SOLIDWORKS xDesign Challenge Submission: Ethan Kinney

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I’m a programmer, an engineer, a husband and a father. I chose to focus on the “Simplify Your Life” project as clutter is always a huge issue for my wife and me.

My wife is a fabulous cook and always makes great food, but there always tends to be a mess afterwards; and it’s worse anytime I try and cook. One of the problems is our spice cabinet. Since we put all our spices in the same cabinet, I’m constantly moving them around to find what I need. Boy does that annoy my wife. We could put a Lazy Susan turntable in there, but I always thought they were a waste of space and the spices always fell over anyways. I wanted a way to have them easily accessible and organized, and someway to have more shelf space back.

There are plenty of magnetic spice racks out there, but they have the same issue; you can only see the spices in the front. And if you start moving them around to get to what you want, you end up having the same issue as our spice cabinet.

The Design Inspiration

So, I designed a spice carousel that can attach under the cabinets. The spice jars are magnetic on the top so you can clip them into each holder, you can also move all the spices around like a Lazy Susan so you can see them. Unlike a turntable, it’s not round; it runs on a chain and track system to maximize the space available!

I had an “Aha” moment while using SOLIDWORKS xDesign when I realized that there isn’t a distinction between parts and assemblies. Any component can be placed into any other component. This was nice when I made an initial “part” but then decided I’d rather that “part” be an “assembly.” There was no issue, I simply added the components that I wanted and presto, I was done!

Here is a snapshot of my design:

Watch the video below to see Ethan’s spice carousel model in xDesign.

 

Want to get involved in the xDesign beta? Sign up at https://www.solidworks.com/product/solidworks-xdesign

 

Divi Lohiya

Divi is a Senior Manager, Product Portfolio Management at SOLIDWORKS. He is passionate about how new technologies are coming together to change the way how products are designed, made and sold and engaging/teaching kids in STEM activities. Divi graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay with a dual degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters degree in Engineering from University of Texas at Austin.