Origins of the clamshell

Mick created his own business called Town and Country Electric. In 1982 he and his team worked on the famous Baldwin Manor. The Baldwin Manor was built in 1843 and was the home of a practicing physician named Rev. Dwight Baldwin, who is well known for greatly assisting the people of Maui during the scourge of smallpox during the pandemic of 1853. The manor has held many exciting events and housed several celebrities. As Mick and his team began working on the estate, they began to encounter unexpected setbacks. ” My apprentice and I were perplexed at the rats’ nest of wiring underneath the kitchen of the main dwelling and were asked to restore power to the dining area for the carpenter’s power tools. Trying to make sense of how to solve the wiring problem without disconnecting all the circuit dangerously dangling under the floorboards, I decided all we needed was a gigantic junction box to enclose the exposed wire splicing done by a handyman without the proper junction boxes to make it legal. To fix this the legal way we would have had to have the power off for several hours and this wasn’t going to work out well with the carpenters so I grabbed my Sawzall box and made a few custom notches at each end and used some rubber insulation around the notches and stuffed it full off the wires and open-air splicing, screwed it to the floor joists and closed the lid The project manager was impressed with what we’d accomplished in 30 minutes without shutting down any power and saving several hours of downtime for the entire crew. It became known as the Clamshell fix and although it was a temporary fix at the time it encouraged me to try and make the Clamshell box a practical way to do splicing forever more without ever turning off power in critical situations and in a fraction of the time it would originally take doing this the old school way.”

Creating the product

Years later, he came in contact with Scott Nielson. Scott is an entrepreneur and loved seeing what Mick had come up created. “Scott has an energy about him and didn’t want to miss out on that, so I was on board from the start,” said Mick talking about Scott. Soon joined by Shane Jones, the team set out to conquer the clamshell electrical box. Scott and Shane have worked closely with Dixie State College’s Atwood Innovation Plaza. The plaza offers help from business and entrepreneur mentors. Entrepreneurs can receive help securing patents, trademarks, copyrights, and even prototyping their ideas. Mick received support from the plaza even though he was in Hawaii.
“Shane Jones was key at the plaza along with Scott. It’s in the right hands.” The design of the product is to be extremely easy to use. “I wanted to be able to use the box without any tools,” stated Mick. The plaza helped him receive a patent and create 3D printed prototypes. “There were a couple of times they would send me pictures of the prototypes, and they would have screw holes or clamps that required bolts, and I would have to tell them no, we need to change that, and they did.” Regular splicing would take hours to fix. You have to shut the power off to troubleshoot the wires and then go through, and wire nut them all. The outer box is made out of plastic so that it will not rust and corrode over time. Mick has created three size selections so the user can select a container that perfectly fits their needs. The clamshell takes seconds to feed the wires through each box end and close it. They are currently getting the UL number to sell the clamshell through warehouses such as Home Depot, Lowes, and even electrical supply houses.

Written by Noah Nielson

noah.nielson2@gmail.com

Noah Nielson grew up in Delta, Utah, with his parents and two brothers. Growing up with two brothers and in a small farm town, he quickly learned the definition of hard work. Noah encountered plenty of opportunities to get his hands dirty and serve others in his community. His hometown sparked a passion inside of him for patriotism and love for this beautiful country. Noah’s parents taught him precious lessons throughout his youth that have served him well into adulthood. He loves to play baseball and be in the mountains. His hobbies include hunting, fishing, and anything to do with cars. Noah attended Delta High School and participated in many sports throughout his time there. Upon graduation, he served a full-time mission for his church, “The Church of Jesus Christ.” Noah attended Snow College and later transferred to Dixie State University when he returned home. He loves telling stories and making other people laugh. Noah found a passion for writing and has enjoyed learning and growing. Some of his biggest goals in life are to provide for a family and to make his parents proud.