to make this item
India->China: Hello China, we'd like you to make this item
Called it!!
I don't quite agree, we source ton of stuff -- especially metal -- from India. The quality is not on par with China but for low quality, medium quantity, India is usually cheaper
Still, overseas sourcing does not fit into the videos thesis of not sourcing anything from overseas ^^
Dustin -> China no, India yes.
the staff filling the shipping address: Bangalore, USA
As European, have you made quality testing? Put 5-10 of them in a machine at different intensities and let it work for thousands of hours until it breaks or there is nothing left, thats the least feedback you should want before putting it into market. The useful data that make quality product for cheap. :D
Edit: Spelling corrections
@@justatry8195 agreed. I wonder about the constant abrasion leaving stainless steel particles all over my food.
I love that your brain goes there on this product. The current standard is disposable tools and this is already changing the way people think.
This is why European manufacturing has survived. Our society cares about quality and durability, and will very often pay extra for it. This is how we compete with low cost producers.
@@tomwalsh96 lmaoo right. I will always prefer local, but other than that I have absolutely no special love for things manufactured in other EU countries. There's no extra quality to be found no matter how much you pay.
@@iDR1FT Microscopic particles of stainless steel would be biologically harmless, they may even marginally supplement your iron intake. If I were inclined to be paranoid like that, I'd worry more about the microplastics that will inevitably be all over (and within) your food before you even buy it. As to the notion of such intense quality testing, that's an absurd waste of money and time for a non-safety-critical product of such simple design. I defy anyone to show me a single company anywhere in the world silly enough to test consumer pot-scrubbing brushes to destruction. What would the benefit be? What percieved value would this add for the consumer? What good would a test result printed on the box be, compared to an organically grown reputation for quality created by just letting the market do the testing?
I spent 34 years making fluid seal injection and compression molds for a major fluid seal and bearing manufacturer. Located in Utah. There are many injection mold manufacturers in the US but many are also manufactured in house so we can have better control over the product.
虽然我是一个中国人，但是我很佩服你为国产化做出的努力。中国的供应链也不是一朝一夕完成的，而是经过了几十年的慢慢迭代。从最开始的质量差到现在的精密制造和全产业链，我们付出了很多。所以如果以后真的要做到全美国制造，需要像您一样的人一起努力才行。另外你的不锈钢刷子的想法很不错，在中国的淘宝上有类似的产品，价格在4到5美元。
People miss these details when it comes to bringing manufacturing back to America.
But they won't be able to notice how you have roasted them in this comment. There's a divide of language and culture, and of anti-China sentiment, that means they won't see it.
I did though.
The century of humiliation ended a hundred years ago yet it still lives on in the minds of westerners.
Only when its unevenly based.@@jessl1934
Interesting how the responses don't have translation attached!?
@@jessl1934 I’m anti China manufacturing but I don’t hate China for fighting for the right to have manufacturing bought many things that are made in China, I’m mad at the politicians and companies for letting it get to this and all the people that brainwashed themselves into thinking it makes total sense to leave it in China, in reality China is just the small seed to the growing problem of local manufacturing we used to have
而且它这种产品2019年中国就有了，根本算不上是这个人的发明
Thank you so much for drawing attention to this!
@@matthiaswandel agreed, US itself screws over small business by offering all these crazy credit incentives and bonuses to foreign countries. China for example MAKES money just off these credits, that’s why they’ll sell you an item for 1 cent, because they get a $ credit to send it and get to keep the profit. Where as for me to send the same small item to a customer across town costs a minimum of $5 for small lightweight, or much more for weight or size. This allows them to also ripoff our own design and then compete much cheaper. Modern buyers don’t care about “us made”, they’ll go for the item that is 50 cents cheaper every time.
Really enjoy your channel
😂 It always amazes me that these people dont blame the culprits (the owners of the factories) for shipping their jobs to a developing country, but instead they blame the workers in those developing countries. It completely makes no sense, only explanation is they are too scared of the "job creators" and dont have the guts to confront them. So instead, they hate someone who they will never meet. Very weird how some people's mind work.
@lppoqql well if only it were that simple right? Companies do require a profit. If the owners/people who run the company day to day start making an unreasonable amount of money that's a reason to reduce labor costs. Also American workers will barley work for 15 min if that. Especially somewhat skilled labor. So hiring itself is impossible for many businesses. The point being it's complex and your wish to have very simple things will never be possible.
#1 youtuber right here
22:25 as an engineer that needs precision equipment to perform measurements, China is the only place we can get it. Period. Full stop. Nobody in the US exists as far as I know to produce the instruments we need. Jeremy is on the money here.
