Have you ever wanted to make hot chocolate.... only you were really, really, lazy? Too lazy to twirl a spoon??? One day I found myself in exactly such a predicament, and that set in motion a long series of events that resulted in the engineering precision that is SpünSpoon.

First, a bit more about me.  I'm an engineer by training and trade, but my passion is in stupid ideas. The stupider the idea, the deeper I fall down that rabbit hole, working late into the early hours. Recently, I've been leading the BattleBots team for Doomba - a 250 pound vacuum cleaner designed to destroy other robots. 

Our Battlebot - Proudly wearing the SpünSpoon Logo!

Back to our story: In my pursuit of lazy hot chocolate, I spent an hour sanding the handle of a spoon so it would lock into my impact wrench. It was dumb, but every day I enjoyed my hot chocolate a little bit more because it was made with my fancy spoon. Shortly thereafter, my employer announced a contest for new powertool accessories! Entirely as a joke, I 3D modeled and submitted the very first SpünSpoon with an industry-standard handle - which will lock into any drill, wrench, or screwdriver -  and to my surprise, they were interested. Very interested. I went to meeting after meeting about this joke spoon. "Can it be used to mix paint? What about epoxy?" they asked, "Can we optimize the geometry for increased turbidity?"

"Of Course?" ... But they entirely missed the point of the SpünSpoon, which is first and foremost being a great spoon. If it's not a spoon, why bother? And so after months of research they cancelled the project. My Hackerspace friends were interested though, they wanted Spüns. One of our members, Jason, had already made a foray into the power-tool kitchen-hack market, and he convinced me to get my employer to sign a release. And now I can make whatever stupid spoon I feel like without being sued, even though I'm going rogue within their market segment. 

1: 3D printed, PLA. Our first prototype - proved the idea works (2017)
2: Welded metal prototype - feels right, but looks ugly  (2018)
3: 3D printed, Steel - Great geometry, but far too expensive (2019)
4: First manufacturing test piece - Balanced, but will not lock into tools (Sept 2022)
5: Second test piece - Lockup is great, but no longer balanced (March 2023)
6: Final test piece - Locks, balanced, but dull surface finish (April 2023)

And now... Here's where we doubled down. Our BattleBot team motto is "TryHard the DumbStuff".  And we absolutely spent far too much time perfecting this spoon. Our 3d model was good, but was it great? Could it be better? We hired a mechanical engineer to review it for us.  We spent <checks calendar> literally a year, iterating until it was axially balanced in our drills, balanced in our hands, and felt right in our mouths. CAD models became 3d prints, and once we were close, we printed steel prototypes. You know how pen nerds will heft a thousand-dollar pen and throw it away because it's not quite right? We threw away thousand-dollar spoon prototypes, refining our design until it felt just right. 

Then it was time to manufacture: Jason traveled the world visiting fabs and facilities, searching for the one that could combine power-tool precision with high-end dining utensil finish. There were several who could do it if we wanted to pay hundreds per spoon, but we wanted to be able to share this try-hard stupidity with all our friends. And finally, right as the world locked-down, we found our shop.

Covid-19 was a struggle for all of us, and SpünSpoon was no exception. Unable to interact in person, we negotiated through google-translate and shipped multiple rounds of prototypes across the world until we finally got the spoon dialed in.  The perfect spün, with a precision-machined shank,  ideal balance, and exquisite feel in hand and mouth. All manufactured for a price where we could share with our friends. The only catch? We needed to buy 5000 of them, cash up front.

So we did it. BattleBots taught me to spend tens of thousands of dollars on hope and a dream, and Jason had Scrubza money he could invest... so we gambled on these spoons and hoped for the best.  

Final manufacturing prototypes, and the last moment we could back out: "Are we really investing 5 figures on spoons?"

And we got the best. Our first shipment came in the next month, and they're literally perfect. We hand-inspected all of them. Balance, Feel, Finish... all spot-on.  But more importantly... they're funny. Handing a SpünSpoon to a tool-guy with no explanation is always hilarious, and they never want to hand it back. Finally, we were ready for KickStarter. We released our spoons to the world, hoping we could sell a hundred. The response was overwhelming, and we sold almost a thousand in a single month! But our backers wanted more, they wanted sporks. As always, we doubled down. We sent technical drawings to a friend who is a professional machinist, and he produced 200 sporks for us the next day. Even though there was only a week left in the KickStarter, we sold our entire stock of sporks. (Don’t worry, he’s hard at work sporking more spoons so we can offer you the same ridiculousness)

Today, after dozens of prototypes and years of development, you can get your very own SpünSpoon for your drill. And if you're not convinced, check out our informercial to see SpünSpoon in action!