{"id":8176,"date":"2022-09-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/?p=8176"},"modified":"2022-09-16T08:06:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T12:06:24","slug":"kiwico-review-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/kiwico-review-1\/","title":{"rendered":"My First KiwiCo Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Since I first watched one of Mark Rober’s<\/a> glitter bomb videos, I’ve wished I could develop interesting things like that. However, with a background in arts, engineering is rather intimidating. When Mark first announced his engineering class, I desperately wanted to join, but wasn’t certain I’d be able to keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, then I started seeing ads for KiwiCo<\/a>. It seemed like it would be a good way to dip my toes in engineering. Perhaps it would also give me the confidence to try Mark’s class. I took a while to make up my mind, but I finally took the plunge a few weeks ago and ordered the Eureka Crate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Because it was my first order, my crate was shipped within a couple of days \u2014 future crates will ship on KiwiCo’s standard schedule \u2014 and it arrived in 4 days. Pretty good for coming from California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I shared my unboxing experience<\/a> on Instagram. KiwiCo clearly puts a lot of effort into the planning and packaging. The box was customized for this particular crate \u2014 Mechanical Lock Box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Top<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Front<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The number of items they managed to fit in the box impressed me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"showing<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And the pamphlet of information and instructions was phenomenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"the<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"a<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Parts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The individual parts and pieces were well-made and well-finished. None of the wood pieces had any splinters or problems. The edges appear to be burnt \u2014 maybe cut with a laser? \u2014 and are perfectly smooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Showing<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Creating the lock box took me about an hour and a half, including some intense finagling at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting it together was like making IKEA furniture on steroids. It was a step-by-step puzzle. The instructions, however, are more precise than IKEA instructions, and are divided into parts and steps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three parts: a) building the lock, b) building the door, and c) building the box. Each part has steps, interspersed with “Stop and Check” sections, and each step includes images and text. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The steps also make it very clear which parts you should use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Showing<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"showing<\/a><\/figure>\n
You can see how clear the images are. They perfectly match the parts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are a couple of steps where you’re basically advised to make sure that the put together piece isn’t too loose. Plastic washers are provided to help tighten things up. However, the instructions don’t provide a good definition of how tight or loose the parts should be. I think it’s telling that the only building problems I had were with those steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"showing<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Issues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, right at the end, I encountered some issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n