Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Handcraft and 3D Craft Design converge at the Midwest firm Goebel & Co. Furniture, enabling this young business of woodworking pros to fabricate high-end, customized mass produced furniture.
“Purely handcrafted pieces are sinfully expensive and often not a part of the conversation for the general public,” Goebel notes.
He is able to achieve this by focusing on 3D design, taking the principles of a handcrafted furniture maker and scaling those methods through the use of technology. One of the hallmarks of this St. Louis-based company is its ability to offer heirloom-quality pieces which are attainable by the average customer, says co-owner/designer Martin Goebel.
It’s digital precision that allows the same quality of work from the first piece in a production run to the 50th, he adds. It effectively removes the inefficiency and inaccuracy of the “human” factor.
Goebel also has elaborate set of software packages including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign, and the foundations of 3D CAD Design, Solidworks.
After the designs are created Goebel then utilizes 3D printings of ABS plastic to prove the digital concepts in a physical format. The 3D printing is via red eye located in Minnesota which can ship the prints in 24 hours. From that point- full-scale handmade prototypes of the concept are fabricated – usually five to six iterations – to evolve the concept and ensure the digital design matches up exactly with the physical prototype.
Tags: 3d technology, cnc crafting
