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Behold the Wonder of the Wooden Wagon Wheel!

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I'm a big fan of the desert and have been to Death Valley a number of times. At the ruins of the Harmony Borax Works, not far from the visitor center at Furnace Creek, are two of the original wagons used to haul borax to a railroad 165 miles away.

I never paid much attention to them because they looked pretty basic, axles and wheels with heavily built cargo boxes on top. It was not until recently that I realized what a sophisticated thing a borax wagon is—particularly, the wheels.

In the video below you can see the crew at Engel's Coach Shop in Joliet, Montana build wheels for a replica of the 20-mule team wagons used in the 1880s to haul 36-ton loads of borax from Death Valley to Mojave, CA—which oddly enough is the location of the spaceport where Elon Musk and others are developing reusable space craft.

As a woodworker, I appreciate the craft that goes into making wagon wheels. But my admiration of them goes beyond that. The spoked wheel was developed through trial and error over a period of thousands of years and represents a highly evolved technology.  

Dished cambered wheels on an 18th century limber (used to haul cannons). From This Old Wheel.

The wheels on the borax wagons were cambered (tilted away from the body at the top) to allow for a wider cargo box (the tires on autos are cambered to make them easier to steer). As with other heavy-duty wagons, their wheels were dished, a geometry that increases strength and resilience by providing a bit of spring. 

The rear wheels are large to make the wagon easier to pull (takes less mule-power) but the front ones are small, so they won't hit the body when making tight turns. Nothing you see on a borax wagon happened by accident; every detail was thought out.

The wheelwrights at Engel's Coach Shop have all sorts of modern tools. Imagine what it would have been like to build these wheels using mostly hand tools.

If you're wondering why people went to so much trouble to haul borax across the Mojave Desert then look around you, because many nearby objects contain borax or were made using borax. Borax is not just a laundry detergent booster; it's a vital component of ceramics and glass—such as the LCD screen you're reading this on. It's is in fiberglass insulation, PVA glue, fire retardant, and pesticides. And it's used in hundreds of chemicals and industrial processes.


Reader Submitted: Le Stylobate: A Modular Furniture System Based on Seated Relaxation

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The second collection of the young designer Cedric Canaud is dedicated to the seated collective or individual—the collection creates a social and relaxing gathering point for uses.

The collection, Le Stylobate, is composed of 5 interrelated elements that all promote relaxation in seated positions.

View the full project here

Michelin's 3D-Printed Non-Pneumatic Tire Concept

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If you buy a reliable car, it'll last you for more than 100,000 miles. But your first set of tires will only last for a fraction of that. Then they're off to the landfill, or an energy-intensive recycling process, while you buy a new set. Rinse and repeat. And if you've ever seen an entire field of spent tires being set on fire just to get rid of them—and I have seen this—you really think to yourself "What the hell are we doing here, as a species?"

Tire manufacturer Michelin is looking to a future where this cycle no longer occurs. Their Visionary Concept tire, which is non-pneumatic, would be 3D-printed from biodegradable materials. And intriguingly, the tread surface of the tire could be renewed—on-car, in their vision—with a new layer printed directly on top of it:

I like that the video shows everything from the UX point of view. With futuristic technologies, I think it's always better to relate to the consumer how, precisely, the new concept would fit into their lives.

Michelin hasn't announced any concrete plans to produce the tire; it's intended to showcase the type of thinking that guides their R&D. They're aiming to create...

...A circular economy capable of protecting the planet's resources by reducing, reusing, renewing or recycling the materials required to manufacture our products, and avoid leaving a negative impact on the environment. This approach has been dubbed the "4R Strategy" at Michelin, for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Renew. We bear in mind that, for mobility to have a bright future, it will have to be ever safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly.


Hand Tool School #42: Understanding Saw Tooth Geometry

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My recent saw sharpening video where I demonstrated the Veritas Saw File Holder has generated a lot of emails with questions about saw tooth geometry. I take this as a good sign that lots of people are actually thinking about sharpening their own saws. Not only that but the introduction of filing guides like the Veritas and the Rakemaker II by Blackburn Toolworks (a great site to check our for more info on this subject) have people thinking in detail about what tooth geometry is best for their work. These little guides open up a level of filing accuracy only previously attempted by saw filing experts. Of course with this comes questions about how this saw tooth geometry actually works. What degree of rake and fleam are best for me?

Veritas Saw File Holder and Blackburn Tools Filing Guide

This is a tough question to answer. Like any sharpening related topic there are many, many opinions and solid justification for each of those opinions. Usually any sharpening discussion is to be entered at your own risk and histrionics should be expected with much wailing and beating of the breast. So here is my sidestepping disclaimer: the numbers I detail below are but one option within the mellifluous multiverse of saw tooth geometry. I give ranges of numbers knowing full well that there are too many variables at play to state one degree of rake and/or fleam is better than another. From body mechanics and stature, to type of wood and degree of seasoning. Don't forget the phase of the moon and astrological sign either! These are my humble opinions won through hours of sawing with a fair dose of standing on the backs of giants like Herman, Harrell, Wenzloff, and Smith.

