Laser Cut Eiffel Tower: Design Update 9 – Fine Tuning

Here’s an update for the Eiffel Tower design I’ve been documenting for the better part of a month on CNCKing.com‘s blog.

I’ve completed a ton of refinements throughout the model, now everything you see in the above picture fits as it should using 4mm thick plywood. I still see a few areas of improvement but they’ll be done along with the top and final platform of this laser cut Eiffel Tower.

Although some aspects of this model aren’t accurate, some things must be done design wise to make a model relatively easy to assemble – no point having a model with 400 pieces that’s 100% accurate if nobody bothers to cut much less assemble it! I’m still under my goal of less than 50 pieces and the build process is very straight forward, simply drop from the top till you are done. Because of the number of layers involved with this model and the angles (especially due to the angles), I’ve had to build into the model increasing slack as it goes from the bottom to the top. Why? Because again, I’m dealing with material that won’t be 100% accurate as my design software… so part of the design process is allowing for “error” and “slack” in certain parts so that model assembly is easy and possible without having to sand down parts which is a major pain!

Overall, I’m happy with how the model has come along, I think the decision to make an inaccurate support on the base unifying all the legs was a great one – otherwise, don’t quite know how the entire model would stay together.