Waiting Cubes

Process Journal

Rose Fan

Table of Contents

Experiments

06 - 51

Folding - Workshop Twisting - Laser Cutter Hinging - 3D Printing Joints

Prototyping

06 16 32 40

-

15 31 39 51

52 - 87

Material - Material Production CNC Milling/Hand Sanding Milling

52 - 73 74 - 87

Design Iterations I

88 - 131

Full Scale Prototype

132 - 139

Design Iterations II

140 - 223

Iterations II Re-Adressing the form

140 - 163 164 - 223

Final Process

224 - 257

Image - Bauke Knottnerus, Phat Knit Gradient and Giant.

Reference: http://baukeknottnerus.nl/index. php?/project/phat-knits/

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

week Zero Experiments - Folding - Workshop

Experiments Folding

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Folding is a exercise where a sheet material is transformed three dimensionally into another form.

Precedent -Taking inspiration from Bauke Knottnerus’ Phat Knit,Phat Knit was a project for a KnitWear in Fashion exhibition. Using giant sized yarn, a small group of three people physically knitted giant projects. These objects, where able to be used as chairs and beds.

Image - Bauke Knottnerus, Phat Knit Gradient and Giant.

Reference: http://baukeknottnerus.nl/index. php?/project/phat-knits/

Experiments - Folding - Workshop

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

I decided to look in unconventional forms of folding away from the architecturally common timber based products (such as paper, ply wood, timber) and look into fabric materials.

Using a cotton weave and a quilting technique called Smocking, I was able to create a highly textured fabric from this technique.

From this step, I tested the technique out on lighter fabrics as well as different patterns.

After playing with these pieces it became obvious sometime in the future I should cast these items and make them into moulds to see where these could take me.

Image - Smocking Technique

Experiments - Folding - Workshop

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal Image - Smocking Technique heavy material, different patterns made from different combinations of sewn nodes

Experiments - Folding - Workshop

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal Image - Smocking Technique transparent white organza

Experiments - Folding - Workshop

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Week One

Experiments - Twisting - Laser Cutter

Experiments Twisting

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Twisting - Both physically and Mentally is a unique chance to look at material use differently.

Using the Laser cutter, I decided to cut out a repetitive shape, in combination with industrial felt, it was my hope that the pieces with teeth would hold the felt in a twisted shape through the friction of the finger like joint. However this did not happen, as the teeth designed weren’t long enough nor was the fabric suited to be used due to the stiffness of it [as it wanted to bounce back into a flat sheet].

While playing with the combination of the teeth, from a certain angle that looked like the teeth of a zipper.

From that point I went on to experiment with the theme of a novelty zipper. However due to the number of teeth and the surface friction of the zipper, it was hard to put together and too easily separated. However this experiment went on to fuel my second test for the week.

Image - Failed Novelty Zipper

Experiments - Twisting - Laser Cutter

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Failed Novelty Zipper

Experiments - Twisting - Laser Cutter

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

While pushing the zipper continuously back together, it started to share properties with a cushion like object. With this in mind, I decreased the number of teeth and elongated the length of the teeth in hopes to create a Hard Cushion.

The First test of putting them together single sheeted proved to be a wrong choice, as the surface friction along with the added friction from the teeth made the cushion very hard to push down.

The Second test, I placed two sheets together in hopes to reduce friction.

Image - Hard Cushion

Experiments - Twisting - Laser Cutter

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Hard Cushion

Experiments - Twisting - Laser Cutter

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Hard Cushion

Experiments - Twisting - Laser Cutter

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Unsure of what to do with the laser cutter I decided to hop onto the ban saw and do some cutting. Not thinking very well, I started to cut across the grain which in the end resulted in snapped sticks.

Taking into consideration how much the ban saw takes off in one cut (the smaller Ban Saw, which takes off between 1-2mm of material each cut) I decided to leave the same amount behind for the thickness of the teeth.

Leaving more behind for the backing sheet of the teeth.

However I left behind too much which in the end caused the stationary nature of the stick instead of the twisting that i initially wanted to create.

Trying this out on both on linear designs and alternating designs. the pieces of timber didn’t want to budge.

Image - Twisting BanSaw Test 01

Experiments - Twisting - Laser Cutter

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Twisting BanSaw Test 02

Experiments - Twisting - Laser Cutter

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Week Two Experiments - Hinges - 3D Printer

Experiments Hinges

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Hinges- Looking at this weeks exercise it seems like a joint is warranted.