Ok, deep breath…here we go!

Elements of Saw Tooth Geometry

Pitch, Rake, Fleam, and Set are the elements we should consider. I think that really only rake, fleam, and set are the primary elements and pitch a secondary element.

This is a great PDF provided by Tools for Working Wood, go download it!

Pitch, the number of points per inch or PPI, plays a role in determining how deep your gullets are and therefore how efficiently the saw carries saw dust away from the kerf. This in turn relates to the speed and the cleanliness of the cut but not nearly as much as the rake and fleam can effect these outcomes. As such I think we can set pitch aside for this discussion since it will be rare that we are actually changing this pitch unless you are making a saw from scratch or restoring a really really beat up and well used saw.

Rake determines the aggressiveness of your cut. This is the angle of the cutting face of the tooth. At 0 degrees, the tooth is vertical and cut very aggressively. One can actually lean the tooth forward to create a positive rake and a very aggressive cut, but also one that is hard to push and start while leaving the undercut tooth a bit weaker. You will find a positive rake on some Japanese saws but the pulling motion and much harder steel adds in some variables that ameliorate the negative effects of positive rake. The more you relax the rake, or increase the angle the tooth slants away from the cut the easier the saw is to push. The teeth can now skate over the wood more easily. This makes starting the cut easier but also it slows down the cut as the teeth have a tendency to lift up and away from the cut. A low rake angle cuts fast but can feel grabbier and also make take more experience to handle. Changing this angle will help you adjust to harder and softer wood as well.

Fleam is the angle across the face of the tooth or perpendicular to the tooth line. By adding fleam you turn the teeth into little knives that slice the grain instead of chop it like a chisel. The more fleam the cleaner the cut you get but the weaker you make the teeth. As the fleam angle increases you get a smaller tooth front and the steel becomes brittle. As such high fleam saws should be used in softer woods that won't push back so much on the more fragile teeth. The converse to this is a saw tooth with little to no fleam will leave a rougher cut and require more effort to move through the wood. The slicing action that is inherent with fleam is what makes a well tuned crosscut saw do its job without splintering and tearing across the grain.

Set is the amount of offset the teeth have to either side of the tooth line. When we set the teeth we are bending them away from the saw plate to widen the kerf and allow the saw to run without binding. Like the other elements this is a good thing but too much goes wrong very fast. The wider the kerf the more wood you remove and therefore the more work required to push the saw. Likewise the wider the kerf the sloppier the action as the saw plate can now wiggle about in the wider kerf and throw off a precise cut. This is why joinery saws always have less set than rough work hand saws. Also why softer and/or wetter woods need more set because the spongy and sticky saw dust won't clear as readily from the kerf and more room is needed for the saw to run. If the kerf gets tight not only will the saw bind, but it can deflect in the kerf as it tries to find a way around the build up dust, thus making your saw not run true.

None of these elements should be considering singly. They all relate to one another and should be considered as a whole to create the best tooth geometry for the task at hand. This is very useful as you can compensate, augment, or offset the positive and negative effects of one element by tweaking another.

For example:

If I want my saw to cut fast I will reduce the rake. If I want it to start easily yet still cut fast I will increase the fleam a bit to make the teeth slice more (like skewing a hand plane). This also have the happy effect of making a smoother cut surface. I can also reduce the set to create a cleaner cut since a more uniform tooth line won't present as jagged an edge to the wood. This allows me to reduce the fleam to make a stronger tooth. The beauty is that by altering all 3 of these in concert can produce the perfect experience. Each one plays a role and tooth geometry should rely on all 3 to do the job.

So what does this mean to you? What degrees should I use for my saws? What follows are some general numbers to use as a guide. Now that you know what changing these numbers will do you can tweak them one way or another to create a saw that performs well in a specific situation or over a wider range of applications.

Set

This is not as cut and dried to the point where I can put a numerical range on it. The reality is that set is measured in thousandths of an inch and most of us don't have the capacity to even measure this. Professional saw filers have much more accurate setting techniques and a heck of a lot of muscle memory to aid them. For the average woodworker with a pistol grip saw set, it comes down to feel. Most set has a pitch guideline on them that you can adjust to match the saw. The finer the pitch, the smaller the set. My recommendation is to set this adjustment to a pitch that is finer than the actual pitch of the saw you are working on. Sometimes several times finer in fact. More set can be added and set can be removed but I find it easier to add more than take it away. Often times the setting process is helpful in adjusting a saw that isn't running true too so the best thing is to skew to the finer set and then make several test cuts altering the set to get the right feel. With each test cut make sure you saw enough to let friction heat up the saw plate causing it to expand. You may think you have it right only to find the saw plate expands in the middle of a cut and starts to bind.

