Tea-Bird

The Tea-Bird: A New Way to Brew Your Tea

Inspired by how birds interact with a bird bath, I sought to design a new way to brew your tea. Here's how it works:

The bird, when standing alone, normally stands upright with a slight lean backwards. The tail-feathers would act as a counterweight to keep the bird in check. 

From here, the aspiring tea-drinker would place the mug of hot water in front of the bird and attach a tea bag to the bird's beak by slipping it through a small laser-cut slot. 

The tea-drinker then touches the tea bag lightly onto the surface of the hot water. Over time, as the tea bag gets progressively more saturated with water, it will begin to sink into the mug. This will result in the bird being lowered into the water slowly over time, making the tea brewing experience a dynamic one. 

Initial Sketches

2/4 Feedback: After our first in-class critique, I got great feedback from the TAs and professor. The professor mentioned that it might be difficult to get the physics to cooperate in order to pull off a working prototype, but he challenged me to see if I can make a design that mimics the bird "bobbing" behavior. He recommended experimenting with cardboard and other types of materials to determine what forces I'd be working against. 

Bird in Action

For additional advice, I also consulted friends who had taken advanced fabrication in the School of Drama. Something they mentioned that could be of use would be an adjustable counterweight that slides up and down the back of the bird, allowing the bird to adjust to the weight or become flexible enough to perform a "bobbing" behavior. The sliding counterweight would be similar to that of an old school balance. 

Something similar to this ^

Cardboard Prototype

Cardboard Prototype in Action!

-Insights-

Immediately, I noticed there were a few things that I would need to include in the next design, primarily some form of a counterweight system that would adjust as the weight of the teabag changed. I underestimated how much a dry teabag would weigh and the bird immediately sank when given the bag, a problem only exacerbated when the bag was wet. I had to quickly design a counterweight system (a makeshift box filled with eraser pieces) that allows the bird to sit up while holding a fully-saturated teabag.

In addition, I noticed that sometimes the viscosity of the tea makes it difficult for the bag to saturate quickly. This could be the way the teabag itself is designed (maybe it has some sort of wax coating preventing tea from getting out during packaging), but it was definitely something that surprised me during testing. This viscosity also made the process of bag saturation extremely slow. The bird did adjust its angle as predicted and sink over time, but it took forever. 

Also I've begun exploring different uses of acrylic. McMaster-Carr has been key in this exploration and I look forward to seeing what kinds of acrylic I can use to build a working design!

First Acrylic Prototype

Initial CAD sketch

First acrylic prototype! 

-Insights-

• The counterweight was a great idea but could use some tweaking. I'll continue experimenting to find an easier way to adjust the weight. 
• I added a removable coaster section that would allow the user to take the coaster and wash it off from any tea drippings. The next iteration will have a ring to catch any drips from the teabag.
• The bird also needs some sort of rod that can keep it from flying back when adjusting the weights. 

Final Design

The final model includes a removable drip tray and a bar that helped keep the bird from flailing about too much. The counterweight was sanded internally to be more easily movable and allow one to adjust the weight a little more easily. 

Bird in Action!

Final Thoughts

The bird behaves much better with the added rod restraint in place and is able to brew tea nicely in an aesthetically pleasing manner. The drip tray gives users the added benefit of a portable coaster that also acts as a drip tray when the tea is brewing. Users can also remove the drip tray and wash it easily in the sink for easy cleanup.

As an added bonus, users are able to remove and dispose of the used tea bag from the mug and bird without having to actually touch the bag (something I've always disliked as part of the tea process). Finally, an elegant way to brew and dispose of tea bags!

Easy clean up!