The Finished Product
The SureSqueeze Paper Holder is guaranteed to help you keep your space organized. Constructed rigidly from a sheet of 1/8” acrylic and two 1/2” steel balls, this stylishly designed clip allows the user to effortlessly display papers or photos. Four powerful neodymium magnets on the rear face of the clip allow it to firmly attach to a magnetic surface. Store up to three full sheets of 20-lb, 8.5”x11” paper in style with the SureSqueeze Paper Holder.
Product Features
Product Features
- Strong neodymium magnets located on back side of clip allow for confident mounting to any magnetic surface
- Holds up to three sheets of paper
- Easy-to-use design allows the user to insert and remove papers effortlessly
- Sturdy construction resists wear-and-tear from everyday use
|
How Was It Made?
First, a series of sketches were drawn in order to quickly generate ideas. These design ideas are shown in the slide show here.
Before settling on a final design, a very simple prototype was created in order to get a general idea of how the paper-gripping forces and structural forces work in this situation. I found that it wasn't necessarily how tightly the balls were placed between the folded sheet of acrylic but it was the slight flexibility in the bent acrylic that generally held the papers in place. Shown below here is the first prototype I created and some parts of the process required to create it. At left is the bending process using a heat gun and a vise; at right is the finished first prototype.
Notice in the final product that there are small neodymium disc magnets press-fit into the acrylic. In order to do this well, I needed to find and specify the exact hole diameter to cut into the acrylic. To do this, I created a hole tester that has 11 holes ranging from 0.234" to 0.254" in diameter. Using this, I found that I needed to cut 0.241" holes for the 1/4" magnets for the press fit.
|
The six images below show the process of producing the final prototype.