Paul Stockhoff Portfolio

PAUL C. STOCKHOFF FABRICATOR. DESIGNER. PROGRAMMER.

PAUL C. STOCKHOFF FABRICATOR. DESIGNER. PROGRAMMER.

PROJECTS PORTRAYED 01 BUILT DESIGN BUILD: AURARIA BIKE SHELTERS DESIGN BUILD: COTTONWOOD GULCH CABINS STEEL BREADBOARD TABLE COWORKING FURNITURE LASER LAB BUILT-IN FIXTURING TABLES SHOP SLIDING DOORS MEDICAL CASE PROTOTYPES KERF BENCHES DANIEL STOWE PLAY AREA HYBRID SKINS ROBOTIC METAL FORMING

02 COMPUTATIONAL DIAGRID GENERATOR WAFFLE GENERATOR INTERFACE AUGMENTED REALITY INTERFACE SPECIAL TOPICS TEACHING

01

BUILT

RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL BUILT WORK

DESIGN BUILD AURARIA BIKE SHELTERS Date of Completion Fall 2020

Collaborators Colorado Building Workshop

Software Rhino RhinoCAM

Machines CNC Plasma CNC Router

Working with Colorado Building Workshop at the University of Colorado Denver two bike shelters were constructed on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver. My part of the project focused on fabricating all of the steel louvers, paint, CNC plasma cutting signage, and the design, build, and installation of three offset pivot doors. I worked with two other instructors and approximately 25 students to construct these two structures. The structures are constructed from a combination of steel, limestone, and cross laminated timber.

The structures house both bike and skateboard storage that is key card access controlled.

Security and theft-prevention were two areas of focus. Numerous prototypes and mock-ups where created to explore ideas, and to teach students different fabrication methods. During the construction of both of these structures the CNC plasma cutter and CNC router were used heavily to cut parts and fixtures. It was not uncommon to go from sketch to finished parts in just hours so that timelines could be kept.

DESIGN BUILD COTTONWOOD GULCH CABINS Date of Completion Spring 2019

Collaborators Colorado Building Workshop

Software Rhino

Machines CNC Router

Assisting Colorado Building Workshop with the construction of six cabins and an outdoor kitchen located in New Mexico I was tasked with working with anything metal or CNC milled.

This included helping in the fabrication of steel flitch plates for the structural system, TIG welding aluminum window surrounds, and CNC milling all of the concrete form work.

Besides engaging with fabrication I worked with students on how to prototype ideas which included 3D printing window extrusions for mock-ups. Additionally, I worked with students to help insure a safe operation while in the fabrication lab. Lastly, I worked on helping load out the entire project so that it could be trucked from Colorado to New Mexico.

STEEL BREADBOARD TABLE ELM AND STEEL Date of Completion Spring 2018

Collaborators Where Wood Meets Steel

Software Rhino

While working as designer at Where Wood Meets Steel I designed a dining room table that had steel breadboards instead of traditional wood. As with traditional breadboards consideration was given to how the book-matched elm slabs would move in relationship to the black powder coated bread boards. A full steel frame supports both the wood and steel ends to help prevent any sagging or warping over time. Besides the design I also worked on the final fit-up, and installation of the piece.

COWORKING WALNUT FURNITURE AND STEEL This collection of furniture was all custom designed, built, and installed for a large co-working space in Denver. The collection of work was designed with the common material pallet of walnut and black powder coated steel. Design of the pieces included the integration of power, planter boxes, and the ability to be broken down and moved to the third floor without the use of a freight elevator.

Care was given to the designs so that parts could be inter-changed between the different pieces of furniture as each design was replaced several times. Each piece was modeled to down to the nut and bolt to ensure proper fit of each piece. Additionally, adjustment was designed into almost every connection to help insure a high help of finish and fit-up upon installation.

Date of Completion Spring 2018

Collaborators Where Wood Meets Steel

Software Rhino

LASER LAB BUILT-IN SALVAGED 30 YEAR OLD OAK Date of Completion Summer 2016

Collaborators Alex Cabral

Software Rhinoceros

This project is a built-in counter with underneath storage for materials used in the University of North Carolina - Charlotte laser cutting lab. The desk is 14ft long and constructed from white oak that was harvested from trees toppled by Hurricane Hugo. A tube steel frame supports and anchors the piece to the wall. Long term hidden storage for replacement laser parts is located at the end of the counter. The counter lifts up to access this storage, as seen in the bottom right photo.

