Thomas Thwaites: How I built a toaster -- from scratch
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as the standard illustration of hidden complexity and supply-chain dependencies behind everyday objects.
What it is
Designer Thomas Thwaites describes his attempt to build a toaster from scratch, from mining ore and deriving plastic from oil. It is a short TED talk on how much civilization a simple object depends on.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2019 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends scrooched_moose · 2019-07 · on “Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?”
The Toaster Project is a good example of this: [this video] [LINK] He attempted to build the basic components of a toaster from scratch. Smelting metal, molding plastic, etc. The book is a tough recommendation because he sortof gives up on the later parts and limps to a finish, but overall its a fascinating look at how difficult these processes are if you build them up from scratch.
Recommends pentaphobe · 2023-07 · on “The Knowledge: How to rebuild our world from scratch”
Great book! In the introduction(IIRC) the author mentions Thomas Thwaites' TED talk "How I built a toaster from scratch" - which is a great example of the hidden complexities of "from scratch" (and also just a fun talk) [this video] Kind of reminds me of the Carl Sagan quote "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
Cites bullen · 2019-09 · on “The One Man MMO Project”
Haha, way ahead of you on that one, bought a C64 and learning assembly/soldering and looking at how to make my own computer on FPGA (async. CPU) with my own OS/programming language and in parallel to that my own P2P radio internet: [LINK] Even looked at making my own gerber editor and print my own PCBs with my AxiDraw plotter. On the subject: [this video] I looked at your github but nothing is playable out-of-the-box, you could make something presentable?
Cites dusted · 2022-01 · on “Poll: What does “Full Stack” mean?”
Full stack? Must mean you're able to design an instruction set, design chips, circuit diagrams, pcbs and finally write the firmware for it so it can boot the operating system you'll write, along with the drivers you write, so you can finally write some applications that runs on this new machine ;) dunno, maybe it goes deeper.. something about sand, and how it's hard to make even a toaster from scratch* * [this video]
Cites whilenot-dev · 2024-01 · on “Ask HN: Should I try to manufacture toasters?”
Just here to give a ref to The Toaster Project [0] and its accompanied TED talk[1] from Designer Thomas Thwaites[2]. [0]: [LINK] [1]: [this video] [2]: [LINK]
Cites Cockbrand · 2024-03 · on “Ask HN: Do you also marvel at the complexity of everyday objects?”
Related: designer Thomas Thwaites had the same thought and created a toaster from scratch, starting with iron ore: [LINK] Ted Talk: [this video]
Cites Aachen · 2024-12 · on “Thomas Thwaites: How I built a toaster – from scratch [video] [2010]”
For those who prefer the YouTube player: [this video] (I'm positively surprised TED also self-hosts this content actually)
Cites lelandfe · 2025-03 · on “Repairable Flatpack Toaster”
So cool. From 2009 so there's been some link rot; they had a Tumblr that seems fully disappeared from the web. Most current site: [LINK] Older site: [LINK] Some videos: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] They also did a TED talk on it: [this video]