Raving Amicks

For my final design project in ETEC 111 I chose to focus on designing a hammer that improves the user experience. I first moved the nail remover to the front face of the hammer to make removing nails an easier task. With a traditional hammer this act of removing a nail requires the user to flip the hammer backwards with the help of their other hand.

In focusing on making a multifunctional tool I tried to think of some ways of storing nails or a encompassing a leveler into the design. In attempting to tackle this design element I chose to design clips on the hammer shaft to safely store nails. When needed, the nails can be easily removed rather than reaching into a pocket or spare hand to get more nails.

This idea of nail clips led me to changing from the traditional shaft design to an i-beam type. I chose to use an i-beam shaped bar because of its structural strength and lightweight design. The i-beam has strength only in one direction when the center plate of the beam is vertical, so I made sure it was oriented correctly to supplement the hammering motion. The “I” shape allows for the nail clips to be placed in the recessed areas of the shaft.

The handle as well takes advantage of the i-beam structure by sandwiching into the recesses of the shaft. I made two holes along the i-beam allowing the two sides of the handle (one with two holes and the other with two bosses) to snap into place. One of the handle sides is designed with a hole ring for hanging the hammer up when not in use.

-I also painted this awesome little buddha inside a lotus using the paint stuff Chels got me for Valentine’s day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Creative Genius, School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.