CNC Panel Joinery Notebook I’ve been collecting clever ways of slotting flat stock together since I first read Nomadic Furniture back in 1999, well before the advent of the accessible hobby-class CNC tools that, today, make manufacturing parts like these pretty easy. Now, the world is full of people designing models, project enclosures, sculpture, furniture, and all kinds of other cool stuff to be assembled from parts made on laser cutters and CNC routers, and I keep expecting a definitive book or website to emerge that covers the “bag of tricks” in an organized way. So far, I haven’t found it. I may have missed it. In presenting this material, I want to first acknowledge my respect for the world’s established and ancient traditions of joinery. I may abuse some terms, without meaning to, and I am glad to be corrected by those who are in the know about traditional joinery. To simplify things, at first, I’m only considering joints between two panels. Laser vs. The router-cut version, however, doesn’t work. Biasing
Luxury motorbike helmet designs by Aleliers Ruby When you ride a motorbike every day, you quickly realize the importance of wearing a good helmet. Now, if you want to ride with style and elegance, Ateliers Ruby is committed to keeping you on the move with their range of luxury mobility accessories. Inspired by Steve McQueen, sci-fi, and the French tradition of luxury, the helmet brand collaborated with great names such as Karl Lagerfeld, Eley Kishimoto, and street-artist, Honet. Last year, Ruby opened a flagship store located in the center of Paris, close to cult shops such as Colette.
Flexible Stream • Digital Wood Joints 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. 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 result of this research are 50 digital wood joints, divided into frame joints, board joints and carcass joints. We are looking forward for the submission of your modifications and pictures of implementation.
Less is the New More: Making the Most of Small Spaces Good Design For Living in Small ApartmentsAs people migrate to smaller spaces, good design helps a lot. This is something they figured out in Europe long ago, that if you don't have a lot of horizontal room you can go vertical. Tumidei in Italy makes some of the nicest stuff, like this unit with lots of storage under the bed. This unit just raises the floor high enough for beds to slide under. This one looks a bit clinical, but has two single beds plus a pull-out double bed in between. When you read in the New York Times that professional couples with children are moving into small one-bedroom apartments in Manhattan and sleeping in closets, perhaps this stuff could be useful. None of this stuff is cheap, nor, as far as I can tell is it available in North America, but there are ideas here that demonstrate how people can share a space and still get a little privacy, a good place to work and a lot of storage in a very small envelope. Like this?
10 Air Purifying Plants For Homes & Offices Even in huge, busy cities, outdoor air is cleaner and preferable to indoor air. Why is that? One reason is that trees and plants are constantly cleaning the air outside. This suggests that the eco-minded homeowner or office dweller should go out and buy some plants – but which ones? With all the hype of “going green”, every plant on the market is being promoted as an air purifier! But not to worry – NASA has conducted an official study on the top 10 air purifying plants, assigning each one a score based on how well they remove chemical vapors, resist insects, and how easy they are to maintain for your home or green office space. The Areca Palm (Images via Plant Directions, EnvicoGarden) NASA Purifying Score: 8.5 The top air purifying plant as ranked by NASA’s study is the Areca palm tree. The Lady Palm (Images via Livick’s Palms, TyTy) Neck and neck with the Areca palm tree for NASA’s top-ranked air purifying plant is the Lady palm (or Rhapis excelsa.) The Bamboo Palm The Rubber Plant
Flatpack Smackdown: KitKat Vs. D. E. Sellers JWT New Zealand Fast Company shows us an advertising campaign from New Zealand where Kit Kat asks: "In the Kiwi summer of 2010, large crowds gathered at outdoor events and concerts. But how could we capture the imagination of this captive audience, give them a break from the ordinary and bring the iconic Kit Kat brand to life?" They answer by offering a free flatpack Kit Kat chair. But look at what is left on the wall there; probably as much wood as in the chair. D. Designer D. I am looking forward to seeing Sellers' new eDesk at ICFF. The eDesk is a designer's approach to helping the developing world attain education. More at D. More D. Going With the Grain Challenge DESIGN 21: Social Design Network recently announced the winner of the Going With the Grain Challenge: Swedish furniture designer Charlie Davidson has won for his Uni Table design. Developed by The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Chapter of the Forest Stewardship Council to promote conscientious consumerism through responsible design, Going With the Grain called on designers to conceptualize an object using a single sheet of FSC-certified plywood without the use of hardware or glue. As the overall winner, Davidson will receive a one-year membership to Material Connexion and a manufactured sample of his design. Check out the honorable mentions: Lounge by Damian Barton Wooble by Christine Yogiaman and Ken Tracy Swollen Surface by Brian Hamilton Notch Table by Brendan Revenhill Little Star by Ben Huggins Bookcase by D. Twigs by Anviere
Flat-Pack Magic: Ten Amazing Folding Chairs Folding, flat-pack chairs make sense in our carbon-conscious age. They require relatively few materials to make, and they're far more fuel-efficient to ship. Here are seven takes on the theme: The Flux, which debuted this year at a Dutch furniture fair, is easily the best-looking of the lot. One classic assignment for student industrial-designers is to make a chair out of cardboard. Eric Ku's Chair/Chair is made of five pieces, which spell out the word: Another carboard chair, by Elias Kulukundis, which was inspired by origami: Another cardboard chair, but you can buy this one. Andrej Blazon's Charity Chair was designed to resemble the hat traditionally worn by an order of charitable nuns. Sara Paculdo's Flat Chair won't win any beauty pageants, but it's a fascinating experiment. Omri Barzeev, a recent design-school graduate, has a knack for folding stuff into chairs. You weren't tired of cardboard chairs were you?
» Project: Conductive Ink Jordan Bunker Conductive inks have a myriad of different interesting applications. As a quick, additive construction method for electronic circuits, they are especially intriguing. Unfortunately, for a long time they have been just out of reach of the hobby market. They are too expensive to buy in decent quantities, too complicated to make, too resistive to be practical, or require high annealing temperatures (which would ruin many of the materials you’d want to put traces on). Now, though, thanks to some brilliant minds at the UIUC Materials Research Laboratory, you can make your own decent conductive ink! This ink seems to address many of the problems that other inks have. After I stumbled upon this paper last month, I decided that I absolutely had to make some. I am not a chemist, nor have I done any chemistry since high school, so I ended up having to buy both the glassware as well as the chemicals. For those of you who want to repeat the process, here’s my list of purchases: Part 1 Part 2 Wooo! Yuck.