Radial Bambu: Injection Molded Bamboo Joinery
MOULD DESIGN | CNC MACHINING | INJECTION MOLDING
Inspired by bamboo scaffolding in Asia, wanted to find ways to facilitate the use of bamboo construction. I noticed that the natural variation in both diameter and geometry made anything but lashing perpindicular joints between two pieces of bamboo incredibly difficult. However, after dozens of design iterations, I discovered that by using the same geometry that lets poker chips stack and rotate radially and a “v-block” shape common in retaining round objects in machining, I could rotate two pieces of bamboo at various angles and lash them together to create angluar bamboo structures. I designed a molding pattern, fabricated it on a Haas CNC, and used a vertical injection molding machine to produce more than 300 pairs of a joint that could be used with twine or zipties to produce angular joints in bamboo.
Inspired by bamboo scaffolding in Asia, wanted to find ways to facilitate the use of bamboo construction. I noticed that the natural variation in both diameter and geometry made anything but lashing perpindicular joints between two pieces of bamboo incredibly difficult. However, after dozens of design iterations, I discovered that by using the same geometry that lets poker chips stack and rotate radially and a “v-block” shape common in retaining round objects in machining, I could rotate two pieces of bamboo at various angles and lash them together to create angluar bamboo structures. I designed a molding pattern, fabricated it on a Haas CNC, and used a vertical injection molding machine to produce more than 300 pairs of a joint that could be used with twine or zipties to produce angular joints in bamboo.
My design inspiration and existing solutions
My thought and prototyping process in creating the joints is shown below
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