Bottle Opener

October 2019

Design

Sustainability, to me, can mean the small things like how I separate my trash, but also the more impactful things like industry practices. Sustainability is needed so that the generations after us can have a similar or better place than we do. One aspect that I appreciate is the need to control our fishing. According to the UN in 2015, only about 20% of fish stocks are at or above their capacity. I wanted my project to represent how this is a world-wide problem and to start conversations for more sustainable sourcing.

One early decision I had made (not necessarily should have), was that I wanted to waterjet my bottle opener itself and to machine the casing around it. To size my bottle opener, I prototyped in Rm36 with laser cutters then 3D printed versions. From a lateral thinking perspective, I really struggled with the design aspect of this project. In hindsight, I was so fixated on execution that I rushed the design stage too much. Had I spent more time and pushed off my propensity for making decisions, I think I would have had a much more deep AHA moment.

Machining Strategy

Material:

Aluminum 6061-T6 3.5”X3/8”x12”

304 Stainless Steel 0.06” Thick

Vinyl

6mm diameter Magnets

Tools:

1/8” HSS Sq End Mill

1/16” CB Sq End Mill

¼” CB Sq End Mill

1/8” HSS Ball End Mill

During my CAM phase, I found that the machining was taking a lot longer than I expected, on the order of 8 hours for all of it. With some advice, I widened my tab channel to allow for a ¼” end mill instead of a 1/8” end mill. I also modified the depths of some of my designs, reducing the overall machine time to about 5 hours. Split into 3 sessions, this was manageable, albeit stressful.

I chose for this design to use tabs to fixture my part. As part of that decision, I made sure to have some flat surfaces that I could place these tabs on and have an easier time sanding them down. Since I was doing a part flip, my machining operations never went through the bottom, so using some parallels, I was able to simply just place it into the vise.

Challenges and Lessons

As I mentioned, I had a lot of trouble with lateral thinking on this project. I should have pushed myself to be more ok with the discomfort of not making decisions and to explore solutions spaces. One lesson I learned for part flips is the need to prep material and verify the vise is actually in line with the X of the CNC. After doing my part flips, I found that there was a varying part line ranging from 0” to about 0.01”. This hinted at the problem that the vise itself was probably not straight. Next time, if doing a flip, I’ll be sure to verify that the vise is straight using either the probe or dial gauge.

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