What instrument?
Wow. You found a mentor in the process of making this video. Truly tapped into something divine here.
37:47 I don't quite understand:
Made In China - not acceptable
Made In Costa Rica - no acceptable
but
Made in India - acceptable
What's the reasoning there? Did he explain his reasoning in the video and I just missed it?
Ya, maybe he thinks it's (native indians) therefore USA?
Lets take a wider view for a second: The Costa Rica item was marketed as american made, and the idea was to source items in the USA - secondary was avoiding the manufacturing prowess of China if not currently possible to source USA, and even the not Chinese point of sale origin was made in China, everything is manufactured in China and for various reasons that's not a good thing much like not relying on the USA for everything else is not a good thing.
the implication isnt that costa rica is not accaptable, the implication is that they believe it is made in india, which is more acceptable than china in this context.
@@ThesurgeoNNN 😂😂😂
He explained it in the end. It's even in the video title for heaven's sake.
I’ve got even worse news for you. Companies do not want to have stores full of parts to repair their machines; they don’t want to pay taxes on these things (ie a utility not wanting to have extra motors for pumps). So the pump companies go out of business because they can’t sell their parts. But eventually we will need a motor, but can’t get one so we contact the pump company and now we are told that model of pump is obsolete. At this point the first company (the utility) is desperate because it’s costing them money so they will buy their whole new model (lower quality, with planned obsolescence) pump. And wash, rinse and repeat. But the worst part is that these newer components are not just coming with planned obsolescence, they are coming with digital “smart” components that make it impossible for the in-house tech to troubleshoot and repair (and then you get into the whole right to repair fight). Good luck.
And the "smarts" have internet axis fore some reason
@@Goroca mandatory internet access, it will not operate without it
@@DarkTakanuva
Ye it is a pain
I work whit designing the controlers that contrel industrial machinery. And i am sitting here asking the sutes way we need a opend port conected to the internet.
Thy say it is fore remote maintenance to easels update and fix stuff
items that exist to push money around, hence negating the supposed/alleged purpose of money. Alleged, because I began to question if the system was pushed precisely in a direction not serving the "common user/man" but some self-appointed caste that needs to squeeze the common guy for everything he's worth (down to the soul) in order to feel alive
Anything that has internet access is a potential attack vector.
If your utilities are using """smart""" parts, they are a massive liability.
I'm a mechanical engineer who makes things in US but I'm from China. Destin is the exact person who understands the spirit of making things in US without those hypocritical politics. However what Destin and Cook did not mention is that the complexity of manufacturing in US involves more than just manufacturing, but also finance world, as they are the ones making the money in US instead of manufacturers and only high end profitable manufacturing can happen in US. Cook just wants high skill hard working engineers who would take calls 24/7 so that they can make the majority of the profit and in the end it is all about the cheap labor no matter how you put it. Great and fantastic job on the injection molding and I totally understand the difficulty of making things here! I think if a tooling engineer can be paid $200k a year with stocks like Amazon software engineers, a lot of mechanical engineers will without a doubt do that!
In the US, a lot of people with the smarts to do engineering have gone into the finance world where they can simply make a lot more money.
@@ctbcubed as Destin had a chance to learn, the hardest part in making a product is not manufacturing, but building a financially sustainable logistical net, from a supply chain to the customer (what you've vulgarily simplified to "make more money")
I really enjoyed the video and it's a well timed topic, to say the least. I think the video glossed over a big component that would have broken down into a fourth section. The discussion on costs would have easily been an important piece to this whole process. This includes initial research, typical customer (non yt customer) costs for dies, your actual costs, costs over seas, knock off costs, etc. The topic of manufacture, and sales, cost alone is a large reason that this issue is present in many countries around the world and is worth a break down and discussion section I think.
A final part, that the pitch should have included, is a demonstration of the tool.
Sry man at 16:00, you didn't really fixed your premise, you just made it about anti-china.
@@Oblitix yup, its ok to buy one part in another country, as long as the vast majority is made in America its fine... 99% of "made in America" products are not actually made entirely in America. heck often the raw material like cobalt or cotton is imported
@@XiaoYueMao shoutout to pakistani cotton, it's made levi's for as long as I could remember
Yeah if he was willing to buy overseas for some parts, he specifically wanted to avoid Chinese products.
But I can see why he would want to do that. China is one of the world's largest manufacturers & it's part of the challenge to see if you can at least avoid Chinese products if you can't make it in the US.
