Why We Made it - GLoA E-Reader Case
Today I wanted to share with you the two year journey, of making the GLoA E-Reader cases. From why we made it in the first place, to the lessons we learned and how we got to the end result.
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----------External Links----------
Web Site - http://16bitvirtualstudios.com/
16 Bit Store - http://www.16bitstore.com
16 Bit Games - http://16bitvirtualstudios.com/Games
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/16bitvirtual/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/16bitvirtual
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/16bitvirtual/
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CreativityTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome! Recently I released my own line of repairable do-it-yourself
00:07e-reader cases for a wide range of popular e-readers and today I wanted to
00:12share with you why I made these cases and the process for how I designed them
00:18the way they are. So let's first talk about why I decided to go and make my
00:36own repairable e-reader case in the first place. Well, over the last few years
00:40I started to notice that whether it be a phone case, a tablet case, or even an
00:45e-reader case, the cases for the devices that I own do not last as long as I feel
00:52that they should or can. And this was especially true not just for my e-reader
00:59but also my wife's. Around the six-month mark after owning our e-readers, both of
01:06our cases started to develop cracks and started to disintegrate. We tried to look
01:13into third-party alternatives at the time but there was none for such a niche
01:18e-reader that we had. And for an exact replacement from the manufacturer we
01:25were going to have to pay out-of-pocket $50. $50 for a case that will start to
01:33self-destruct did not sound like a good investment to me. At the price I might as
01:40well 3D print my own case and that got me thinking, why couldn't I 3D print a
01:49new case for both myself and my wife? I brought the idea up to her and as we
01:57both lamented and wished that there was such a thing as a repairable e-reader
02:02case we broke into an argument. The argument that ensued proved that the
02:07idea, while good on paper, was going to be extremely difficult to implement. You
02:13see, a 3D printed part becomes oddly bendable and easily breakable the
02:19thinner it is. So if I was to make a case that wouldn't break it would need to be
02:26thick and chunky like this mock-up that I made when my wife's last e-reader's
02:31case broke. However, my wife correctly pointed out that a case that thick would
02:38be both unwieldy, unusable, and undesirable. If I was to go and make a
02:45case for her it would need to be as easy to use as our existing ones. So as we
02:54argued we ironed out the specific details of what a 3D printable case
02:59needed to be in order for it to work. It was decided that the case needed to
03:04function like our existing e-reader cases. So no tools required for the
03:10e-reader to go in and out of the case. Our cases also need to be as thin and as
03:16light as possible with as little bulk added to the design when possible. And
03:22finally the printed components needed to be replaceable so that when one part of
03:29it would inevitably break because we're making this thin it could easily be
03:33taken out and a new part be swapped in. With these guidelines solidly ironed out
03:40at the time I thought the idea was impossible but with this being my only
03:46alternative making my own e-reader case seemed like a better option. So I got to
03:53work making out what a repairable case would look like which led me to my first
04:02prototype. The idea behind this case is quite simple. A platform with mounting
04:09points and removable arms that would go and hold your e-reader in. And if these
04:17arms ever were to break because they are quite thin you can just pop your e-reader
04:23out and simply unscrew the arms and put in new ones. For my liking there was a
04:33little too much in terms of issues with this first prototype. The arms were a
04:38little too flexible around the corners and when you did put an e-reader case in
04:44it was a little sharp and the e-reader didn't necessarily sit flush and moved
04:50around a little too much. But the design was good enough that it earned my wife's
04:56approval and we started excitedly planning out the next prototype. And heck
05:02we even reused this prototype to see whether or not we could adhere leather
05:07to the plastic with glue since well that's how you bind a leather to book
05:12covers. With the first prototype completed I worked on the next fixing
05:18the bits on the plastic which didn't feel right. Well my wife worked on a
05:22better leather design and materials to glue onto the plastic. Originally we were
05:28planning on reusing the original cover that came with our e-readers. But as we
05:35were designing this we started brainstorming features that were missing
05:40or lacking in our existing cases. Like a better place to put the stylus and
05:45wouldn't it be cool if it was in the spine. So instead of completing our half
05:50measure and ripping apart an e-reader case we decided to go all out and make a
05:55full back to front leather case. And we even added in some straps on the spine
06:02so that we can slot in a pencil. Alex even went in and tested out some iron on
06:09vinyl decals to give the case a lovely finish. I am in love with the results. The
06:19only issue with this design was the fact that we didn't know how or where we were
06:27going to be able to put in the sleep magnets. So what we ended up doing was
06:32taking apart Alex's existing e-reader case salvaging the magnets from it and
06:40taping them down on to the existing cover. It was at this point I fell
06:50absolutely in love with this design and wanted one of my own. It was after this
06:59we made prototype after prototype making new revisions with purse clasps to save
07:05on cost and going in and embedding the magnets into the covers so that the
07:12sleep functionality would work. The designs were rough and the arms broke
07:18almost every week. But we made a lot of small changes which eventually led to
07:25our first alpha e-reader cases. We decorated them originally with iron on
07:33vinyl and we were so happy that we thought hey why are we the only ones who
07:40get to enjoy these cases? Why couldn't we sell them to everyone? Sure at the end of
07:47the day this would cost a lot more than a regular e-reader case but the fact
07:52that this is repairable and the price for new arms would be leagues cheaper
07:57than an entire e-reader case that I feel that it would be a better value over a
