Bubble Bathroom Shelf

My bathroom shelf was broken. As I had spare 4 mm acrylics, and the fab lab Berlin is just across the street, I decided to laser cut a plate for the shelf with a generative design. For a pattern I settled for good old Voronoi, which resembles soap bubble foam.

Step 1: Measure

Measure what’s already there and decide how much space you want to use.

Step 2: Draw Base Shape

Draw a shape (black) smaller than the desired maximum dimensions by an offset. In the picture, the existing hooks are drawn in red.

Step 3: Create Voronoi Pattern

Populate the shape with random points. Use these to create a Voronoi pattern with cell radius no larger than the offset in the previous step.

Remove duplicate lines.

If you use Rhino, you may just run the attached Grasshopper 0.9 script pattern.gh. To select duplicate lines, use the command _SelDup.

Step 4: Laser Cut

Mark the inside (blue, straight lines), and cut the outside (red, curves).

The pictured laser settings are for the Trotec Speedy 400 80 W at Fab Lab Berlin.

Finally, remove protective film, remove all small pieces, and clean and polish the acrylics with water and possibly some soap. Don’t use window cleaner that contains alcohol with acrylics.