3D Print & Veneer
While most of the time 3D Printing is all about extraordinary shapes, I wanted to use the printer as an interactive machine in this project. By opening up the application area of the printer, wooden veneer and the advantages of 3D Print were combined.
After experimenting with the interaction of wood and 3D printing, I discovered a useful workflow. The most important part was finding the right temperature of the filament, so the plastic melts into the wooden fibres, connecting both materials.
After I managed to combine both materials, I tried to add new connections to the wooden basis. My 3D attempts reached from printing zippers, buttons, structures and even small electric circuits on the veneer underground. Best results could be generated by laser cutting forms into the veneer sheets and sealing them with printing from both sides.
Samsa is a product example for this material experiment. Openings are laser cut into a sheet of veneer. Later a 3D printer seals the openings and adds buttons to the veneer basis. This combination protects the wood from tearing appart and adds a new purpose to the sheet of wood. Samsa can be bent into four different lampshades, by simply clicking the buttons in different openings.
