Part one: Forming an idea.

The idea of making a piggy bank came from the situation of me losing my coins and cash because i have no place to put them. They are usually stuffed in one pocket in my backpack, but I always forget to organize them, so something like coins were put separately in my house and never appeared when i need them happened. Therefore, my outline for this project was made: coin box.

I firs thought about making some cool designs on the seven sides of my coin box (everyone know that a box always have one side faced down that is not visible), but then realized it had to be special and different in some aspect. I knew I am not talented in making cool drawings, so why not focus on the function improvements.

Thinking back to my real life, I always had my cash stuffed together, and every time when I pull them out, the cash came out pulling the coins out, dropping everywhere. To prevent this, I thought about making my coin box divided into two sections: one for paper money, one for coins. And it also has a side that can be opened for taking my money out.

However, my design still looked to ordinary, I wanted to and more functions to it. I thought about the slit for a vending machine that can organize different coins dropped into the same hole automatically. But that will be too sophisticated, so I simplified it, into a box that was divided into two areas by a wood board in the middle, but with a slope to transfer coins on top, so that I can put everything inside one hole but separate them into different areas.

(That planning sheet was super helpful on planning stuff out)

 

Part Two: some growths are:

learning how to use Fusion 360, it has tons of functions in it that I can’t believe that I can really make something out of it

learning the basic steps of designing

learning how to laser cut stuff out

learning ways to improve my project after it was printed

 

Part Three:

Tips for other students:

  1. Making a specific and detailed plan is super important
  2. measure stuff precisely
  3. Use your time WISELY

What I would change:

There are some drawings that seemed to be unprocurable for our laser cutting machine, so I would make some different drawings if I redo it.