Because I’ve never 3D printed, I decided to do a print of an actual hinge first, so I can understand it and then use it for the test I had in mind.

After 2 attempts, I successfully was able to print my very simplistic hinge. However that would be as successful as our 3D printing will go.

Image - Florian Krautli, Magnetic Curtain Reference: http://www.kraeutli.com/index. php/2008/01/31/magnetic-curtain/

Experiments - Hinges - 3D Printer

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

The Up’s were being uncooperative, which left 4 out of the 5 3D printers not working.

After getting one machine to work [or what i thought was working at the time], half way through the print, the nozzle over heated. The bed of the 3D printer also lost temperature hence a corner of my printed lifted up into the air.

With the 3D printers not working. I decided to try it again another day.

Image - Failed 3D printed Hinges

Experiments - Hinges - 3D Printer

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Second time was the charm, I was able to print my whole hinge without it overheating, or lifting up.

For the design, I chose to go with a simplistic extrusion. This meant I didn’t need supports for the print it also means that I didn’t need to take clean the 3D print off.

While modelling the hinge on rhino, I left tolerances of a millimetre as I wasn’t sure of the quality of the print. This made the hinge very loose, though this can be solved with a bit of high grade sanding paper on the inside of the working part.

While Printing this, I also had a talk with the Fablab guys, as I was planning on making the part larger but a shell, but was advised against this as it was a working part. Hence making it solid would make the part stronger in the longer run.

Though the hinge was small, it still took 4 hours to print and possibly an extra hour on top of that to set up [going around and testing out the machines to see which one was working and which weren’t took up most of the time]. Hence 3D printing allows use to design and see a physical of our digital designs, though we need to keep in mind the time constraints and time that it takes to print an individual part. The size of the printer is also a constraint.

Image - successful 3D print

Experiments - Hinges - 3D Printer

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

week Three

Experiments - Joint

Experiments Joint

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Though the CNC was busy for the week. I decided to explore the contrast between stiffness of materials.

With the material left behind from the smocking exercise, working with the machines in the workshop, i cut different profiles of timber pieces to work with sticking it onto the different fabrics to experiment with how they folded because of the way they are joined.

The first test was on thicker material, the PVA held onto this well, but the material stiffness stopped the weight of the timber pieces to fully fall and move fluidly.

Image - Thicker Material test 01

Experiments - Joint

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Thicker material test 01

Experiments - Joint

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Next I tried it with the organza, originally I was a little worried about the fabric’s ability to hold onto the timber. for this fabric I also tried double sided timber panels, this was mainly because of the ability of the material to hold onto the glue and the timber.

Organza is a plastic material which is finer then netting with more weaves through it. So in theory it should be stronger in terms of the weave of the material, however like netting the holes in the material means there is less surface area between the timber and the actual threads of the weave.

Image - Organza test 01

Experiments - Joint

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Organza test 02

Experiments - Joint

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Organza double sided test 01

Experiments - Joint

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Material Production

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

Prototyping Materials

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

After Timber Furniture Workshop, I’ve always been interested in the end grain. The end grains can tell stories of how the tree has grown and is very different from the faces of a piece of timber.

From a conversation, I learnt of the japanese art of Hakone Yosegi Zaiku, which is similar to Marquetry, but uses the skills of Parquetry. The Japanese Town of Yosegi a place where colourful timbers are abundant, thin decorative slices of timber is made in the same process as Parquetry [timber sticks] but have a application processes like that of Marquetry [thin decorative veneers].

From this I knew I wanted my final piece to be made out of end grains and CNC Milled.

Image - Hokone Yosegi Zaiku Reference: https://tracepattern.wordpress. com/2011/09/15/hakone-yosegi-zaiku/

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Stealing the off cuts in the workshop, I started to piece together Brush Box pieces together to create the first piece of end grain board

Image - Test 01

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Ply Wood and Perspex - while looking through the free material boxes, i found bundles of perspex sticks cut up to the same sizes so i decided to take them and try sticking them together with plywood.

After a few years model making and the pain of trying to stick perspex together, Ross suggested I sand the surfaces of them first and then just trying PVA. Surprisingly they stuck on very well, but only when in small blocks and no leverage is available. After gluing the small parts together the perspex elements becomes a great weak spot. Next test will be to see if resin would adhere perspex to timber better.

