Gabe and I have been experimenting with recycling scrap wood (mostly old wood pallets at this point) into furniture. Here is an update on our first prototype from several weeks ago.

When we started this project we had a number of concerns regarding sustainability. Most of these concerns boiled down to issues of efficiency: efficiency of production, efficiency of materials, etc. As much as possible, we tried to reduce energy usage and material waste through design.

The first big obstacle was the irregularity of the wood that we are using. The planks from the old wood pallets are all different sizes and different types of wood (though much of it is oak). Many planks are split or damaged, and most of the wood is very brittle, so there is considerable weakness across the grain of the wood. This greatly limits the types of design that we can pursue. The more irregularity in the wood, the more energy we would have to expend to clean up the edges of the planks for many types of joints.

Luckily, our first obstacle ended up being an opportunity that gave us a distinctive design aesthetic. We layered and glued all of the planks into a slab of wood that we could then put on the 3 axis CNC router to mill. The layering turns the irregularities of the wood into a beautiful striation of colors. Knots, splits, and gaps in the wood are free to show through and become a part of the appeal of the aesthetic.

For the first test we milled a curved surface out of a small slab of light and dark oak planks. We were surprised with how nice the wood was once we cut down into it. The contrast between the smooth, elegant surface on one side and the weathered, irregular wood on the other side turned out quite nice. The surface makes a comfortable seat, now we just need to design and fabricate a frame to put it on.

There were a few issues with this prototype. First, it took quite a bit of effort to disassemble the pallets and remove all of the nails, and most of the struts we were unable to remove all of the nails from, so we could not use those on the CNC router. It also took a lot of effort to glue the slats together. With our limited resources, we did not have any large bar clamps so we had to glue then nail each slat as we went. Obviously putting nails into something that you are about to put on a mill is not the best way to go about this. We confined where we put the nails so that we would not hit them when we milled the surface, but due to other issues, we still ended up hitting a few of them anyway. Luckily they were only small finishing nails so they did not damage the bit.

Another issue is the amount of time that it took to mill the surface. Since this was our first test mill with this type of wood (and since most of it was very hard oak) we were very conservative with the travel speed on the mill. We also used a small bit (1/4”) to get a good level of precision out of the finished surface. The whole job (roughing and finishing passes) took several hours. In future prototypes we will be using a much larger bit for the roughing pass, and then we might try different designs that allow for more localized areas of detail for the finishing passes. This will cut down the mill time considerably.

So our first attempt was a success. We found a way to use highly irregular wood but still make a beautiful, continuous surface without having to pre-mill any of the individual pieces. The finished product has an attractive aesthetic that shows both the initial condition of the wood and the hidden potential within. There are issues to be worked out to further streamline this process, but they are all manageable obstacles that will hopefully yield fruitful opportunities for further design inspiration.

More to come soon,

Nathan

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Today at the Sustainable South Bronx Fablab I made some jewelry using a laser cutter, 1/16″ thick wood, and ready made earring hooks that I brought from a craft store. One of todays earring designs was inspired by a series of QR-code jewelry i previously made at the Fablab:

QR codes link to websites, personal messages, phone numbers, and images using only your cell phone! You can send messages to be discovered and provide specific, location based information…Say you want to label an object or a living thing. Perhaps you want to provide information, or learn more about a place:

If you want to read a QR code next time you see one on the street, all you need to do is a download a QR code reader for your phone model. If your phone doesn’t have a 2D barcode reader already, you can find and install a QR Code reader here. This week’s QR code series was inspired by Masaru Emoto’s book, The Hidden Messages in Water, also on Amazon. Masaru is a scientist who has documented how the messages we send change the physical properties of water. Since our bodies are 70% water, I made QR code earrings that link to the mobile-encoded wikipedia entry for words love and gratitude.

First, I went to Semapedia to download a mobile version of the wikipedia entries I selected, here. I added these designs in illustrator, used the “live paint” feature to turn the images into vector graphics (for crisp, clear etchings).

Next, I set the lines I wanted to cut to .001 point. The files were ready to print, and we just had to set up the hardware. Jon prepared the suction device (attached to the laser cutter) to extract any fumes and dust particles.

After the pieces were etched and cut, I was able to pop them out of the wooden frame. The results:

I also made these earrings today using illustrators rounded rectangle tool:

Finally, here is a laser-etched leather bracelet– The etchings are from one of my illustrations. I cut the leather in a swirly asymmetrical fashion.

