Not that that takes away from the article at all. This project has many merits, and although cost may not be one of them, it’s still interesting!
This project seems to take its heating elements, clockwork timer and knob from a classic Dualit 2 Slice toaster - so those parts are all available off-the-shelf.
Other than that, this design needs some laser cut and bent metal, and some wooden feet. If you're able to bend the metal yourself and find some off-the-shelf feet, you could probably get the flat sheets of stainless steel laser cut and shipped for less than $100.
On the other hand, if one wanted a factory to do more demanding production processes, with more worker time or more machine setup - you're right that it would cost a good deal more.
I will say the OP’s design looks cool, it’s certainly an interesting exercise and portfolio item.
People claim they break, but I’m yet to find one that wasn’t fixed fairly easily. With the intention of selling, I sand and paint them. But then they are so beautiful I can’t.
Best are the models ‘Major’ and above. The air vents look so good. Who needs to grind 20kgs of beans per day? Not me, but I can do this 5 or 6 times over.
People usually do that to specifically indicate that it has a problem of some sort, so someone else doesn't assume it's working. Although with a toaster, just the act of flipping it around to cut the cord might dislodge whatever toast bits were causing it to smoke and such in the first place.
A label of "Broken" or "Works" or "Missing X" is so much more helpful for appliances left out.
Cheap and easy "factory" quality is probably PCBWAY or similar in China - they do more than PCBs these days. Call it "prototype" budget - several hundred dollars of parts instead of thousands.
Perhaps more interesting to the audience here is that Caleb Chamberlain, the CEO (and a college acquaintance of mine), writes a series of articles about running the business for the trade publication The Fabricator. You can find them here: https://www.thefabricator.com/author/caleb-chamberlain. He covers both business (operations, strategy) and technical aspects of running a highly automated small job metal fabrication shop.
Great website, love the video demo of using the siet.
Are far as low volume prototyping goes, sheet metal is as cost efficient as it gets for large metal parts. If you're sourcing from China, I'd estimate 500 bucks per prototype (with two sets in case one breaks).
This is a hobby project and there's nothing to suggest that the author wants to get in the business of selling toasters for a living... or that it would be wise for them to do so.
sending her designs out
(Edit: er, I mean s/ his/ her/. The thises are all intact.)
My parents literally have a toaster from the 70s that they still use. I have a toaster I bought 20 years ago. Toasters (usually) don't have e-waste. They are incredibly simple machines that are easy to buy without so much as a single diode. That's because they are really simply just a box with heating elements.
If you want to battle e-waste like the article suggests, maybe pick a product that doesn't already have a 50-year service life without the need for repairs.
On the flip side, modern toasters cost $10 and last nearly as long. Not everything needs to last forever, but I've never had a modern toaster wear out. You only think the old ones were reliable because they cost enough that people would pay to have them repaired. That and a huge helping of survivorship bias.
This claim can only be meaningfully examined in like 60 years, minimum, and I have my doubts. I've yet to see a 70s era toaster die, and have personally watched four modern toasters go into a dumpster in the last 25 years. Old toasters were reliable because consumers of the day wouldn't tolerate disposable crap which informed every aspect of material selection and design.
Still, I think this is a great portfolio piece. The designer should keep going, and amass a little collection of simple repairable appliances.
It wouldn't replace the toaster, because that fits on the windowsill and an air fryer would not.
I suppose it's that for some people but everyone I know with one also has a fullsized oven. They are used for different purposes and often you don't want to heat up your whole oven to warm up some fries for 10 minutes.
A toaster does only one thing and takes up space.
An air fryer or toaster oven does lots of things, and also makes toast.
That's why toaster oven makes very little sense for anyone except if they have a "big American kitchen" and want to fill their countertop.
Tiny kitchen here. I'd like to try an air-fryer, but for now my one table-top appliance is a instant pot. It is used daily.
If you have one of those, they (can) replace your toaster.
More houses probably have toasters than all the others combined, but toasters don't really wear out all that often. You buy one for $10 when you setup your household and it lasts a decade or more.
I'm due to buy a new one, because the supposedly decent one I bought less than 5 years ago isn't toasting properly, and either burns the toast or does nothing despite adjusting the dial.
I haven't seen a toaster oven big enough for my family, and we otherwise have an excellent oven with convection features.
I was thinking about an electronic toothbrush, or a kettle?
An electric toothbrush would be good. There are a few parts that could fall, the battery in particular.
Cheap temu-junk doesn't end up in thrift stores. Or, if it does, is easily filtered out. If I see a toaster that looks well used and/or aged, I can be certain it has at least proven to last a while and actual use.
It's also why I buy refurbished washing machine, refridgerators, etc: a refurbisher commonly won't refurbish stuff that's hard to repair: their economics prefer stuff that's sturdy, easy and cheap to repair. Win win win.