Bent Plywood Bench

[SketchUp Guru]

Just thought I'd share something I doodled out this morning. I'm kind of intrigued with the idea of pressure formed plywood stuff. The style that results wouldn't go in our house but I kind of like the idea of it.

I could do a tutorial if anyone wanted it.

 

[Slim]

Hi Dave,

Nice work. I'd like to see how you did this. Does the 'branch' fit into the cutout exactly? It looks a slightly different shape.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Thank you Simon,

It is a perfect fit for the gap because the geomtry for the tree came out of the bench. There is a 1/4" gap all around as if it had been cut with a router bit.

The procedure was as follows:

Draw the bench and add the tree shape to it. The easy way to add the trunk of the tree is to copy the edges of one end using Ctrl+Move. Then I drew in the branches. The gap between the tree and the rest of the bench was created with a combination of Offset and Ctrl+Move--Offset for the branch portion and Ctrl+Move on the trunk. the cut out around the tree was completed with a couple of arcs on the back of the bench and the face representing the router slot was deleted.

Next I used the Unfold plugin on the tree to straighten it up. Then I used Joint Push/Pull on the surface to give it all thickness--3/4" in the case. To finish this up I filled in the inner faces with a few lines to heal the flat faces and a bit of regular Push/Pull through the top part to create the faces around the curves.

Probably easier to draw than build.

 

[Slim]

There is a 1/4" gap all around as if it had been cut with a router bit.

Of course, #-o I didn't think of that.

Makes perfect sense. I haven't heard of the Unfold plugin. I'll have to get that one.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Check your e-mail in a little while. I'm going to send you some stuff.

 

[Slim]

Brilliant Dave, Thanks very much.

I shall have a play.