Liquid Level Gimbal

Prototyping should be quick

My older brother called me up one day frustrated that he was burning his tongue on the hot coffee that he would sip while driving.  On one hand he loves coffee and would like to drink it - not sip it through a narrow hole in a lid.  While on the other hand he also did not want to spill it.  Of course, I told him to sip slower and be patient.  He wanted the top surface, and maybe 1 cm down, to cool off more quickly so that he could take drinks.  He did not want cold coffee and he did not want to spill while driving.  Being a novice videographer he had an idea of what he wanted. He asked for a camera gimbal but for his coffee.  I knew exactly what he meant.  I prioritized geometry that would be easy to 3D print and came up with this. 

It seemed like an over-engineered solution when the world has gotten by with cheap lids up to this point.  I pushed back and told him it was silly.  But he is my brother and I like making things so I made a simple liquid leveling gimbal for him. After some testing in my car I decided it needed a lower friction interface to slide along.  So I added four strips of polyethylene tape down the dome to promote the smooth sliding action.  After a quick re-test I shipped it out to him. 

Where he promptly forgot all about it because the nuisance wasn’t that big of an annoyance after all.  Or at least the solution wasn’t more convenient than the problem.  Oh well, it still kept me thinking and learning.