Introduction

When deciding what product we wanted to make for our final deliverable, we wanted to make something that we were all interested in and could help other students our age. When brainstorming, we realized we all drink coffee and find ourselves spending hundreds of dollars on coffee. We saw an issue with pour over coffee and thought we could find a way to help people make pour over coffee easier. Thus, we came up with the coffee pour over assistant. Essentially, our product would allow people to pour water into a water reservoir which would then slowly drip the water through the coffee grinds and pour a perfect cup of coffee.

Next, to make sure we were making a product that was useful and had a need we came up with a few ‘How Can We’ statements. The first one we asked was “How can we replicate popular, existing coffee brewing machines for a cost-efficient price?” We wanted to be able to make sure it was cheap enough, especially for college students, to buy. Next, we asked, “How can we make the process of pour over coffee the most efficient for the user?” The biggest issue we wanted to tackle with pour over coffee was the fact that the user has to slowly pour the water over the coffee grinds which can take a long time depending on the flavor you want your coffee. Lastly, we asked, “How can we match the coffee taste to the user’s need?” One of the benefits of pour over coffee is that you can determine how strong each cup of coffee is. We wanted to make sure we replicated this same benefit with our product. After we asked the ‘How Can We’ questions and found a need for our product, we started developing our product.

Product Development

After we identified the need for our product and how can we statements for this product, we started developing our product. The first thing we had to decide was how many different parts we wanted to make. For the first iteration we chose to make it into two pieces. The water reservoir was on top. We made it into a cylinder shape with large holes on the bottom with the hope that it would slow the water down. The bottom section had three legs attached to a cylinder with a funnel on the inside where the coffee grinds go. After testing the first prototype we decided to make a couple changes.

For the second iteration, the first change we made was to make the base bigger and eliminate the legs. The reason for this is because we wanted the person printing the object to be able to change the height of the leg if they wanted it higher for larger cups. We also wanted to make the base bigger so it would be easier for the user to fit more coffee grinds in the base.

When we were making the different parts for the second iteration, we had to decide how we wanted to fit the top part onto the bottom base. Our options were to make it latch on, slide into the base, or twist on. After we printed the larger base, the water reservoir from the first iteration happened to slide perfectly into the base. Therefore, we decided to keep the water reservoir the same size so it can slide into the base, and just eliminate the larger holes on the bottom since it did not slow down the water at all. After we had our base and water reservoir we just needed to make the legs and the different slides we would place in the base to slow down the water flow. We made the legs 4 inches tall which worked well for an average mug size. The slide we made had several small holes in it which worked well to slow down the water. In the end, we had three legs, the base to hold the coffee grinds and also fit the water reservoir into, the water reservoir, and a slide.

Testing and Next Steps

Once we had developed our product and had a prototype, we had to test it. For the first test, which unfortunately we do not have footage on, there was a lot of leaking from the funnel because there were gaps I and the holes were too big that the water was flowing through. The coffee was very watered down and was not drinkable by users. Granted, this was a very rough prototype, and the goal for our first iteration was to see how users responded to the design of the product and the overall usefulness of a coffee pour over assistant.

When testing the second iteration, we found more consistency in the coffee. The slide that we developed for the second iteration made a huge change to the coffee. We also made the funnel on the second iteration smaller so that the water would not leak as much. Additionally, since we made the legs longer and not connected to the base, it was easier to fit the coffee cup under the funnel. Unfortunately, in the video included in the presentation, we did not have the legs glued on, but it shows the flow of the water through the funnel.

For the next steps of our project, we want to make the design more reliable and eventually make it available to users on Shapeways and other sharing websites so people can print our design with their own material that is more water-friendly. Additionally, make the legs and hole size on the slides easily adjustable so it can fit the user’s needs as closely as possible. Another idea we had was to make an attachment to an existing coffee pour over that would moderate the flow of water, so our product would not actually contain the coffee grinds and filters.

Overall, our team learned so much from this project, and we feel we all came a long way from the beginning when we were discussing project ideas. We had so many different ideas about the product and it could have gone several different ways. The greatest part was seeing our ideas being printed into an actual product. It would be nice to continue to develop our product and make something that users would be excited to make and use!

In the link below, you can find our final presentation and Instructables, respectively!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pgNcZblkNr9y7woUtYLUW6sKNjogF9PNVlDjK9BPyfM/edit?usp=sharing

https://www.instructables.com/id/Coffee-Pour-Over-Assistant

This semester has been a great one! I learned so much about not only the digital making world, but about myself and what I am capable of as well. Reflecting on the semester, I have created a lot of different things and exposed myself to a new side of learning.

