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FRANKENSTEIN PROTOTYPE™ Article
By Perry Kaye

{NOTICE: In this article you will be told how I use tools to build things. I am an experienced tool user who knows tool safety. If you are NOT an experienced tool user, PLEASE, seek competent instruction before you begin. Be sure you read all of your tool’s directions and use all tools in a safe manner only as they are designed to be used. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME if you do NOT know what you are doing.}

I am sitting at my desk looking at a prototype that took 3 weeks to make: 1 week to design and 2 weeks to machine. It went from my mind, to a CAD file, to a CNC File and then to metal in just less than 3 weeks. Now it sits in front of me and the anticipation is killing me. I ask myself, “How great will it be?” 

I pick it up and instantly know… it is simply a piece of junk. It looks great but it feels off and is uncomfortable to use. I lost 3 weeks of valuable time and thousands of dollars in supplies and opportunity costs. That hurts!

 The story above happened while I was designing a new type of scissor. The MIND to CAD to CNC to “finished prototype” is a Standard Design Path. But it is not often cost effective for a small inventor or even a large company counting its pennies. The RP (Rapid prototyping) Design Path, mind to Cad to Part, is also often a long and expensive process too. I thought there must be another way and to my surprise there is.

 I began to look for a simple, cheap and immediate design path that would let me see IF my invention worked and would NOT cost me an arm and a leg. I thought about it like this… most of my inventive process is hashed out in the building phase. This is where I discover if it will really work. Do I really care how it looks or if it is using the exact color of material? Not really. You don’t need a “finished” or “production” prototype at the very beginning. While still sitting at my desk, with those lousy scissors in my hand, I decided I needed a Frankenstein Prototype™.

 There are two facts to know when building Frankenstein Prototypes™. 1) Many parts, like the ones you need for your prototype, are already being made. 2) there are simple, less traditional and cheaper ways to get parts you need without having to buy molds or pay expensive design companies.

 Just as Doctor Frankenstein made his “prototype human” from parts that were, shall we say “readily available”, so to can you prototype your invention. Using stock parts, easily made parts or parts from other products gives you an advantage that can cut prototype time and money costs dramatically.

 I do not have the space here to show you all of the Frankenstein Prototype™ Methods I use. So here I will tell you several of my favorites to get you started.

 The first is the “Popsicle Sticks and Pipe Cleaners” Frankenstein Prototypes™! Relax, you do not need to eat 500 Popsicles to get the sticks. You can buy a box of them at you local craft store. Here is how the technique works.

 The scissors I designed are gripped and used differently than standard scissors. The handle and blade angle are crucial to their construction. So I made prototypes in just a few minutes using Popsicle Sticks and Pipe Cleaners.

 I went to local Craft Store and bought a box of wood Popsicle Sticks, several bags of Pipe Cleaners, and a Very Small Hole Punch (1/16” Hole). The entire trip cost me less than $20.00.

 To make my first Frankenstein Prototype™ I took the hole punch and punched holes in the Popsicle sticks. These small holes allow the Pipe Cleaner to slide through easily and leave enough of the wood around the hole to make a decent joint.

 Now I attach the Popsicle sticks together with the pipe cleaners. Cut the Pipe Cleaners to length and twist them at the end if you need to. You can now move the Popsicle sticks, about the Pipe Cleaner joint hole, with the pipe cleaners acting as little shafts.

 Now, instead of 3 weeks to a prototype, I had my prototype pair of scissors in minutes. Of course they would not cut. But this simple construction method allowed me to pin down the exact angle I needed for the real scissors. In under an hour I made many prototypes and discovered several good designs.

 My final review of this technique is as follows. Because the cost is literally pennies a prototype and the results were phenomenal I use this technique often. Prototyping goes from weeks to minutes and from hundreds of dollars to pennies. It is easy enough for a kid to do and effective enough for a real inventor to perform real work with. This method is a keeper.

 Now that I had the exact scissor angle, it was time to get some feedback doing additional testing. I can tell you with certainty that people will think you are as crazy as Boris Karloff if you ask them to try a Popsicle Stick Prototype. So I developed this next method to easily get a closer prototype and once again was amazed with the results.