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Hi, I am Yu-Chih (Yuji) Hsiao, one of the design fellow 2008. Recently I am making a new painting that is titled Line and Lines #2. I used the vinyl cutter to make a stencil, and carefully put the stencil on the top of the canvas (20”x20″) which I already painted the black color on it. Then, I used the acrylic matte medium to seal the edge of the vinyl, and painted the white color on the top of the vinyl. After I waited for 8 hours, I carefully removed the stencil vinyl. Here comes some images that show the process and result. I still need to spend times to fix the detail of the lines and background as well because the stencil did not precisely transfer into the canvas.

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Thanks to the energetic and learned assistance of Jon, Ed, and Zach, last night I made my first foray into DIY electrics. I successfully completed the construction of a QKits 25 watt audio amplifier. WAHOO! Though she looks small, I took this same amp home, connected it to a a single Bose 301 speaker, and was quite shocked by its hefty power! (horrid pun intended)

My focus at the Fab Lab will be teaching South Bronx youth the basics of electricity through sound generation and amplification. Since I know precious little about this subject matter and I am a hands-on learner, I felt that the best thing to do was build a kit, make it work, and then figure out what it is actually doing electronically. In this way, I would be able to feel the victory of getting something done, have the enthusiasm to follow it up with some research on “how things work” and be better able to teach the concepts to others.

More pix and descriptions to follow next week…

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Our first Fab Lab project, plastic logos for the studio door. Thanks Jon, we think they look great. Hope you agree.

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One of the awesome tools at the FabLab is a ShopBot machine. In this video, Jon guides Jeff and I through the process of using the machine. In this case, we’re cutting a piece for a RepRap machine.

FabLab ShopBot Demo from Zach ‘Iowa’ Hoeken on Vimeo.

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The HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition recently announced the winners of its first Competition, and SSBxFab was selected!

Go to www.dmlcompetition.net for all the details.

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Greetings.

I am one of the Fab Fellows who recently joined up with SSBx. I am currently finishing a masters degree in Architecture, so I have strong interests in fabrication, design, and sustainability. My experience in fabrication was with different machines and programs than what the FabLab uses, so I have been spending some time getting used to the equipment.

This week I tested out the ShopBot’s (CNC router) surface milling capabilities. Basically, it can be used as a big cutter that will cut out shapes and drill holes, or it can be used to mill fully 3D objects and surfaces. There are several steps to the surface milling process, but it was relatively simple to get a small test part milled.

Here’s a quick outline of the process I used:

First I used a 3D cad/cam program to model the part on a computer. In Rhinoceros I created a warped plane with a raised ‘SSBx’ since I know that Rhino is good at exporting 3D files in file types that can be understood by other programs.

Next I had to take the file into Mill Wizard, which is the program that lays out the paths that the tool will follow in a language that the machine can understand. During this process I had to make decisions regarding the level of precision I wanted versus the amount of time milling would take. This trade off is based on the size of the mill bit and how far you want it to step over on each pass of the bit back and forth. The smaller the step over, the greater the precision (its similar in concept to approximating the area of a shape or curve in calculus).

I also decided to create a roughing pass and a finishing pass to speed up the milling process. The roughing pass uses a larger bit so that it can remove material faster. It is calculated so that it leaves a small amount of material to then be removed by the finishing pass, which uses a smaller bit and very tiny step over to give finer detail.

After that, all I had to do was load the file into the ShopBot software, set up the router, then hit start. Two hours later, I had a beautifully milled surface. Besides making 3D parts and irregular geometries easy to fabricate, surface milling also works great for making molds.

The focus of my fellowship will be using the ShopBot CNC router and other tools to recycle wood pallets into furniture and possibly installations. I am tentatively calling my project “6 Months, 6 Designs” where each month I create, test, and fabricate a more ambitious design. My first design challenge will be park benches.

More about that coming soon…

-Nathan

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I’m Paris Marashi, an incoming Fellow at SSBxFab. Today I got a tour and overview of the FabLab, and did some experimenting with the laser-cutter, for a Thing-a-Day posting. Thing-a-Day invites artists and creators of all types and backgrounds to join a daily creative endeavor where everyone who signs up commits to making one thing (project, sketch, exercise) per day and shares it online on their collective blog. I took this hand drawing of mine and lasercut the surface. Seeing designs so beautifully translated into wood opens up a lot of room for new possibilities. I posted more images on flickr.
There’s still some time left to apply for the Fellow Program (deadline is February 15th)

The wonderful people from Mudbone created beautiful prints from this:

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The deadline for applying for SSBxFab’s Fellow program has been extended to February 15th, 2008 (5 pm).

Application can be downloaded here

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