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Tools & Craft #41: My Thoughts on CNC-Cut Furniture
A CNC router should be an instrument in an orchestra, not a soloist
The first time I saw a lot of furniture that had been CNC-milled out of plywood was at a Maker Faire some years past.
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Enter a caption (optional)The furniture was clever stuff. The more interesting designs interlocked without any additional fasteners, some of the simpler stuff used a few screws. I was deeply impressed... Until I thought about it.
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Enter a caption (optional)We can't deny that a CNC router is a useful tool. Sometimes you see it used to dumb down a traditional design such as a frame and panel, where the panel is faked by simply routing the depression into an MDF board. This is loads faster than doing it the traditional way, and if the client doesn't care that it's fake, makes good business sense. But at the same time, more and more shops use CNC for making real parts, sometimes at the very high end. Dovetail drawers are a snap, panels are easy, and complex mortise and tenons are pretty simple. CNC carving can also add details and complexity which were previously not cost effective. With a direct connection from the drafting and design phases to manufacture, there is additional savings in time.
But in the search for streamlined, push-button manufacturing, I felt some of the folks showing at that Maker Faire forgot something important. From a making standpoint, being able to push a button and have a machine spit out parts that snap together is very cool. But from an end user standpoint, what is important is design, quality, and cost. I think a CNC router does best as just one tool in the arsenal of many. In the hands of a skilled craftsperson, CNC can really open up your design options. But trying to make a CNC router the be all and end all limits your options and wastes material. Also, square edges and visible joints are nice in some contexts, but modern furniture loves sinuous curves done by rasp, sander and eyeball.
It's a cool technical challenge to design anything while limiting yourself to only one material and one method of fabrication. And for that the makers of the furniture I saw at the show deserve credit. But as the harbinger of the future, I am not holding my breath. What I am waiting for is for traditional cabinetmakers to evolve the CNC-cut ideas that I saw into something that I want in my house.
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This "Tools & Craft" section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.
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Cnc plus craft
I'm not at all saying that you can't do interesting work with CNC. I'm saying that CNC is one tool in a field of many and on it's own it seem limiting. The Kerf Design stuff suggested below to my eye looks like all the other CNC furniture I have seen - nothing wrong with it, probably a lot more solid and better made than truly massed produced furniture, but It seems very simplistic and to my tastes anyway, nothing I would pay a premium for. The Housefish stuff looks more custom to my eye and visually more interesting. This doesn't mean in the future CNC won't advance and I am sure it will but and this is sort of where I have been going with this stuff, CNC is no magic bullet and the ability to design stuff hits a dead end when the ability to build stuff hits a limitation is equipment capability or personal skill. Both have their place.
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Joel, I think in general you're correct that using only CNC leads to very limited quality furniture. However, there are some designers doing some really excellent and elegant work with a CNC as well. Scott at Housefish.com has been exploring the limits of his machine using higher end materials and adding sheet metal parts and innovative fasteners. He finishes each product by hand before flat packing it to the customer. His product are very well made and look great too, not just for CNC work.
Hey Joel,
Joel, I agree. Empowering the maker with CNC powered hand tools is what I'm interested a la Shapebot. What if I had a digital rabbet plane that cut rabbets of a variable depth? Or a robot to run my table saw for me so I don't die and can focus on making stuff and not trying to keep all my fingers during a rip cut. Stuff like that. I think thats the future, not a one size fits all tool that sort of gets it done. Robots and automation that work WITH the craftsman. We are robots and they are us.
Very interesting article that echoes a lot of my thoughts on the CNC process (plus much more woodworking knowledge on your side of course). The main problem IMHO with CNC, from a designer's point of view, is that you have two choices : own the "workshop" style, with furniture that looks like tools (which I think is pretty cool, if refined) or set yourself apart by adding unnecessary curves (see the small table left on first row of article's images).
How to, as you say "cut ideas that I saw into something that I want in my house" ? I started my solution some months ago (https://www.centenaires.net/products/laplace-41), which is basically matching the thickness of the boards with 2D cuts, allowing the shapes to flow, bringing an, I think, unique aesthetic. Cheers, Marc.
I think that widespread use of cnc router is creating its own aesthetic. Much like how lasered products create their own aesthetic with the burnt edges. i can see this from both sides of the coin.
Im a CNC guy, i studied industrial design at school and have worked in various manufacturing jobs a few years ago i worked at a stair shop as their CAD & CNC operator programmer, The CNC allows me to create things that i couldn't make by hand. Working at the stair shop gave me a lot of skills that were not to do with the CNC, however i primarily rely on the cnc when creating my own work. I think that the aesthetic that these makers are creating furniture with a CNC is a testament to their lack of experience. The more time they use their cnc and the more time they spend modelling and programming the better they will become. its still a relatively new process that has really only just been introduced to a consumer market. its like any tool in the workshop, the more you use it the better you become. im interested to see how people will be using these machines in 5 -10 years when they've mastered programming & modelling and when they stop looking at their products as 2D panels that slot together.
I have had many of the same thoughts, so I developed my own line of CNC furniture and lighting that avoids the inelegant and boring pitfalls of most "maker" CNC furniture. It's dynamic, succinct, and uses the inherent tension of the material for it's structure: http://www.kem3d.com/breakplane/. Some of my first pieces were covered on Core 77 in 2009 as well: http://www.core77.com/posts/13982/andy-kems-cncd-plywood-furniture-13982
I share many of the same thoughts, so I developed these pieces that are dynamic, functional, and they avoid the boring pitfalls of right angles and flat planes of most "maker" CNC furniture. http://www.kem3d.com/breakplane/. It was even covered here in 2009 http://www.core77.com/posts/13982/andy-kems-cncd-plywood-furniture-13982
thats really nice work. what stands out is the way you are using your material you obviously understand the properties of the material you are using. bending plywood, is an artform in itself. i created molds on the CNC to form plywood longboard decks, the stair company would bend the stringers around a giant repositionable forms. i like the idea of fostering this new emerging process, possibly showing a maker community different ways of using their machines... maybe that's the start of a youtube channel :)