A uniquely shaped storage box created to reflect the natural beauty of honey bees and the hexagonal pattern of their hives.
Organization / Class: ME 102 Foundations of Product Realization — Stanford University
Role: Designer, Maker
Duration: 10.20.2019 — 10.31.2019 (2 weeks)
PROCESS.
i. Conceptualization
For this assignment, I was instructed to create a non-rectangular box that could not have four 90-degree corners. Immediately what came to mind was a hexagon, and I wanted to play off the concept of honeycomb and the 6 sides for this box. Another additional aspect of this project was that I could not use glue to attach the box together, so I played with the concept of finger joints to press fit the different pieces.
In order to make the six sides of this box, I knew I wanted use only one piece of wood, making kerf cuts in the wood in order to allow the plywood to bend. As for the swivel top, I struggled to think of ways in which I could attach it to the walls of the box while allowing a 360 degree movement. I later realized that I could not attach the top to the corner because of the kerf cuts and rather, used a bolt and shoulder screw to attach it. I modeled the use of hardware in this project in Solidworks.
PRODUCTION.
The Adobe Illustrator file used to laser cut the walls of the box.
The laser cutter in the process of cutting the walls of the box.
I used finger joints to fit together the last part of the walls of the hexagon; however they did not fit together well. This was confusing as I made the same adjustments for the finger joints to connect the base and walls and had no problems. However, I did not have the time to reprint the walls, and what I ended up doing was wetting the plywood with hot water, bending it to the shape that I needed, and using a binder clip to hold it in place until it dried.
