aaron finkel portfolio

Micro-Biaxial TesterFor Heart Tissue

While working for the University of Texas at Austin, I was the lead designer for a device that would have to measure the physical properties of a 3x3 millimeters sample of heart tissue. In order to get all the data needed, the device had to be able to apply shear forces on the sample, requiring 12 actuators to act on the 9 square millimeters area without interfering with one another. While many design changes occurred during my work, including changing actuator types and main housing designs, the core of the design was fabricated before I had to return to school.

Aaron Finkel [email protected] (512) 363-7581

Working closely with one of the industry leaders for this type ofproduct, the Broken Token, I designed and fabricated an organizer for a complex modern board game.

Board Game Organizer

Beyond the classic board games everyone knows like Monopoly, there is a vibrant plethora

of board games being played by young adults everywhere. However, many of these games

have a large amount of pieces, card and tokens, which can get mixed up, taking players more

time to set up and pack away their game. Moreover, each of these games are

highly unique, with their own list of components and box

dimensions, meaning that each organizer has to

be made for each game.

The game that this organizer is for, Blood Bowl: Team Manager, is a game with a particularly large number of unique components. Additionally, the game has two expansions, which together double the number of components in the game. This organizer manages to squeeze all of these components snugly in the game's original box, while putting all components in the optimal place for setup, play, and take down.

As this product was designed with mass production in mind, good nesting of the organizer's parts was essential as well.


What does it do?

How doesit work?

3D Printer Filament Recycler

Motor Torque Calculations

For my capstone design project and the Georgia Institute of Technology, my team and I designed a 3D printer filament recycler. This project enabled our world class education in mechanical engineering to show itself.

The recycler takes failed prints and extra junk material and, through a processexplained on the left, creates ready to usespools of filament.

The recycler grinds up incoming plastic into small pellets. These pellets are fed into an extruder, which melts and fuses the pellets into a thin string of plastic, which is then cooled and wrapped along a spool inside the device.

To help our project along, we used the best tools at our disposal, such as a House of quality, Gantt Chart, evaluation matrix, and morph chart to lead us to the best product possible.

To make sure our device would have good longevity, we did finite element analysis (FEA) on key parts for kinetic and thermal deformation.

The project also involved complex engineering problems,such as the requirements of the extruder, which we had to design and fabricate ourselves.


Ergonomic Grip

Blunt strike point for breaking shell or bone

Concave bladefor rope or cord

Double bladed point for gutting

Ergonomic Grip Blade protrudesto act as hand hilt

Curved blade of a kukri formore comfortable swinging

Double edged tip of a Texas knifefor added utility and the ability to cut on the back stroke when clearing bursh

I wanted to create some uniqueknives that serve a specific functionextremely well over their conventional counterpart. To that end, I designedand made a knife ideal for fishing,and a knife ideal for clearing brush.

The knives were then cut out of scrapsteel sheets using a water jet.

The knives then have their edges grinded until they make a dull blade. Then, the knives are put in a furnace and kept at a dull orange glow forseveral hours. They are then heat treated by being quickly submergedin oil to create a hard carbon shell.

Once cleaned up, sharpened and polished, the heat treatinggives the knives a dark, semi-reflective look, and adds immensely to their durabilityand effective sharpness.

Fishing and Brush Knives


For a board game currently in development,I designed and fabricated the hexagonal tiles that made up the game’s board.

To help with the flow of the game, the designer wanted all the tiles to be oriented the same way during the game. To help subtly facilitate this, I drew each tile with rivers extending off the tiles. As seen to the right, when and only when the tiles are aligned properly, the riversconnect naturally to one another, making a coherent landscape.

The tiles were fabricated by putting the art for the tiles on a full page sticker with the image to the left printed on it stuck onto a thick, dense cardboard, along with a vector file outlining the hexagonal tiles on the print sheet. The cardboard is then put in a laser cutter/engraver, which vaporizes the cardboard along the edges of the tiles to cut them out.

The result are tiles that are virtually indistinguishable from those made by any major board game publisher.

Board Game Tiles


Folding Dagger(Patent Pending)

This design is the only folding knife with a blade longer than the handle when unfolded. It accomplishes this by having the bottom end of the handle collapse inwards as the blade comes out in the same fluid motion. moreover, taking advantage of the length of the folded knife, other tools have been added to the design, namely a hammer head, crow’s foot, and rope cutting loop. Additionally, the design has manufacturing in mind. All parts of the knife can be cut from the same steel plate.


While working at Tableaux, I worked on large commercial projects for the company, helping with all parts of the process, from design to manufacturing to shipping. Additionally, I was able to use my engineering skill often, designing ways to safely suspend and mount the Tableaux products.

Each Tableaux begins as a simple pattern such as the one I made here. Once drawings of all the parts and a quote has been approved, the manufacturing can begin.

The Tableaux are made by cutting MDF on CNC routers. For commercial orders, there can be upwards of 100 individual Tableaux, and even thousands of square feet. The project which the Tableaux to the right were for was one which, between two locations, required over 4000 square feet of Tableaux products.

Once sent off to their final location, the Tableaux are installed using instructions I wrote and illustrated for each project, as each (particularly each ceiling mounted piece) had a complex and unique method of installment. Once put in, the products I helped create decorate hotels, restaurants and banks everywhere.

Work With Tableaux


To create this triptych, I took a 3D rendering of a head and took cross sections of it in equal intervals (see to the right) from thefront, side, and top. Each cross section was then nested, cut using a laser cutter/engraver,then simply glued together to create each mask.

Wooden Mask Tryptych


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