I find that once I have a saw set, I don't need to reset it until I have sharpened the saw at least once more. In other words, every 3rd sharpening is a good rule of thumb. So while set is a little more touchy feely than rake and fleam, remember that it is also part of the geometry that effect how the saw cuts. Don neglect to alter the set in order to tune a saw. I have certainly been guilty of just relying on rake and fleam to solve all my problems. Though if I'm being honest usually the adjustments I make in set entail reducing the amount rather than increasing it.

Hopefully this treatise will help you wrap your head around these concepts. Don't over analyze it but rather relish in our ability to be able to finely tune our hand saws. For the average hobbyist, pitch a number in the middle of the above ranges and you will do just fine. If you are more adventurous and looking for that "perfect" saw, consider each and every task as an equation to be solved with a little creative tooth geometry. Is it any wonder why masters of the saw like Ron Herman have so many saws? Once you solve one of these geometry equations you will find yourself getting more saws and tuning them to specific tasks. Careful this is a slippery slope and soon you will be talking about witchcraft like sloping gullets and progressive rake and fleam.

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This "Hand Tool School" series is provided courtesy of Shannon Rogers, a/k/a The Renaissance Woodworker. Rogers is founder of The Hand Tool School, which provides members with an online apprenticeship that teaches them how to use hand tools and to build furniture with traditional methods.


Yo! C77 Sketch: Drawing a Watch in Perspective

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I've been noticing a lot of people sketching watches, and I thought it was worth it to work up a quick demo. Watches are challenging because they are basically a system of ellipses in space. Have you noticed how almost every demo in the last 9 videos I've done involves ellipses in space? It is important to practice these. There are a lot of great videos on basic ellipse construction. Make sure you are practicing them so you can believably work them into sketches.

With a watch, you have ellipses in two perpendicular planes—the plane of the watch face and body and the plane of the wrist profile. I typically start with the face plane ellipses and build up a series of concentric ellipses that represent the case, crystal outer diameter, and the face. Next I sketch in the ellipse of the wrist profile. The crown which adjusts time on the case is also in the plane of the wrist profile. From here I can start to layer in all of my details.

In this sketch I also use the technique of overlaying the sketch. Sometimes a sketch gets a little messy as you explore the design—don't be afraid to put a clean sheet overtop and trace up a cleaner version of the sketch. Post your questions and comments below, and I'll be sure to respond!

Yo! C77 Sketch is a video series from Core77 forum moderator and prolific designer, Michael DiTullo. In these tutorials, DiTullo walks you through step by step rapid visualization and ideation techniques to improve your everyday skills. Tired of that guy in the studio who always gets his ideas picked because of his hot sketches? Learn how to beat him at his own game, because the only thing worse than a bad idea sketched well is a great idea sketched poorly.

Design Job: Blundstone is Seeking a Senior Product Designer Down Under

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Blundstone is an iconic and fast globalizing footwear brand with its origins and headquarters in Hobart, Tasmania. 147 years on it proudly remains a family business. Our brand essence is Never Stand Still. We innovate, design and evolve with our consumers’ needs and attitudes. We are committed to putting our end users and their brand experience at the centre of our business, and design and innovation are at the heart of delivering on this.

View the full design job here

Tiny Space Living: Ikeahacks...from Ikea

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I came across this interesting series of videos in Ikea's archives. Called the "Square Meter Challenge," Ikea's designers were tasked with using Ikea products to create livable, functional, comfortable space in some seriously tiny footprints. They start off with on-screen drawings explaining the concept behind each space, then show you what it looks like, and how it would work, in real life.

Part 1: Tiny bedroom for two

Part 2: Living/dining room for a family

Part 3: Clutter-free, maxed mini kitchen

Part 4: Shared (and personal) kids' room


Hand Block Printing Wallpaper

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I dislike wallpaper, but this 1963 film almost makes me like it. It's not the aesthetics that appeal to me but the artistry and craft that go into making the product. Except for reproductions of William Morris designs, I don't suppose much wallpaper is made this way anymore.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the woman using a router to cut patterns into the wooden printing blocks. The video is worth watching if for no other reason than that the Pathé films of this period were shot in technicolor and have awesome jazz scores.

Contrast the methods used for small batch hand-printed wallpaper with the mass-production methods shown in the video below (shot in a now-defunct factory in Upstate New York).



How to Tackle Logo Designs

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Reader tinycc6 recently posted an interesting challenge-slash-inquiry on the Core77 discussion boards, writing, 

"Is there any way to learn about logo design in one week?

