Again, testing the AD123D Make slicing function. This one uses the Linear slice. 1/4 inch plywood or acrylic for a little more strength. (Steps same as the Ball Bowl.)
Original design. I thought maybe it could be fun to weave fabric strips (cut with the GF of course! ) through the slats for a different look, or you could make some cool decorator magazine racks out of it without the optional handles. (Two styles - I prefer the linear one with this design.)
This is just lovely. If you make it out of hardwood, you’ll have a challenge because the grain makes it weaker in one direction. You could potentially put a joint at the corners to the grain runs the long way, or you could use plywood instead. I think Josh is right that it might not be quite thick enough to get the strength you’d need from acrylic.
Plywood is okay too. (Didn’t know that about the grain with the hardwood…might have to rethink some of the other designs.) Or I can certainly experiment a little with making the slats larger for more strength.
Okay here’s a slightly modified version of the file in case the first one turns out to be a bit too fragile for practical applications…
The problem I’m hitting is that the maximum reasonable thickness the machine can cut is going to be about 1/4 inch. So the sides of the box are limited to that. The ends of the box and the bottom have been thickened, which gives more notch width. But it changes the assembly, and so far, I haven’t designed any kerf into it, so it might need to be sanded just a bit to slide the parts into place.
Not a lot of working room to play with.
In order to swing this version - I had to modify the slot size to the expected 0.22 inch actual material size for plywood, (as mentioned by Dan in another post),…I needed the clearance to center the base a bit more.
And interestingly enough, thickening the bottom of the design gave it a solid bottom, not slats. (I personally prefer the slats, but the solid bottom is more practical.)
So anyway, if the first one doesn’t work, maybe this one will.
Hey, got a question for you guys who do this a lot…do you design in inches or mm as a rule?
All the conversion is giving my poor little calculator quite a workout. (I generally design metric for 3D printing, and I’ve gotten used to it, but i still think in terms of inches and everything you run across with wood and acrylics tends to be in inches.)
I design in mm. Since materials aren’t the size they claim (that whole nominal size thing) I have to do the math anyway. The 25.4 conversion is easy enough.
If you have an Android phone it’s faster to ask (voice) Google what the value is than type it into the calculator if you don’t do the math in your head.
This would be an excellent way to use tiny fingers so the main grain direction is the same in each case. That way 4 straits would make a rectangle, If you used 1/2" hard maple it would be very strong and you could cut it through without turning it to Ash, As straight pieces it would take a lot less wood than making rectangles, and maple is about the least costly alternative. By cutting 1/2 inch lengths in 1.2" wood you could cut them on the side as welland so have all the interlocking on any side needed.
My experience with maple (not a lot) is that the cross grain is stronger than other woods as well as some pendants I made have had the ring at the top break easily due to that problem.