Cost: $120,000 — AM topology parts + rocket injectors (requires NADCAP)
Printing...0%
Business
Pipeline
Word of mouth flowing.
Marketing Campaign
INACTIVE
Sales Rep
NOT HIRED
Business Development
NOT HIRED
Inspection Equipment
📐
Dial Calipers
Verifies ±0.010" and up
LVL 1
⚠ ROB: Can't verify this tolerance without better gear.
Human Resources — Staff
Certifications
Financials — P&L
Inventory — Parts Awaiting Shipment
Kanban — Recurring Blanket Orders
Suppliers — Material Relationships
Clients — Relationships & Referrals
How to Play
You own a machine shop. It starts as one used Bridgewell mill in a garage with $800 in the account and a $200 power bill due Day 7. Every part you cut is a contract somebody else needs. Cut enough of them well enough and your parts end up on a rocket.
THE LOOP — four clicks, every job
1. ACCEPT — click a card on the JOBS board. It lands on a machine that can run it.
2. BUY MATERIAL — in the Machines panel. You front the metal out of your own cash.
3. RUN — the machine cuts in real time. Tighter tolerance and bigger quantity take longer.
4. SHIP — finished parts are inventory, not money. Shipping is what pays you.
Everything else in the shop — more machines, hires, certs, suppliers, contracts — exists to make that loop pay more or run without you.
READING A JOB CARD
QTY / TOL / MAT — how many parts, how tight, what metal. Tighter tolerance = longer run and more tool wear.
est. margin — pay minus material. Green is a money-maker, red barely covers the stock. A big-dollar job with an expensive material can pay worse than a cheap one.
⚙ machine line — which machine it runs on, and whether you own one.
Due badge — ship by that day. Late ships cost you the client relationship.
🔒 lock — you need the named certification (Certs tab) or machine before that client will award it.
🚀 — SpaceX work. Shipping these climbs the supplier ladder.
THE SCREEN
Top bar — cash, day, power bill. Watch cash.
ROB strip — your foreman. He narrates what just happened and flags what you're doing wrong. The LAYOUT badge is clickable: it tells you the single best machine to move.
Objective bar — the yellow strip under ROB. It always names your next action; click it to jump to the control.
Shop floor — click a machine to select it, drag it to move it. Scroll or pinch to zoom. Machines closer to the Shipping dock finish jobs faster.
Machines panel — Buy / Run / Ship live here, one set per machine.
Bottom tray — every business system: jobs, hires, certs, money, suppliers, clients.
WHAT COSTS YOU MONEY
Material — paid up front, refunded only when the job ships.
Power bill — every 7 days. It goes up as you add machines.
Payroll — every hire is billed daily, whether or not there's work.
Rent — daily once you lease a real shop.
Storage — $3 per part per day for anything finished and not shipped.
Tooling and scrap — tight jobs eat the tool crib, and a worn crib scraps parts.
Run cash below zero with no jobs running and no payments incoming and ROB warns you once. Ignore it and creditors take the machines.
WHEN THE BOARD GOES QUIET
Work does not arrive by itself forever. End Day (Machines panel, available when every machine is clear) pulls in new orders. If the pipeline dries up, the BUSINESS tab is where you spend money to get the phone ringing again.
Strategy — How to Build the Best Damn Shop
The one rule: every shop optimizes ONE thing and starves another. Pick what you hoard. Pick what you'll go without. That's your strategy.
THE LEVERS — what you actually control
Specialization (Business tab, after Day 5) — declare a lane. Permanent. Pays a bonus on matching jobs. A focused shop beats a generalist.
Certs (Certs tab) — AS9100, ISO 13485, ITAR, NADCAP. Slow + costly, but they're the keys to the high-paying tiers and the SpaceX ladder. NADCAP alone is +20% pay.
Suppliers (Suppliers tab) — buy from the same supplier to build rapport → up to 20% off material. Commit to volume for a faster climb; miss it and they remember.
Relationships (Clients tab) — ship on time, build the relationship. At 80+, a client sends premium work with NO bidding. Ship late or scrap a part and you torch it.
