FABRICATION LAB / 03

A form, one move at a time.

Turn a continuous spiral into a fluted vessel. Follow the tool and read the coordinates that describe its next move.

CONTINUOUS SPIRAL / 70 MM HIGH / COARSE PATH STUDY
G21 ; millimetres
G90 ; absolute coordinates

White shows the travelled path; grey shows the moves still to come. Changing a parameter rebuilds the path. The preview speeds up the motion for comparison.

From a preview to fabrication

Each turn rises by height / turns, following a six-lobed radial profile with a progressive twist. The displayed G1 coordinates use millimetres and absolute positioning, with a notional feed of 900 mm/min. This is a path study: a production file also needs a machine origin, safe approach, collision checks, process settings and, for extrusion, material flow. No machine-ready file is generated here.

LinuxCNC / Linear moves ↗

The toolpath has a voice

In material deposition, speed, pause, path order and nozzle movement affect the object as much as its nominal geometry. A G-code file is a sequence of instructions, but it can also be a design medium. It is where intent meets gravity, viscosity, cure time and the limits of a real machine.

In the Imperfect ceramic printing study, local changes in deposition speed produced textures and structural effects that were difficult to draw directly. My part was to develop a parametric model and G-code generation strategy so the makers could explore these relationships. Ashish Mohite led the material research and clay printing; Mariia Kochneva led concept development.

Ambitious in Malta explores biological processes, materiality and digital fabrication. The useful question for any such collaboration is how to give artists and makers direct, understandable control over the material behaviours they care about. A good fabrication workflow makes experiments repeatable while leaving room for discovery.

REFERENCES & FURTHER READING

Short paper excerpts above are attributed to their authors. Commentary is Kane Borg’s interpretation.