My latest project has been exploring the idea of 3D printed furniture. This is a good challenge for a few reasons:
- Furiture is usually large, 3D printer build size usually small
- Larger objects can usually be built up with multiple parts and glue, but this is time consuming
- 3D printed parts must be designed well to take a mechanical load.
Others have tackled 3D printed furniture with scaled up 3D printers, with results like this.
Pieces created by Drawn, a furniture company.
I really fell in love with the idea of modular design, incorporating other materials like timber and metal.
“Keystones“, Minale Maeda.
The keystones set of projects was created using SLS PA, a high strength nylon material made with selective laser sintering. This design would not have the same strength made with a standard desktop 3D printer.
With this inspiration in mind, I designed a 3D printable stool. The aim was to create something that was easy for anyone with a 3D printer to make. The printable pieces are small enough to make on an average machine (170 x 170 x 80 mm).
The stool assembles with x12 pieces of timber dowel and x7 printed parts.
The final product has a clean, modular look that can look great in a variety of colours. It can also be disassembled easily for travel. Easy to cut small pieces of dowel to size with a handsaw and mitre box for those without access to a woodshop.
This design went through four iterations to get to the stage where it is now, press-fit style connectors are always a challenge. I also used a lot more dowel than a stool probably needs, but this gives the design an extra degree of strength for average 3D printed parts.
If you like this design, you can purchase the files at MyMiniFactory.
My next project will be a 3D printable larger bar stool design, check out my twitter for some sneak peeks of this soon.
I leave you with a ‘stool sample’ made at 19% scale out of timber skewers.