I stuck it together in a long strip, accidently, dropped it splitting it into different pieces. Because of the perspex and the plywood didn’t adhere together.

After a few phone calls, it became apparent that perspex blocks are extreamly expensive, more expensive then resin.

Image - Test 02

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Different off cuts along with Resin in fill.

The resin in fill was ok to begin with, but as the timber grains took in the moisture, air bubbles developed continuously. Hence if resin is to be used at the end, I will probably need to seal the timber off with a layer of resin first that way when resin is poured in to fill the spaces the timber will not be in direct contact with the resin.

The resin I was using because of it’s long curing time, it wasn’t viscous enough, in a sense that the resin ran too quickly, though this is good to get rid of bubbles (though the timber will in the end produce more) it ran right through the crack and through the other side.

The resin also shrunk which meant that in the end I have to pour a few coats to be able to get a reasonable level on the blocks.

Image - Test 03

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Test 04

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Flat Ply and Resin test To test out patters at a 1:1 scale, geometric tiles were lazer cut.

Then out of duct tape (according to google resin doesn’t stick onto the sticky side of duct tape) I made trays where the tiles were stuck on, and poured resin onto it.

The tiles worked well when I poured the resin on to the ply tiles. Though for some of the tests, because the ply didn’t stick well to the duct tape in some places and the resin got underneath it and lifted the ply tile upwards, which resulted in a large production of bubbles in that area.

I tested individual gap pouring and overall drowning of the tiles in resin. The individual pours came out neater, but because of the lack of surface area on the side of the tiles, it was very brittle. The drowning of the tiles were stronger, but the tiles lifted off the duct tape more often.

Image - top left Test 05 top right Test 06 bottom Test 07

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Test 06

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Test 07 The duct tape base here left the most noticeable mark.

The resin has also lifted the plywood cutouts from the tape as well. While the burner also left ripple marks.

Apart from the bubbles and ripples, the laser cut burns have also blended into the clear resin, with steaks of burn in the resin

Image - Test 07

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - top Test 09 bottom test 10

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Pattern forming Before the resin, the bits and pieces were there for me to fiddle with the pattern.

Image - top Test 09 bottom test 10

Prototyping - Materials - Workshop - material Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Milling

Prototyping - CNC Milling/hand shaping - Milling

Prototyping CNC Milling/ hand shaping

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

The brush box bowl To test out the cnc flipping and the jig system, I used my brush box block to mill out a bowl.

Sia, suggested to cut the jig out with the cnc, this was a bad idea, because in the end the jig didn’t sit on top each other very well, but while designing, I made sure the sides of my bowl were thicker so I could hand and cut away if needed.

Image - Test 01

Prototyping - CNC Milling - Milling

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Triangular Sections Instead of cutting the triangles on the table saw, Ada suggested to try out the CNC. The CNC ate up on side, so we did it again on the other side. Though the Sticks turned out in the end quiet well with the 45 V bit, but because of the thinness of the top section, the first piece of ply was pulled off.

Which is expected from the CNC. However by using the CNC, i’m loosing 50% + of the material sheet as the CNC will mill it out. Hence in terms of material efficiency this may not be a good idea.

Image - Test 02

Prototyping - CNC Milling - Milling

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Test 02

Prototyping - CNC Milling - Milling

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Hand shaping To help get a fill of the patterns and the shaping methods that can come from the different blocks.

While sanding down this block i also happened to sand my own hand. deep deep exfoliation.

Image - Test 01

Prototyping - Hand Shaping - Sanding

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Test 01

Prototyping - Hand Shaping - Sanding

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Test 02

Prototyping - Hand Shaping - Sanding

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Design Iterations I

Design Iterations I

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

The coffee table I really wanted a table to use for sitting on the ground, because I’m shorter then the average person, most coffee tables are a little to high for me to use while sitting down.

Hence I wanted to make a table that was the right height for me to us.

I was semi inspired by Korean dinner tables which are designed to be small and large enough to be carried around the house. As Korean meals are traditionally prepared in the kitchen on the table for individuals and then the tables and meal brought to the dinning room together.

The idea was to create a table that can be easily carried around so I could store it away when I’m not using it, but also big enough to sit three people around for a small meal.

The original image, I had for the table was for it to be out of the one timber, with resin pieces incorporated within it so that when the sun shines on it the different surfaces create different reflections (not mirror reflections but reflected light qualities, with the light timber reflecting the sunshine and the resin allowing the sunshine to pass through).

