Tim Shopbots Stools

Tim is a high school senior doing an independent study. An important part of his work is to learn and document his process with the Shopbot.

In order to improve on this first design I modified the top to be 14 inches in diameter as opposed to the original 16 inch diameter, which some people said was too big. I used part wizard’s vector modification tool to alter this. I had recieved positive feedback on the handles, so I kept those by sliding them towards the center in part wizard. I cut too more legs for this new top to sit on using an irregular piece of scrap plywood. By modifying the angle of the toolpath I could very efficiently use the wood. I found that plywood is thicker than avantech when I tried to fit these legs together, they were much more difficult and ended up slightly warped, creating a tip in the stool. The top still slid on just fine.

Tim was enrolled in the Engineering the Future course several years ago. The ETF curriculum was developed by the Museum of Science in Boston. and learned some effective ways of working with the Design Process.

Shopbot is a great tool. Are you using it? Does your school have computer controlled tools? Does your school encourage students and teachers to be innovative and creative while making real things? Have you seen great projects done with CNC tools? Post your pictures in the Make Flickr pool, and add your ideas to the comments.