Gentleman Farmer, Engineer and Extreme Innovator / Brainstormer
Product design is a dynamic and changing industry. Keep up-to-date here.
Lets chat about times when the customer is not right. This runs contrary to conventional wisdom, but is good advice. Lets explore this topic together.
Don’t hesitate to call 800-722-7987 or email montie@montie.com to talk about we can help with your product or project.
Interviews are an important part of the product design process. Many times interviews are neglected or poorly executed. Lets spend a few minutes and talk about the interview process.
Interviews as Part of the Product Design Process
We can help with the design of your next product! Call Montie today at 919-481-1845, visit www.montie.com or email montie@montie.com to set up an appointment or visit to find out more.
This week has been very interesting, we’ve been wanting to test the speed of ammo when fired from the Y-Shot Slingshot, so we setup a testing area in the shop. The setup uses a mechanical release to fire the slingshot and a chronograph to measure the speed. We ran into a problem with the chronograph, it would not work indoors because of the fluorescent lights in the shop.
We need an indoor testing area so we can control the temperature of the room and avoid wind and other variables. We found an accessory that uses infrared LED’s to give the constant light source the chronograph needs to work. We plan to test many different bands and record the speeds compared to our current slingshot bands. The setup is working very well, now that we have the chronograph lights, and we will be testing the bands soon.
Thanks for Reading,
Daniel Helms
Greetings,
The way customers find out about your product has changed. Customer reviews no play a huge role in the success of your products. Join me for a short discussion about this.
This podcast was recorded on a rainy evening while I was camping at a place called Troublesome Gap (elevation 3700 feet) in Western North Carolina. You can even hear the rain during portions of the podcast.
Thanks for listening.
Cheers,
Montie
Hello again!
You might have read about the towel holder a while back. It is a smart design, as it is a very simple product that solves a problem in an elegant way. However, it is pretty big. This drives the production costs up, and might also be unwanted in a camping situation when you carry your own gear between camp sites.
So what we wanted to do was to slim it down as much as possible, even if that required removing some functionality.
The new design is about as slim as it gets. It has only one towel slot, and no slot for sponges. The slim shape makes it easy to room many towel holders in a small piece of sheet, which in it’s turn makes it cost effective in production. It also makes the holder easier to carry around on the outside of your pack, for when you need something to get dry while you’re walking. It comes with a carabiner, so you can attach it to just about anything. but you could also pull a cord or a strap straight through it.
Keep an eye out at the Montie Gear Webshop, it might be available sooner than you know!
/ Robin
Today’s customer, or client, if very well informed. Much of this information comes from reviews on the internet. The effect of internet referrals and reviews on the internet is so important that if you ignore it, your business will quickly suffer. Lets spend a few minutes talking about how this process works and the Montie Gear process for generating great reviews on the internet. This is the same process that took Montie Gear from $0 in sales to a six figure sales performer in 3 years. Click on the play button below to listen.
Please don’t hesitate to email me at montie@montie.com with any comments or if we can help design and roll out your next successful product! Our social review program is a very cost effective way to get the word out about your product.
Cheers,
Montie
Hey Y’all,
Over the past few weeks we have been working on a Paintball Marker Stand. This stand can be broken down into three pieces using the pins on the sides of the stand. The marker is supported by the U-Shaped cut out in the back of the stand and the Slot in the front of the stand. The sliding cylinder, seen in the middle of the stand, allows this stand to support the marker and prevent it from falling forward and out of the stand. This slide also allows the stand to work with multiple markers. Everything is going well and we should be trying out a prototype soon.
Thanks for Reading,
Daniel Helms
We (the interns) went on a field trip this monday, to ADR Hydro-Cut. They do water jetting, and while we were there they cut out sheet metal parts according to our drawings.
The parts arrived yesterday, so we grinded the tangs of and threw them in the washer for a couple of hours to smoothen out some sharp edges, and then they were pretty much ready to go.
