The other part to my wood midterm project

This project  I was actually looking at the ware-boards from the CNC machine when I was designing this piece. It was influenced by a couple different city plans and is comprised of five pieces of wood that would ideally slot together to create an entryway piece, with a drawer for keys wallets, etc.

So it took some convincing, but Ed Felton caved and bought the wood studio a compact router. It does the same work as a normal router, but is smaller and purposely under-powered for detail work. I had to set up a fancy jig and network of clamps, but 20+ hours later, I had these fancy boards. I also did a lamination glue up with them prior to doing to work with the router, so that 1/2 inch of walnut is sandwiched between two thin pieces of red oak on either side. I set the depth of the router bit to cut through the red oak and expose the walnut to create contrast and emphasis the pattern.

Then I had to take the boards to the table saw and, using a dado blade, cut slots into each board so they would fit together. Messed up the first time around and ended up starting over (that wasn't the only reason I had to start over).. but with the help of the digital calipers I was able to do it really accurately and correctly.

And this is what it looked like all slotted together!

After that I built and installed the drawer.

(Blurry picture, but you can really see the contrast in woods here, after I applied the danish oil)

And then I built a frame for a mirror with my scraps from my first effort building the piece.

This handle was replaced with a wood one, and additions of ceramics were added (there's a hole pierced through the top board all the way to the right, its not visible really in this picture, but its for a small vase. A small change bowl lives on the lower left piece.) When the work is installed, the mirror hangs up and to the left of it.

Moral of the story: the CNC router probably would have changed my life if I had been able to use it.

My midterm project for Wood this semester was to build a project with a drawer, which would be assembled with hand-cut, see through dovetails. It took a lot of practice, patience and technical skill but I was really happy with what I did.

But now seeing the type of joints that are capable with CNC routing, I'm wondering how the project would have changed had I utilized something like this.

Now that I've been looking into CNC

I've realized that several of my past wood projects could have benefited from using the CNC router...

This was the table I made in basic wood design for the "free standing horizontal surface" project.

The table is composed of four parts that fit together to create a surface, and is made out of 3/4 inch plywood. Each leg contains 24 layers, which were individually cut, stacked and glued. The top pieces are comprised of four pieces. Each piece was cut on the band saw individually, stacked and glued together (a stack lamination). The legs were then attached (glued).

On the bottom of the two bottom pieces you can see I added a mortise and tenon joint for structure and stability. There are a handful of other ways that I could have made this table and I realize that now but if I had be able to use the CNC router to cut out the top pieces, each piece would have been more consistent and they'd all be identical. It would also be more accurate and the pieces would have a tighter cleaner fit.

I have also realized that if I wanted to continue to pursue ruler attachments that, like the T square, would slide onto the ruler, but allow the user to draw lines at an angle other than 90 degrees in respect to the table edge, it would not be as simple as I thought (obviously). My first attempt was to turn the extrusion with the gumball, which kept the dimension of the ruler slot the same. However, when the boolean difference removed the slot, I realized that the length of the top and bottom of the slot had changed. So I was wondering if there was a way to keep the length of the top and bottom the same, using the same original curve. And the only ways I could think of doing that would change the width of the slot in between the top and bottom (the sides would be closer together as a result). The only way I can think of doing it would be to draw the slot curve in multiples in a row and create a hollow surface with them and I'm not quite sure how to do that.

Also found this and was very intrigued..

from: http://www.flexiblestream.org/Digital-Wood-Joints-001.php

50 DIGITAL WOOD JOINTS

Jochen Gros

Wood Joints are fascinating! They embellish old furniture and wood constructions of ancient Japanese temples alike. Everytime we come across them, we are filled with admiration: Admiration for the skill of the master craftsman, as their creator, but also admiration for the balance between function and beauty, which turns the furniture or temple into a work of art.

With the onset of industrialisation, the traditional wood joints have been banned more and more to the background. Manufacturing has to be above all efficient, so there is no more room for traditional wood joints. Or is there?

As computer-controlled wood processing machines move into the cabinet-makers' workshops, the way two pieces of wood are joined together in a construction needs to be reconsidered. The digital wood joints were developed in the course of several years of research at the C...Lab of the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach, a project headed by Prof. Jochen Gros and Designer Friedrich Sulzer.

The result of this research are 50 digital wood joints, divided into frame joints, board joints and carcass joints. These wood joints are meant to inspire you, so that you will experiment and use them for your projects or develop your own digital woodjoints. We provide each wood joint in various data formats. Download the complete package (49MB) and you get them all including a PDF-Guide and suggestions for use. Or download only 4 examples and separately the instructions for these examples.

We are looking forward for the submission of your modifications and pictures of implementation.

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Arto from Finland has done some Davetone Mixcubes:

http://amazingdiy.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/davetone-mixcubes/

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Regrets before graduating..

I didn't get to use the CNC machine..






(it flexes and moves to adjust for the person sitting in it)


Topographically plywood

Reflections

After my struggle with my ruler attachment, I wonder if maybe there's a better way to approach this task outside of this class. I can't come up with a better material, I think that a good durable plastic would do the trick, but I wonder if there's a better way that eliminates the issues I ran into during printing. The only way to print the piece is with the bottom piece down, so that no support material blocks the slot. Additionally, I had to remove the top piece because it would require support material to print, and results in support material in the slot, both on the top and the bottom, and in the side pieces as well. Is there a way to change where the support material is added? Regardless, the print I have now work fine, but the one issue with printing with the bottom down is that it warps, which is unfortunate when that piece is supposed to be creating a straight edge. In other news, I wanted to add a level on it somewhere but I couldn't find any reliable, small bubble levels that would work for it.