 I've been wanting to do more videos on the process of going from idea to functional prototype. And I've got a few real world examples that I want to share with you. So today we're going to do exactly that. But before we jump in, I want to let you guys know that I've officially hit the big times because I have a video sponsorship. This video is brought to you by Autodesk Fusion 360. Bet you never saw that one coming, eh? So huge thanks to Autodesk for sponsoring this video. I've mentioned before that I run two makerspaces, a college makerspace and a community makerspace that I co-founded back in 2014. If you don't belong to a makerspace, I highly recommend doing a Google search for a space local to your area and popping in to check it out. Just make sure to check their website first as to when they have their open hours or when they're open to visitors because most of these spaces are run by volunteers and may not have regular hours for non-members. Now these spaces come in all sorts of different flavors but they do tend to have one thing in common in that they are creative and collaborative spaces where their members tend to be very generous with sharing their knowledge with one another. I do enjoy my solitary builds but there's something special about joining a team build and being part of a creative community, that just makes life better. You'll find members working on all sorts of projects in these spaces and they can range from like interactive art projects to functional prototypes of their inventions. So today I want to share one member's journey on creating a functional prototype of her invention. Lisa is looking to solve the problem that she's noticed when attending cookouts and other gatherings. You've most likely been there where there's a table of drinks and then there's a bag of ice. People reach into the bag and some may not follow the best sanitary practice when trying to gather their ice especially if they've already had a few drinks. So the mission here is to come up with a more sanitary method of distributing ice at these gatherings that's also easy to implement. Alright let's head to my makerspace. Alright I'm at the makerspace here and kind of see our space. We have a little corner here of this building and we're going to walk up the stairs. So you walk up the stairs and some cool 3D printed stuff. Let's see what's going on in here. Alright we've got a few people working on some projects. Looks like Tom's soldering some LED strips. We've got this really neat project we're working on. So this is a laser panel. We're going to create for an art festival. Here's the actual design here. So we're going to make like a six foot version of this. Cory and Kaylee working on some projects. They have a laser cutting. And Anna what you working on? I'm going to be creating a wall clock. Nice. So okay let's go to the star of the show here which is Lisa. Lisa we have Lisa and the ice collator here. So Lisa tell us a little bit about what's going on here. What's your contraption you have here? My contraption is the ice collator which is simply a simple way and a clean way of having ice no matter where you are. It doesn't need any electricity, no kind of hood books, nothing like that. You simply fill it up with ice. Alright and you just put the top on. You just put it on here and pull it out and there you go. That's it. Nice. Yep the ice just comes out. Push it back in. Oh that's it. Cool. No hands and no germs. No germs. I like that. Okay before we dive deeper into Lisa's ice collator I wanted to back up a bit and mention that the 3D printed version you're seeing here is not her first version. When she had come to me she had already created a batch that was made by the process of rotational molding. Lisa is going to talk a little more about this in a few minutes but I wanted to stress her point that one of the lessons learned in this journey is that she jumped too quickly into the production phase without first working out all the kinks and this is where 3D printing shines. It allowed us to iterate quickly on all the design issues and test each prototype with very little time and monetary investment and of course to 3D print your model you first need a 3D model and that's where Fusion 360 saved the day and what a coincidence because they are sponsoring this video. Autodesk Fusion 360 is the heart of just about everything I create at the makerspace. It's a cloud-based 3D modeling CAD, CAM, CAE and PCB software platform for product design and manufacturing. Fusion 360 is my go-to 3D modeling software for 3D printing but I also use it for laser cutting as you have the ability to export the XF files that I can send directly to any laser cutter and I love using its powerful and professional CAM capabilities for machining parts and the beautiful thing is you get all this in one software. When Lisa approached me to help her with the Iscalator she had already been working with a company that had actually created a 3D model for her but she had exhausted all the funds to continue. She didn't know what 3D modeling software they were using but she did have the step files. Using the design workspace and Fusion 360 and its ability to import and work with step files we were able to continue improving the model without having to start from scratch. For example one of the modifications needed was to increase the size of these slots. A simple sketch and extrusion and mission accomplished. There is so much to love with Fusion 360 but if I had to pick a favorite feature it's the parametric capability of the software. Being able to go back to your design and make changes without destroying your model or having to start from scratch was what got me to switch initially from a different 3D software that I was using and I've never looked back. You'll find that the software is much easier to learn and use compared to other software in its