Did you know the Wright brothers designed more than 200 different wings and airfold models for their gliders before they developed their flying machine? or that it took James Dyson five years and 5127 prototypes before he created the DC01, the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner?
Prototypes are an exciting and explorative phase of the development process and Arbortech CEO Kevin Inkster went on his own extensive prototype journey with Product Designer, Matt Cormack to finally develop the right design for the ever-popular Ball Gouge tool.
The Ball Gouge is the product of countless prototypes and experiments that often led to dead ends. All Kevin wanted to do was to design a tool that could cut willingly in any direction and leave a smooth cut without grabbing or catching.
Kevin and Matt played around with the idea of a cone-shaped mandrel, which unfortunately didn’t meet safety standards, before progressing through around 30 different designs from holes, slots and spirals, all of which had inherent problems.
They eventually realised that a disc set at an angle would scribe the perfect sphere. Throughout the process they coined the term ‘anti-grabbity’ after noticing that if they added a sphere to the tool it would reduce the exposure of the cutting blade and prevent the leading edge from ‘grabbing’. A feature that is unique to the Ball Gouge.
The tool not only cuts willingly in all directions, does not grab or catch and produces beautiful shavings, the rubbing of the trailing edge unexpectedly polishes and sharpens the edge making the tool self-sharpening!
Clever little ball gouge.