Flip n'Grip Wallet

When my cheap minimal wallet failed, I got together with a friend of mine (Dan Loveridge) and designed a fun, minimal, RFID-blocking wallet that was super high quality and nearly indestructible. We worked on the project for about a year and launched it on Kickstarter. Unfortunately for us, we ran into problems getting the manufacturing costs down. At the same time, tons of other wallets were going up and saturating the market. We launched anyway and aimed really high, but in the end, it was too pricey for  most people. However, we did get tons of positive feedback and we're working on a version 2.0 to maintain the quality, but cut the manufacturing costs way down.

Microfluidic DNA Extractor

My masters thesis in mechanical engineering was to redesign a microfluidics DNA extractor chip. A system had been previously developed and built with a PDMS chip. The chip was expensive ($40) and time consuming to make (3-4 hours each) , so my job was to design a chip to be used with the same system, but significantly cut costs and manufacturing time.

The original system: cluttered, difficult to use and prone to malfunctions.

After using the previous machine a few times, I decided to redesign and rebuild the machine as well. I used a central manifold to eliminate hundreds of hoses and connectors.

 The machine was also designed to be easy to use and fix when necessary.

 As part of the chip redesign, I CNC machined a manifold block that simplified the chip by moving some of the features permanently on to the machine. 

 This is the new machine with the manifold block and an adjustable clamping lid.

The new $.40 chip inside the new machine.

UltraArm Robot (Senior Design Project 2010-2011)

Mechanical engineering senior design project UltraARM. This was a year-long project to design a robotic system that would assist ultrasound technicians in their daily tasks to help prevent musculoskeletal injuries. We were able to successfully build a proof-of-concept working prototype.

 First prototype: made from Sintra, bolts and rubber bands.

Second prototype on a backpack frame with 7 degrees of freedom. 

Third prototype where we changed from a wearable robot, to a mounted one. This simplified the design significantly while still performing all the necessary functions. 

Fourth prototype with positional feedback potentiometers and linkage for constant angle position end effector.

 The Big Check from winning first place in the Tech Titans competition. The winnings funded the remainder of our project nicely.

 End effector with 3 axis force sensor. Designed and made from force sensitive resistors for $21. A commercial sensor generally costs about $5000.

UltraARM displayed on design day. 

Final poster presentation of our year-long engineering project.

Mechatronics Competition (Mechanical Engineering Junior Year 2010)

The King Kong Mechatronics Competition was a year long project for all juniors in mechanical engineering at the U of U. The goal of the competition was to build an autonomous robot that could follow a line, read sensors, pick up a doll, avoid the other robots and climb 3 feet up a building. It was a ton of fun and I had some of the greatest people on my team. We were the first team to have a working prototype that could complete the course. This was the class that really taught me the art (or science) of problem solving and troubleshooting.

We adapted a poster from the recent King Kong movie with our robot in it.

This is a clip or our robot in action.

10 Year Anniversary Wedding Rings

It was my 10 year wedding anniversary and I wanted to get something special for my wife, but for some reason, I was still in school at the time and had absolutely no money. I got a little ambitious and decided to make a pair of titanium wedding bands. They started out as a solid rod about a foot long and I machined them down on a manual lathe and mill. At first I was going to surprise my wife with the ring, but I realized it would be way more helpful to have her input along the way, so we designed them together.

The rings started from a solid rod similar to one of these.

 I first roughed out a thick ring on a lathe and then milled a 45 degree angle out of the center. I also used a tiny spur bit to cut a groove the length of the diamond on each side.

I roughed out a bit more of the shape using a large sander with course sand paper.

 Continuing to sand, but also file a lot by hand with a small file set.

 The rest of the work was done with sandpaper and a lot of elbow grease.

 To finish it off, I used really fine sand paper and then polished it on a buffer.

 The last step was setting the stone. I had practiced this on several prototype rings and chipped several CZs, but this ring was aligned well and after clamping the base of the ring in a vice with plastic jaws, I carefully torqued open the ring with a wooden dowel and inserted the stone. Lucky for me, it didn't crack.

This is my band that I turned on a lathe. I engraved 10 tally marks on the inside of each of the rings to mark our tenth anniversary.

As a finishing touch, I anodized the inside of mine a deep blue.

Ultrasound Exam Tables

I started Leymin Corp, designing, manufacturing and selling ergonomic ultrasound exam tables and accessories.  After some time, I came to a crossroads in my life and I realized I could either commit myself wholeheartedly to making hospital beds, or I could go back to school and become an engineer.  I went with engineering.  It was one of the best choices of my life. 

These exam tables could get higher than any other on the market at the time.

It could also get lower than any other table. They were as low as a standard wheelchair.

Every feature on the exam tables was better and could extend further than any other tables at the time.