Mesa
A CNC cut stool made using plywood, and assembled using joint techniques
Credit: Julia Bass
Concept 1
Our first concept is a stool with a circular base and arched legs that hold up the circular top of the stool. Additionally, we have four hangover pieces that add more stability to the integrity of the stool. After 3D printing the stool out of cardboard, we realized that these pieces are not stable themselves, and could easily fall out.
Concept 2
Our second concept is a cantilever stool with a trapezoidal top, Z-shaped legs, and a trapezoidal base for more support. Each leg is the thickness of two cuts of plywood stacked together for more stability, and angled inwards towards each other. After 3D Printing the stool out of cardboard, we realized the joints didn't go all the way through the top piece. Additionally, the legs were too long to be stable.
Concept 3
Our third concept is a shorter stool with an octogonal base and round-ended legs. It has a shelf piece mid-leg and a large square base-piece to make sure it would not collapse. After 3D Printing the stool out of cardboard, we realized that the stool was wobbly and the pieces didn't stay together well.
Final Model
We choose concept 1 as our final model. We added a solid shelf mid-leg, using a cross-lap joint to connect the legs and the shelf. Additionally, the shelf could serve as a piece to hold miscellaneous or decor items, giving us the added benefit of multi-functionality. The image below is our final design of the stool, rendered using plywood.
Our multifunctional stool incorporates a shelf into the structure in order for consumers to store common household items. Additionally, it can be used as a stool or side table, which provides us with the multi-functionally that we originally wanted. The large top piece allows for maximum comfort, and can be sat on by multiple people at once.
Flat Lay
Using flat-lay photography, we show our stool disassembled highlighting the pieces that make up our product. This more clearly shows the jointing techniques we used, allowing the product to be assembled using no additional fasteners.
Jointing
We used two main jointing techniques. The first is mortose and tenon which we used to joint the legs to the top and bottom. The second we used is a cross lap joint which is how we jointed the shelf with the legs, providing stability for the entire stool.
Instructional Manual
We created a user instruction manual in order for users to understand how to assemble the stool. It includes our brand name and story, a general assembly drawing layout, an exploded view, a component flat lay, and 8 step-by-step instructions. On the last page we also included our brand mark, which is the first letter of the name Mesa, and represents the top joints of our stool.