My Expectations

Going into the course, I expected to be printing little things every week and learning how to use the printers and the software that is used to 3D print objects. In a way, my expectations were met, but not the way I envisioned them. I not only learned how to 3D print objects, but I learned about the process of creating useful objects to help people. I also learned how to utilize different resources in the FabLab like laser cutting and conductive threading. We even learned how to embroider!

Things I Learned:

Fusion 360

Looking back at my first blog post I realized the things I was interested in making I could easily print in the MakerLab today if I wanted to. I remember thinking in the beginning that there was no way I would be able to make stuff like an ice scraper which I ended up successfully designing in Fusion360.

We had an entire class period dedicated to learning the ins and outs of Fusion360. With this user-friendly software, we were able to learn how to make simple objects. With the skills we learned from making an ice scraper and a phone holder, we could create nearly anything we set our minds to. We were also given the opportunity to extend our knowledge even further by watching youtube tutorials and making things in Fusion360. I definitely expected to learn the software used to 3D print objects, but not to the extent that I did. I thought we would all make the same things together in class each week, but we were given much more freedom than that. It really opened the doors to my creative side of thinking, which is difficult for me to do.

(photo of ice scraper)

Design Process

One of my favorite things we did this semester was have the team from Design for America come into our class and teach us about the design process. I learned that all these great products people have made are developed from a thorough design process that takes a lot of iteration. I learned that we first have to understand a problem and immerse ourselves into it before we can start designing something. After that, you can start ideating and building your product.

This was really interesting for me to learn about. I am not a creative person whatsoever and I loved learning about how to come up with ideas to create products that can actually help people. This is something I did not expect to learn, and will take with me for the rest of my career.

FabLab

The three weeks we spent in the FabLab was something I did not expect to do in this course at all. However, I am so happy that this was part of the course because I learned so much in those short three weeks. We learned how to embroider, use InkScape which we used to create images that could later be cut with a laser, and conductive threading. The first thing I did was laser cut the sides of my box. I chose to cut four things that made me happy. For more details about what those four things are, take a look at my blog post from that week! After the three weeks, we took the things we learned at each station to create our very own box. My favorite thing about the FabLab was that I really had to challenge myself and get my hands dirty.

(photo of final product from the FabLab)

Final Thoughts

Overall, this course exceeded my expectations. I walked into the MakerLab for the first time in my college career on the first day of class and had no idea how a 3D printer worked or what they were capable of. I did not think we would touch on so many different areas of the making world. I enjoyed the final project, but felt like I learned the most when we had our guest speakers and were working with experts in Fusion360 and at the FabLab. Through this course I was able to challenge myself and expand my creative boundaries. Hopefully, this was just the start for me in the Making World!

Another successful week in class working on our final projects! This week we met with two other groups and gave and received feedback on the initial prototypes we have made. The first team we met with was the group making the people counter for businesses. Their current struggle was configuring the code to count on a three digit LCD screen because it was currently only counting for a single digit LCD screen. Unfortunately, we were not able to give them much help, but we did give them feedback on what we would like to see out of the project and what we would want if we were a small business owner deciding to buy their product. They also gave us some good feedback regarding our project. They like the open source idea which allows users to adjust the height of the legs to their own liking. They also suggested looking into the Teavana steeper which we could potentially use similar technology for our project. Another suggestion they had was to make sure we have enough material to cover the parts that will touch water so the plastic does not leak toxins into the water or the water doesn’t melt the plastic.

The next group we met with was the group making the smart plant holder. They were trying to figure out how to make the hose split into two at the top of the stand to allow both sides of the object receive equal amounts of water. We also posed the question of if plants on the lower end of the stand will receive enough nutrients since the plants at the top of the stand will soak up most of the nutrients. Their idea to combat that issue was to put plants that do not need as much nutrients on the bottom of the stand to ensure a longer survival. We also received feedback from them which included looking into making the legs into a tripod formation. We will consider this as one of our iterations of a prototype and see which one users enjoy more. Overall, the meetings were very helpful and we will take into consideration the feedback we received from both groups.

In terms of next steps, we plan to get material to line the water reservoir so the hot water doesn’t touch plastic. We will also make the slides out of this same material since the water will flow through them.

This week in class we were able to make a lot of progress on all of our projects. Although only 2 of us were there out of our group, we made an initial design for our coffee pour over assistant. We decided to separate the product into two parts. The bottom part, which consists of the four legs that support the object and it is also where you place the filter and coffee grinds. It was difficult to decide how tall to make it because coffee cups are all different sizes. Ultimately, we decided to make this portion of the product customizable so when we make the design open to everyone, the person printing it can decide how tall they want to make the legs. The picture shows the beginning of the 3D print for the bottom half of the assistant.