The counter-top is constructed from 2 1/4” wide strips of white oak which uses a combination of splines and biscuits to attach the pieces together. This width was decided on to help maximize the amount of usable material from the boards. Power and data cables are run underneath the counter to allow for a neat surface to be presented to users.

FIXTURING TABLES CUSTOM SHOP INFRASTRUCTURE Date of Completion Spring 2018

Collaborators Where Wood Meets Steel

Software Rhino Grasshopper

The fixturing table was a much needed upgrade that was designed and custom built for the metal side of a furniture shop. Clamps and stops can be added and removed with in seconds to allow for quick set up of different projects. The two tables and joiner blocks utilize off the shelf clamps and othering fixturing devices.

The tables themselves are sized to accommodate any of the common size table frames that shop built. Additionally, the tables can be separated if two smaller projects are being worked on. Lastly, the joiner blocks between the two square holes are designed for a mag drill to be used on the table with out drilling into the table.

SHOP SLIDING DOORS STEEL AND MDF Three steel barn doors were constructed to enclose the space that housed a CNC router table. Tube steel frames were hung from a custom overhead track system. CNC plasma cut steel plates sandwich either layered plexiglass and painted MDF or foam which were attached to the frames.

The doors contained both noise and dust to the CNC router table space in a unique yet functional way.

Date of Completion Spring 2014

Collaborators Matthew Gines Steven Mora

Software Rhinoceros Grasshopper RhinoCAM Torchmate VMD

Machines CNC Router CNC Plasma Cutter

MEDICAL CASE PROTOTYPES MILLED THERMAL FORMING MOLDS Date of Completion Summer 2015

Produced For SAVSU

Software Rhinoceros RhinoCAM

Machines 3 Axis CNC Router

Thermal regulation of vaccines and tissue samples during shipment is critical to ensure that they arrive in good condition. To help ensure that viable content is delivered special cold pack and payload containers were designed to handle such fragile and sensitive cargo. This work was done by CNC milling molds accurate to .001th of an inch. These molds were later formed by a thermal forming machine.

By utilizing the accuracy of the router and customizing the molds, molded parts were able to snap and hold together without adhesive. During the course of this work approximately 50 molds were constructed and tested. This allowed for an in depth investigation of how to design, stage, prep, and program parts.

KERF BENCHES BENT PLYWOOD BENCHES Date of Completion Spring 2015

Instructor Chris Beorkrem

Collaborators Marc Remesi

Software Rhinoceros Grasshopper RhinoCAM

Machines CNC Router

The Kerf Bench consisted of exploration into determining the bending limits of 3/4” poplar 5 ply plywood, and how bending could be used to create furniture. Additional exploration into how those pieces of furniture could be joined together into a larger installation was also done.

Both full and partial scale mock-ups were constructed to determine limits of the material along with how best to cut the material.

Once a final design was reached, iterations in cut sheet layouts along with CAM tweaking took place. The goal of this was to be able to cut as many benches as quickly as possible while ensuring the pieces were of high quality. For example, the kerfed section of the bench required the tool path to be slowed down enough to prevent the kerfs from blowing out during cutting. Once the procedure for writing the CAM was established the benches were able to be produced without any hiccups.

With the benches milled, sets of three benches were joined together into pods. The pods had articulating joints which allowed for an angle to be set and locked into place. A pair of overlapping catenary arches were created with the pods.

48 Inches

48 Inches

96 Inches

96 Inches

DANIEL STOWE PLAY AREA ROBOT STACKED PLAYHOUSE Date of Completion Spring 2016

Collaborators Chris Beorkrem Marlee McCall Andrew Beres Ashley Damiano

Software Rhinoceros Grasshopper Kuka PRC

Machines Kuka KR-60HA

The playhouse at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens was created by using a industrial robotic arm to precisely stack thousands of 2x4s into chunks of 100 pieces. After each brick was laid it would then be fixed in place by a nail gun operated by a student. Once all the chunks were completed at the school, they were trucked out to the site and knocked together in a configuration similar to a set of interlaced fingers.