class. It's very cost effective with multiple payment options available and has a vibrant and large user community base. Click below in the description to get your free trial. Okay Lisa so I'm interested in hearing what was the inspiration for all this what like that moment where you thought I gotta make this. I think the moment came when I was at a picnic and I noticed somebody go use the porta potty and then they came back and they put their hands in the eyes and I was just like you know if they sent man to the moon they can make something that you could have access to clean ice you know a better way to get ice. If you didn't have access to an actual automatic dispenser I figured it'd be something simple to do and it hasn't been simple for me but I did it. And so I'm curious to hear about the journey of okay so you got this idea you're at the party and you're thinking just gotta be a better way for this. What was the next step after that? The next step is I got um I spoke it and I punched a hole in the bottom and I had I built like a box and um then I had somebody make a like a just I called the slider for me and then I saw that it worked. I saw that it worked and I'm sitting there with some people and they were like that's not gonna work and then they're laughing and then they were like oh it works so that was that was the start was it uh ice bucket with a hole in the bottom. So so you started with just like that's good because it's like the the quickest way to just test it. I got a regular ice bucket and then just cut out the bottom and you're like okay okay so that was that first step and then after that? After that then I had a prototype made um in a um locally made you know in the area and then after that I um I saw again that it worked and I looked into having it rotationally molded and I did I got a mold and I had it rotationally molded and then I was able to get to the market and I sold it for but there were tweaks I want to make there were tweaks that I want to make and then of course there was a downturn in the economy you know so I just figured that I would pull back and get exactly the way I wanted it. So was this around like 2008 time like that way after the recession? Um no this this was this was more so in fact it's funny thing is I got laid off in 2008 and that really gave me an impetus to to say I'm gonna I'm gonna do this but actually I say it was like in two 2012 okay yeah yeah I'm gonna start actually selling it and you know okay so about like over like 10 years ago we can say yeah yeah it's been it's been a long journey okay so you got that what was it called rotational? Rotationally molded yes yeah and how long was that process so so this is you have like this quick you know ice bucket you know that that's obviously really quick but yeah when you the process of getting it like the rotational mold. The mold took a while it took a while I mean first of all it's hard if if I think some people think that if you have the money people will just work with you but it's not necessarily so it can be hard to get people to call you back because they're not really interested to work with small small people so it was a very nice company um again um in the next state over and they actually work with me and put up with my craziness and um you know having the mold made and actually having having the um the product made I say maybe like a six month process six months maybe six months it'll take making the mold took a while and was that mold supposed to be an actual um like end product or was that still like a prototype that was an end product that was that was an end product yeah that was an end product and so was the plan if that worked then would you contract like a whole bunch of them yeah I did I think I had you know I had to pay for the mold but then I also had to I think have like 500 me and so I I did that and um I was able to sell them uh I went to a trade show and um nothing really happened at first and then about a year later I got a call from a convenience store a chain that's up and down the coast and they and they ordered 500 because yeah yeah that was all right so so you were able to sell that I did I was able to sell those yes so what stopped you from placing another because once I went there you know it's just I think I just you know I wasn't in the right place to do it and I had to come with more money you know and it was just kind of like and I also felt again I felt that I wanted to make some tweaks before I did yeah I really did I really you know that's one thing I tell people don't be so quick to jump you know really I probably could have worked out a few kinks but I wasn't in the position um to outlay anymore not not really I mean not you know not a lot I and um so then I found out about 3d printing and they were saying that that would be a uh that's a good and cost-effective way to make a make a prototype but I really didn't know you know anybody and and it's weird too because I was just trying to remember where I even met you and I can't remember I really can't I really can't and do you mind saying like how much you paid for the rotational molding rotational molding I'm trying to think back rotational molding probably was maybe about 15,000 yeah it was quite but the thing is it's it's like a poor man's version of injection molding because it's similar but it's not as as you know it doesn't cost as much because with with the mold um which I still have actually in my garage um with with the mold but you don't get as many um units you don't get as many I mean it's not like injection mold which can go on and on and on because it's a different type of but you get you get them and you know it'll last for quite some time but eventually you might not be able to get that um that same shape okay so it's not it's kind of an not quite like mass production but you get like it is though you know