The Campus Woods table was a group project by the class of 2024 Product Design studio at the University of Kentucky, the project was largely led by the students with only minor intervention by the instructor.
The project served as the kick off for the Campus Woods initiative by the office of sustainability at UK.
Campus Woods Table
A Fabrication project completed for the office of sustainability at the University of Kentucky, A conference table was designed and fabricated using lumber from different tree species from the university campus. Fabricated using wood shop tools and a CNC machine.
Designs were evaluated with considerations of how much of each of the available materials would be used in the fabrication as well as problem solving to draft a fabrication plan.
Shown to the right is the selected design that was fabricated.
Kiln Warehouse
The selected lumber was transported to Cox Shavings in Shelbyville KY where it was dried using the kiln. This process lasted weeks as some of the lumber selected was very recently cut down and had a high moisture content.
Outer Rim Trapezoids
to prepare the outer rim of the board, the walnut and maple boards were cut into an exact trapezoidal shape to be able to fit together to form the two half circles. To accurately and repeatedly do this, a jig was created to hold the boards at the exact angles.
Outer Rim Glue-up
the outer rim consisted of many individual planks boards that had to be glued up to assist in this process they wer all routed out with a Festool Domino in order to keep the boards level and to prevent the table from flexing. The glue-up was an all hands on deck task.
Center Circle Process
The cirlce in the center of the rim was glued up in straight planks as it was too small to attempt to take the trapezoidal route, these planks were then placed on the CNC where a perfect circle was routed out.
Sand and Finish
After the final glue up was finished the table was sanded and 5 coats of polyurethane were applied to the table to seal the wood and increase the lifespan of the table.
Design Proposal
Initially all students proposed their design for the campus woods table. Shown to the left is the spider web proposal. This model attempts to tie the lumber back into nature by using the individual planks to resemble a spider web.
The Individual planks are connected using wood glue and clamps to from each slice. The slices are glued up and clamped in a similar fashion to create the table top. The geometric nature of the design lends itself particularly well to hand fabrication and does not require a CNC to fabricate.
All proposals were made into 1:5 models. models were made of scrap wood and was not made using any digital fabrication tools. The tables were sanded and finished using polyurethane. The client, University of Kentucky Sustainability office selected one of the 7 proposals to be fabricated into the full sized 5’ diameter table.
Material Selection
With the table top design selected, the fabrication phase begins. Lumber was selected from the campus woods portable saw mill. All lumber used on the table is sourced from trees cut down on the university’s campus.
Jointed and Planed Lumber
The dried lumber was processed into jointed and planed boards of the correct thicknesses to prepare for the various glue ups required to assemble the table.
Outer Rim CNC
Following the glue up the circle was placed on the CNC where a perfect circle was cut out with a lip in the center to ease the following glue ups.
Final Circle
Following the same workflow the cmallest of the three circles was glued up and cut out using the CNC, a cavity was also routed out of the now glued up outer rim and center circle.
C Channels
In addition to the sanding and polyurethane, the table was returned to the CNC where slots for C channels were routed out. The purpose is to add stability to the table and provide a point for the legs to attach to.
