Tool 01
3D calculator · Work in progress
Sheet Metal Bending Calculator
Define flange lengths, thickness, bend angles, and radii. Rotate the generated part and calculate a flat pattern in inches or millimeters.
Mechanical Engineering Technology · Louisville, KY
Built to work.
Designed to last.
I’m Joseph Bartlett—a Purdue MET student with half a decade of hands-on manufacturing experience, building useful systems at the intersection of engineering, fabrication, and human need.
01 · Mechanical Design
02 · Manufacturing
03 · Human-Centered Engineering
00 About
Engineering shaped by the shop floor—and by the people who use what gets built.
Welcome to my engineering portfolio.
I’m a Sophomore Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) Student at Purdue Polytechnic New Albany, in the Louisville, KY area.
I’ve got half a decade in manufacturing and machine shops, a hobbyist background in electronics and computers, and when I’m not spending time with my wife and daughter, I’m busy smoking and cooking meat, and delving into medieval philosophy and theology.
SolidWorks 2024AutoCADSiemens NXTeamcenter3D PrintingBrake PressCNC
01 Featured case study
Human-centered engineering · Fall 2025
Parkinson’s Disease Treatment Gloves
72.81%
Improvement in System Usability Scale score
For my Purdue Class, MET 39200 Laboratory Assistant In Engineering Technology, I adapted an open source design for some Parkinson’s Disease Treatment Gloves from pdbuzzboard and iterated upon his design in order to test overall System Usability.
The Treatment Gloves and controller were evaluated using a System Usability Scale (SUS) and daily end-user audio reflections during two seven-day trials. Feedback from the first trial revealed significant usability issues, including loose wiring, limited portability, and discomfort during extended use, which directly informed a redesigned second iteration.
The revised system demonstrated a 72.81% improvement in SUS score, with the end user reporting enhanced durability, portability, and comfort due to features such as retractable cables, a compact enclosure, and belt clips. This feedback-driven design process produced measurable usability gains and establishes a repeatable model for integrating end-user input into engineering design education, with potential for future commercialization.
For the second iteration of the Gloves and Controller Box, I heavily utilized Solidworks 2024, a bit of AutoCAD, a Creality 3D Printer, and a Formlabs SLA Printer to make and design custom parts for the Gloves and enclosure for the Controller Box.
While I made the gloves for the sake of this class, my GPA, and all that—the real reason I built these gloves was to be a gift for my father, who not only has Parkinson’s Disease, but also was the end-user I tested them on over the course of the Fall semester of 2025.
Iteration 02
Upgrading the controller box
From loose wiring and limited portability to a compact, wearable, and serviceable system.
Baseline system
Original Gloves and Box
The first iteration established the electrical and mechanical baseline, while exposing the loose wiring and portability issues that shaped the redesign.
- Focus
- System baseline
- Method
- End-user trial
02 Engineering tools
Practical calculators, built from experience.
Two interactive 3D tools for planning bends, understanding geometry, and reducing shop-floor guesswork.
Tool 02
3D calculator
Pipe & Tube Bending Tool
Model round or square, solid or hollow profiles; add segments and centerline-radius bends; and calculate total centerline length.
03 Coursework
MFET 10301
Graphic Communication & Spatial Analysis
- Effectively utilize Siemens NX to model to design for change by infusing design intent through the use dimensioning schemes, parameters and design tables.
- Worked with a Product Data Management (PDM) system (Siemens Teamcenter) to support design, collaboration and geometry re-use to simulate an industry PLM setting.
- Followed Engineering Change Process leveraging Engineering Change Orders (ECO) and approval workflow in PDM to submit all work for course for evaluation and feedback.
04 Experience
Five years of making things real.
From rifle barrels and rotationally molded parts to ductwork, prototypes, and production sheet metal.
Brake Press Operator · Louisville, KY
Winston Industries
- Setup production runs of sheet metal parts and prototype one-off parts.
- Built a sheet metal bending program in Excel (from scratch), to estimate bend deductions and more precise bend lengths.
Below is a fully working Excel-based Sheet Metal Bend Calculator. I designed this when I worked at Winston Industries as a Brake Press Operator.
Simply choose your material thickness, the quantity of 90 degree or non-90 degree bends, the respective punch bend radius, and the lengths of the bends. With a bit of number crunching, you should be able either calculate the missing reference dimension of a sheet metal part, or what the difference between the calculated bent part is and what your particular CAD software calculates it to be.
I have saved 10 to 30 minutes per job by using this tool, saving me a lot of hassle and making the learning curve for operating a brake press just that bit easier.
Oct ’22—Jan ’23
Sheet Metal Apprentice
Precision Sheetmetal · Louisville, KY
Assisted Journeyman Sheetmetal workers with fabricating and assembling ductwork from flat sheets by hand and with plasma tables. Drove a flatbed truck to and from jobsites to pick up and deliver materials and consumables.
May ’22—Sept ’22
Plastic Fabricator
Jackson Kayak · Sparta, TN
Deburred and Assembled Rotationally Molded Plastic Parts, such as traffic barriers and kayaks. Used Routers and Deburring tools to shave off sprues and flashing from hot plastic parts. Checked tolerances with calipers and gauges.
Dec ’21—May ’22
Machine Shop Laborer
Jet Fab · Cookeville, TN
Ran the Metal Bandsaw. Operated CNC Mills. Sandblasted Parts. Helped out in the Black Oxide department. Dumped chips and cleaned the shop. Assisted in the setup of a powder coat building.
July ’20—Nov ’21
CNC Lathe Operator
ODIN Works · Boise, ID
Operated a Haas TL-1 Lathe to machine rifle barrels. Checked dimensions every ten parts with micrometers and adjusted offsets accordingly. Polished barrels with sanding pads and sandpaper, occasionally sanding out poorly machined parts for hours at a time. Cleaned up workstation and machine at the end of the shift.
05 Personal project
Rigging · Planning · Team leadership
Moved a 1920s Metal Lathe
3,000+lbs of solid cast iron, steel, brass & copper
4+weeks of planning, with hours and days of guesswork and study
I originally found this lathe in a local woodworking group. A widow was parting with her late husband’s belongings and was giving this Hendey metal lathe away for free—only issue, was that you had to move it yourself.
So I enlisted the help of friends, strangers, neighbors of the widow, help from online, and a tow truck driver—to move this machine up 6 inches to the floor of a garage with sketchy furniture dollies and a carjack, then bolted 4x4s to the feet, then carefully lifted it up onto a rollback tow truck, and followed the precarious load from southern Indiana, to my home in Louisville.
Or in brief, I:
- Learned about basic millwright and rigging work.
- Sourced a cost-effective machine tool.
- Hired and managed a hand-selected team.
- Utilized research methods and online communication.
- Demonstrated an aptitude for working with hand tools and heavy equipment safely.
- Oversaw every step of the process, from establishing a plan, sourcing materials, tools, and people; and safely executing it to completion.