what because I tell you what igloo cool isn't it that's that's inject that's um some of those things are rotationally molded really because like the the model had made it's made out of polyethylene which is the same um material as the igloo coolers the Coleman coolers and things yeah so um I'll have to look because I'm not familiar with that process it sounds interesting okay so but here's the problem so you you've got these 500 units but then you're like okay I want to make a tweak would that now require another like 15 000 to make exactly because according to them although you know I'm no expert in this at all they they couldn't but I mean I've seen other where perhaps they there could be tweaks you know but they might just been tying me by that time but you know but um yeah so I'm not sure if they if it could have been tweaked or not but you know once I had the the um the mouth that you helped me make um I think that it probably was would have been too much to try to try to tweak that more you know try to modify that more I don't think I don't know if it's doable like that yeah so that's kind of like where you kind of hit a wall right yes definitely I hit I hit a wall so so someone mentioned you 3d printing and somehow you came to our maker space and I think I remember like the day you walked in and I could tell like you're excited about like I can tell when people come in and they have that idea and it's like this is the way they talk about it and like like you could almost like you could see the excitement and like you talked about as like this is my baby yes yes it is um but yeah so someone mentioned and then I guess someone told you about the space uh I don't know how you found this but you somehow walked through the door yes okay and then you were asking about 3d printing because you wanted to know yes that route yes yeah so yeah so let's let's hear from there and then okay so okay so then it was kind of like um I had I also had someone who gave me um they did drawings for me they did drawings for like the CAD model for you okay yes for the you know and I'm not really familiar with that so I thought it'd be pretty simple I have that you know because it was actually the person who had worked at the company he no longer worked at the company so this is the person who did the injection mold yeah the rotation mold yeah yeah he was one he was one of the engineers there but he had went up to another company he's a very very nice person and so he he he did the drawings for me and he did those modifications modifications that I um but that after that I still you know would have to have someone make it and um so then I had Vladimir help me that's where I answered the picture and saved the day but then it was kind of like I thought again if I give you if I give you this file or whatever it's going to be like oh okay that's it but then I realized wouldn't you explain to me that they don't all speak to one another I guess and you know and it wasn't going to be as simple as just running this um and also there was a size issue as well because this is small the one that we'll see later is much smaller than the one that I actually had on the market on the market because most of the um um the maker machines do not accommodate the size yeah the size yeah yeah so I remember so you came in and you you were telling me like you had you know the drawings and I'm trying to get like what format you had it in and you you had no idea like what was software it was even used but you had some file that yes I had I had a file you had a file okay yeah and then so you sent me the file and it turned out it was a step file which was great because I you know my expertise is fusion 360 and fusion can work with step files so once I got that step files like okay we can you know we can go forward with this so um yeah and then then then we talked um you know since since I've entered the picture I kind of remember the rest but then um so we we we looked at it we looked at some tweaks you wanted to make yeah and there were quite a few tweaks but um I guess talk about like because after we made that first tweak and then I printed it and I don't know if you remember like the first time you came in and you see it because I'm sitting on the printer it wasn't as big as you wanted but we do have a cr10 which is you know can can make this it's in parts but it makes you know close to the size I think I had to scale it down like 80 percent but I gave us like an actual functional prototype so I don't know like do you remember that time where you walked in you see this thing like on the 3d printer I was very excited I was very excited because I I felt that what I wanted to do was come to fruition so I was very excited and appreciative I really was so I guess the difference between that and like making it um 3d printing and make going through iterations because we went through quite a few iterations right yes yes we did and and you're talking I mean just it took it took a while um because yeah I as far as printing I think like one piece was like 80 hour print which was like the longest print I had ever seen on that machine and I remember one time it got to the end and it's like the last like was it hour oh yeah it was a wrap it was a wrap no yes I think like the film that ran out or something it was bad it was like heartbreaking after all that time but still a lot faster than going through the molding process oh yeah and yeah and also too again like I said a lot a lot um less costly yeah yeah that's why I said I would recommend to anyone if you're going to if you're trying to invent things you know or whatever to look into that looking to do in 3d at first because you know having someone else make a prototype or even it you know can be very very good yeah and also too just you know it's it won't be as much waste because I mean let's say for instance if the same