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2014 / Oak stool top with tubular plywood legs
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Materials and process experimentation
Structural design
Materials testing
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I developed a method for constructing thin yet strong wooden tubes made by laminating very thin veneer. These tubes are incredibly light for their strength and have a wall thickness of only 1.2 mm.
The legs fit into a solid oak stool top. They are constructed by laminating paper thin wood veneers around a cylindrical form. This stool is but one example of the many different potential applications for this tubular plywood.
Material Exploration and Process
I noticed that wood shavings from the planing process formed interesting shapes and decided to investigate these further.
Planing the wood in different ways resulted in shavings of different flexibility, strength, and thickness.
Eventually, I discovered a process of planing the wood that resulted in very flat, paper thin strips.
I explored different ways these strips could twist, fold, and wrap.
I found that I could spiral layers of these strips around a dowel to create a tubular shape.
Wrapping multiple layers in different directions with glue holding them together produced tubular plywood that was amazingly, thin, light, and strong.
Material Exploration & Process