Off-cut Experiments
Studio clear-out to make way for a laser cutter
Offcuts to object within 48 hours…
This week I had to move things around in the studio which meant facing doing something with the increasingly large pile of offcuts lying around the CNC router. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to use the predetermined size and quantities of the various materials as a starting point for a sculptural object or small piece of furniture.
A small piece of black, circular Valchromat (a type of dyed fibreboard) approximately 340mm diameter naturally formed the top surface of what was to become a small side/table or possibly a stool. Given the side of the top surface, the palette of materials expanded into 20mm cork, 12mm plywood and an off-cut from a 20mm thick solid oak worktop. The aim was to express both the edges and faces of the materials at the point of where they intersected, wherever possible, to emphasise the material and form.
ABOVE: 2D Projections
The resulting design uses the thicker oak worktop as a base, into which a ply spine connects the top surface which intersects a cork and ply ‘double sided’ fin in the middle of the piece. Butting together the ply and cork together enabled two contrasting textures to be machined - connected by a leaning arch shape.
Exploded View
Some elements were tested in MDF before committing to the less plentiful ply or cork. The top surface was machined to reveal all 4 materials in one plane - with an arched oak inlay which in turn revealed the intersecting edges of the ply and cork below, revealing the 2D profile of the fin below.
Testing the fit of some of the parts
Individual elements played out flat
The final result went together well - there were a few tolerance issues in the cork and plywood parts which need to be rectified. The top surface reveal of the 2D profile of the 3D fluted texture, in particular with the cork, worked really well.
There is potential to start producing one-off pieces from what would otherwise be waste material - more tests to follow…