08:03longer period of time. I was so excited with this concept I even went out and
08:08bought Kobo and Kindle e-readers to start prototyping out cases for them and
08:13I was just so excited to see whether or not I could shrink my design down so
08:19that it could work with a smaller e-reader and maybe even making it so
08:24that the platform would be cross device. A one-size-fits-all e-reader where the
08:30only major differences would be the arms that you screw in and the location of
08:35the magnet. But what we didn't predict was the disaster which would occur back
08:41to back. The first was that the iron-on vinyls that we were using to decorate
08:45our cases fell off within weeks causing us to search for newer and better ways
08:51to decorate our e-readers per the assistance of my wife. We eventually
08:56settled on using leather paint but the second issue that occurred immediately
09:01after this case was made almost killed the entire project. You see up to this
09:08point we have been using leather glue to adhere the leather to the plastic just
09:14like you would with book binding and up to this point we had no issues. But if
09:22you were to look very closely on the edges we did notice some bubbles that
09:29would appear in the leather. We originally thought that this was just a
09:34natural cause of the leather being folded over and this was just how it
09:41glued in place. But after I finished cutting and painting our latest 6-inch
09:49test case and Alex glued the whole thing together it completely fell apart. And
09:57after a lot of small-scale tests to see whether or not we could get leather to
10:04properly and permanently adhere to the PLA plastic that we were using at the
10:10time it appeared that it wasn't so. The leather glue that we were using was
10:18really good at adhering leather to itself but this plastic not so much. Now
10:26much earlier in the project I had mentioned that we shouldn't be using
10:29glue as it would make the cases less repairable. However after another
10:34argument it was agreed upon at the time that the time commitment and difficulty
10:39of potentially stitching an e-reader case would be so cost-prohibitive and
10:44tedious that it wasn't worth investing in. But now that gluing was no longer an
10:50option for us we had to change plans and I had to learn how to sew. This led to
10:57our first major redesign and after a bit more testing we eventually ended up with
11:05this. Our first sewn case. The case itself was slightly too small but it was a
11:16perfect proof of concept and it worked shockingly well. And on Christmas Day my
11:26wife and I sat together and we made our first beta e-reader cases. These cases
11:36have been our primary e-reader cases for about a year now and are the biggest
11:41reasons why I have such a high faith in my designs. I made so many little tiny
11:49changes from the shape of the arms to adding in just little tiny stress relief
11:55points that prevent the arms from bracing which caught these arms lasting
12:01from just a little over a week to a month to over a year with the current
12:06set that are in this e-reader. With the designs finalized it was time to optimize
12:14and fix all of our other production issues that we had. Up to this point we
12:19had been using a cutting machine to cut our leather but the machine would
12:23frequently jam and even after buying a new and sharper blades. This all came to
12:31a head when I was making my grandmother an e-reader case to test. It took the
12:37cutting machine over six attempts to cut one cover and after wasting so much
12:43material I was fed up and I had to find a better solution. I eventually settled
12:50on moving to a laser cutter which was not only a more precise but also
12:55accurate and reliable way to cut the leather even if the smell of burning
13:00leather was not pleasant. Another quality issue came about due to my now banana
13:08e-reader case. Once upon a time this used to be an e-reader case for the Covo Nia
13:14but turned into two completely inadvertent experiment cases which
13:19completely turned it into this ruined state. The first was accidental when I
13:26placed this case in the same bag as a wet towel after a swim. The water from
13:34the towel leached into the leather and it ballooned as it absorbed the water
13:39and when it eventually dried out it turned into this wrinkly mess. The result
13:45of that experiment was what created this little warning slip that we add into
13:50every order to make sure that the customer knows that this is not a
13:54waterproof e-reader case. The second issue came about while trying to dry our
14:01e-reader cases. As the leather was still wet I thought hey why couldn't I just
14:07leave the e-reader case out in the direct sunlight to dry faster. So I did
14:13and when I grabbed the e-reader case at the end of the day the plastic was so
14:18warped that I couldn't even put the e-reader back into the case and thus the
14:24banana case was born and is completely unusable. We did contemplate switching
14:31over to using a more heat resistant material but we assumed that the owner
14:39of an e-reader would be careful with a device that's primarily meant to be
14:43used indoors and wouldn't just leave it out on a balcony or in the car in an
14:48Arizona heat. That was until we ran across an issue where a customer
14:53received an order from us that completely melted in shipping. It looked
14:58fine but was so undersized that they couldn't use it anymore. As a result we
15:06revised the plastics for all of our larger prints from PLA that we typically
15:13use in our styluses and our display stands to the more heat resistant PETG
15:19that we use in our controller spools and now e-reader cases. But after all these
15:25years of designing, testing, making changes, and more testing what once
15:30started out as a project to make my knife a new e-reader case turned into a
15:35fully repairable case that can be purchased by anyone. I'm still making a
15:40lot of little tweaks and changes to optimize both how this case is
15:45repairable and its overall production. And thanks to their universal design
15:52I've been able to support e-readers both new and old and continue supporting them
15:59even after the manufacturer stops. So thank you for watching this video and
16:04allowing me to ramble about one of my greatest design achievements to date. If
16:08you haven't already checked them out yet please do at 16bitstore.com to see
16:16if your e-reader is compatible with one of our cases. If you order one I do
16:22hope you enjoy it as I hoped you enjoyed this video. I hope you have
16:27yourself a good day and as always take care.
16:52you