The dropstopper

Hi there!

It’s been a bit over a month since my quest began (remember? 🧠➡️🛥️). No traction yet , but thanks for asking. I’m still working on it and manifesting big pontoon energy!

What have I been up to in the meantime?

1. 3D printing too many prototypes

2. subjecting all of my friends and family to this nonsense

3. making them test this device out and provide feedback

4. consuming and measuring a terrible amount of munchkin's in the process

I’ve made some substantial design improvements based on user testing and overthinking this problem, and I’m jazzed to share them with you.

Let’s start where all good stories begin: with a 50 count container of butternut munchkins and a Saturday full of day drinking with friends.

Before you ask, I measured a good amount of them too. I used my birthday party as a thinly veiled disguise for user testing and content creation (like any good millennial should), and found three key issues with the hole-der: gravity, ergonomics, and poor mechanism design.

Luckily - I have a solution for all of them! Let’s dig in:

Issue 1: gravity

This one is pretty much unavoidable since it’s been notoriously hard to get rid of gravity. When you begin stacking munchkins atop one another, the cumulative munchkin mass (“CMM”) can override my dispenser mechanism and cause a munchkin to fall prematurely. Not only is this embarrassing to witness, but it’s a waste of a good snack as well!

I needed to dial in the design to ensure that the force holding the dispenser closed was stronger than the weight of the munchkins, but not so strong that it was hard to use. The rubber band was a cute solution for providing a spring force, but it didn’t work super well every time and I was worried about it falling off or breaking. I also had limited options for rubber bands that fit around the diameter of the dispenser, so I could not change the spring force easily.

Issue 2: the belt clip

The previous location for the belt clip caused the holder to sit below your waist and could become dislodged when sitting or performing activities such as yoga or burpees - which is entirely unacceptable. Additionally, dispensing a donut caused the device to pivot on the belt clip and I ran into instances where it became hard to press the lever down fully. In testing, I found that a dispenser lever closer to the waist line made it easier to use the product.

Issue 3: full auto mode

Due to the simple design of the dispenser, it was too easy to accidentally dispense multiple donuts at a time by simply pressing in on the lever. There was nothing preventing the next donut from falling out, essentially putting the device into fully automatic mode. This endangered many munchkins and could lead to accidental discharges.

These issues began eating at me, and occupied my every free though. I was brainstorming solutions all the time - while operating heavy machinery, bathing, and eating breakfast (separately) . It was consuming me faster than I could consume munchkins.

Also - I ate a lot of munchkins recently and I might need to take a break.

My brother came up with a brilliant idea to use the lever to try and stop the next munchkin from advancing, but 3D printed prototypes caused the mechanism to jam up with certain donut types. There had to be an elegant way to prevent the next munchkin from falling and allow me to dial in the mechanism force all at once.

AND THERE WAS!

The dropstopper™️

Put simply - the dropstopper is the single greatest invention in donut retention. The design is pretty simple: it uses the brilliant lever idea from my brother, but adds a cantilevered beam which presses against the second donut to hold it in place. This cantilever gently nudges the advancing donut upwards and out of harms way, while also acting as a spring - providing the force needed to keep the mechanism in the closed position.

This thing actually works! I’ve cycled dozens of donuts through with very few slipping past. A few days of iteration later and I think I have a final design that works really well.

Furthermore! I was able to combine the dropstopper and the belt clip into a single part, which snaps into the main housing of the hole-der (1.) . This eliminates the need for a screw and lets me remove the rubber band and the screw! 🥰 I also added a small detent (2.) , which creates a nice clicking sound when the trigger is activated - neat!

I was also able to remove the need for a separate pivot pin for the trigger mechanism. Instead, I added the pin to the trigger itself and used a fancy little snap hook to ensure it stays in position.

Not only is it working very reliably, but it also means this can be manufactured and assembled faster and at less cost. This is some of my finest engineering work ever, seriously.

Let’s recap!

The v1 device was created in 2020 and started it all. The v2 device was an excellent improvement and served as a proof of concept - showing the potential of what could be! In testing, I identified key issues and began brainstorming and iterating on mechanisms to solve the issues. The dropstopper was born and the world changed forever.

Further iterating and tweaking allowed me to consolidate parts and remove three other components from the donut hole-der. Nine iterations later and we have a final prototype that is about 85% there. I still want to tweak the form and a few components before I begin the final step - designing it for injection molding and mass production.

Iteration	Notes:	Unreliable?	Part Count	Is Sam Happy yet?
1	The OG!	Yes	6	No
2	Removable cap. Adjustments to rubber band and trigger.	Yes	7	No
3	Test of lever arm to stop donuts	Sometimes	7	No
4	First test of dropstopper(tm)	No	8	No
5	Stop trigger from over-extending. Longer dropstopper arm	No	8	No
6	Adjust belt clip position. Remove rubber band	No	7	No
7	Lower belt clip. Add detent and clean up geometry	No	7	No
8	Combine belt clip and dropstopper	No	5	No
9	Snap in trigger, remove pivot pin	No	4	Almost

All in all, 9 iterations ain’t too shabby! We have moving parts and need to account for many different shaped donuts, so these things take time! I fully anticipate more iterations to come as I finalize everything.

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to join me on this strange journey and hope you share this with anyone tangentially related to the Donut industry.