Lessons Learned After a Head-First Dive Into Hardware Manufacturing

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/02/09/lessons-learned-after-a-head-first-dive-into-hardware-manufacturing/

The tolerances you choose can directly impact your part’s performance. In this series, we’re breaking down 5 key things every engineer, buyer, and product dev should know.

➡️ Swipe through to sharpen your specs and avoid costly surprises.

#ManufacturingSimplified #EngineeringTips #DesignForManufacturing #Tolerances #DFM #Prismier

Finally had the time to take some of the topics from my blog post about design for #3Dprinting and make them into a proper #FreeCAD addon!

You can download "FusedFilamentDesign" from the FreeCAD addon manager.

Also check it out here: https://github.com/rahix/FusedFilamentDesign

(This addon also integrates the macros I mentioned here a few weeks ago)

#dfm #DesignForManufacturing

Next up: I wrote a #FreeCAD macro for rib thread forming, rule R5.4 from my Design for 3D-Printing guide.

https://github.com/rahix/FreeCAD-Macros/tree/main/RibThreads

I didn't even have time to verify all the thread sizes yet (because I'm not home and no mobile 3D-printer yet), so if someone wants to help out here, please do :)

#3Dprinting #DesignForManufacturing #dfm #FreeCADFriday

Just created a #FreeCAD macro to automatically generate fully parametric geometry for the R3.5 overhanging counterbore trick from my Design for 3D-Printing guide. Been doing this manually way too often!

https://github.com/rahix/FreeCAD-Macros/tree/main/UpsideDownCounterbore

#3Dprinting #DesignForManufacturing #dfm

I have written down all that I know about designing functional mechanical parts for 3d-printing. Took two years, but I finally managed to finish it... Please let me know what you think!

https://blog.rahix.de/design-for-3d-printing/

#3dprinting @3dprinting #dfm #DesignForManufacturing

Twenty-two (!!!) Phillips 0000 and 000 threaded fasteners later...

Some product genius who's never heard of "design for manufacturing". Or has heard of it, and has decided they want no part of it.

#Phillips #0000 #000 #fastener #ThreadedFastener #threaded #DFM #DesignForManufacturing #DesignForManufacturability #screw

Pick and Place Hack Chat Reveals Assembly Secrets

These days we've got powerful free tools to do CAD and circuit design, cheap desktop 3D printers that can knock out bespoke enclosures, and convenient services that will spin up a stack of your PCBs and send them hurtling towards your front door for far less than anyone could have imagined. In short, if you want to build your own professional-looking gadgets, the only limit is your time and ambition. Well, assuming you only want to build a few of them, anyway.

Once you start adding some zeros to the number of units you're looking to produce, hand assembling PCBs quickly becomes a non-starter. Enter the pick and place machine. This wonder of modern technology can drop all those microscopic components on your board in a fraction of the time it would take a human, and never needs to take a bathroom break. This week Chris Denney stopped by the Hack Chat to talk about these incredible machines and all the minutiae of turning your circuit board design into a finished product.

Chris is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Worthington Assembly, a quick turn electronics manufacturer in South Deerfield, Massachusetts that has been building and shipping custom circuit boards since 1974. He knows a thing or two about PCB production, and looking to help junior and mid-level engineers create easier to manufacture designs, he started the "Pick, Place, Podcast" when COVID hit and in-person tours of the facility were no longer possible. Now he says he can tell when a board comes from a regular listener by how many of his tips make it into the design.

So what should you be doing to make sure your board assembly goes as smoothly as possible? Chris says a lot of it is pretty common sense stuff, like including clear polarity indicators, having a legible silkscreen, and the use of fiducial markers. But some of the tips might come as something of a surprise, such as his advice to stick with the classic green solder mask. While modern board houses might let you select from a rainbow of colors, the fact is that green is what most equipment has been historically designed to work with.

That black PCB might look slick, but can confuse older pick and place machines or conveyors which were designed with the reflectivity of the classic green PCB in mind. It also makes automated optical inspection (AOI) much more difficult, especially with smaller component packages. That said, other colors such as white and red are less of a problem and often just require some fine tuning of the equipment.

He also pulled back the curtain a bit on how the contract manufacturing (CM) world works. While many might have the impression that the PCB game has moved overseas, Chris says orders of less than 10,000 units are still largely handheld by domestic CMs to minimize turnaround time. He also notes that many assembly houses are supported almost entirely by a few key accounts, so while they may be juggling 50 customers, there's usually just two or three "big fish" that provide 80% of their business. With such a tight-knit group, he cautions CMs can be a bit selective; so if a customer is difficult to work with they can easily find themselves on the short end of the stick.

While the Hack Chat is officially only scheduled for an hour, Chris hung out for closer to three, chatting with community members about everything and anything to do with electronic design and production. His knowledge and passion for the subject was readily apparent, and we're glad he was able to make time in his schedule to join us.

The Hack Chat is a weekly online chat session hosted by leading experts from all corners of the hardware hacking universe. It 's a great way for hackers connect in a fun and informal way, but if you can't make it live, these overview posts as well as the transcripts posted to Hackaday.io make sure you don't miss out.

#hackadaycolumns #designforassembly #designformanufacturing #hackchat #pickandplace #soldermask