Interlocking Floorboards Scanned, CNC-Milled On Natural Grain Lines

Furniture & Lighting Woodworking
Interlocking Floorboards Scanned, CNC-Milled On Natural Grain Lines

This is a really cool idea:

Bolefloor technology combines wood scanning systems, tailor-made CAD/CAM developments and innovative optimization algorithms for placement software developed by a Finnish engineering automation company and three software companies in cooperation with the Institute of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology. Bolefloor scanners’ natural-edge visual identification technology evaluates “imperfections” such as knots and sapwood near the edges or ends so that floors are both beautiful and durable. Our process manages and tracks each board from its raw-lumber stage through final installation.

Caveats include A) Bolefloor does not seem to actually be for sale yet, B) no information seems to be available about how much it will cost, and C) the high design/luxury marketing elements suggest any functional claims to improved economy will be negated by elitist pricing.

Even given all that, the floors are lovely, and the concept—we’re going to use computers to cut trees more efficiently and beautifully—deserves a nod. Here’s looking forward to the hobby CNC community’s homebrew version. [via Boing Boing]

6 thoughts on “Interlocking Floorboards Scanned, CNC-Milled On Natural Grain Lines

  1. Does not make sense says:

    Just dont make a mistake while installing or allow anything to happen to one board. Would be a major pain to try and replace and match later on…

  2. Alex French says:

    Some manufacturing already makes heavy use of automated equipment that detects knots in lumber and cuts it in a highly efficient way to make parts for furnitute, playground equipment, etc.

  3. Anonymous says:

    I so have to share this with other members of my family, even if it would be expensive or at least time consuming to replace a board. It looks simply marvelous.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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