CNC Interlocking Chair Design

This chair was a project for my IED (Intro to Engineering and Design) class. The objective of this project was to build a chair on inventor that didn't require anything to bond it together, and it had to support our teachers weight (approximately 200 lbs). Not only did we achieve those two goals, but we made 2 good fashionable chairs that are really comfortable. In order to accomplish this project we needed:

1) A computer capable of using Autodesk Inventor and Mastercam

2) Cnc router (at least 4 by 8 feet cutting surface)

3) 4 by 8 feet piece of plywood

4) Sandpaper (Preferably 120 grit)

Step 1: Design on Inventor

After a couple weeks of brainstorming my partner and I finally decided which design to use. What we had to do after this is transfer our ideas from paper to the computer. We then put all of our pieces together in an assembly file so we could see what our chair would look like. Our design includes a fashionable frame with 5 different types of rails. There are bigger rails for the back seat section for better comfort and smaller rails up front for a flush clean look. Once we found the chair we wanted we moved onto the next step.

Step 2: Make a Layout for the CNC Router

After designing the pieces on inventor, we made a 2d layout of our chair's pieces that fitted on a 4 by 8 feet rectangle. This is the step when we realized we could fit two chairs on one piece of plywood.

Step 3: Transfer Layout to Mastercam and Make a Toolpath

Once we finished making our layout we transferred our Inventor file to Mastercam and began creating our toolpaths. We made it so the machine would drill holes first, cut interior parts second, and lastly the exterior parts. After finishing the toolpaths, we saved it as .tap file and prepared the machine for cutting out.

Step 4: Cutting Out the Parts

The cutting out step requires a lot of patience and time. Once we pressed start, it took a good 3 hours for the machine to finish cutting out (I played on my ipad for most of this time). Although this might seem like the last step, we still had a little bit more to do.

Step 5: Sand Parts and Assemble

Sanding all of the parts was a very lengthy task, especially when we had two chairs to assemble. Once we had all of the parts looking good and clean we could finally put the chairs together, and each have our own chair. It looks very good in a living room or even in your bedroom.

Please vote for me in the "Mind for Design" contest. Thank you