Machines — more machines = more parallel work, but more power + payroll. Buy the operator too, or the machine sits idle.
Terms (Business tab) — COD pays now at −5%. Net-30 pays +18% in 30 days. Net-60 pays +30% in 60. Float the receivables only if you can survive the wait.
Margin (job cards) — pay minus material. Green % jobs are your money-makers. A pricey job with a huge material bill can pay worse than a cheap one.
SIX WAYS TO WIN
Aerospace Boutique — few parts, insane margins. Tight tolerances, exotic metal, certs, SpaceX. Tiny throughput; one scrapped part ruins a day.
Volume Generalist — win on parts/day, not margin. Many machines + operators, cheap aluminum, kanban, overage. Razor margins; a stalled line bleeds you.
Lean Operator (Hard Mode) — stay in the garage, no payroll, no rent, ironman. Always solvent, never flashy. You'll cap out of the prestige race — that's the trade.
Vertical Integration — own the building, own the maintenance, depend on no one. Huge capex, slow to break even, unbeatable if you survive the build-out.
Reputation Premium — clients come to you. Never the cheapest, the most trusted. Fragile — one late ship on a key account and the referrals dry up.
Deal-Maker — make money on the contract, not the metal. BD person, overage, terms arbitrage, bidding. BD's $600/day is dead weight until the deal flow justifies it.
TWO BUILD ORDERS TO START
Boutique opener: Run starter jobs → save to $5k → buy the Hance VR-2 CNC → hire a CNC programmer → declare Aerospace (Day 5) → hire a Quality Tech → apply AS9100 → chase rocket jobs → NADCAP → owned building → SpaceX Primary.
Volume opener: Run starter jobs → declare Automotive (Day 5) → take everything, build supplier rapport → lease the bigger shop → buy a 2nd Bridgewell + a 2nd Hance (and their operators) → lock in kanban contracts → turn on overage → run the line.
HOW IT INTERLOCKS
Specialization picks your jobs. Certs unlock the high tiers. Suppliers cut your costs. Relationships feed you no-bid premium work. Terms decide whether you grow or stay liquid. Layout (drag your machines tight to Shipping — click the LAYOUT badge for ROB's best move) makes every job faster. Stack the right four and you've got a strategy. Stack the wrong four and you bleed slow.
THE ENDGAME — LIGHTS OUT
Automate yourself out of every job: operators run the machines → a foreman runs the floor → executives run the shop → and one day it runs lights-out while you sleep. That's the name on the door.
GLOBAL LEADERBOARD
Open the leaderboard tab to load scores.
LIGHTS OUT v1.0|Built by Trash Robot Industries| SCORE NOT SAVED|trashrobotindustries.com|↻ NEW SHOPVOLMSTMUS
LIGHTS OUT · TRASH ROBOT INDUSTRIES
CLAIM YOUR SHOP
Your name on the global leaderboard. Choose wisely.
RETURNING? ENTER YOUR PASSPHRASE
YOUR PASSPHRASE — SHOWN ONCE
Write this down. It's how you recover your account on another device. We don't store emails.
LIGHTS OUT · DAY 1
You just opened a machine shop.
One used Bridgewell mill. $800 in the account. A $200 power bill due Day 7. No employees, no customers, no safety net — just you and the machine.
1 · ACCEPT→2 · BUY MATERIAL→3 · RUN→4 · SHIP
That's the whole loop. Take a job off the board, front the metal out of your own pocket, cut the parts, ship them and get paid. Everything else in this shop — more machines, hires, certifications, contracts — is a way to make that loop pay more, or run without you.
Either way, the HOW TO PLAY tab is there whenever you want it.
🤖
Hance VR-2 CNC
Cost: $5,000
Adds a 4-axis CNC mill to your floor. Holds ±0.002" tolerance — unlocks
aerospace and precision medical contracts.
This is the move that takes you from job shop to supplier.
💀
CHAPTER 11
CREDITORS HAVE SEIZED YOUR EQUIPMENT
YOUR SCORE
One Bridgewell. No cash. Everything else is gone. The bank says you still owe them money. Classic.