Love the looks of this wooden espresso machine model. Created at Oslo School of Architecture and Design by student Oystein Husby as an expression of the Nordic connection to coffee. An interesting part of the process was their moving from CAD model to wooden cross-sections:

CATIA was next. Considering we were to make the machine in wood, we faced a series of challenges. Our school has a CNC milling machine, but they do not have the appropriate equipment to mill wood. We therefore had to find a way to translate the computer model into a real life model.

Easier said than done, but we found a solution. In CATIA we would slice the 3D model in 1.5 cm thick horisontal cross sections , corresponding to the woodplanks.

We would then extract each silhouette of these cut shapes of the 3D model, much like a contour map. We plotted out these shapes in 1:1, 35 in total, and traced them off atop each of the seperate wood planks. After cutting out the shapes of the wood plank, we were left with a very rough 1:1 model of the 3D-model – merely hinting the final shape. These were then glued together in a very specific order so the neccesary holes could be cut out of the shape.

Norwegian Coffee Experience via Swissmiss thanks to Average Jane Crafter