This question reminded us of a helpful video we came across from a few years back via LinkedIn's Learning Solutions YouTube channel. The personality featured in the video is designer Aaron Draplin, founder of Draplin Design Co. In this video, Draplin takes you through a play-by-play scenario of designing a logo for a specific client: 

The video is detailed and informative, yet quick enough to get you started with sketching and experimenting by this afternoon.

Curious where to find some of the books he references in the video? Here are some full PDFs of Trade Marks & Symbols by Yasaburo Kawayama, Volume 1& Volume 2

Now get to work!

Have any more resources or references that can help people learn more about logo design? Contribute your thoughts in the original discussion board or in the comment thread below!

Reader Submitted: This Student is Exploring the Role and Appearance of Chairs in a Bionic Future

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Imagine a future where the wearable revolution has happened and embedded technology is a reality. Objects have become bionic extensions of our body. Developments in nano materials have enabled us to create a seamless blend between body and object. Bionic Inc. Prototype #1 is an exploration into chairs for that future.

View the full project here

Volvox Labs' Microsoft Theater Lounge Revamp

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As a part of the revamp of the Microsoft Theater Lounge, Volvox Labs created four permanent art installations. The first piece titled Momentum is a Microsoft powered kinetic sculpture. Made of locally sourced ash wood. Inspired by the Microsoft logo, the sculpture is also made up of 80 Ultra motion linear actuators, 160 custom milled wooden tiles and 10 micro-controllers.

View the full content here

Design Experience That Matters: What to Do When FDA Approval Doesn't Mean Equipment is Safe

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Summary

Does United States FDA regulatory approval mean a medical device is safe and effective in low resource settings? The short answer is no. In developing countries, 95% of western medical equipment is broken within 5 years. In fact, only 30% of this donated equipment is ever even turned on. To enable Firefly phototherapy to work well in remote hospitals, we had to develop a novel cooling solution and a more robust electrical system that exceed FDA requirements.

A More Sustainable Cooling Solution

In order to keep the electronics from overheating, most medical electrical equipment use fans that quickly break and vent holes that quickly clog with dust and bugs. These systems meet with FDA approval because they are assuming a U.S. context. Firefly uses a unique fully-sealed design with no moving parts to keep cool and use less energy in hot climates.

A More Robust Electrical System 

Many hospitals in low resource settings have power, but it varies up and down during the course of the day, blowing fuses on typical FDA-approved medical equipment. Firefly uses an external power supply so it can continue functioning during wide power fluctuations.

One of the common questions I am asked when I tell someone I am designing a medical device for the developing world, is whether we will be seeking FDA approval. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates medical devices ranging from complicated, high-risk medical devices, like artificial hearts, to simple, low-risk devices, like tongue depressors, as well as devices that fall somewhere in between, like sutures. FDA can regulate medical devices before and after they reach the marketplace.

Europe requires medical devices to achieve UL approval and CE Mark certification. These requirements mainly focus on quality manufacturing processes and design practices like choosing safe materials and minimizing radiation coming from a device. In contrast, gaining FDA approval allowing use in the United States is known to be the most expensive and time-intensive medical device regulatory process in the world because of the unique requirement to evaluate efficacy.

When people ask me whether we are pursuing FDA approval for Firefly, the subtext is whether we are building a safe device, and how we are balancing affordability, time until product launch, and safety for those we serve. My answer usually surprises them: Firefly has been received CE Mark approval, and DtM's partners are also considering FDA approval. However, CE Mark certification and FDA approval don't guarantee safe medical devices for low resource contexts.

Don't be fooled by the phototherapy lamps shining from above; the four nonworking incubators that sit along the walls are used only as hard to clean beds for the well-baby room at a national hospital in Vietnam.

For example, take the bank of broken, high-tech newborn incubators I saw while visiting National OBGYN Hospital, Vietnam. Our extended Firefly team was preparing to treat the first patient in the nine-room Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The Firefly room was also used to observed all newborns shortly after birth and to treat the newborns with minor health issues. I noticed many newborns in the room lying inside incubators, traditionally used to provide enclosed, warm environments for critical or intensive care and at odds with the low-intensity care needed for the room's newborns. I asked a nurse why some babies were in incubators and others in open beds. She said that they were broken incubators used simply to provide additional bed and storage space in this room. Some incubators had blown fuses due to power spikes, while others had undiagnosed failures that rendered them useless as anything but spare bedding. Many of these burnt-out devices passed FDA approval and so should therefore technically be considered effective, but there are so many ways a device can fail in a low resource setting. These incubators had become no more than fancy and cumbersome beds.

To design Firefly, we began our detailed engineering design process by pouring over the phototherapy standards used in the FDA approval and CE Mark certification processes. These standards are helpful in that they lay out how bright and uniform the light must be in order to provide clinically effective phototherapy. However, we knew early in the design process that just meeting the FDA and CE Mark standards would not yield a device appropriate for low resource settings. DtM's partnership with East Meets West Foundation and Vietnamese manufacturer MTTS was essential to go above and beyond.

