BRIEF
I was required to design and prototype a functional tabletop LED Herb planter for a kitchen/home environment. The Planter must be fabricated from 1.5mm white ABS plastic only. It has to be left in its raw state, well sanded where needed to a high finish and it must be left unpainted. The Planter must include a section of LED strip light with power cable, above the plant area to serve as a grow light. My design must include a minimum of 3 ‘pot’ areas to house herbs and soil with the volume of at least 100mm x 100mm x 100mm per pot. My design must include at least 1 curve. Light , shadow and overall form have to be considered.
SKETCHES
I sketched multiple concepts to develop three clear concept directions where I included planning and notes on how I intend to construct my designs. Included is orthographic views with measurements to clearly and effectively communicate the form and scale of my concepts.
Ideation
Concept directions
REFINED SKETCH
MOCK-UPS
The feedback I received was that my scale was small, that there would be no room for the plant to grow and that the size was not accessible enough to water the plant.
REFINED MOCK-UPS
Following the feedback, I made new mock-ups with the considerations I had to keep in mind
FINAL CONCEPT MOCK-UP
PROCESS MAKING
-To start and make my pots, I drew out the bottom template.
-The bottom template is create a form where I am able to glue the pieces of the pits together.
-After cutting put the bottom template, I cut out the straight pieces for the for the sides of the pots.
-When the straight pieces were cut, they were glued to the side.
-When the straight pieces were glued on, I added the curve of the pot to both the ends of the straight pieces right in the middle.
-When creating the cilinder, I took masking tape and wrapped it around the cut of plastic. This helped with forming the plastic into a cilinder without using heat.
-The glass was used as a reference to cut the circles that close off the top and bottom part of the cilinder. The glass the exact diameter of the circles i needed.
-After drawing the circle, I cut out the circles and glued the circle to the cilinder.
-After the cilinder has been glued to the top and bottom circles, I added the pots to the cilinder.
-I made sure the pots have a big enough gap between them by marking where each pot can fit and will go.
-The remaining space was for the light beam that was going to house the lights.
The LED lights had to be follow the two small thin straight pieces and goes around the round part of the beam.
-After adding the lights along the beam, I made a round 3D stracture that can hold the LED lights in there. I made sure to cut out a piece for the adapter so that it can connect a power socket
FINAL PRODUCT
FAILS
-Because of how thick the ABS plastic was, it was quite difficult to cut out the parts and shapes of the planter.
There were gaps where the parts needed the join, because of the difficulty of cutting the ABS plastic.
-I had to either mix the chlorofoam with the ABS or fit a small cut out or piece into the gaps.
-When I wanted to try a different to bend the ABS, heat was one of the other techniques I used.
Because of the material, when I directed too much heat to the plastic, it shrunk. That lead to it having dents, burn marks and gaps where the two points had to connect.
PROJECT REFLECTION
The creativity part of the project was the most exciting part. I felt like my creativity flowed and I could get ideas out faster than I expected myself.
Execution though, not what I expected because I thought I would be able execute it to a high level but it was relatively successful.
