This week, Fixperts Resident Maya Alvarado tells us about her day looking for fixes at British furniture manufacturer Benchmark – in this week’s column, she finally gets to meet Heidi, a pupil at local special needs school The Castle, and starts works on some fixes for her.
06:45: I wake up, take a shower and have breakfast – it’s an early start because I’m off to The Castle, a school for children with learning difficulties I visited for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Head teacher James Hewitt thought I might be able to work on a fix for Heidi, a pupil with cerebral palsy.
07:40: I hop on a train to Newbury.
08:30: I arrive at The Castle. I make my way to the classroom to meet Heidi and her classmates, just as they are about to start the day. Heidi’s cerebral palsy means she uses a wheelchair, which often prevents her from reaching the table surface. I can see an adjustment that has been made to heighten Heidi’s table, extending it at the feet. This places it level with the chair, but it is still not quite possible to have the chair sit underneath the table.
09:05: I walk with Heidi to collect lunch orders from all of the classes. We begin the weekly cooking class in their kitchen, where Heidi’s class cook for the whole of the college. Every week they try out new recipes and today’s are macaroni cheese with roasted vegetables, and sticky toffee pudding.
09:15: I want to watch how Heidi uses all of the tools in the kitchen to see if there are any adjustments that can be made to her existing utensils. I see an existing (and very clever!) duct tape fix on the footrest of Heidi’s chair. This may wear over time, so I consider other ways to create a support – leather could be a suitable material being rigid, but soft.
10:30: The wider handles of the utensils are easier for Heidi to grip, but do not fit perfectly in her hand. I hope to find a way to improve this and to allow Heidi to apply greater pressure. I think rounder forms would be easier to hold. I want to experiment with Sugru (a mouldable glue) to create a relief of Heidi’s hand. After this dries, I would be interested to test how ergonomic this form would be to reuse. I want to measure if this becomes easier to grasp, or whether an entirely different form would be more suitable.
11:00: The food is almost ready in time for the lunch hour. I discuss with Martene (Heidi’s main tutor) the possible forms that the utensils could take. These ideas could also translate to cutlery, stationary and other items. I have a closer look at the joystick on Heidi’s chair. It has been covered in pink tape because this is Heidi’s favourite colour, rather than purely for functional reasons. Underneath is a rubber sleeve that sits on the metal lever of the joystick – this comes off quite easily, so it would be good to secure it down and use Sugru (in pink, obviously!) to create a comfortable form.
12:00: Lunch is delicious, the two dishes are great together and everyone tucks in!
13:00: Heidi spends Tuesday afternoons on work experience with Liz from the office in The Castle. Today’s task is to create a graph of the students’ favourite books. I sit with Martene and Heidi in the canteen area whilst Heidi works on a laptop. Heidi is quick on the computer and it is a useful communication tool for her. Watching her use the keyboard, gives me an idea for a taller surface, which might be easier to use. It could sit hovering over the buttons, at an angle facing Heidi. It could work if pins ran down as an extension of the buttons to connect with the keyboard. I wonder if this would be an improvement or more of a distraction from the screen. I sketch a way that it might work.
15:30: When I return to Benchmark I mock up a new cooking spoon for Heidi. Cutting away unnecessary material with a template of the shape in place, I get a block ready for the lathe.
15:45: Using chisels, I remove more material on the lathe to shape the handle and body of the spoon. The edges are rounded smooth to be soft to the touch. I have chosen these dimensions without being able to accurately measure the inside of Heidi’s hand, so the next step will be to have her testing the spoon. I anticipate changes to be made to the length and width of the handle.
17:15: I remove the spoon shape from the lathe and feel the handle for myself. The head of the spoon still needs shaping and I will use the band saw to create the right shape and then sand into a rounded form.
17:30: Pete shows me a mini hand sander that I use to shape the back and sides of the spoon. Then when the spoon is secured to a clamped board I use a scalloped router bit to remove the material on the spoon’s face. Joe lends me his curve crook spoon knife. I use this to break down the remaining walls between each routing motion and smooth down the face with sandpaper. It is starting to look like a spoon and hopefully it is comfortable for Heidi to use.
18:00: The finished spoon is ready to take to Heidi at the beginning of next week – I can’t wait to test it out!
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- interview :: made by michael
- interview :: nordvink
- interview :: james molkenthin
- interview :: richard hardy
