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Chat | Games | About Back to HN Sherline Tools Is Going Out of Businessby tliltocatl | 63 points | 24 comments | 2026-09-20 10:09:41 Central Open Source Link | Read Source Here Open on Hacker News CommentsCcecil
Sad news. First, Openbuilds now this.Not a surprise to me
though since I am operating in the CNC industry I have
seen the same struggles and changes, albeit, from a
slightly different perspective.I work with the
Smoothieware/Smoothieboard project. It seems, from my
observation, that most people are not working with
hardware like they were a few years ago. The "homebrew"
machines and shadetree makers are becoming few and far
between.The lie has been heavily sold to the maker
community that you are "wasting your time if you make
something yourself" since it is cheaper to offshore even
small 3d prints and machining projects. Not only that but
people have been convinced that they don't have the
ability to make a machine.Instead of spending time
learning something new/valuable (i.e. Reprap) it is now
popular to just have someone else do it...be it AI or a
factory in another country with subsidies that create
massive differences in bottom line.The ability to make
things at home is disappearing. People cannot/will not
learn to make their own machines. Companies that make
machines that care about their community and customers are
disappearing.Maybe it's by design? I don't know.
| > Aurornis
> The lie has been heavily sold to the maker community
that you are "wasting your time if you make something
yourself" since it is cheaper to offshore even small
3d prints and machining projects.> The ability to make
things at home is disappearingI do not know what you
are talking about.3D printing at home is more popular
than ever. Even families I know who don't have a
computer at home, only their phones, now have 3D
printers and use them.> People cannot/will not learn
to make their own machinesI think this is an appeal to
3D printing purity that drove me away from many of the
communities. In the early days we all swapped tips and
shared reviews of parts (like the Smoothieboard I
still have) with other people who liked to build
machines because that was the only way to do 3D
printing at hobby level prices. When asked what we
used the 3D printers for, the joke was that they were
used to print parts for our 3D printer. It wasn't
really a joke, though. We spent more time keeping the
printers working and trying to tune them than we did
printing other things we needed.That has flipped. Now
it's easy to get a cheap 3D printer and start getting
parts out of it without thinking about the printer
much. This is great if you're a person who wants to
use the output of the printer. This is boring if you
think the value is the process of building and
changing the printer hardware all the time.I'm tired
of hearing takes about how this is wrong or bad. Most
"makers" want to make other things, not spend their
precious free time trying to debug failing prints.
There are more opportunities and knowledge available
now for people who do want to build their own machines
and it's very cheap. People who want to do that can,
but don't look down upon the people who don't want to
do that.
| > JoshTriplett
> The lie has been heavily sold to the maker community
that you are "wasting your time if you make something
yourself" since it is cheaper to offshore even small
3d prints and machining projects.I've seen what people
go through when they operate 3D printers. The
impression I have is that they still make 2D inkjet
printers look like paragons of reliability.
| > > fourside
I recently bought a Bambu Lab A1 printer. I went
specifically with Bambu Lab because everything I
read said that was the better choice if you want
something low maintenance and easy to set up even
if it's not as open as some of the
alternatives.It's stuck in the auto calibration
stage. It gets halfway through then it stops with
a generic error message. The UI around this is
really clunky. I've tried searching online, asking
Claude and nothing. I emailed customer support and
they came back with cryptic instructions that
assume familiarity with the internals of the
machine.I decided to leave this for a day when I
wasn't too mentally drained from work to debug
issues in my free time and instead the machine has
been collecting dust ever since.Maybe it was a
mistake to get a Bambi Lab? I thought it was the
more turn key option but it hasn't been my
experience.
| > > Ccecil
I wouldn't trade that time spent on my printers
for anything. I wrote a post about this recently
[1]There was way more valuable things learned in
the process than just making Benchy.For years I
have been trying to tell people this. The value of
Reprap was not just "to have a printer".[1]
https://www.robosprout.com/thank-you-reprap-for-al
l-of-it/
| > > alecst
Crazy as it sounds, that's the opposite of my
personal experience.
| > > > nearlyepic
Yeah in the four years I've had my Prusa it's
had basically no problems.They're a pain in
the ass if you buy bottom of the barrel crap
with sloppy tolerances for $100 I guess, but
the same is true of regular printers.
| > hingler36
I feel like this has been a talking point for as long
as off-the-shelf printers aimed at hobbyists have
existed. Calling them AI factories is a bit off the
mark imo, there are plenty of hobbyists that learn CAD
and want to make their own stuff, but don't want to
build their own printer. The kind of people who are
interested in reprap are absolutely still around, and
I really don't see that community going dissolving
because of the rise of capable commercial printers.
| > > Ccecil
That wasn't exactly what was said..."it is now
popular to just have someone else do it...be it AI
or a factory in another country"And sure there are
some people interested in reprap but they have
been scattered to the wind. #reprap IRC has become
an advertising/support channel for commercial
printers. If you go to most of the channels/forums
where the development used to happen and mention
you want to build a printer you will be flooded
with responses about how stupid that is and
provided with names/links of the printers you
should be buying. Making things is a fool's
errand.Maybe my observations were
different...maybe not...but from what I saw at
about 2016 the whole DIY machine thing switched.
| > in_absentia
I'm not sure if it's that simple. Many space-intensive
DIY hobbies are on the retreat simply because more
people are moving into cities or very dense suburbs
where you have no practical opportunity to, say, build
a woodworking shop. Metalworking was even more
severely impacted, for obvious reasons.Also, long
before mail-order offshore manufacturing, people have
been lured away from most of this by the promise of 3D
printing. Every other techie I know owns a 3D printer.
