Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Prototype One:

In the middle of all of this measuring and designing, late one night, John and I went to our local Lowes and purchased four steel sheets, nuts/bolts and went to John's garage and began work on our first prototype. Ironically, this prototype was used many times in our cooking tests and as of today, it is still functioning! I digress, to get the steel in the shape that wee needed, we used a hammer and the edge of the hand truck to bend the steel sheets into an "L" shape. After 30 minutes, we discovered the simplicity of the Ash Box.
We put the four pieces together, and easily slid the units into a variety of sizes, proving that the Ash Box can easily adjust to any size grill. We then drilled some random holes into the unit to fasten the Ash Box with the nuts and bolts. To finish the prototype, we used wire hanger to created two handles with hooks and like two proud parents, the Ash Box looked beautiful! The next step was to test the usability of the product under the extreme temperatures of cooking.
The next evening, I walked over to John's house to see if the Ash Box can deliver. We stepped in front of his Gas Grill, removed the grill cover, then the flavor bar. I took the Ash Box and placed it inside the opening, sized the unit and inserted the nuts and bolts to a finger tight hold. He laid in the charcoal and replaced the grills. John then took the lighter fluid and coated some of the charcoals, took a match an light the unit. In a few seconds we had a roaring flame. He closed the lid and 30 minutes later we were cooking with charcoal on his gas grill. Another proud moment, it was like watching your child achieve greatness!

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