The design of the playhouse was created entirely in Grasshopper minus a set of base curves, which were fed into the script. The script allowed for control over the distance between bricks, size of bricks, angle of brick, and how tall each wall should be. Within that script was also a section that wrote all the routines for the robotic arm to run. For that to work the robot work cell was modeled including a conveyor belt which fed bricks to the robot.

HYBRID SKINS PORCELAIN AND COMPOSITE Date of Completion Summer 2016

Collaborators Jefferson Ellinger Thomas Schmidt

Software Rhinoceros Grasshopper Kuka PRC

Machines Kuka KR60

Hybrid Skins was a collaboration between both people and material with the goal of using fiberglass as a method to support and rejoin broken porcelain. It was determined that custom molds were needed to achieve this goal, and at that time I was asked to join the team. I produced two sets of five metal molds, with a robotic arm. The molds had plaster poured into them and then those molds were used to slip cast the porcelain. The porcelain was cast to 3/16” thick and then fired. During firing, due to the thin nature of the pieces, they would often crack and deform.

Once fired the pieces were placed into smaller molds to support them while fiberglass was applied to the back. Also during this time additional cracking was preformed to help insure a consistent tile was created. Once complete, the tiles had cleats and LED lights attached to their backs and hung. The project was on exhibit at Projective Eye Gallery during the Summer of 2016. A smaller collection is now on permanent display at the UNC Charlotte School of Architecture building.

ROBOTIC METAL FORMING DES-COMP GRADUATE THESIS Date of Completion Spring 2017

Thesis Committee Chris Beorkrem David Thaddeus Srinivas Akella

Software Rhinoceros Grasshopper Kuka PRC

Machines Kuka KR-60HA CNC Plasma Cutter

For my graduate thesis, which is required to satisfy both degrees, I am investigating how to embed material and geometrical constraints into a digital tool to help designers design buildable structures. The thesis focuses in on forming 20 gauge sheet panels with a robotic arm with a ball bearing like stylus attached at its end which pushes in .3mm per pass. The material is only held at the top and bottom, which allows for the material to stretch more and be formed to a greater degree.

By understanding how the panel forms and how it differs from the intended geometry a digital tool can be created that makes adjustments to both tool path and sheet metal blank to account for those variables. By adjusting both the tool path and sheet metal blank accurate and predictable panels can be created.

With this information then it will be possible to create panels that then can be joined together into a larger installation. The seams between panels should have little to no gap, this is important to display the mastering of the metal forming process.

3/8” Ball Bearing 11/32” Magnet

80 Degree Work Angle

1/2” Cold Rolled Steel Rod

1/2” ER32 Collet

M8 Allen Head Bolt

3/8” Plate Adapter

Tool Plate “B”

02

COMPUTATIONAL

DESIGNER AND TEACHER OF COMPUTATIONAL WORK

DIAGRID GENERATOR SINGLE LINE INPUT Date of Completion Spring 2016

Instructors Trevor Hess Steven Danilowicz

Collaborators Noushin Radnia Alireza Karduni Christian Sjoberg

Software

The diagrid generator takes in a single line from Rhinoceros and is then able to create an entire building section from it. A diagrid is a complex type of structural system for buildings.

The generator is created in Grasshopper with standard components along with custom components written in Python. The generator uses a series of sliders to control all the different parameters of diagrid structure.

This generator allows for a single, simple input to be the driver of a complex system which can be altered in many ways with easy to use sliders. This also allows for mass customization on an entire structural system which can be depended on aesthetics, structural need, and floor-to-ceiling height requirements.

