Bamboo Dining Table and Benches

I wanted to make a dining table that would last a lifetime. I had enjoyed having bamboo furniture at our office and I had a lot of 1'x8' lengths to work with. I used a waterjet by OMAX for all of the cutting to experiment with a new kind of CAD/CAM joinery.

Step 1 Draw the table in CAD

I used Autodesk INVENTOR for the CAD for this project. Any cad would be fine as it is fairly simple 2D plates. I suspect you could even make this with illustrator or coreldraw as all the parts are just 2.5D (2D + thickness)

Comments

[BAMBOOBIKER]

Seriously?  A waterjet for wood jointery?  THAT IS SOOOOOO CHEATING!  But what a GREAT IDEA!

[DragonX777]

how much does it cost all together

[cory.smith]

Is that material really hard enough to require garnet? We cut plywood at my University all the time without the garnet on that very same Omax machine (which is incredibly awesome by the way!)

There is nothing in the world sweeter than gears cut from glass! =)

[Fasteners]

Very beautiful

[solmstea]

Wow, that's beautiful! If only I had lots of fancy equipment. I would love a table like that. Nice job.

[navy bugler]

Wow. Waaaaaaay to much jargon for my simple mind. There I was thinking, "My dining room table is too big. Maybe I could make one like this!" Silly me! I think I'd rather wing it. Haha!

[gloflyer]

The table and benches are impressive, but more than that I want a water jet cutter. I never even dreamed that something like that existed. What I could really use though is an ultrasonic drill for cutting rock. Now if someone could just invent a cheaper one.

[omnibot]

Neat! I envy your CAD-skillz.

[blackbeard52]

you wouldnt happen to have the dragon2.dxf for the OMAX waterjet woulld you?

[lebowski]

Sweet. I wish I had access to a water jet!

[T3h_Muffinator]

Beautifully impressive... Impressively beautiful. Just so awesome I want one in my house... stat!

[AnswerGuru]

Ok, maybe I missed something, but I couldn't figure out a way to fit everything on 2 sheets of plywood. Just the table, yet. But a table AND 2 benches? Not that I can see. Anyone else try to lay it out?

[saul]

yeah, i think you are right. I suspect they fitted in the simpler version i didn't build but looks like you need 2.2 4x8 sheets, not 2... saul.

[Hatty]

Awesome project. I have always loved bamboo and have always wondered how they make the planks for things like flooring and the "Plyboo" used in this table. Does anyone know how they do this? If you do, then please send me a PM or something. I have some bamboo in my backyard that I make things with, but would love to branch out (even though making these planks or something similar would probably be impossible for me to do).

[kevrone]

Well hey, this is really nice. I seriously wish I had some woodworking influences when I was a kid. This looks like so much fun!

[royalestel]

Fellas, this truly is an amazing furniture set. There is such a big market for this kind of furniture right now. Especially in the bay area there. Have you seriously considered selling these?

[Ceroill]

Lovely! Has something of an Arts & Crafts look, as in the early 20th Century style. The joinery and such also reminds me of the die cut joinery used in cardboard and wooden models such as the wooden dinosaur skeleton kits you can buy. Beautiful material too.

[noycey]

I've made a cabinet using birch ply with finger joints, cut with a water jet and also cut a stone top for it with an inlayed stainless steel design. Turned out better than i imagined and was really simple to put together only thing i found was i had to make an allowance for the tapered cut on the water jet otherwise it took some serious "persuading" to fit it all together. Nice Job

[saul]

I'd love to see photos of what you did. The waterjet I used has the "tiltajet" option which offsets the taper and gives perfectly straight sides.... much less "persuasion" required.

[noycey]

Ill see if i can dig out some build photo's. maybe if i email them to you and you add them to your post as another example.

[crapflinger]

absolutely awesome..i love the joints...i like the fact that they're all doubled up etc...really nice table (wish i had a flojet...you lucky sonofa...)

[dizzydave]

one word: beautiful

[LasVegas]

Great job guys! Are you going to be selling these as kits? I'd buy a set in a minute!

[fungus amungus]

Seems like the cost would be at least $600 + shipping. Probably more like $700-800. I have no clue how much a new table would cost so not sure if this is high or low.

[Magistrate]

If you use another type of wood and a cheaper way to cut the wood, the price would surely stay under the $200.

[rachel]

I believe "beefcake" is the preferred term for pix of men...

[LasVegas]

I don't get it... What this to do with this instructable?

[rachel]

Ha! LasVegas, you have found a bug. Good work ;) I wrote that comment on Step 8 (q.v.) but it is also showing up on the intro. I've put it on the Fix List.

[LasVegas]

hehehe! Now I understand the comment! I would say that, that pic would more qualify as cheesecake. :)