With three items (briefcase, lunchbox, and coffee) and two hands (left and right), I have a mildly annoying trip between my car and my office in the morning that usually entails two for one-ing my briefcase and lunch box. Yesterday, Sander and I solved the problem.
Check out the brand new Mike DiDonato Lunch-Box Cup Holder!
No no, It’s more than that! Well, okay, not really. But I’m still extremely pleased with how well it turned out. Sander and I started this endeavor with a simple sheet of aluminum. We drilled out the properly sized hole, and then bent the piece so that it would fit into an already conveniently placed pocket on the lunch box.
Is that aluminum sand blasted? Heck yes.
“But Mike D,” you might ask, “doesn’t the cut aluminum mar the side of your new thermos?”
Nay, good reader. We protected the edge like this:
End result? A simple and elegant means of transporting my coffee cup from house->car and from car->desk.
Mission Accomplished.
Two comments:
1. I think it is awesome that you got a custom separate tool that gets less than 3 minutes of use per day. I hate the daily juggle with the coffee to get my CTA card out.
2. Is that your lunchbox?!
What can I say? I really like lunch.
Also, efficiency.
1. I like to think that it’s these hour+ projects to gain a small convenience that defines us as engineers.
2. That IS his lunchbox. And believe me, it gets filled every day.
Duluth Trading Company — tell your friends!
I may be wrong here Mike, but isn’t your coffe cup ceramic? Why would a few scratches on it worry you? You should at Duluth, what man wouldn’t shop there by the way, and a Man’s Man wouldn’t mind a few sratches on his coffe cup of choice. They would be badges of honor I would think. Like scars on your hands after several years hard work.
since i don’t have any metal working tools, i have one of these water bottle holders with carabiner which works spectacularly well with both my thermos travel cup and ceramic coffee cup…
I think for the next revision of the cup holder, you should put more radius on the corners. If you matched the radius of the cup, for instance, I think it would pull the design together a bit more.
Also, you can get extra-thick vinyl cut that allows you to do masking with the sandblaster. You could etch in “Mike D” or something!!