We were also able to cut out the part for the coffee filter pretty easily. We simply cut a filter into the top part of the bottom half. Next, we began work on the top half of the coffee pour over assistant. This is where the user will pour the water and it will slowly drip over the coffee grinds. We decided to have two slides that the water will drip through. The top one has several larger holes placed around the circle to slow down the water a little bit. The next slide will consist of much smaller holes which will control the water flow much more. The picture shows the beginning of the 3D print for the larger holes that the water will flow through. Because this is a prototype we printed it with the material in the MakerLab. When we create our final product we will use a different material that can withstand hot water over several uses.

I was doing some research to find out which materials people use in the 3D printing world to use with hot water. I found a website with a discussion on the topic. I think I will also go to the FabLab and talk with the gurus there to see what they think would be the best material to use.

In the upcoming weeks my group plans to test our product with users and see what we need to change with the original design. We will also gather material to use for the top half of the design that can withstand the hot water and not potentially leak toxins into the water. More to come in the upcoming weeks!

This week in class we started by learning about how to scan objects and send them to the computer and eventually print them. First we all took scans of our busts using the iPad application and camera attached to the iPad. Then, we were able to send it to the computer where we could touch up the images of our busts to allow for a smoother printing process. I found a cool article about a man who also 3D printed himself for the Manchester Science Festival.

We also watched a video of Jay Leno in his garage where he scanned an object and was able to print a replica of that object. Before class this week and prior to watching the videos assigned for the week, I had no idea you could scan an object with a camera and be able to print it. This must be an incredible application, especially for manufacturing businesses that have several different parts that are either expensive or hard to find.

We also made progress on our projects this week. We were able to finalize the designs we have for our projects and start developing prototypes which can be tested later this week.  Our team was able to designate work to each member allowing us to be as efficient as possible. I am interested to see how our testing goes with our users, and hopefully they will find it beneficial.

This week in class we had a wonderful guest speaker from Shapeways. She was able to give us a quick tour of their factory and then she took us through a powerpoint presentation highlighting different making tools and resources we can use to make our own products. What really stood out to me was when she said no two products are exactly the same, which is the beauty of what they do. 3D printing gives us this capability which is really special.

For the rest of class we were given the opportunity to come up with an initial sketch of what we want our product to look like and make prototypes. My group is creating an assistant for pour over coffee to eliminate the need for the human to slowly pour the water over the coffee grinds. We struggled in the beginning when deciding how we wanted to make sure the product could fit over any type of glass. We came to the conclusion to make the legs of the product adjustable so it can be raised or lowered depending on the size of the cup. Next, we needed to address the fact that some people like their coffee very black, while others like it not as strong. So, we decided to develop ‘slides’ that can be inserted or removed that have different amounts of holes on them so the water can drip at the desired speed creating lighter or darker coffee. We also decided to make the product two parts. The top part is the water reservoir and the bottom is where the coffee grinds are located. I will be working on the bottom half while Ernest and Roger will work on developing the top of the product. We plan to use a thin aluminum inside so the water does not touch any materials that could leak toxins into the water. Additionally, the material we use in the MakerLab does not work well with water over long periods of time, especially hot water which is another reason we will be using a different material on the inside. I am looking forward to seeing this product come together and hopefully by the end of the semester we can use it ourselves.

Linked are the photos of our sketches we made during class.

In the assigned readings and videos we had for this week, my favorite was the video about prototyping the mouse for Microsoft and Google. It was really fascinating to me to see all of the different designs the attempted to use. What struck me was that the mouse David Kelley thought was the best did not resonate well with the users. This shows how important it is to get feedback from the consumers who will actually be using the product, because if they do not like it, it will not be successful. I also never realized how many iterations objects go through to make the final product perfect.

This week was a fun last week in the fab lab. We were able to see our projects finally come together into a finished product. Everyone gathered their materials from the past two weeks including the embroidery patch and the box we made with the laser cutter. Once we had everything together the experts in the fab lab taught us about conductivity and how we could stitch LED lights into our embroidery patches.

The most important thing we learned is that positive wires could not cross a negative wire. I think this was an issue for several students in the class, including myself. Another issue people were facing is not having a strong enough connection from the battery to the wire. I think the reason for this is because we would only loop the wire once through the holes on the battery and light as opposed to doin got several times as they suggested. However, almost all of us overcame these obstacles and were able to create really great finished products, some much more complicated than others. I was personally very excited when I was finished sewing my lights into my fabric and switching the power button on to reveal bright green lights. It took a lot of patience, but was worth it in the end. I only wish I was able to make it to class the first week to make a personalized embroidery patch. Instead, I had a blank patch that I sketched a smiley face on with a permanent marker. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project which allowed us to learn more about the resources available to us at the fab lab that can help us with our projects that we are working on both in class as well as any personal projects people are working on, on their own.

