this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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Tesla is facing issues with the bare metal construction of the Cybertruck, which Elon Musk warned was as tricky to do as making Lego bricks

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

10 microns is .4 thou, about the width of a cotton fiber. Its possible to machine those tolerances, but very time consuming as machine maintainance steps up. Its also small enough that the thermal expansion of the sheets will be larger than that

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So basically elon would rather dump money into expensive equipment to improve build quality than do the thing that's actually needed to improve build quality and pay his workers what their work is worth and make their factory environment safer?

This is the kind of petty angry bullshit you have to do to be a billionaire. Its not about being smart, it's about on some level hating everyone that isn't you

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You aren't going to hit that tolerance consistently on an assembly line no matter how much you pay. Can be done by a skilled machinist, but there are too many dynamical variables in an assembly line environment, like the previously mentioned thermal expansion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What I meant is that Elon has set a fairly un-achievable standard, as the sheet metal parts he is talking about will grow and shrink by more than that depending on weather. Additionaly, the small parts can be machined to that tolerance, but only by a skilled machinist and not at assembly line levels.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's almost like he hears about how bad the build quality of Tesla cars have become, so he thinks the solution is more accurrate, more expensive parts. Kind of like he has absolutely no clue what he's doing, and doesn't want to listen to smarter people telling him what they need.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Elon is a masterclass in the Dunning-Kruger effect.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think we should rename that effect after the man who invented it: the Musk-Dunning-Kruger effect

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

LOL. At the same price as the Lightning, there's no way this could compete with Ford. I thought the point of the sharp angles was to make the truck super cheap. If it was $25k, I'd consider getting it not caring about what it looked like (as long as it was warrantied for mechanical failures). Just for a cheap new truck to haul shit and not worry about getting beat up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Tesla should mill the car from one solid block of steel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just like Steve Jobs and every other "visionary" all he does is demand things, have his engineers and factory slaves do their thing, and then go on stage and act like he personally minted every single cybertruck by hand. Any asshole can do the job of a visionary, actually, being an asshole is the only required skill.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

These tolerances are very possible to hold while machining, but speaking from my perspective having been a machinist by trade for 20+ years, holding those tolerances for every single part on a vehicle is going to get prohibitively expensive really fucking fast.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If LEGO and soda cans, which are very low cost, can do this, so can we.

This man is a certifiable idiot, and I feel bad for anyone working for him.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In the full email he goes on to tell the engineer what a micron is.

I guess, he just read that word somewhere and now feels cool that he knows it.

It would be cute if he was a junior manager, but this way it's just sad.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)

There are companies making bricks in much better quality than LEGO, and they are cheaper than LEGO. What kind of a margin is this supposed to be?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My guy, you can't drop these claims without telling us who! Lego are so expensive, I'd love some supposedly higher quality alternatives.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Apologies, I would recommend checking out https://www.bluebrixx.com/en/ to get an impression of what other vendors offer. You can look up the brands and models on your local Amazon, Alibaba, your local brick dealer, ... These prices are a lot lower that LEGO sets, so you might be able to try different vendors and see what's on the market.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Any brands you would recommend?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Try looking for Mould King or Cada - those are usually the ones that are considered to deliver great quality for a reasonable price.

It should be mentioned that both companies are gearing their products much more towards an older audience - so they aren’t really an alternative when talking about kids playsets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I usually shop around on https://www.bluebrixx.com/en/ Their Specials didn't disappoint so far. They carry other vendors too, but you might want to browse reviews on the web to see what's really good. Quality does vary between vendors, but LEGO bricks aren't as perfect as people believe either.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Bluebrix is nice

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I seriously doubt it. People buy LEGO because the alternatives are shit and they don't know how to accurately manufacture them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah maybe 5 years ago. Just get any brand using GoBricks and it's 99,99% there

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

cheaper than lego

I'm listening. Please do share.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I have a Mould King 13112 RC Excavator. All parts are on par and compatible with Lego bricks. Excellent quality, a bit tighter fit than regular Lego and the model itself is way more interesting and fun to build than anything Lego has produced in the Technic line in the past years. On top it is much cheaper than a comparable Lego set and it has an excellent building manual.