Spent a couple minutes putting it together, and it looks and feels great! I might make some minor adjustments to the drawings, adjusting the angle of the paracord braiding, and I also have to figure out how the braiding itself is done in the best possible way.
Apart from that though, they’ll be ready for anodizing/powdercoating. And with that, we’ll have a product!
/ Robin
Hey!
So the belt clip ball dispenser is finally coming together. After testing more mock-up models the decision was taken not to use any plate or similar to separate the balls from the magnet, as more than one kept falling off when trying to pull only one off. Instead the magnet will be coated with a durable finish and the balls will be in direct contact with it. This simplified the design significantly, but put increased the demand on the aesthetic form of the back plate, as this now became the mail feature of the whole product. A simple plate can have many different forms:
One option was to add a top bumber to create a feeling of better encapsulating the balls, as well as giving more depth to the product. Unfortunately, the manufacturing complexity of adding this feature was greater than expected. As this would drive up the cost of the product a lot the decision was taken to put this feature on hold for now.
As for the final design the initial round magnet was kept and the plate form includes some curved lines to follow the magnet while still keeping some edges to go with the rectangular belt clip. After quite a bit of struggle finding a good form, this one actually feels pretty obvious I would say! Let’s just hope the prototype will look just as good!
Have a good weekend!
/Richard Boden
Hey Y’all,
This week I’ve made some progress on the Whisker Biscuit Mount for the Y-Shot. When the Whisker Biscuit arrived there were a few problems with the dimensions but, those were worked out pretty quickly. I made a quick model from PVC and we did some testing with it. Everything went great and I’m working on the aesthetics of the design. A prototype is in the works based on the rendering in the pictures but, the design might change some more.
Thanks for Reading,
Daniel Helms
Whisker Biscuit Arrow Rest Distance Test Medium Quality Video
Today’s customer, or client, if very well informed. Much of this information comes from reviews on the internet. The effect of internet referrals and reviews on the internet is so important that if you ignore it, your business will quickly suffer. Lets spend a few minutes talking about how this process works and the Montie Design process for generating great reviews on the internet. Click on the play button below to listen.
Please don’t hesitate to email me at montie@montie.com with any comments or if we can help design and roll out your next successful product!
Cheers,
Montie
Hello everyone!
My name is Robin, and I’m the next summer intern in line to introduce myself. Just like Richard, I’m an Indutrial Design Engineering student from Chalmers University in Sweden, and just like Richard, I’ve started working with accessories for the Y-shot. My main project so far has been a wrist support. This will unload the stress on the wrist, which can be significant if you’re shooting a lot or if you’re using a strong rubber band.
I tested a few mock-ups to get an approximation of the right dimensions, and to make sure that the side brackets wouldn’t get in the way of the hand.
Since the Gloveshot has a similar function to the wrist adapter, and the same design language as the Y-shot, it was my main inspiration during the sketching process.
I finished the drawings for the prototype a couple of days ago, so now we’re just waiting for the side brackets to arrive. Can’t wait to put it together!
To be continued.
/Robin
Over the years, we’ve found that there is a general lack of knowledge regarding the relationship of the cost to manufacture and selling price. I would like to take a few minutes and explain why sales costs are normally more than 2 times the cost of producing most products. Understanding the costs associated with taking a product from manufactured good to a purchased product is important for the entrepreneur, seasoned engineer or businessman. Please don’t hesitate to call or email with any questions or comments or to discuss how we can put our experience to use for your today!
Generating social reviews is a great way to economically launch your product to your market. These reviews are also invaluable when customers are making a purchasing decision. We drive these expert reviews with our test and evaluation program. Montie Gear uses test and evaluation units to drive social reviews. Lets spend a few minutes talking about how that program works and who should participate. This program has been very successful for Montie Gear, driving sales to over 100k in 3.5 years with almost no advertising.
Call 1-800-722-7987 today or email montie@montie.com to find out how we can do this for you.
Check it out. Our interns rock!
