#405 – An Interview with Spencer Wright

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• The Prepared. It’s both a weekly newsletter and an occasional podcast
  • 0:02
• Spencer claims he is a fake engineer since he was an english major
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• Grew up in the Hamptons doing construction
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• Dealing with subcontractors in the construction industry
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• Custom bicycle frames for $2K
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• Mahogany experience from the construction industry led to a job building custom robot doors for a beach house.
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• This is where he brought in his co-host on the prepared Zach Dunham to do audio design (Zach was a guest on this show on episode 350)
  • 0:10
• Later they brought in Todd Bailey to do the control electronics (Todd was a guest on this show on episode 194)
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• This trio decided to take the MIT online electronics course, 6.002x
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• Zach and Spencer built The Public Radio together, which they are still selling.
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• This is made and programmed by Worthington Assembly
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• Sourcing – finding parts for the robot doors
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• They worked out of an old Northrup Grumman facility that used to make jets
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• Choice paralysis
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• Spencer’s full time job is at nTopology
  • 0:27
• They do 3D printing software for non-traditional uses.
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• We previously talked a little about 3D printing for non-traditional (rocket building at Relativity Space) uses with Brent and Bryce a couple episodes ago.
  • 0:28
• DMLS
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• Wrote about the titanium / metal powderbed fusion
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• CAD software designed for printing implants
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• Porous hip cup that bones can grow into.
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• Precision Castparts Corp
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• Acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2015
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• Flyknit shoes – Nike
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• Trend spotting
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• Reducing number of tollgates to bring a product to market
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• Procuring parts more easily – most software isn’t great
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• MFG.com
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• Localization of manufacturing
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• US vs China
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• Insourcing manufacturing of the Public Radio
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• Work instructions using Tulip
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• Spencer talked to Rony from Tulip on The Prepared podcast
  • 0:56
• Spencer uses PartsBox.io to search for parts in his personal inventory
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• Find Spencer on most social media channels as pencerw
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• ThePrepared.org
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• nTopology.com
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