Thomas Thwaites: How I built a toaster -- from scratch

Designer Thomas Thwaites tells how he tried to build an electric toaster from scratch, making it from raw materials instead of buying parts. The short TED talk shows how complex even a cheap everyday appliance turns out to be.

HN people bring it up in any discussion of hidden complexity and supply chains, as the standard example that nobody can make even a toaster alone.

“There are hundreds of pieces even in the smallest toaster, and no one in the world knows how to make half of one”