Together, East Meets West Foundation (an affiliate of Thrive Networks) and MTTS have over a decade of experience designing and manufacturing successful newborn health technologies for the poor. In close partnership with hundreds of hospitals in Vietnam, they discovered early on that Western devices fail due to poor training as well as environmental factors including heat, dust, and irregular electrical power. Our manufacturing and implementation partners are continually learning from hospitals, designing and releasing equipment, visiting to learn from any failures, fixing the equipment, and then redesigning the next generation of equipment to even better meet the challenges. Every piece of equipment they build also goes through a basic functionality test before it leaves MTTS. These tests have been custom designed to predict whether equipment will endure in the low resource environment. MTTS and DtM collaborated to recreate this same process for Firefly.

Firefly manufacturer MTTS submits a series of new Firefly devices to the "burn-in test" at their offices in Vietnam. Photo courtesy Michael O'Brien of MTTS.

In order to design a device for success in low resource environments, we took two important steps. First, we poured over the phototherapy standards that FDA and CE Mark use to validate a medical device for use in high resource hospitals with climate control, filtered air, and smooth floors. After that, DtM used our human-centered design techniques to interview MTTS staff in-depth about their experiences in these environments. We invited MTTS to tell us stories of equipment failures and successes, encouraged them to dig up old photos to jog the memory, brought MTTS staff with us on hospital visits, and created a steady line of communication through a series of regular Skype calls to pass on new stories. Building on the best practices for phototherapy design in the first world, our learnings from conversations with MTTS staff, and direct observations at hospitals throughout Southeast Asia, DtM created a unique design that prevents bugs, dust, and liquids from entering and enables Firefly to keep operating during broad power fluctuations.

The vent for the Natus NeoBlue LED Overhead Phototherapy, one of the most popular phototherapy devices used in the United States. An internal fan helps move air through this vent to cool the electronics.

1. Keeping Cool while preventing bugs, dust, and liquids from entering

Typically, devices with electronics have holes. You may never have noticed, but if you look at your computer, most will have a series of perforations. Most devices with electronics also make a purring sound. For many electronic devices, both of these features are due to the need to keep the electronics cool. The purring sound is usually a fan, and the holes enable it to blow hot air out and bring cool air in. These features keep the device from becoming dangerously hot to touch, and also to ensure the electronic components can perform optimally.

Design that Matters used rubber o-rings to create a seal around the metal tubes where they enter the base of the device. This helps keep bugs and dust out of the device.

In a U.S. hospital, electro-mechanical medical devices share these same cooling solutions. However, when these devices are taken to low resource contexts, they run into trouble. The interior fills with dust and insects. The fans are often the first thing to break, causing the electronics to overheat and burnout in the warm environment. A DtM friend in India quipped, "You haven't really tested a piece of electronic technology for distribution in Asia until you've trained a cockroach to climb in and pee on every single little component on the inside."

Left: The inside of the Firefly top light, showing the metal housing that helps wick heat out the top. Right: The cooling fins are mounted on a slanted surface on the bottom of Firefly to pull heat down from the electronics and then air moves the heat off the rear.

Instead of fans, another way to keep electronics cool is by exposing a large surface area to the air. You may have noticed cooling fins on other home electronics like your refrigerator. Metal cooling fins increase the amount of area exposed to the air on the bottom of Firefly and increase conduction compared to a flat, plastic outer surface. In order to completely seal Firefly, DtM designed a novel passive cooling system for the top and the bottom. The top light was easier to design because heat rises: we manufacture the top light from an aluminum extrusion that has sufficient surface area on top to enable heat from the top lights to rise upward and away from the device. The bottom light was more difficult because any rising heat could directly contribute to overheating the newborn in the bassinet. For this issue, we designed a tilted bottom surface and installed cooling fins. Because hot air rises, air from the lowest part of the device rises up along the fins, cooling the base electronics and enabling the majority of the heat to rise off the rear.

The laptop-like power supply from our Firefly clinical evaluation model prevents Firefly from burning out during a power surge, and relocates the hot power supply outside of the device and away from the baby.

2. Riding power fluctuations.

  A Duke University study found that up to 95% of medical equipment sent to developing countries is broken within five years. There are many causes, but one of the major issues is fluctuating power sources. Electrical power in Myanmar is 220v at 50Hz. Brownouts, blackouts, and voltage fluctuations are common, especially in the dry season. The typical Nigerian building experiences power failure or voltage fluctuations about seven times per week, each lasting for about two hours and without the benefit of prior warning. To enable Firefly to ride the waves, we knew we needed a serious power supply. However, the power supply is one of the main components generating heat in a device. Could we point to any existing examples of technology that were already good at working through power fluctuations and could solve the heat problem?

