Comically Large Spoon
Feb. - March 2022
Context:
A friend wanted to gift another friend a comically large spoon for their birthday present. They asked me to make one.
Planning:
I asked my friend how big "comically large" was and what material he wanted it made out of. He said that he would leave the size and material up to me. I could make the spoon out of metal or wood. I felt as though making it out of wood would be too easy and would not provide me with many benefits in terms of experience. So I decided to make the spoon out of metal and practice arc-welding, grinding metal and shaping the metal. I didn't put much thought into the process of making the spoon, much to my regret.
Implementation:
I started by visiting to machine shop to see what metal was available to use and what I could start with. After talking with the shop manager, I found some thin mild steel that I could cut and weld together into one piece that would serve as the bowl of the spoon.
For not having welded much, I did an "okay" job. The issue I found after welding, was how to bend the metal into the desired bowl shape for the spoon. To do so, I would need to weld the metal together better and hammer and grind the metal into shape.
At this point, I checked in with my friend to see if the size of this spoon-bowl would be okay. I sent the following picture and he said it looked good. Looking back, I should have put my hand in the photo to show a sense of scale. Because when I eventually showed him the spoon, he was pleasantly surprised that it was bigger than he was imaging from the photos.
For the next few days, I worked on welding the spoon-bowl to the mild steel rod and rounding any edges. Originally the tab on the spoon-bowl was where I was going to weld the two pieces together, but I decided against that due to how wide that would make the bowl compared to the spoon's overall length. I ended up with the following spoon (or should I say spatula?)
At this point, I checked in with my friend and he said it looked great and thanked me for the work I had put in. He then gave it to his friend and sent me the following picture. They named the spoon: "The shovel"
Lessons learned:
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Even for "simple" projects like this, it would help to make sketches and plan out the process of making the spoon before doing anything. Because I didn't do this, I ended up wasting time due to having to change my plan multiple times and creating more work for myself than was needed.
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When making a product for someone else, make sure to check in with them regularly on design decisions to make sure that it continues to match their needs/wants. I did this, but my communication could have been improved including adding a hand in my photos to show a sense of scale.
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I gained practice with using the band-saw, arc-welding, grinding metal, and sanding/polishing the metal.