It might be a while until Philly sees as much snow as it did during last month’s blizzard, but now you can be ready for it with Shovelution.
Recently named the “Best New Tool” by Popular Mechanics, the snow shovel add-on was designed at NextFab by former software and systems engineer Howie Rosenshine. Now the 57-year-old Downington resident’s day job is “designing, testing, manufacturing, assembling, marketing and selling the Shovelution.”
Here’s the deal.
The Shovelution is a spring-loaded second handle for your snow shovel. It can be attached to any shovel and adjusted for your height and comfort. The idea is that using the Shovelution will alleviate the strain on your lower back and allow you too utilize your upper body instead. You can see it in action below.
The Shovelution is completely assembled in the States, using almost all American suppliers for the final product. One fun fact is the steel pieces for the Shovelution are manufactured by Frazer, Pa.-based James Spring & Wire, whose founder was the inventor of the Slinky.
Rosenshine gives NextFab, the prototyping and workshop center on Washington Avenue, a lot of credit.
Rosenshine, whose background is in computer science and cellular biology, found a wealth of resources at NextFab.
“The primary machining tool that I use is the Bridgeport vertical mill. Of course, I use things like the industrial band saws and metal grinders too,” Rosenshine told Technical.ly in describing his prototyping process. “I do a lot of 3D printing, using both the commercial-grade 3D printers (Stratasys) and the consumer-grade 3D printers (Bukito). And I use the Solidworks and Photoshop workstations as well.”
Rosenshine aims to get to NextFab once a week, but inevitably things get busy for the entrepreneur. You can get your own Shovelution here.
