Christian Fiebig: For the furnishing of the ‘C-Fabriek‘ exhibition Itay Ohaly, Thomas Vailly and I developed a new series of furniture together with a new production unit.
Following the basic concept of Thomas and Itay of an adhoc furnishing of the exhibition, I developed a new CNC machine that is directly mounted on a plywood palette where it then cut one sheet of plywood after the other.
8 comments:
This idea is really, really cool. I am honestly surprised that no one has done this before. In my mind, the next logical step is to make it so that the device ejects the finished sheets itself. Of course, as I write this my mind goes to Makerbot Industries first attempt at an automatic 3D Printer with the Makerbot Thing-O-Matic's Automated Build Platform, and how it failed because the ejection system messed with the standard operation of the device.
This is very cool. A similar device could also be very useful in the commercial scene shop world. After the initial expense of a few units, the shop could simply plop a few of these down on pallets and cut out a good portion of the show, unattended. After reading this I, for the first time, I am questioning how CNC tooling will begin to affect the job security of skilled carpenters.
I should preface this comment with the fact that I know very little about CNC machines and how they work. That said, this inventions seems truly inventive and smart. As joe points out, it is a little surprising that no one had come up with this concept yet. It seems quite practical for low-cost, mass produced furniture ( think Ikea, but less stylish). since it does not take up much space and it requires few people to operate the machine and build the furniture It would help smaller business compete.
Frank brings up a good point about future job stability. As the capability of CNC machines increases, it seems that less people will want or need a skilled carpenter. It all comes down to cost, and if CNC machines reach the point where they are cheaper than skilled labor, carpenters will become more of a novelty and fall to the wayside.
Like Joe has said this is one of those inventions that makes you think why no one has thought of it before, it seems like such a simple idea. By being able to drop the machine directly onto sheet goods it allows it to be taken in onsite and set up there instead of a huge table cnc setup. This could possibly allow sets and furniture to be built onsite as long as the machine, sheet goods, and plans were all brought to the location.
It's a neat idea, but I don't trust it in a commercial environment or as thoroughly reliable or accurate piece of machinery. The frame does seem to be substantial enough to hold up some production needs but the fact that it just sits on top of a palette of plywood makes me a little uneasy. Especially because it looks like the only think securing it on the palette is a ratchet-strap...and I've never seen a perfectly stacked on level palette of plywood. So I wouldn't use this as a machine to execute toolpaths accurate up to a hundredth of an inch. In addition to that, almost all shops cut more than just plywood on their cnc's and it doesn't appear that that's much of an option with this unit.
The creativity of CNC machines never fails to impress me. I always have had an interest in CNC machines and if theatre didn't work out I always told myself that I would go into machining or working in a CNC shop. However, it seems as though CNC is beginning to become an item for every single shop and most households. It may be that my dream of having a dedicated shop will one day become impractical as we all have a house hold CNC router, printer, you name it.
I think that this machine is incredibly cool for it's purpose, and for what the designers wanted to use it for (fabricating the tables on site), it's the perfect tool. Besides that though, I'm not sure of the extent of its real world applications. Yes, it's really convenient if you need to assemble on site, but in lots of other scenarios, it is more convenient to cut in advance and then ship the precut pieces. My biggest concern when I see it though is how precise it can be. It's attached to the palette with little more than gravity and a ratchet strap. Also, I've never seen a sheet of plywood that is actually 4'x8'. It's real world use seems limited, but as a novelty plywood cutter it gets the job done.
This is a great idea, being able to take the power of a CNC router anywhere. I could see this being very useful in all types of construction. I just see a lot of opportunity to expand and stream line some construction practices. Of course there would be some bugs that would need to be worked out, which is only normal. In the end making the CNC router portable is pretty cool.
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