The answer? Laptops! During field research in hospitals in eight countries throughout Southeast Asia, we were always able to use our laptops! Most laptop power cords include a "brick" - that is the power supply. Reading the numbers on the brick, most of these power supplies accommodate a range of voltages for input. In the end, we were able to find an existing off-the-shelf power supply integrated with a power cable that is CE Mark certified for medical use, can accommodate 100-240 Volts AC, and keeps the hot power supply outside of our sealed device and away from the baby, just like a laptop power cord!

The evidence was laid out in front of us; FDA approval and CE Mark certification focus on hospitals with big resources. To design Firefly to work well in low resource contexts, DtM leveraged field experience to go beyond known phototherapy standards in order to deliver a device that meets a higher standard of care. Firefly received CE Mark certification, and our partner MTTS is also considering FDA approval to enable the device to reach western markets, creating new revenue streams and beneficial product pricing structures that will enable us to reach many more in the developing world. We are proud to partner with East Meets West Foundation and manufacturer MTTS and their joint vision of designing devices that really work in hospitals with few resources. Our partners will continue to monitor Firefly in the field, ready in case anything needs to be fixed, constantly learning what improvements we might make for the next generation.

Other references include the general IEC/ISO medical device standards and specific infant phototherapy standard used to design and evaluate medical electrical equipment for CE Mark and FDA Approvals. Design that Matters designed with these standards in mind, and then found where we needed to go above and beyond.

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This "Design Experience that Matters" series is provided courtesy of Timothy Prestero and the team at Design that Matters (DtM). As a nonprofit, DtM collaborates with leading social entrepreneurs and hundreds of volunteers to design new medical technologies for the poor in developing countries. DtM's Firefly infant phototherapy device is treating thousands of newborns in 21 counties from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. In 2012, DtM was named the winner of the National Design Award.


A Fun "Eye Test" for Designers, Part 2

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As designers, we're supposed to have sharper visual acuity than most of the population. I'm guessing most of you aced the previous two visual tests we posted about, Matthias Wandel's "Eyeballing Game" and the popular "Which color doesn't fit?" test.

Well, here's another one, branded an "OCD Test," and it's pretty fun. A sample question:

Take the test here, and report back on your results. (There's no time limit on it, so if you don't get a perfect score, you can get the hell out of my classroom.)


Mid Century Modern Find of the Week: Hundevad & Co. Brazilian Rosewood Credenza

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This credenza in Brazilian rosewood was manufactured by Hundevad & Co. in the 1960s. These pieces are commonly confused with the designer Poul Hundevad, who bears the same last name.

The majority of these credenzas were originally designed as the bottom portion of bookcases. Most of these pieces originally came with a plinth (flat) base with a removable bookcase hutch that rested on the top of the credenza.

With the increased demand for Danish Modern in the last five years, a lot of these have been repurposed as media consoles, and the hutch tops are long since gone, as it is with this one.

This particular credenza rests on top of its original spindle legs as it was ordered from the manufacturer. In a happy accident, years of sun exposure have given the rosewood a beautiful patinated glow.

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These "Mid Century Modern Find of the Week" posts are provided courtesy of Mid Century Møbler, which specializes in importing vintage Danish Modern and authentic Mid Century furniture from the 1950s and 1960s.


Detailed Infographics of Every Transportation Mode in 24 Cities & Hanna-Barbara's 1959 Animated Steel Documentary

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The Core77 team spends time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite finds from the World Wide Web:

Meticulously detailed infographics of every public transportation mode in 24 major cities. Background info on the project here, actual project here.

Archive of 50’s and 60’s sci-fi pulp magazine “Galaxy”.

The story of a 1928 Rolls Royce Phantom 1, owned by a single owner and driven for 77 years before being donated to the museum. 

How barbed wire changed America.

An interview with the anonymous graphic designer behind  Screen Saviors, the hilarious graphic design Instagram meme account.

Drill-powered flipbook animation.

Journeymen and journeywomen craftspersons still hitting the road in Europe.

33 pop culture touchstones from 1997.

What is your “opposite job?” (And apparently the opposite job of “industrial designer” is “model").

The 20 fastest-growing skills for freelancers.

Solid business/personality advice from Foursquare founder, Dennis Crowley.

New foods announced for the Iowa State Fair, which opened on August 10 and runs for 11 days.

More info on this incredible Hana-Barbara produced steel manufacturing doc can be found here.

Hot Tip: Discover more blazin' hot Internet finds on our Twitter and Instagram pages.