In order to balance the complexity of the material, I wanted the form to be simplistic so that the two elements won’t take away from the technique.

Image - Coffee Table front view Image - Coffee Table side view

Design Iterations I - Coffee Table

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal Image - Coffee Table top view Image - Coffee Table perspective view

Design Iterations I - Coffee Table

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Coffee Table 3D printed model

Design Iterations I - Coffee Table

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

The small hand rest.

The coffee table’s process and the form had no relation, hence to work with the technique I went onto playing with the idea of an object.

I still wanted something that I could use on the ground.

So thinking of a multi-use object that was a piece of furniture, I went with an Otterman styled thing.

It started off very singular and symmetrical, as parquetry was similar to quilting timber. So The idea was to produce a piece that had a fabric appeal to it but was out of timber.

Image - Handrest Test 01

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 3D print

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 02

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest test 04 model

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 03

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 02 model

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 04

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest test 03 model

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 05

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 05 Model

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 06

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Handrest Test 06 Model

Design Iterations I - The Small Hand Rest

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Character Pieces.

Taking inspiration from COCO Flip’s otterman, I wanted to create characters for the living room.

So by playing with cage edit, and a sphere, animal abstracts were produced.

However when it came to the full size production of these elements where M. Big was to be used as a coffee table and the Little Misses to be used as small stools/ hand rests, the coffee table became too high for the CNC Mill.

So while designing it, the legs needed to be added on later to allow the uniformity of the material.

Image - Character set Perspective View

Design Iterations I - Character Pieces

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal Image - Character set Perspective side view Image - Character set top view Image - Character set side view

Design Iterations I - Character Pieces

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Character 3D prints

Design Iterations I - Character Pieces

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - models

Design Iterations I - Character Pieces

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Tractor Stool Moving forward onto a smaller object with functional uses, the tracker stool would take advantages of the cuts and changes of the technique while making it a functional piece.

Image - Tractor Stool

Design Iterations - Tracker Stool

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Test 04

Design Iterations I - Tracker Stool

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Full Scale Prototype

Full Scale Prototype

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Full Scale Prototype Taking 18mm thick Plywood, I decided to test out a full scale by hand milling and hand production in order to see the effect for the final piece

Image - Prototype 01

Full Scale Prototype

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Prototype 01

Full Scale Prototype

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Making Process

Image - Test 04

Full Scale Prototype

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Design Iterations II

Design Iterations II

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Plant Stands.

While looking though pintrest, Mid Century Plant stands took my eye, as they were objects sitting on a stand, but they acted together.

So taking this a inspiration a series of hall way key stands started to develop.

Playing with the different cuts of the timber and patters.

Image - Mid Century Planter Source - http://www.westelm.co.uk/core/ media/media.nl?id=9671405&c=3572911&h=55f20 587a4022d4e34d6

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Initial Form Finding

Image - Mid Century Planter 01

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 02

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 03

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 04

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 05

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Fluid Form After the squares, I tested out more fluid forms with a different stand, but aesthetically the square formations work better, and with the jig system, the cubic formations are easier to manage.

Image - Mid Century Planter Fluid 01

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Applying the technique Taking Mid Century Planter 04 which was derived after 05 from 03 the boolean process was applied on Rhino to explore the possible patters and cuts.

Image - Mid Century Planter 04 test 01

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 04 test 02

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 04 test 03

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 04 test 04

Design Iterations II - Plant Stand

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Re-Addressing the form

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

Design Iterations II

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Re - Addressing the form Going back to the form, the 04 form worked well with the sliced cut through the objects.

Taking that aesthetic and applying it onto the objects singularly was the next test.

Image - Mid Century Planter 06

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 07

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 08

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 09

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

Image - Mid Century Planter 09

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Taking the qualities of the lowest planter from 07 and the two taller planters from 09. The three planters and the cuts from the front and back work well together.

Hence I have chosen this one to boolean.

Image - Mid Century Planter 10

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 10

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 10 test 01

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

Image - Mid Century Planter 10 test 01

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Mid Century Planter 10 test 02

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

Image - Mid Century Planter 10 test 02

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

The Stand After the last two explorations, formally it works quiet well, however with the medium height planter the stand gets in the way of the form. Hence this is an exploration of the stand.

