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The first step was to research different possible shapes I could make. I found one that I liked the look of and seemed to fulfill all the requirements of the assignment (no parallel sides), called the gyrobifastigium, and even found an already-made 3D model I could play around with. I made some sketches of the shape and tried to work out how I would make the shape with no exposed end grain.
Seeing that it would be impossible to make some sides 6 inches long (part of the requirements) while only using the provided 6 x 12 x ¾ inch piece of hardwood, I split the shape in half to reduce the needed surface area.
To further reduce the size, I created a shape with trapezoids and triangles instead of squares. Then I shifted to a simpler pyramid with no trapezoids, and finally split this shape diagonally to again reduce the size. I made some physical prototypes out of paper and cardboard, only to realize that even the smallest shape would be nearly impossible to make with just one piece of wood.
Finally realizing that no shape I made with closed faces that I could think of would have two 6- inch sides while still being made of only one 12 x 6 x ¾ inch slab, I decided to make the faces all be open. I realize now that I could try splitting the piece through the 12 x 6 inch plane to give myself two thinner pieces, but this didn’t occur to me during the project and I’m not sure how I would have done this safely.
I came up with a few different shapes that might work, trying to avoid parallel faces.
This change allowed me to cut my wood into strips, increasing the number of sides I could have with the small amount of wood. My 3D models showed how difficult it would be to make the more complex shapes, so I chose one that had several parallel faces but at one set of non-parallel faces, that I felt comfortable cutting with a chop saw and table saw.
My physical wood prototype was made of a piece of 1 x 6 cut to the dimensions of my piece of walnut (actual dimensions 11 ¾ x 5 ½ x ¾ inches). It helped me prove that I would be able to cut all the pieces with just that one piece of wood, even while losing a lot of the wood to the kerf of the blade. I was able to cut the wood into six pieces, each ¾ x ¾ around. The numbers on the wood show which pieces were cut from which strips, to keep track of how much wood I had used. The prototype also showed something I had overlooked, which is that four small areas of end grain are showing. I was disappointed to notice this, but I think the angles were already challenging enough to cut and I wasn’t willing to try to redesign my shape yet again.
Process to make the final shape:
Process to make the final shape:
I cut the wood into strips to make the make my open-faced polygon. Blade kerf took 1/8 inch out of every cut, so I lost a lot of wood from making five table saw cuts.
Since I had little wood to waste, I made each cut on a scrap piece before I made the cut with my real material.
Cutting walnut was different from the pine I am used to. If I pushed it through the saw too quickly, the wood slipped.
All the pieces cut and ready to glue
Gluing the pieces together
The prototype and the final shape side by side.
I tried to hide my mistakes with sawdust and glue, which I then sanded.
The final shape, sanded, and covered in linseed oil.
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