@@XiaoYueMao Legally speaking this is only true for components in a product that aren't core to it's function/purpose. The chainmail is both in this product's case, so he could face legal action from the FTC if he continues to knowingly label his product as "Made in the USA" while using the foreign chainmail he sourced.
Wow, you're right. Hahaha. Incredible.
i am a CNC machinist in Alberta and the last mold i made was in 1998. loved your program , we have a long way to go (back!) if we want to fix this.
A piece of wood for less than a couple bucks works just as well and is nature friendly.
And would actually be american made, unlike this product with its indian/chinese chainmail scrubber.
@@fwloganradcliff sadly, yes. And you're gambling with $75 that doesn't even have evidence how long it will last or any guarantee. Lol.
@@fwloganradcliff How did you completely miss that the chainmail is from a US supplier and the Indian/Chinese stuff would only be used if the US supplier couldn't keep up?
@@begula_fake "All JJGeorge products come with a 100% love it or money back guarantee"
@@stargazer7644 oh he didn’t miss it. It’s clearly not an American made product.
Got this video recommended from Hank and John Green’s newsletter, it was a good recommendation!
Questions for you Destin and the smarter scrubber team:
1. Does the chainmail scrubber wear out?
2. Are you going to make individual replacement parts, like the scrubber & silicone backing, available? If so, when & how?
I don't have specific knowledge of this product, but I suspect it would take an extremely long time for the chainmail to wear out. Stainless steel can rust under some conditions, so that might be an issue in some cases I suppose, but I really doubt that will be an issue. I'd guess the major modes of failure would be if people overheat it and damage the plastic parts, or if the plastic parts just wear out.
@@johnjaygeorge Don't be so sure about the chainmail. People will hang the scrubber on their grill, forget and leave it outside, or just drop and damage it in some way. People can be destructive. If it gets left outside in the rain, snow, or humidity the steel can rust fairly quickly. You don't need too many damaged chain links to make the scrubber not work properly enough. My guess would be people replace the chainmail, on average, every three seasons and the squishy pad/plastic part(s) every year.
@@pace1195 Any tool will degrade if you mistreat it, manufacturers can only do so much to deter user stupidity.
@@jwesley235 Or they can sell replacement parts.
I would like to get a second head only for mine for cast iron pans in my house.
A giant class action lawsuit against amazon selling illegal patent infringing products would maybe do something. I'm sure there are thousands of cases like the torch one.
$75USD for a grill scrubber? Don’t know who your target market is. I use a $10CDN wooden scraper (made in Canada) that has a way lower environmental impact… no plastics, no ore extraction, no metal processing wastes… and while they only last about 5 seasons, I’d expect my lifetime costs will still be less.
Really seems like a cash grab for his audience while preying on the topical "bring overseas manufacturing back home", even though he literally sourced the main part of his scrubber from India (who of course actually got it from China). Never thought I'd see destin of all people do that.
Me too, except I made my own from a scrap of cedar. But Destin's point is still valid. USA has lost manufacturing capability. So has Canada. Whether globalization of trade is good or bad is a whole other conversation. Destin's premise is that it is not good for his community.
@@briantaylor9266I get the point. But if the only way to achieve it is through raising the prices of goods to the point that the average person can't afford it, the solution is as flawed as the problem.
@@fwloganradcliff Yeah this video is really disappointing. Like the dude has literally no understanding of the topic.
@@CartocopiaThe thing is that there isn't actually a "problem" if you're not positioning yourself as the world police or have to worry about being invaded. The only reason we "need" this is because capitalists don't share well.
The problem isn't the lack of manufacturing locally. It's the bad actors that make you REQUIRE it locally that are the problem.
Great video and a great message. Hopefully manufacturing comes back big!
I feel like corporate America was paying attention right up until “make less profit”
Electrical Engineer here. This is absolutely true. Nothing is made here and nothing that makes things is made here. The scary thing is that so many Engineers are glorified drafters and do not understand how the object is produced, injection flow curves, minimum wall thickness, etc. Many companies don't even do their own thermal or flow analysis simulations because they outsource those "niche" jobs to India or China or Taiwan. Still a few handful of manufacturing engineers who understand the materials, precision, stack up, etc here in the US and most of the knowledge is in the few tool rooms that still exist stateside. Luckily signal Integrity is a dark art and those few initiated are apparently bad teachers but I know my days are numbered too.
29:03 this is why experts are supposed to write books, or at least talk to archivists that know how to write books.
Thank you for this video. It explains so much that is vital. Keep up the good work brother.