Image - Stand 01

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Stand 02

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Stand 03

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

Image - Joinery 01

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The Stand - Joinery Stand 03 aesthetically works with the objects, allowing the cuts to be shown, while also eluding to the presents of a cut.

Hence the joining method of the joints here are to be explored.

01 - the joints in the horizontal members rely on each other where the forces are loaded on to the next, the attachment of the shorter vertical members make more sense as the load is passing downwards onto the legs.

However the longer vertical members, because of the joint the structural integrity of the member is reduced to only 2/3 as 1/3 has been hollowed out.

02 - similar to 01, the shorter vertical member joint is split vertically instead of horizontally this works better on an aesthetics level in my opinion.

Image - Joinery 02

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

Image - Joinery 03

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

03 - playing with the vertical joins, it doesn’t do much for the forces being passed down. Longer vertical member’s joint still proves to be an issue.

04 - the added dowels add extra support, however this extra geometry is added a little oddly.

Image - Joinery 04

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

The interior The exterior form has now been designed it is time to explore the interior.

Taking the slices from outside of the objects, the interior.

Image - Interior 01

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - interior 01

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Interior 02

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Interior 02

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Interior 03

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Interior 03

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

After calculating the amount of sticks needed to create the original 300 x 300 x 200 blocks, I made the economic decision to reduce the sizes of the objects and re adjust the height of the stands

Image - Final Design 01

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Final Design 01

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Final Design 01

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

FINAL DESIGN EXPLORATION After talking and thinking about the blocks, the terraces for the blocks means that the blocks needed to mill and cut them into the final dimensions will be too big for the machinery we have.

Also after talking to adam, and after the full scale prototype, it’s clear the the interior pockets designed will be hard to sand, hence the solution will be to make them deeper and smaller, or to make them accessible by hand.

With the design, I wanted to keep one as pure (in terms of geometry) as possible as the ply will add complexity to the blocks without the geometry even needing help.

So I left the lowest [at the height of a coffee table] simple, so you could left your bag a little and pop it on.

The medium height block is for small items, keys, change, your phone, while the tallest block is designed for paper items, envelopes, letters [for people who still get paper mail].

Image - Final Design legs 01

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Final Design legs 02

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Image - Final Design legs 03

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

FINAL DESIGN After looking at the stands for the initial final design, the medium blocked looked out of place and a little too much in comparison to the rest of the two.

Taking into consideration of how we take change and pick up small things off the table [usually involving a gripping and then sliding to the side of the surface motion] it became apparent a small opening in the side to aid this motion.

Image - Final Design

Design Iterations II - Re - Addressing the form

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Final Piece Production

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

Timber: After visiting Matthews I was enticed by the steamed beech, which is FCS certified.

Originally the block was to be made out of timber pieces but after experimenting with the ply wood, the different layers of the plywood will lean greater towards the process than the singular timber.

So the end decsion is to leave the beech for the legs and use Kakoda Ply 24mm for the blocks.

2016.05.20 The ply arrived. with the plunge saw and anais’ help, we cut the sheets into three parts. This was so I could use the table saw to cut the strips out more easily.

After all the cutting it was time to glue. To glue them into sheets of 10 sticks.

While gluing I started on the legs

Final Piece Production

2016.05.20

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.05.20

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.05.27 While waiting for a chance to get the sheets off to Charlie Sander’s to get drum sanded, it made sense to start working onto the legs and work out how to join them.

The idea was to stick it together first, and then drill bamboo sticks into the joints to strengthen.

2016.05.30

Final Piece Production

Taking the day off as a chance to take the boards over to be sanded.

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.05.31 Bringing the sheets back, I cut them into 230 lenth segments, I should have calculated this better, because our bansaw can only take items at 205 with the safety guard off. The reason behind cutting them londer was so I could slant it and give the ply an angle so different patterns could be created when milled into it.

So after cutting them up into segments around the wholes that were already missing in the plywood, I did my best to keep the block as solid as possible, or while Milling the CNC will take out a larger piece and eat it up.

While gluing and clamping them, I tried my best to arrange the sheets so that the parts that were to be cut off had the missing parts in it.

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.05.31 Inbetween the gluing and clampling of the blocks, I went on to work with the legs again.

After Butt gluing the different parts together, using a hand drill and a 3mm bit, i drilled into the joint and tried to mallet bamboo sticks into it.

This fail horribly once load was on it.

