Digital Fabrication Success

I’ve been working on a Digital Fabrication Technique for building precise 3D-faceted forms. I ended up making an armature, which is close to a good solution, but still has too much play in the joints.

One of the other resident artists at Autodesk, suggested a solution where I make wooden squares to solidify the joints in the armature. I cut out a variety of squares, each with a slightly different width+height, to account for the kerf of the laser-cutter. I also laser-etched them with their measurements.You can see here where I cut out a groove in the bottom of the armature, 1/8″ deep. The square fits nicely in there. I found that 25/1000″ seems to be the right amount of compensation.

I also added squares for the top joints.
Using the brad nailer, I adhered the bottom squares to the armature.

Then the top squares and then the bottom panel of the structure.I built up the structure quickly. The precision of the armature made it easy to align the wood-paneled faces.

This is what it looks like before I put the last panel on.

And done! No glue or anything. Easy assembly.

It looks just like the model!