BUNDLE TRESTLE

Vote at Shaper Tools

At the beginning of 2020, I was approached by Shaper Tools, the company behind Origin the world's first handheld augmented reality-aided CNC machine. A computer numerical control router – CNC for short. Shaper knew my work through what I did for Opendesk a London based open source CNC furniture startup. Back in 2017, I designed the Bundle Desk, a tabletop, and 2 trestles cut out of one single sheet of 24 mm Birch ply. I was asked if I would be interested in borrowing one of the Origins and developing a trestle version specifically for Origin, to become part of their premium projects, an online platform where Origin users can buy project plans created by designers to execute themselves. I seized the opportunity to work with this new type of woodworking machine and develop a new piece of work.
The design itself is comprised of 5 pieces of timber that cleverly slot together creating a strong and elegant trestle. There is no need for hardware or glue and when the trestle is not being used the parts come apart with ease and form a bundle for easy storage or transport. The trestle as an object is an ancient piece of furniture, historically used for banquet tables during festivities to supporting the needs of contemporary urban nomads. In the days of working from home, I felt it was more than relevant to design a contemporary trestle made locally using the latest woodworking technologies available.
To understand how the Bundle trestle is made I have to explain how Origin works, essentially it’s a handheld CNC router but it’s more like ‘autocorrect for your hands’. You do the course motions by sliding the router around and then the spindle does the fine motions to adjust to the drawing file. The machine locates itself on the workpiece due to a specially developed tape that you stick down on the wood you would like to mill. The result of this is repeated precision.
The Bundle Trestle is designed with a maker in mind, meaning simple and with any type of hardwood locally available. There are a brace and 4 identical legs. One of the exciting things you can do with Origin is to make precession jigs, this is the first step of the process of making a bundle trestle. The jig that you make with Origin allows you to flip the leg and make cutouts on the other side. An action that is expensive and therefore generally not done on industrial flatbed CNC machines. This allowed me to design an intricate joint where the 3 pieces slot together and fit due to compression. The brace itself is simply milled out of a slab of timber with the correct thickness.
Due to the high precision, the final pieces need minimal hand sanding before dry fitting an finishing. A skilled woodworker can easily produce a trestle on a weekend.

Materials:
American Cherry

Dimensions:
W 840 x D 360 x H 800

Year:

2020


















Photography by Ollie Hammick