Hence moving onto the double domino.

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.01 Because of the large size of the blocks, in the end I had to use the planner to get rid of 20mm worth of height so I could get the blocks into the ban saw.

I set the planner up to take off around about 1.5 mm at a time.

After the blocks were small enough to fit inder the bansaw, i slowly cut an angle into them and shaped them into proper blocks for the CNC. This process took the longest.

The reson behind this, is as the ban saw blade is trying to cut through so much material at a dense rate. So to cut through one side of the block it took me around about 40 mins. So for one block it took around 2 hours.

Final Piece Production

2016.06.03

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.05 Continuing on with the blocks, I brunt out the band saw blade.

This is because of the density of the block, and the lack of space for the blade to cool down.

Because the ban saw was out of order for the time been, with the table saw, I tried to cut partway through it, this way the band saw didn’t have to cut through alot more of the material. Due to the density of the block, the table saw also saw smoke at a point.

Spending the lunch and afternoon to replace the blade, and also the sanding disk, I was finally able to get onto the sander to adjust the angles on the block and smooth it down for the jig for the CNC router.

Final Piece Production

2016.06.06

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.09 With the blocks ready for the CNC, I moved onto the final legs.

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.10 Today is CNC day. Ravi helped me work out the jig alittle bit better. and then we went onto the actual milling

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.10 Using the CNC, we flat milled the block first to get a parallel surface. We started out with the bit going from the inside to out, after the first pass bits of the blocks flicked off, so we changed it from inside out to outside in.

This proved to provide with a better finish

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.10 After flate milling all three blocks, we started off the pocket sides first this way the block sits in the jig snugly before the final corner is taken off

While flat milling out the slices piece of ply was flicked off at the corners, which is one of the problems i took into consideration while designing, hence the rounded corners were designed into the form. This allowed me some tolerance in flicking and the actual milling of the blocks.

What I didn’t take into consideration was the possibility of the mill cutting my blocks wrong. Though it wasn’t a big mistake, with the chipbreaker, when setting out the tool pathing, Ravi and I both didn’t pick up the 5mm border added onto the initial geometry, which resulted in a 5mm step on my block. Because of the even mistake, the step of the block looked to be designed. Though the distance from the exterior border and the coin opening was now different from the envelop holder.

Final Piece Production

2016.06.10

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.10 After the milling, the legs needed to be put together.

As per Adam’s instructions, for the legs to have 2 dominos. I had to work out the distancing in the dominos and on the actual legs.

The spacing was made, but adding ply wood sheets and taking them away from under the domino.

Originated I wanted to flip the legs over to make the bottom hole, but the machine has an off set that makes it hard to aline the holes once flipped, hence the plywood method was applied.

Final Piece Production

so for the top hole, two sheets of thin ply was added under the timber leg and for the top hole two sheets of thin ply was added to the bottom of the domino machine.

This made the two holes top and bottom, and because I didn’t need to flip it, the mark that the machine followed was the same mark for top and bottom. Hence the only thing I needed to mark properly was which side was the up side when I dominoed.

Dry run, and marking all the joints.

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.10

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.11 Though I tried my best to make sure there were no holes in the block, the CNC still took out some of the edges, so instead came the putty filling.

While waiting for the putty to dry, I started to clamp and glue the legs together. Before gluing, because of the parts of the stand that I can’t sand, sanding before the assembly is needed. As my stand is also made up of sticks, i wasn’t able to do this with a machine, so hand sanding it was.

Starting at a 80 grit, then to a 180, then to 240 and then a final wet sanding.

I was able to glue up all the single sides of the stands, until I glued the tall stand the wrong way because i had sanded all my marking off. From that, a new tall stand needed to be cut, dominoed, sanded and glued.

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.13 Standing the exterior of the blocks were easy, the interior sides proved to be complicated as I couldn’t control the sand paper.

Hence I made files with double sided tape for different parts of my block. This was an improvement from the no instrument sanding but still proved to be difficult.

After sanding, I applied my first coat of the soaping finish. So I could continue on sanding tomorrow After coating, I used the sander to level out my legs. This was hard then expected, but in the end the two stands I leveled out didn’t rock!

Final Piece Production

ExLab - Digital Furniture Design - Process Journal

2016.06.21 Between the 14th and the 20th, was just days of sanding and coating, leveling and competing among us who could go the smoothest.

Final Piece Production