Rhinoceros Grasshopper LunchBox Python

Diagrid Generator

Input Curve

Width of I Beam

_ _ _|_ _ _ _ _

Height of I Beam

_ _ _ _ _ _ _|_

Length of I Beam

_ _ _ _|_ _ _ _

Flange Thickness

_ _ _|_ _ _ _ _

Spine Thickness

_|_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Bottom Dim. Decking

_ _ _ _ _ _ _|_

Height of Decking

_ _|_ _ _ _ _ _

Top Dim. Decking

_ _ _ _ _ _|_ _

Number of Valleys

_ _ _ _|_ _ _ _

Height of Edge Beam

_ _ _|_ _ _ _ _

Width of Edge Beam

_|_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Radius of Diagrid

_ _|_ _ _ _ _ _

Floor Height

_ _ _|_ _ _ _ _

Number of Floors

_ _ _ _ _ _|_ _

Glass Offset

_ _ _ _ _ _ _|_

Mullion Width

_ _ _ _ _ _|_ _

Mullion Depth

_ _|__ _ _ _ _

Depth of Screen

_ _ _|_ _ _ _ _

Random For Screen

_ _ _ _ _|_ _ _

Glass Thickness

_ _ _|_ _ _ _ _

Output

WAFFLE MAKER RAPID PROTOTYPE MAKER Waffle Maker was created during a rapid interface prototyping class. The interface is a prototype of a piece of software that supports rapid prototyping of physical surfaces by waffling the surface into two dimensional pieces which then can be either CNC milled or laser cut.

The interface uses Rhinoceros and Grasshopper to run and Human UI, a plug-in for Grasshopper to create a more user friendly interface. Human UI allows for a designer to clean up Grasshopper’s interface and package it into a more clear and presentation ready interface.

The interface loads a 3DM file where a surface is selected and then sliders are used to control the amount and size of the waffle generated. From there the interface lays out the pieces onto cut sheets where colors can be selected for later CAM use. Lastly, a 3DM file can be exported with the cut sheets.

Date of Completion Fall 2016

Instructor David Wilson

Software Rhinoceros Grasshopper Human Human UI LunchBox

AUGMENTED REALITY HOLOLENS DEVELOPMENT AND INTERFACE DESIGN Date of Completion Fall 2016

Instructor Eric Sauda

Collaborators Alireza Karduni, Christian Sjoberg

Software Rhinoceros Illustrator Powerpoint Unity Visual Studio, C# Revit

This project took place in a joint studio between Master of Architecture students and DESCOMP (dual degree) students, the implications of augmented reality in architecture were explored. The semester started with learning the work flow on how to program and use a Hololens augmented reality device. From there architecture students proposed augmented reality interactions that would be useful in their designed museums. At that time DES-COMP students worked to program a Hololens with those interactions to simulate the experience.

As the semester progressed it was realized that a tool was needed for the architecture students to be able to show both their museum design and augmented reality schemes. Using the tools learned to program the Hololens a program was written using Unity to import Revit and Rhino models and program simulated augmented reality interactions.

This program allowed a user to walk through in real time and interact with the building as if they had a Hololens on. Videos of the designed interface and programmed interactions can be found in the link at the bottom of the page.

SPECIAL TOPICS TEACHING RHINO AND GRASSHOPPER While teaching both Rhino and Grasshopper courses I focus on the workflow and the path a student might take to get their project to that next step. That might mean pushing to a plotter, CNC router, 3D printer, or laser cutter. There is an emphasis on tackling real life problems and how students might integrate the software into how they design. While it is important for students to know features of the software I focus on the larger workflows and driving home the principles so that students may tackle any problem in the software.

In the Grasshopper course there is a focus on how to setup problems and how to start solving them. Students work in teams almost every class on different problem-solving exercises so they get comfortable with solving what looks to be a complex problem. They are guided on developing a different lens on how to view problem solving with the tools within Grasshopper. I make sure to tie back on how Grasshopper can be a force multiplier and it can be leveraged to make dredge work become fun and exciting. I show students how to build robust scripts once so they can be used many times over.

Lastly, teaching both pieces of software it has caused me to develop a very clear understanding on how to navigate the software, troubleshoot problems, and how to guide a student to a final product. Along the way I have learned and seen numerous ways to approach different design problems. With that exposure I am able showcase how powerful Rhino and Grasshopper is to students and their ability to connect numerous other tools like 3D scanners and digital fabrication equipment.

Student Project: House Boat

Student Project: Apollo 11 Capsule Door

Student Project: Eames Chair

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND CONSIDERATION, PAUL C. STOCKHOFF