Tensegrity tables

My son worked with me over the summer and while he was here he built some furniture for his new apartment including these 2 cool tensegrity tables. Based on ideas by Buckminster Fuller the Geodesic dome guy they work by having the solid parts in compression and the cables in tension.

This 3-strut one was made using ideas from a posting on the Make magazine blog and uses 1/2" copper pipe for the struts and picture-hanging wire for the cables. The cables were pop-riveted into holes drilled into the pipes...it's amazingly solid and rigid.

3 strut table


3 strut table detail

The 6-strut one was built out of 1" dowel struts and twine cables. The twine was made up into 24 identical lengths with loops tied in both ends and then it was all strung together on screws in the ends of the dowels. Unlike the copper tubing table the twine gives it just a little bit of springiness and the three struts that touch the floor don't touch the top, and the three that attach to the top don't touch the floor! It's based on math from the Book "Geodesic Math" and is very cool.

6 strut table