Design Brief
Design a furniture piece with an innovative moving mechanism. It is required to highlight the use of Veneer and show a new touch of elegance.
Process: Research, Persona, CMF Forecast, Trends, Colour Variations
Inspired by the elegance of blind shutters, the mechanism involved an engineered gear system that would allow the rotation of slats.
THE INNOVATIVE MECHANISM
PROTOTYPE 01
Before prototyping model 1, I learned about the properties of gears, an engineering system. This process was self-taught and I used a gear online calculator to understand how gears could fit into each other. After learning this, I 3D printed six 1:1 scale small gears, and a 1:3 scale of the internal larger gear to understand how the gears rotate in unison. I used cardboard, skewer sticks, and popsicle sticks to model how the slats would turn. This model proved that my gear system works.
PROTOTYPE 02
Model 2 was a 1:4 scale model of the entire side table without the closed table top. This prototype was made to test the stability of the table. This 3D-printed model showed the issue of wobbliness that needed to be addressed before starting the fabrication of the actual furniture piece. From here, I decided that 3 points of fixed slats would ensure that the table would no longer wobble and warp if the table top was rotated. It also proved that the revolving table top would open and close the slats.
PROTOTYPE 03
Model 3 is a proof of concept model. It was used as a working model to showcase how the top gear can revolve to turn the slats. This model was made out of PLA, foam core, and skewer sticks.
Check out the woodworking and fabrication process
Made a jig to router cut perfect circles
Router cut circles
Strategically cut out circle sizes out of the plywood so that there was no wasted material
Prepped line up of all wood pieces
Checking the height of the table
3d printing gears
Installed large inner gear to the plywood circle
Installed smaller gears to the top plate
Checking to see slat alignment
Analyzing the legs when assembled to only the top part of the table
Drill press bottom plate
Cutting away material to allow for the lazy susan bearing to rotate in a channel
Imagining reaching inside the table
Imagining the assembly of the full table
Assembled table with open slat position
Closed slat position of the table with 3 fixed slats
FINAL MODEL
Below are photos of the final furniture piece. It was photographed to show the elegance, simplicity, and functionality of the table. With its multi-purpose use and innovative mechanism the Revolve table is perfect for your family and living room areas. When building the model, there were many issues accounted for that initiated the problem-solving work ethic. As the designer and fabricator, I had to take a step back multiple times to construct this table as there are over 30 mechanisms involved with this table. Though it does not seem this way, there are a lot of parts that are hidden. Overall, I was very fulfilled with how the final product came out as this was a passion project as much as it was a studio one. Despite, the mechanism not working exactly how I would imagine it (due to the tolerances of the gears), I know that my design and innovation are a success because I am confident that if the Revolve Side Table is manufactured with the correct tolerances and high precision it would be even more phenomenal.
The materials used are plywood with maple veneer, solid maple slats, acrylic, and PLA.
Here, is the technical drawings for the actual table and all the pieces that went into designing and fabricating REVOLVE. This technical drawing is not a Shop Drawing that can be sent to a supplier to fabricate as it would need to be simplified. If you are interested in how exactly I made this piece, simply press the image to view all the pages.