MY PATH

When a small plastic clip on my parents’ 1980s toilet broke, I reverse-engineered the part and designed a replacement using CAD. I 3D printed a friction-fit clip that attached securely to the existing base and locked onto the fill valve, restoring full function to the toilet. The repair was simple, effective, and avoided the need to replace the entire valve assembly.

 This was my first personal project using both my new 3D printer and Autodesk Fusion 360. I applied design and prototyping skills I developed on my university engineering project team to quickly model, iterate, and fabricate a custom solution. It was a rewarding way to take what I’ve learned in school and use it to solve a real-world problem in a practical, hands-on way. 

*video shows finished fixed toilet working;

Pictures detailing project below

 After accidentally receiving a wind-up music box, I took it apart out of curiosity and became fascinated by its mechanical simplicity. I realized I could 3D print a custom drum to play my own melody, so I chose a segment of “Oh Honey” by The Delegations

Using a melody editor, I created a custom 32-beat arrangement that captured the feel of the original. I then used Autodesk Fusion 360 to model a custom music drum, transcribing each note placement by hand. Because the pins that trigger the notes are only ~1mm wide, I had to carefully iterate and redesign the drum multiple times to get the spacing, fit, and orientation just right.

To better match the song’s tempo, I also modified the music box’s governor mechanism to allow the system to spin faster, aligning the playback speed with the original song’s BPM. The final result was a functional, hand-cranked music box that plays a recognizable version of “Oh Honey.”

This project combined two of my interests - music and engineering - and taught me a lot about precision design, mechanical timing, and prototyping for micro-scale features.