Tools: Upgraded

 In the first STEAM class of quarantine, "Design and engineering", we have studied basic tools, advancement of tools, several design processes, math concepts surrounding materialization of said designs, and the unexpected opportunity to have not only one but two FEs this unit. For this action project we were asked to design garden tools that benefit the elderly as much as possible. With the help of my partner CJH, we started our process with picking a tool to redesign, we chose garden shears. The next step was to have an interview with my Grammie; An elderly woman who as been gardening for years. We discussed several questions, mostly about tools and her experience with them. Coincidentally she owns a pair of shears, so obviously I asked her about them. She told me "They are hard to keep sharp and are sometimes much to short or to big." When we went to revise our ideas, thinking empathically, see to properly understand the physical hardships of the elderly we must think with empathy; The revised plan for our garden shears is to make the handles extendable and retractable. We also had plans for a sheathe that sharpens the blade but it was unfortunately scrapped. Without further ado here is the big reveal: 

As you can see in the pictures drawn by my partner above, we decided to keep a simple model of the tool while there have been internals added. The handles are cylinders that are able to both extend and retract with each link about a foot long. The minimum extension is one foot and the maximum is five feet. We didn't need to make huge changes to make it better than competitors.  It still retains the simplicity of the basic tools its made from; For example the levers to make it fold, the wedges to make the blades and the cylinders that make up the handles.

The image above drawn by yours truly, are the dimensions, volume and surface area of our outer most handle link. 

To wrap this up lets take a look at the story board done by my partner to demonstrate the use of our new tool in comparison of a competitors product.

And that's the show! I hope you enjoyed and learned something, and remember to come again for more work in the future. For this AP I worked with a partner in Covid time, which was kind of weird, but in the end it worked because we don't live far from each other, and we didn't have much we both needed to work on besides the images. Unfortunately my images did not load for anyone but me, so I hope they worked for you now and I hope you have a good day, night or whenever your reading this.