Home-Made Silverware

Step 1: 3D Model

First we made a 3D model of the fork on google sketch up. It is very important to do this correct because a little mistake can ruin the entire 3D print. We used a real fork for reference and used tools like the "follow me" tool to correctly make the curves.

Step 2: Printing and Testing Our First Model

After printing our first complete model, we realized it had some flaws. The end of the prongs needed to be thin in order to pierce the food, but we left the rest of the fork the same thickness as the prongs. This made the fork too skinny and it broke into pieces when pressure was applied.

Step 3: Improving on Our Model

We decided to triple the thickness of our model to improve its structural strength but we did not want to compromise the forks ability to pierce food. We decided to taper the prongs down from three times the original thickness of the base of the prong to the original thickness at the point.

Step 4: Making the Wooden Spoon

We started by using the sawmill to cut a wooden rectangle out of a piece of redwood. We then used a handsaw to cut lines out of the wood up to the spoon tracing so we could chisel the pieces out. After this we chiseled away the squares one by one to get the shape of the spoon. We did this for all three axis of the spoon to make the edges, handle, and cup of the spoon.

Step 5: Finishing the Spoon

After we chiseled out all of the curved of the spoon, we used sandpaper and a sanding disk to smooth out the rough edges and bumps caused by the chisel.