Most have not made anything interesting with it
because they soon learn that the real difficulty is
materials science and 3D design. But as a nerd, it's
the thing you're supposed to own. In contrast, I know
maybe four people in the SF Bay Area who are into
woodworking, metalsmithing, CNC, or stuff like that.I
don't see mail-order prototyping as a conspiracy...
it's more of a culmination of the DIY community
chasing the mirage they were sold on in the early
2010s. I still remember the HN claims: home
manufacturing revolution! It's the beginning of a
brand new economy, why would anyone buy anything
anymore when you can just click "print"... with some
amusing parallels to how some folks now talk about
building your own software with AI.The mail-order
stuff isn't evil insofar that it may allow some people
to make things they couldn't make before. On the flip
side, it's a very inefficient way to learn, so I think
it will reduce hardware literacy among those who could
afford a garage workshop.FWIW, I think the same goes
for AI-assisted hardware design. On one hand, I see
people who otherwise wouldn't be DIYing getting into
DIY: "I asked Claude and it one-shotted this
rectangular enclosure for me, it's amazing!", "Claude
made this RP2350 breakout board for me, how cool is
that". But I also see established DIYers getting a
degree of brain rot.
| > > Palomides
we have had a home manufacturing revolution,
though, and making every kind of hardware is crazy
accessible, look at the explosion of niche
products in every single hobby space over the past
ten yearsI miss absolutely nothing about etching
my own single layer PCBs at home
| > > > in_absentia
First, PCBs: neither do I, I'm not sure why
you're assuming that's the position I want to
take. This has nothing to do with 3D printing
or mail-order metal parts.Second, I don't
think there's a revolution for the general
population. Your archetypal middle-aged dad /
curious teenager are DIYing less than 20 years
ago, which in turn was less than 40 years ago.
The stats here are clear, most of "garage"
occupations are on the decline. Less space,
higher costs, more emphasis on safety. Some
hobbies, such as backyard chemistry, are
effectively gone.Third, the "explosion of
niche products" - maybe, but I think some of
it is just visibility. Kickstarter, HN,
Hack-a-Day, and so on. Before that, we had
hobby journals for woodworkers, electronics,
etc, and they were always full of ads for
niche gear. You just weren't seeing the
totality of it in a doom-scroll loop.
Visibility has benefits, but my point is that
the qualitative change is probably smaller
than it seems.
| softwaredoug
> Unfortunately, the manufacturing environment has changed
dramatically. The effects of COVID, increasing
manufacturing and operating costs, and significant changes
in consumer purchasing habits have made it increasingly
difficult for a small American manufacturer such as
Sherline to maintain the workforce and production levels
necessary to remain competitive.Can't help but wonder if
"operating costs" include tariffs and other policy
decisions by the current administration that have driven
up costs for everyone.
| > Ccecil
Speaking from my personal observations...It is not
just tariffs. The cost of living in the US, especially
housing, has approximately doubled in my area since
2019. There is a massive overinvestment in real
estate. When housing costs go up it forces companies
to pay their employees more to adjust which then
drives up the COGS. This becomes a feedback loop
because the real estate investors see the prices go up
and say "well we have to raise rents because COGS are
going up."Competing with any offshore becomes
impossible (especially when compared to countries
which subsidize their production). Companies close
instead of attempting to compete. Why would you when
simply investing in real estate, crypto or AI would
net more money? The parts needed to produce in the US
are typically not made in the US.Tariffs hurt...a
lot...the companies I work with directly (including
mine) have been struggling with them for a decade now.
But it is a lot more than that...there is a general
lack of interest in making things that are real. Plus,
the cost if you attempt to do so puts you in a
position where you cannot be competitive.
| > > K0balt
+1 on the tarrifs and the cost of living. We
actually left the USA and moved to the Caribbean
because our R&D was being burned up in tarrifs;
actually cheaper to move the operation. It's
stupid to raise tarrifs overnight when there are
no comparable domestic alternatives. A 5 year,
stable plan to ramp tariffs? Sure. That builds a
runway for local supply and transition. Random
tariff adjustment between 0-200% changing every
month? Absolute poison for innovation, and local
suppliers can't ramp on chaos.The cost of living,
also, needs a reframe. The real truth there is
that most people, who live paycheck to paycheck,
are half as prosperous as they were a couple of
years ago. Think about that. The Majority of an
entire country became twice as poor practically
overnight. It's not cost of living rising , it's
standard of living being halved for most
Americans. It's not a small thing, and it will
have reprocussions for decades. A population on
strong retrograde prosperity does not innovate,
does not invent, does not plan for the future.