thing had happened um doing a different way you know each time that we had to redo I mean that would probably be thousands of dollars yeah so yeah so until I say any maker or inventor should really look into 3d printing for prototypes right yeah because we I mean um yeah it was pretty exciting I think I have for what I recall at one point I ended up I said you know it makes no sense to make it this big each time and I ended up scaling it down like 25 percent of the thing yeah it's like a little baby and then we can actually see how the parts interact and we got them printed a lot faster and once we saw okay this works yes and it actually comes together right and then we scaled it back up again so that was the process yeah yeah so I think I have quite a few viewers who have um this type of um maybe dilemma I'll say we're like they they have an idea for something and they don't know like what the process is like to get like an actual functional prototype yeah and you've gone through this process and you've learned a few lessons like I think you've already shared some of them with us but um maybe what like if you can sort of recap a few things you would you advice you would give you know I I think that I wouldn't be so quick to rush to market yeah I think because some of the changes that that I made were not tremendous but but at the same time they do make a huge difference in how it how the ice go later um functions you know because it because it definitely was a functioning um product you know it did what it said it's supposed to do it dispense the ice it was great but there were different tweaks that probably if I had fallen back a little bit and what wasn't such a hurry yeah and I could have saved myself a lot you know and I could have probably had it rotationally molded the way and then I could still maybe I could have pushed and still had it on the market at this time oh okay so you wouldn't have jumped straight to that you would have gone you would have like put the 3d printing first work out all the cakes yes and then go to the rotation exactly that's what I think so don't be in such a hurry you know I was in a bit of a hurry okay good good all right good um yeah it's been great following your journey um and you're a big part of it and I appreciate it appreciate you and I want to continue um following maybe we'll we'll get you back on you know and I don't know how long it's going to take for that next next process but yeah um so what's the next step for you now well the next step is that um I do want to um I'm trying to get it bring it back to the market and I like to look into have an injection mold which is quite that's why I'm doing like a a go fund me but someone said that wasn't a great idea but I was thinking like maybe Kickstarter but maybe maybe it's you know but but that's that's fine because you basically you just need some funds to get you right to the injection mold exactly to get that go to get that going because that's what I mean because the ice glider really is a it's a great product especially now people um there's a heightened awareness of transmission of germs and things and it's great but it's simple it's just simply it provides a uh sanitary way a clean way of having ice no matter where you are great right and I and I find I I mean I've always been a bit of a germaphobe but I think after the pandemic I've even more so like I wash my hands a lot more than I used to do before 2020 so I I think this is something that a lot of people will appreciate you know having that because I've been to those cookouts where I've seen people dig in the ice and I'm like no thanks I don't want ice on my drink I'll drink it warm yeah not on the rocks not on the rocks yeah exactly so good and I'll put a link um to your GoFundMe page if anyone wants to support Lisa's project here the ice glider and I know I have also some viewers who maybe I've gone through this process and maybe an expert in this so if you if you have maybe some advice you can give for Lisa on that next step yeah leave it in the comments below I'm sure she would love that that would be great the advice that or the expertise that we have from the community here so thank you Lisa for joining us thank you for all the support over the years I'm looking forward to seeing the next step so uh yeah well uh uh you know maybe we'll see this on amazon yeah I hope so bye with one click exactly I like that all right thanks I know this video is a little bit different from what I'm used to posting such as like projects and tutorials but I do hope to throw more of these in I do enjoy the stories of people actually using the technology that we have now that have become so accessible to actually pursue that invention and the idea that they've had in mind especially when it comes from just you know everyday people not necessarily professionals who do this you know as engineers or product designers so when I have another story like this especially being in a makerspace you see these quite a bit so I hope to throw them in I was um also going to put a tutorial on some best practices or tips when working with step files but I think I'm going to save that for a future video just because this one is already a longer than I anticipated but thanks for hanging out and watching all the way through one thing I am going to ask of you if you have any advice for Lisa because she is looking to kind of go to the next step so maybe some of you have kind of gone through the process if you can maybe give her some tips or what she should do next especially with maybe getting the funds to get through that next production batch we'd really appreciate it I know Lisa would appreciate it so any tips or advice please leave that in the comments below and also don't forget if you haven't tried Fusion 360 use the link below to get your free trial all right guys I'll see you in the next one