How to Make a Custom Molded Leather Camera Holster, Fill Wood Voids with Molten Metal, Create a Domino Machine & More

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Leather Camera Holster

This one's pretty incredible. Jimmy DiResta shows you how to make a leather camera case, custom molded to fit your camera's exact dimensions:

Wooden Domino Row Building Machine

This is hilarious: Matthias Wandel uses his engineering skills to create a machine that sets up dominoes in neat little rows!

Movable Firewood Shed

Matthias Wandel creates roofed sheds that he can load up with firewood, then move in their entirety with a front-end loader. On display are two signature Wandel qualities: Thrift (rusty nails and repurposed materials) and engineering (see how he figures out how to move the shed using a trio of handtrucks).

DIY Accurate Speed Square Saw Guide

Izzy Swan designs yet another useful DIY tool: An adjustable speed square than can be used to make accurate crosscuts, even at angles.

More Home Office Projects

Frank Howarth builds a French-cleat-mounted charging station and removeable toolboxes, then mounts a bookcase after turning some funky offset-foot legs:

Two Drawer Dovetail Box

Jay Bates somehow manages continue upping his skill level. Here he makes an impressively-crafted two-drawer box with fantastic joinery details:

Building a Kayak Rack

While not all of us have a need to store kayaks, you can adapt April Wilkerson's design if you need to build sturdy cantilevered shelving:

Japanese Cedar Gate

WOW. The Samurai Carpenter executes a beautiful feat of woodworking with this traditional Japanese gate:

How to Make a Stepstool Toolbox

Bob Clagett designs on the fly, seeking to make something useful out of scrap in three hours or less:

The Cork Hook

I love this project. If you've ever accidentally corked a wine bottle, you know it's impossible to fish the damn thing out. Well not anymore, thanks to La Fabrique DIY:

Record Storage Box

Vinyl lover Laura Kampf builds a record storage box:

How to Melt Metal into Wood Grain

Ben Uyeda experiments with filling voids in a wooden beam with molten metal:

How to Weld Hairpin-Style Steel Table Legs

Ben then welds up a set of legs to turn the beam into a table:

DIY Dining Table Made From Plywood

Chris Salomone creates a handsome, labor-intensive dining table made from layered plywood:


Design Job: Prepare for Landing: B/E Aerospace is Seeking an Industrial Designer Specializing in Rendering & Materials

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B/E Aerospace (Rockwell Collins) B/E Aerospace is the world’s leading manufacturer of aircraft cabin interior products. B/E Aerospace designs, develops, and manufactures a broad range of products for both commercial aircraft and business jets. For more information, visit the B/E Aerospace website at www.beaerospace.com B/E

View the full design job here

How Thick is the Line from a Sharpie?

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How do you even measure such a thing and why would you bother? Machinist Tom Lipton shows how and then explains why it might be useful to know the thickness of various colors and types of ink. 

Different colors have different thicknesses? That's right—red, blue, and black Sharpie lines are not equally thick.

In the video below Lipton uses a Johansson Mikrokator to measure the thickness of various lines. A mikrokator is like a dial indicator only far more precise. By way of comparison, the scale on the cheap dial indicator I use to align woodworking machines is graduated in thousandths of an inch; Lipton's mikrokator is graduated in millionths.

The process of measuring is as follows. Lipton starts by zeroing out the plunger of the mikrokator against a gauge block of known thickness. He removes the block, draws a series of lines on it, and then places it back under the plunger. The added thickness created by the lines of Sharpie ink cause the plunger to sit slightly higher, a distance that registers on the scale of the mikrokator.

If the scale reads zero with just the block and 132 millionths after the block has been inked then we know the ink is 132 millionths of an inch thick. Lipton performed this test multiple times with different types and colors of ink and came up with the average thickness of various lines. He also tested Dykem Layout Fluid, a pigment machinists use to color the surface of metal prior to scribing marks on it (to make the marks easier to see).

Lipton compiled the data into a table that can be seen near the end of the video (8:20). So why would it matter that black Sharpie lines are 118 millionths of an inch thick and red Sharpie lines are 160 millionths of an inch thick? Well, if a machinist knew he needed to increase the height of a fixture by approximately 160 millionths of an inch he could draw a series of red Sharpie lines on the bottom of it. Or some other color or type of ink for a different distance.

It may seem crazy to think in terms of such small increments of distance but this is the level of precision required for certain machining operations. 

The notion of using lines of ink as "shims" does not feel foreign to me. I've never measured it but as a carpenter and woodworker, I know that layers of paint have a certain thickness. If I'm making fine adjustments to the fit of a door I might shim out a hinge by sticking one or more layers of duct or masking tape to the back of it. What Lipton talks about doing with ink is just a more precise way of doing what a carpenter does with tape.

The cool pliers he uses in the video are the Knipex Pliers Wrench.

