This is a project for 4.510: Materializing Design by Prof. Larry Sass. I wam supposed to design a chair and run through the rapid prototyping process. My chair was part of a sphere, so it can rock/spin in any direction. The size was limited to one plywood sheet (8′x4′).

I was quite annoyed by the fact that our CNC cutter in the woodshop cannot perform 3D contouring (due to budget cut on software… errr). But I had a lot of fun playing with wood joints. The spine was cut into four segments so the plywood sheet could be used more efficiently. This main joint (#1×3) cost us more than 5 hours to put together. It was very strong. Slightly improved, I believe it can be used in larger scale wood structures.

The plywood sheet we had could be the worst material anyone would expect. It was brittle and cracked under CNC bits. I did realize that my design was not the best for this material in terms of reliability; luckily it worked out in the end (even for Larry) and looked pretty good.

I look forward to an opportunity sometime that I can combine 3d cutting, bending and all other possibilities in wood works. It can be really amazing.

Tools used: CATIA, AutoCAD

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