Open-Source CNC Furniture
Forget Ikea. Fabricate your own stylish, personally customized furniture on a CNC machine near you.
Written by Anna Kaziunas France
OPEN-SOURCE HARDWARE (OSHW) ISN’T JUST MACHINES AND ELECTRONICS — with the rise in popularity of CNC routers and laser cutters, OSHW has expanded into furniture. The result is a fabrication movement where designs are shared globally but fabricated locally, and parametric designs can be infinitely configured for personal fabrication.
OpenDesk
Open Desk opendesk.cc
The OpenDesk project provides free downloads of designer furniture files that you can CNC. They also unite buyers with a network of makers who can cut your files locally, or they’ll ship precut, flat-pack “ready to assemble” parts to you.
OpenDesk is quickly adding new designs; currently the four main “designer ranges” are all by established architects: AtFab by Filson & Rohrbacher, Lean by 00:/, Edie by brothers David and Joni Steiner, and Studio DLux by Denis Fuzii.
SketchChair
sketchchair.cc
Released in 2011 after a successful Kickstarter, SketchChair’s open software makes it easy to design functional, customized furnishings using a 2D “sketching” interface that turns your drawings into chairs. Files can then be exported and CNC routed, laser cut, or made in miniature on a paper cutter.
The Layer Chair
Jens Dyvik created his open-source Layer Chair while exploring how to work with large organic surfaces on the ShopBot. Using Grasshopper and Rhino CAD software, he created a definition that takes the input from two adjustable curves and outputs machinable files with assembly alignment guides. When assembled with dowels and glue the 2D slices create a “stair-stepped” 3D chair surface.
As intended, this open-source chair has mutated into many different versions, including rustic formal dining chairs in the shape of mountain peaks in Norway, a tall stool in New Zealand, an Amsterdam Edition black table and chairs, and a custom performance chair for world famous cellist Frances-Marie Uitti.
Ronen Kadushin
Ronen Kadushin has been releasing open designs since 2004. His Italic Shelf system has two basic parts that can be assembled in many configurations. Using Kadushin’s “Controlled Collapse” structural position locking, the shelf maintains its strength and stability, even when stacked high.
AtFab
Architects Anne Filson and Gary Rohrbacher are the creators of AtFab, a designer line of commercial CNC furniture whose six designs are also downloadable from OpenDesk. Yet they have higher ambitions — they’re currently creating fully parametric furnishings whose dimensions, details, material thickness, and slot size can be easily transformed and fabricated.
As they expand their catalog, they’ve pledged to offer the files to the maker community before they are available for retail. You can’t yet export the DXFs, but you can try out the early release of their browser-based Processing apps at filson-rohrbacher.com/portfolio/autoprogettazione. (See sidebar for more details).
WHERE TO FABRICATE? 
Find a CNC router or an independent fabricator near you: makezine.com/where-to-get-digital-fabrication-tool-access
ANNA KAZIUNAS FRANCE
is the digital fabrication editor at MAKE. She’s also the dean of students for the Global Fab Academy program, the co-author of Getting Started with MakerBot, and the editor of the book Make: 3D Printing.
You Had Me at Open Source + Parametric
As a lover of all things customizable, I simply had to build a custom AtFab design, but the online apps couldn’t yet spit out DXFs. I inquired about an alpha version and received their One to Several Table parametric configurator for Processing. I used it to fabricate custom standing-height workbenches for the new MAKE Providence, R.I., office. AtFab has graciously agreed to allow MAKE to distribute the Processing app — grab it and make your own custom CNC Maker Bench a makezine.com/cnc-maker-bench.
