ChopDock: Why I prototype myself

Sometimes a design is a little too complicated to pull off. You either need to find the perfect production partner, pivot and simplify the design, or shelve the idea.

The previous ChopDock design was more complicated than I knew. I only realized it when I decided to machine it myself, and that turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to the design.

The idea behind ChopDock

The board you use every day should carry the knife you reach for most. The ChopDock is a cutting board with a dedicated home for your chef knife built into it. No knife block taking up counter space. No loose knives in the drawer.

It's the same idea behind everything Sanctum makes: more utility per square inch, and no dead space.

The manufacturers said no

I prototype with several manufacturers at once. It costs more, but it's the fastest way to find out who can actually build something and who adds value to the project. Some took on the first ChopDock, then backed out. One put it plainly: it's too complicated, and they didn't have the confidence to do it well.

That stung, but it was also fair and honest.

So I upgraded the CNC

Last month I upgraded my CNC machine and set to work building my own prototype, to get it done properly. If nobody else could make the board yet, I'd make it myself.

Halfway through finishing the version I'd shown publicly, I realized the design had to change. Not the look, but how it's built. 30 hours of programming in Fusion 360 will either drive you mad or push you just enough to go back to the drawing board. With the new design in hand, I finished programming the current version and queued the simpler one behind it.

What cutting it myself taught me

When you make every part yourself, every unnecessary step costs you, personally, in time on the machine. You feel each one.

When you're gluing parts together, or struggling to fit bolts into tight spaces, you're suddenly motivated to simplify or reduce the part count. Before you know it, a board that needed 23 CNC operations and 7 assembly steps needs 5 operations and 3 steps. True story. It's shedding weight too.

A factory would have just quoted the complicated version. Making it myself showed me what to cut and how it could be simpler still. Now, the simpler version will be that much easier for a manufacturer to get behind.

This is the part of design I love most: solving real-world problems, racking my brain late into the night, and dialling in prototypes until it appears to be perfect... for now. It can be very complex to simplify a product, but it's always worth it, and you have to do it in stages because there is always room for improvement.

Prototype it yourself first

I always tell people to make a prototype on their end first... I should have listened to myself. Yes, it's more work, and you may not know how to pull it off. But it will always save you time and money in the end. You're more invested, you're better equipped to speak with manufacturers, and they take you more seriously. You learn what it takes to make it, and you end up with a higher quality product and a simpler design. Either way, you'll learn a lot as a designer, and that stays with you.

Major setbacks can seem catastrophic, but more often they provide the pressure needed for a major breakthrough.

Thanksgiving, at full service

The board is mid-makeover. The knife isn't. At our Thanksgiving dinner here in Canada, I put the bunka through its paces anyway. A holiday dinner is a good test: hours of prep, and no time to baby the knife. It handled all of it, from chopping veggies to carving the turkey and ham and getting into the nooks and crannies around the bones. It was especially handy picking up big quantities of fresh chopped veggies or turkey and transferring it to another bowl to clear the work surface.

What's next

The simpler version is next on the machine. Once it's right, I'll take it back to every manufacturer I've worked with, including the ones that said no. A Kickstarter is the plan after that.

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