In terms of our project, we changed our direction a little bit. Our original idea was to create a bracelet that would assist visually impaired people to find someone they were looking for in a crowd of people . As we did more research we realized we were not going to be able to make a lot of progress in the time we have left in the semester. We decided to take a different route and create a product that helps people make pour over coffee. Essentially, someone would be able to pour however much water was necessary, and our product would slowly drip the water through and create high quality coffee. When we return to campus from spring break, we hope to have a prototype developed to kick start our project.

This was an exciting week for me in this class. It was my first time at the Fab Lab in Urbana, and I was intrigued as soon as I entered the building. I had no idea the FabLab existed and all of the interesting things you can make there. As I was lasering my box I was talking with Clinton about the opportunities available at the FabLab. He was telling me how they hold workshops and teach people of all ages to make different things. He also showed me how you can laser glasses, such as beer mugs, wine glasses, and mason jars to name a few. I thought this was really cool, and definitely something I would do on my own time in the FabLab.

This week, I was in the group that made the box. Clinton was a great teacher and was extremely patient with all of us. We first started by making the dimensions of the box. We then made the top of the sides of our box flat by removing the teeth and inserting a straight line. After we made the correct dimensions and removed the top of our box, we were allowed to put any silhouette we wanted on the sides and bottom of the box. I decided to put silhouettes of things that make me happy, so I included a coffee mug, a home to represent my family, the sun to represent sunny days outside, and books since I love to read.

After we were done placing our images onto the sides of the box, we made sure the lines were red so they would be cut, and that the lines were the correct size. Once everything was in place, we saved our projects to a flash drive and began lasering our boxes.

It was fun watching my box come to life right before my eyes. I did not know it only took around 7 minutes to complete the job. I was not able to assemble my box, but I was happy with how everything came out. I can’t wait to see the finished product when we return to the FabLab next week and do some embroidering!

This week we were joined by students in an organization on our campus called Design for America. DFA is nationwide and their focus is to design things that solve real world problems. I could tell the four students from Design for America were passionate about the work they do. Their presentation was well organized and very informational. They shared with us their design process that consists of six different steps separated into two categories. The first category is Understand which includes the steps Identify, Immerse, and Reframe. The second category includes the last three steps of Ideate, Build, and Test.

This was really interesting to me because something I have been struggling with is just trying to think of a product, and not start with the basics of identifying where a problem might exist.

After we learned about this process they gave us the opportunity to go through each step. We were given four different profiles of blind people in the Austin, Texas community. Each of them had unique problems and we had to choose one of them and come up with a product for them. My group chose Rose who was a mother who had a daughter about to join preschool. Rose was faced with the challenges of having to learn the new route to her daughter’s school as well as be able to identify her daughter in a large group of students. We decided to focus on the identification problem Rose was struggling with.

The first thing we did when trying to come up with a product that could help rose we had to identify things about her. This means writing down everything we knew about Rose. Then, we had to immerse and come up with how Rose felt about her new challenges and what she might be thinking. A few things we decided Rose might be feeling is nervous and anxious about having to find her daughter after her school day is over. After that we reframed and came up with how can we statements. For example, “How can we help blind people identify specific people in a crowd?”

After we went through the steps in the Understand phase, we moved on to Create. We thought of some different ideas about how we could help Rose and ultimately came up with a bracelet or necklace that both Rose and her daughter would wear. This accessory would ideally have a GPS system in it that would tell Rose how close her daughter was to her (similar to TILE which you can attach to your phone or keys to help you locate them). It would also have a button Rose or her daughter could press that would alert the other that they are looking for them. We then built what the device would look like using pipe cleaners and magnets. When we presented to the class it seemed like everyone thought it would be a good idea and they gave us useful feedback. One thing someone mentioned was to have a way Rose could call her daughter through the device.

Overall, I really enjoyed the class and liked learning about how to come up with ideas for designing a product. I plan to use this approach when deciding what object my team and I want to create for our final project.

This week we welcomed Dan Banach into our class to teach us a little bit more about Autodesk Fusion 360. I thought Dan was a phenomenal teacher and was very patient with all of us in class. I could tell he definitely knew his way around Fusion 360. Dan was able to make sure everyone was on par with the products we were making. In class we created an Illini ice scraper as well as a holder for you phone while it is charging. He showed us several different useful things in Fusion 360 such as the fillet, chamfer, and extrude tools. We were able to use these to our advantage while making both of our different products.

