I wonder if this is a case where spending more money results in a worse product because the cheapest versions are essentially a solved design without any gimmicks or unproven design changes made to try justify a higher price/markup.

The main downside is that the slots are usually to narrow for bagels.

There aren't any infinite number of old toasters out there, but there's enough out there for everyone who wants to do the above.

- Toast is toasted on one end, un-toasted at the other.

- Control is just a timer, so the second time you use it twice in succession it will be hot at the start and will need a shorter time, which you have to figure out.

Check out the Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster (1949-1980), which is still considered the peak of toaster design.[2] It's repairable, too. Now replicating that would be a good project.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKbUNDPXCWk

[2] https://www.theverge.com/22801890/sunbeam-radiant-control-to...

Cheap toasters only last a few years before dying. Usually because someone jams it up then clumsily unjams it while damaging the element.

After going through a few toasters in quick succession I finally bought an expensive Dualit one. It's still going 25 years later. I changed the timer mechanism once which was a joy, and you can easily buy spare parts.

The Dualit cost over 10 times more than the cheap toasters though. I don't regret that purchase though and it has actually saved me money over the years and made much less landfill.

Funnily enough the toaster in this article looks quite like the Dualit. I don't suppose that is a coincidence!

How much work actually goes into the cheapest toaster the chap works to make every element from scratch into a toaster.

My experience with diy electronics is that most kit designers are super wary of even giving instruction on mains anything...so as not to be held liable.

A toaster is a great test case for learning about repairable design, but I can only imagine most people will only buy on average 1 or 2 toasters in their life.

Framework seems like they're tackling laptops, which to my gut feel like they're largely responsible for consumer waste.

I know the toaster is not explicitly open source but I've been lamenting the fact that such an incredible amount of energy is spent making things more accessible but most of those things are not what 'normal people' actually need.

For example I think there is a greater need for more open source couches, bikes, houses, clothing, etc than the need for, say, software that helps us coordinate containerized web infrastructure (from a social good perspective)

I think the author has done something wonderful and thoughtful here.

However, I think a toaster is probably the least complex and least risky kitchen appliance. There are quite a few kitchen appliances that I would not feel comfortable using if I had assembled them myself. Anything with spinning blades for example. Also I don't think anyone should be assembling a flat pack microwave, where doing it wrong could end in radiation leakage.

But still, it's a great idea for less risky things. I look forward to open source hair dryers. Those things burn out in no time

So imagine you make the depth of the toaster greater than the height (easy with those feet). You put a quarter inch radius on the top plate, make the front and back plate a half an inch shorter so they nest inside the top plate in the box. And in fact if you put locking tabs on the two plates to keep the front from oil canning, those would also fit in if you flip the plates the right way 'round in the box.

You can tell from the bolts in the picture that there are already right angle bends in the sheet metal. So they're already using the third dimension just not with as much flair.

It had two spring-loaded fold-up doors on each side which you put the toast on. Then they folder vertically to put the toast near the elements. Half way through you pulled down the doors, flipped the slices over and toasted the other half.

https://www.ronebergcairns.com/2006onwards/home06_026.html

Probably easier to construct that a pop-up

(I bought a Dualit after using one at a B&B many years ago -- I absolutely love it, though it really is a little overkill for making a few slices of toast each day. But it's a pleasure to use.)

Fun project, nice write-up, but not solving a problem that needs to be solved.

I try to be a BIFL type of person and am willing to pay a premium for items that will last. Occasionally I hit up against something like this toaster, though, which runs completely counter to my expectations of what makes an indestructible kitchen appliance.

That being said I would have started a project like this with researching why toasters end up in the trash. Is it because they break? (and if so which part?) Or is it because people get bored with the old design and want something new which fits their kitchen decoration better?

My suspicion is that there are garbage toasters not built to last. And then there are good quality toasters where the toaster probably could serve for decades. Maybe even hundreds of years with part replacements. But changes of taste, and design is what limits the lifetime of the second kind of toasters in reality not breakage.

But then again, toasters aren't exactly idiot proof (neither are most things in the kitchen) so I guess as long as that case has a low impedance path to the earth pin, and there aren't any exposed single insulated wires, I'd also be happy.

I think if I was making a toaster I'd be looking to this model rather than the slot model, simply because its simpler. Or, placing toast on a flat bed with a reflecting heat plate behind the element. That would work for far thicker toastable objects, and also refreshing pita &c.

So many ways to die. Very cool project btw.

We really do need to acknowledge that spending time taking things apart is a critical life skill. If you don't do it, you're forever a slave to buying new things.

Can it run doom by toasting a new frame per slice?

No idea what it is about toasters, other than their simplicity, but I really love the effort with the flatpack version.

I want to buy one for my lifetime

That's what is so infuriating when my products get copied by sellers from China or similar - they are taking all of the hundreds of hours of work that I put into a design and skipping that, going straight to the easy part of producing the finalized part.

Making the thing is the easy part - making up the thing is the hard part!

Products of the past did last longer because they weren't as cost-optimised yet. It seems similar to the story of the vastly over-build Volvo red block engines.

Yet, we don't live in a (global) society that cares about living consciously, to build things that last. If something lasts, we don't consume. And that's our true purpose. To consume the things that are produced.

Do we need 20+ brands of peanut butter? Why do brands even exist? Why can't we just but 'peanut butter'?

The word and our society is actually so strange, if you really think about this. By the way, did I mentioned yet, I really miss David Graeber?

edit: I'd buy one of these.

As someone without all the answers, it seems like only a heavyhanded degree of regulation could have any chance (e.g. high taxes on whole categories of devices with low/no repairability). Though perhaps in a trade apocalypse situation that may happen sooner than we think (such as total breakdown of trade with China) perhaps repair will suddenly be relevant. This is why, as I understand it, basically every car owner in Cuba is also a mechanic.

Of course, they had the benefit of having 1950s cars when trade barriers went up. We've got houses full of devices built and purchased with the understanding that you throw away anything with a plug or a battery within 5 years max!

Good bad so-so

I know a good recipe for toast.

That’s where I’d love to see more experimentation.

There’s a maker space in my old town where you can just take stuff and they’ll nerd out over helping you fix it. I wish there was that, but in a store format.

I want to live in a world where it’s just common parlance to say, “my toaster broke so I have to stop at the FixIt on my way home.

Yes yes, fixing it is too expensive to support this business model. I want to dream, okay?! Maybe a toaster like this makes it much more reasonable for cheaper appliances to be fixed by the summer student from high school who will learn invaluable skills for $15/hr. I would have killed to make min wage taking apart and doing basic repairs on stuff.

I mentor high school students who can CAD and fabricate plastic and metal parts. Surely we could fabricate more young people like that too.