 CAD is wonderful and worth the effort to learn. I use a program called Rhino™ but you can use any program that can print in a 1 to 1 scale.  A few free or shareware CAD programs are listed at my website right here.

 I drew an outline of my scissors and printed to 8.5” by 11” paper in 1 to 1 scale. This means the drawings on my paper were the actual size and shape of the parts I needed. They are just 2D version of the 3D parts. They have the length and width but are missing their depth.

 Here is a simple way to give simple parts the depth they need to be real. A trip to my local hardware store and about $225 later I had everything I needed to make this prototype and many others. I bought a scroll saw, can of spray adhesive and 2-foot by 4-foot sheet of 1/8” thick wood. I could have spent even less but I really wanted the scroll saw with the light and stand.

 I cut my 2’ by 4’ piece of wood to a manageable size of about 8.5” by 11”. Coincidentally the same size as the sheet of paper I printed the blueprint on, right? I then sprayed the spray adhesive on the wood. And carefully glued the 1 to 1 scale CAD file to the wood. There were some wrinkles and the glue bled through the paper but I smoothed it out and could still see the print.

 In my hands is a piece of 1/8” wood with the shapes of my scissor components clearly and accurately outlined. You can use any material or thickness of stock your parts need and your tools can handle. And making these parts is easy because you do not need to measure or draw or scribe anything onto the work piece because it is already attached and it is quite accurate.

 Using a drill press you can drill holes your Frankenstein Prototype™ needs. It is easy because the blueprint shows you exactly where the point of the drill should be located. Drill first because it is easier hold the work piece before it is cut to shape. And use sharp drill bits to avoid the bit pulling the blueprint off the wood.

 The next step is to cut out your 3D prototype parts using the scroll saw. Simply follow the shapes outlined on your blueprint. Cut to the outer edge and use a wood sander to sand the edge to a more precise size as indicated by the blueprint. In a few minutes, you will have the parts cut to the shape you need AND with the thickness of the stock you purchased. You just made a true 3D Frankenstein Prototype™ part.

 Once I did this for my scissors, I had a mechanically functional Frankenstein Prototype™ (not actually functional because it would not actually cut). This was extremely valuable to me. It allowed me to further refine my design until I had the look and feel I wanted in the final unit. I could even paint it or cast it to get a more high quality part.

 These wood Frankenstein Prototype™ scissors were used by different people, with different sized hands to get feedback. The feedback I received allowed me to better the product at each iteration. After several iterations I found a design that suited people with both large and small hands.

Gluing a 1 to 1 blueprint to a stock work piece and cutting it out with the scroll saw allows you to quickly and cheaply test your designs. And you don’t have to get 5 or 10 trained professionals to help you. One ambitious inventor with their little computer, printer and scroll saw is all that is needed.

 The final Frankenstein Prototype™ trick involves using existing components from other products. For example, when I was working on new types of markers I used parts from markers currently sold in stores.

 Because these parts were already engineered beautifully it allowed me to focus on my innovative work. I did not need to buy or make molds, or invest in engineering design. Instead of making CAD designs, CNC programs and expensive molds I visited my local office supply store. For about $30 I bought different brands of products that seemed to have parts that might work for my new invention.

 I buy enough product to feel okay destroying a few in the effort to learn how to take them apart. Preserving the needed parts is often easy after you bust open a few the wrong way. My new marker invention was made exactly like this. I had a finished and working Frankenstein Prototype™ in less than 10 minutes. And it looked good too!

 The scissors I designed were actually fantastic but I did not release them. The Frankenstein Prototype™ of the new marker invention was released instead. When I show people the scissors they want them. But they also ask what else I have and as soon as I show them a ColorCutter®, the new marker I prototyped and released, they only want that. After all it is the only marker that Cuts as it Draws making perfect decorated edges.

 So remember a Frankenstein Prototype™ will help you quickly get lots of valuable information from some usually pretty ugly prototypes.

 Visit your local hardware and craft stores and make your monster today!