While making the first product, the ice scraper, I was a little overwhelmed with all of the different capabilities within Fusion. Luckily, Dan was a great teacher could help us one-on-one if we were having trouble with a step in the process of making. By the time we got to the phone holder I was feeling more comfortable with the way Fusion worked and could maneuver a little easier through the software.  We also learned other things in Fusion like cutting holes in shapes and setting proper measurements for products. The links to the two products I made in Fusion are copied below.

http://a360.co/2G5BFSP (ice scraper)

http://a360.co/2BT5doy (phone holder)

For the object I wanted to create on my own I chose a lamp shade. I followed directions using a youtube tutorial. There were different functions I used in creating this that we did not use in class. For example, the mirror function and duplicate function. I copied the link below to the lamp shade I created.

http://a360.co/2BUyWO7

I found there are several youtube tutorials for objects to create in Fusion. Once again, thingiverse is a great resource, but youtube is good for following directions and watching someone else create the object with you. I simply searched ‘create in fusion 360’ into youtube and a myriad of videos showed up providing instructions on how to create any object you can think of. I copied the link below which showed my search results

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=design+in+fusion+360

There are many different resources online to get inspiration for making objects, and I am excited to utilize these in the future.

I found the guest speaker for week 3, Jeff Ginger, very interesting and fun to listen to. His passion for making things was contagious and got me even more excited to visit the fab lab and make things of my own this semester. It was exciting to see the different things he has made in the fab lab as well as what some of his students have made. I was really interested in the backpack with the solar panel. I thought it was a really good idea and definitely something I would use.

In class we began using Tinkercad and exploring ways to design things. We did basic things like adding shapes and figuring out how to maneuver through the website. I did a few of the tutorials and learned how to make holes in shapes, change the size of the shapes, and the basics of moving the shapes around.

My group was able to create our logo on Tinkercad and print it at the end of class. I have not seen it yet since the print time was longer than the class period, but I am excited to see how it turned out.  We made a diamond like shape with our team name ‘GEM’ on the top of the diamond. We also learned how to change the different categories in Cura like quality, shell, and infill before printing to make a successful print more likely.

I have found a lot of different websites online that share a lot of information about 3D printing. I actually found different video tutorials posted on LinkedIn that were interesting to watch. As I become more inquisitive about 3D printing I foresee myself using these online resources to learn more about the 3D printing world.

Hi class! I’m Madeline Lager and I am looking forward to making things with you all this semester! I feel as if I have already learned so much about the digital making world and what it all has to offer. I’m excited to discuss our thoughts together on this forum and explore what each other has learned throughout the course.

First, I will discuss what I took away from the different articles we read before class last week. What I had not realized before was just how personal digital making is. It may not reach the ideal economies of scale by producing more products, but the things can be made for a more focused and smaller target market. As I was thinking of things I could make in this class, I was going in the wrong direction trying to think of things I could make for hundreds or even thousands of people. However, this is not necessary and I can make a smaller group of people happy with a product I create in this class.

Additionally, I liked how one of the articles discussed sending data across the world and how we are able to print something that was sent to us from thousands of miles away. This was fun to investigate further in class when we explored the different websites that share products to 3D print. Specifically, I browsed pinshape.com and grabcad.com. Both of these websites offered different products that I would enjoy printing and can see myself using in day to day activites. It was exciting to see all the possibilities that are available through 3D printing.

One thing I was excited to see on pinshape was a cable guard for your phone charger. As my team was brainstorming ideas this is actually something I had thought that I wanted to print. It prevents your phone cord from fraying and becoming useless which has been a recurring problem for me and my phone chargers. To make it more suitable, I would change the guard to be able to fit any size and shape of phone charger.

Another item I saw on pinshape was straw cups. These reminded me of cups I used to have in my childhood and would love to recreate them in this class! I would maybe make them look a little less childish to make them more usable for my age.

Next, the glasses holder is a product I would love to print and use for myself. I often find myself just throwing my glasses on my desk which can cause them to scratch and break. I loved this product when I saw it on the website and thought it was a great idea. I would make the product more feminine perhaps to make it look cuter if it is sitting on my desk all the time.

Lastly, the iPhone shelf holder is another product I can see myself using. I think it would be fun to make different sizes so I could even use it for my laptop and other devices that require charging.

Overall, I am very optimistic about this semester. I can’t wait to see all of the exciting things our class makes throughout the course!