A' Design Award and Competition Results

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What's better than the thrill of designing a good product? Actually getting recognized for it. On that note, the results of this year's A' Design Award & Competition, one of the most well-known international annual juried competitions for design, have recently been announced. The A' Design Awards cover a wide range of creative fields to highlight the very best designers from all countries in all disciplines. Entries to the competition are peer-reviewed and judged by a jury panel of experienced academics, prominent press members and established professionals. 

The A' Design Award is an opportunity for distinction, prestige, publicity and international recognition through the A' Design Prize, which is given to celebrate all awarded designs. To celebrate the results of this prestigious awards program, we've created a list of our top 20 awarded projects, including ones from this year and a few favorites from past years. 

Cilllia - 3D Printing Functional Hair 3D printing hair by Jifei Ou - MIT Media Lab.

We've seen 3D printed furniture, kitchen utensils and even sneakers, but what about more organic forms? Jifei Ou's 3D printed hair shows us that recreating nature with a printer isn't such a far-off notion.

Moor Wheelchair Suiteable For Interiors by ertunc Vatanperver

ertunc Vatanperver's Moor Wheelchair tackles a problem most people overlook: wheelchairs don't function very well indoors. The Moor Wheelchair is attractive enough to act as a piece of furniture and functional enough to get users around inside their homes.

Could Schopfer Yachts's Infinitas Yacht be the future of yacht design? The futuristic yacht is inspired by the infinity symbol, but we're liking it way more than infinity wrist tattoos.

Happaratus Sculpture tool by Morten Grønning

Happaratus is a cool sanding power glove for sculptors, allowing sanding to (literally) be at your fingertips. 

UltraDry Dryer in bus stop by National Taipei University of Technology

These nifty bus stop umbrella dryers were designed for Taipei, but I bet any city dweller reading this will ask, "where have these been my whole life?"

Formon Core Desktop 3D Printer by Rron Cena

Rron Cena's Formon Core Desktop 3D printer works like a magic box, slowly opening to reveal your print as it gets closer to completion. 

SpiderPan Folding Handled Pan Set by Receb Bilici

Stackable pans with folding handles? My 450 sq ft apartment would thank me.

Flo Underwater Plastic Collector by Team Flo

There have been many proposed solutions to cleaning our oceans and recycle ocean plastic lately, from superyachts to sneakers. We like how Flo looks and acts like a fish but has the power to make a difference through education.

BENJILOCK Fingerprint Padlock by BenjiLock Llc

BENJILOCK is kind of like opening the new Macbook Pro but with higher stakes. 

The FLASH Collection Footwear Collection by Cesar Idrobo

Cesar Idrobo's FLASH footwear collection has been featured on our site before, but we still can't get enough of how this collection uses color to form an emotional connection with the wearer.

Stewart II Human Machine Interface by Felix Ros

The Stewart II Human Machine Interface envisions driving an autonomous vehicle like a horse—both the vehicle and the driver have control over the journey, but the driver holds the "reins".

ShelfPack Luggage packing system by Ken McKaba

Ken McKaba's ShelfPack Luggage hopefully eliminates the need to sit on your luggage in order to zip it closed.

Erdnussschütte To get peanuts without touching them Uniq by Mario Taepper

A sanitary solution to sharing snacks such as trail mix, nuts and M&Ms. A polite way to say, "get your grubby paws off my snacks".

Lynko Freestanding Modular System Nomadic modular freestanding system by Natalia Geci

Lynko is a free-standing modular system for homes that need more than cabinet storage.

Smartstreets-Smartbin™ Cigarette / Gum bin by Chris Garcin and Andrew Farish

These friendly waste bins tackle the common problem of city streets littered with gum and cigarette butts. 

Non Contact Thermometer Body Temperature Monitor by Tobia Repossi

Imagine checking your temperature with a Non Contact Thermometer—no sticking an intrusive device in your mouth or having someone put their germ-infested hand on your forehead. Sounds nice, right?

C 39 Sofa by Yongwook Seong

This pill inspired C 39 sofa is way too interesting to keep off this list.

AdhereTech Smart Pill Bottle Multifunctional by Intelligent Product Solutions

Speaking of pills, these smart pill bottles ensure medical adherence without disrupting the user's daily life.

Up Your Street Cottage Cheese by Springetts Brand Design

We never knew cottage cheese could be so appealing—all in a day's work for well-designed packaging.

CHECK Folding Chair by TpunktR

We're always interested in new designs for folding chairs. This one in particular involves the user as a support system, making use of their legs and back to hold the chair in place.

By the way: A' Design Award registration is now open. Enter your works for consideration here.

Hilarious Stop-Motion Animation of "Evil Legos" Violently Dismantling a Laptop

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This looks like a scene from The Lego Movie—if it were rated R for violence. Animator Reto Hochstrasser armed a bunch of Lego figures with pickaxes, machine guns and explosives to give this laptop the business:


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