Tyler Fishbone

Project:

Developed for Copacino Fujikado, a Seattle-based marketing agency, to support the launch of a new branch for a local winery. When a target hashtag was tweeted, an LED array inside the barrel would light up, revealing the glowing logo.

Further Use:

This technology was later adapted for the Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation, where it powered a large “YES” sign as part of an in-person fundraising event. See it in action here.

Specifications:

• Hardware: Raspberry Pi, Relay, LED Array

• Software: Python, Twitter Webhook

• Physical Build: Wine barrel with routed top, clear/opaque acrylic insert, laser-engraved wood veneer

Materials

PLA Filament

Leather

Theraband 1820 Tubing

Fastener & Jam Nut

Tools

Rhino - design

Makerbot Replicator 3D Printer - fabrication

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When people ask me what kind of products I like making, this is what I pull out of my pocket. 

Most everyone you meet these days has a phone in their pocket, a digital swiss army knife of sorts. My challenge was to bring some physical functionality to the case that surrounds it.

This slingshot can shoot a rock or small projectile with surprising force, and folds smoothly to pack away in your pocket for the next time you’re feeling mirthful.

“Woe is we who try to store these lids.”

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Mason jars are perfect in almost every way. The glass itself is strong and sturdy, rugged enough to throw in a backpack, thermally tolerant so it can be boiled for canning or be microwaved, yet elegant in a way that has allowed it welcome entry and display in the curated kitchens of modern day. The designers of the mouth famously made it so only 2 standard lid sizes would ever be needed, allowing future creators to run wild with the rest of the jar while still preserving interchangeability. For those in the world of engineering, this is the sort of interface design that dreams are made of.

But, like the perfect apartment which then has a neighbor who plays loud polka in the mornings, the storage of the lids is a constant annoyance.

Why? Because they do not stack!

Never have I been in a kitchen that dealt well with this issue. Piled in drawers, separated and impaled on some phallic item already in your kitchen, or replaced on the jars each time… none of these solutions are good.

[Magnetic Mason Jar Lid Rack: enter stage left]

This storage rack takes advantage, as many of my creations do, of the lids being attractive to magnets. Their steel composure, both of the ring and the inside disc, can be held by the rare earth magnets embedded in this rack.

The rack itself is adhered to its host surface with 3m command strips, and can be placed in any orientation.

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There is a peace that descends on a kitchen, really any space we inhabit, when a constant source of irritation has been soothed.

That has been my kitchen since the introduction of this rack, and maybe one day it will be yours as well.

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How to Install: https://youtu.be/xcTnlIblAuk

For a while I was 3D printing and selling this project, but it’s on hiatus for now. If I begin to sell it again, I’ll let folks know in my newsletter.

Hark, sweet mason jar, highest form of container, I honor your utility and elegance with usage and extension.

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This slip-on koozie for mason jars was an idea I came up with and prototyped while commissioned at Glowforge in Seattle to create products using their new at-home laser cutter. Materials used are wood + leather + waxed thread. The saddle stitching goes fully through the mutli-material handle, allowing a single piece of leather to span all the curves of this piece.

Simply said, this creation is a delight to use.

It feels wonderful in one’s hand, having organic materials make it up in entirety. The leather softly transmits the heat of the beverage. The handle makes no sacrifice in sturdiness, giving you the confident experience of a ceramic mug. Perhaps best of all though, breaking the glass doesn’t ruin your new favorite coffee mug.

On a commission from Glowforge, the 3D Laser Printer, I made a collection of stacked cardboard lamps.

The most promiment of these was the globe, which measure 2 feet pole to pole and consisted of over 160 stacked layers.

To make this I gathered online STLs of earth and manipulated them to create the land-projected and flattened piece you see in 3D. I then sliced them into sections using Autodesk's 123D Make. I also modified layers at the equator to add support structures from which the globe would be hung. All layers were then laser cut and stacked.

The result was piece that was featured greatly in Glowforge's historic crowdfunding campaign video, raising over $28,000,000 in preorders over 1 month.

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Materials

Corrugated Cardboard - prototyping and production

Wood Glue - adhesion

Wire - alignment

Global GIS STL - globe creation

Tools

Rhino 3D - 3d modeling of shapes, gis stl data manipulation

12D Make - slicing of 3d shapes

C02 Laser Cutter - fabrication of layers

Friendly drivers rejoice!

Your kindness and expressions of gratitude towards others exhibiting the same can now be expressed by your car as well! As long as you have a rear windshield wiper…

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The Wiper Wave is a hand shaped attachment for rear windshield wipers, allowing people to wave thanks and hello to other drivers on the road 👋

I invented it in 2014 and it was eventually brought to market through the kind support of backers on Kickstarter. Since then almost 2 thousand have gone out to friendly drivers all around the world.

It has been featured across the web, most notably as NPR's 'Weekly Tech Innovation'. It can now be found here online for purchase.

In the summer of 2015, Brett Reifers and I embarked on a quest to create a removable and repositionable pocket. One that could go on any shirt of dress, adding some modular functionality to the garments you already had. In the end, we made GoodPockets.

We tried several different attachment systems, velcro, pins, adhesives, etc... in the end settling on magnets for their infinite reusability and nondestructive nature to the garments.

Each GoodPocket had rare earth magnets sewn into all four corners of them. One would go on the inside of the wearer's garment, and the other on the outside, clinging to one another and giving the wearer a pocket they could put anywhere and take off with ease.

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Materials

Various Printed Textiles - prototyping & production

Rare Earth Neodymium Magnets - prototyping & production

Tools

Sewing Machine - prototyping & production

The Glowforge bed size is 12” x 20”, so how can we use it to create artful and sturdy objects that exceed? Say a monitor stand that is 26” wide?

To answer that question I developed a method of alternatively interlocking pieces.

As shown in the process shots included, each ‘slice’ consists of a 2/3s section and a 1/3 section. The 2/3 section being on the right or left is alternated with each layer, bolstering those stress points by effectively cutting them in half.

Each half was fabricated separately, then slotted and fastened together. In total, 76 layers of 1/8” wood and acrylic made the initial prototype.

The second design issue to solve was the stacked depth of the piece. It needed to be 9” deep, exceeding the length of a reasonable fastener for this project. Thus each section was broken up into (4) 2.25” portions. Working from the inside out, all portions were screwed together (See layout screenshots)

Careful planning was a must to place the strips of acrylic CPO Tony Wright wanted in the stand, as well as to correctly position the counterbored slices necessary to allow for the caps of the fasteners.

The result is a solid and strong piece.

This method of ‘alternative interlocking’ is an effective way of producing strong sections of material from a limited bed size.

Other versions were created as well for the crowdfunding video with acrylic played out in different places.

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Materials

Plywood - production

Colored Acrylic - production

Various Fasteners

Tools

Rhino - design

CO2 Laser - fabrication

Cordless Drill & Driver - production