It's basically terminal cancer.No doubt innovation
will rise once the ashes cool, but that's more
like what we are seeing in Eastern Europe,
admirable and significant, but no equivalence
whatsoever to the economic juggernaut that the USA
once was. (And still is, for now)Maybe automation
will turn that around, but who then is the
beneficiary of a fleet of millions (billions?) of
corporate owned general purpose humanoid robots?
That's a big part of what my startup is working on
; making that phase generally useful to regular
people, not just corporate giants.
| jordanb
Real bummer I have their manual lathe and mill and have
made a lot of things it would have been impossible to make
without the ability to machine (even at small scale their
machines could do).One reason why I bought sherline is the
company was still in business and creating so many
accessories.I guess I'll be trying to buy stuff off of
eBay or something like I would have been doing had I
bought Chinese stuff.Speaking of which does anyone know
the details of their small 60 degree carbide inserts? I
assume that don't make those themselves.
| mlhpdx
Wow, what a disappointment. I've found it funny over the
years when people are shocked to hear me talking about
machining, when they themselves have woodworking tools.
Cutting metal, cutting wood, even cutting paper - all
useful for making and fixing.I earned an MSME without ever
learning to actually make things, so once I could afford
it I bought a Sherline CNC mill and taught myself to use
it. I made many mistakes but got there. I used it just
last week to make a wind gauge mounting bracket for a 70
year old sailboat.I liked that it was made in the USA and
(at the time, pre mainstream internet) had a great
community to learn from.I know there are other options
still, but Sherline has a fond place in my heart for how
easy they made it to get started.
| > Reddit_MLP2
I also think Sherline machines have good value. Were
they the cheapest, no, but they actually worked really
well in my experience for their size. I only have
their manual lathe, but it was a MUCH higher quality
machine than my larger 7x14 from china. It just feels
like everything is either a race to the bottom,
enshittification and/or both right now.
| carterschonwald
the current white house really fucked over all the smaller
domestic manufacturers. and scientists. and um america
basically
| > esseph
Everything.If you are a builder, there is no sane way
to bid on contracts with such hugely variable COGS.And
how the HELL do you even attempt to fix the US housing
supply if you are tariffing Canadian lumber? You
can't.
| > > pixl97
Guess this is what happens when you elect a group
that prioritizes enriching themselves over
ensuring you don't starve in the street like a
filthy animal.
| dpmartinez
Sad.Is there a free alternative to this ideally community
owned and open source?
| > krisoft
I'm not sure what you are hoping from "free",
"community owned", and "open source".They make mills
and lathes. They are really nice little machines,
great for hobby use. We have one lathe from them in
our hackspace for example, and it is a delight. Of
course you have to understand the limitations of the
tool, but that is true for every machine.That being
said, it is just a lathe. There is nothing
particularly complicated about it. At least not at
their complexity level. If you can manufacture machine
tools you can make one very easily. If you don't have
the manufacturing capability you won't.The reason i'm
saying this is because "free as in freedom" and "open
source" are properties of plans / source code. If you
happen to have a lathe factory, the lack of a lathe
plan is not going to stop you. You are just going to
design one for yourself. And if you don't have a
factory which can make a lathe, then why do you care
about plans for a lathe being open source?I guess the
factory itself could be "community owned". If you have
a business plan, or a large pile of cash, now is the
time to approach them that you want to buy everything
from them. But I'm not sure how "community owned"
would even work for this use case.Basically what I'm
saying this is hardware, not software. The terms you
use don't make much sense in this case.
| > convolvatron
the sherline designs aren't particularly notable, and
they're pretty easy to replicate if you have working
machine tools that are larger. any machinist could
make a sherline mill or lathe, but without that
floorspace and capex and skill, one really can't.I
spent overly long trying to learn on sherline tools
and once I gave up and bought a Bridgeport and an old
Logan, I realized that I was just banging my head
against the limitations of the tools.the value they
had was that they were cheaper than the smaller
version of the standard toolroom machines, and they
were a way to bootstrap yourself without having the
heavy power and the floorspace. so pretty much the
storefront, not the IP. I still have their 4" rotary,
and its actually not bad. the mill had a huge amount
of flex in the column that made it pretty unusable for
me unless you took really really tiny passes.I had an
old Unimat for a couple years, and while that was even
_more_ dodgy than the sherline the fact that it was
all steel and a combined mill/lathe made it a lot more
interesting. would rather see some community standards
for tooling on a platform like that. maybe a 50%
larger so setup isn't so fiddly.
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