A New Beginning

    In our first unit of Design and Engineering we researched and designed new tools. The tool my partner and I had was a tiller. We found our tool while on a field experience at Home Depot, where we also learned what it is used for. A tiller is a tool designed to loosen soil and provide it with more air. When designing a better version of the tool, we had to take into consideration how to make it usable by different types of people, such as elders or people with difficulty preforming certain tasks. Doing this shows empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. I'm proud that I was able to design such a tool to help others that aren't always taken into consideration.

AG & TC New Tiller (2014)

    The purpose of this assignment is to see how we would recreate a tool that gives people problems nowadays. Our users are most specifically elders but can be used by people of all ages, and what makes them unique is that they would be able to use this tool no matter what height or size they are.

    As mentioned earlier our class went to Home Depot to learn about different tools. Experts there were very helpful. We also conducted our own interviews, mine being with my mother who has gardened for years. With all this new information I learned a lot. Some of the most important things I learned were that: certain tools are flimsy and won’t work properly, for example they will loosen and fall off the handle; the handle type is important, because certain materials will hurt your hands; and the weight is important, because if it's too heavy you might not be able to use it as well as you should be able to, and it will be more difficult to use. One of the quotes from my interview that really stuck with me was: “The shovel has a hard handle and it’s heavy which makes it difficult to use.”

   Aside from going to Hope Depot and conducting our interviews, we each had to do more research on our specific tool. Three important things I learned from this research were:
1) There are also electric versions of our tool.
2) There are also smaller hand versions of our tool.
3) The tools vary a lot in sizes and prices.

    Our new tool is a longer, sharper, and spikier hand tiller. With the new adjustable length of the hand tiller it won't cause back problems for taller people or shorter people. There would be a button or switch on the side to adjust it to the size that best fits you. The parts to this new hand tiller are: the wheel as a new handle, the adjustable length for different height varieties, and spikier tines (the outer ones being slanted). The new handle as a wheel helps get a better grip and keeps your hand secure while turning the handle. A wheel is easier to use than just a straight bar, because a circle is easier to turn; if the handle were just a straight bar you would have to stretch out your arms to grab the further side while twisting. The two inner tines are sharper in order to enter the soil more easily, and keep the tiller more in place. The outer tines are slanted with horizontal spikes and the bottom, which help the tiller cut through the soil. Other tillers don't have the horizontal spike added to the tines, which would make it more difficult to cut through the soil because the tines are vertical but the tiller is turning horizontally. Our improved tines solve that problem. However, since there are now spikes going to the side, the tiller can only be turned one way, which will be explained on the label. Furthermore, our tool is made completely out of stainless steel, aside from the foam covering the handle, which makes it easy to wash and doesn't result in rust.

AG & TC Vectors (2014)

    Three ways our tool is better than the competition are:
1) Our handle will be circular so it will be easier to turn.
2) There will be spiked ends on the side of the pokers at the bottom of the tiller, to make it cut through the soil more easily.
3) The middle part will extend so you can choose the length so it's customized to each person’s height.

    Our tool uses the wedge concept because to get deeper in the soil/dirt we had to add a slant into the outer spikes, which lets our tool cut through more dirt and creates more air pockets for the garden. Wedges focus all their weight into one point, and since you will turn the tool the way the spikes go, the weight of the tool will all go to the points of the spikes which will require you to use less force.

    Two things we took into consideration when redesigning our tool were:
1) What would make it easier for old people, or just everyone in general, to turn the tiller, so we turned the handle into a circle.
2) People’s height differences, so we made the tiller extendable (you can make it longer and shorter).

    The steps to use our tool are shown in the following pictures:

AG & TC Tiller Steps 1-4 (2014)

AG & TC Tiller Steps 5-6 (2014)