Do you know why LEGO Death Star is impressive? Because it is formed by the pieces and do you know what makes Frank Howarth’s wooden Death Star equally, if not more impressive? Because it was handcrafted, a piece at a time. Sure, Frank could have machine or hand turn an orb out from a single wooden block, but he did not. Instead, he pieced them together with individual wood pieces hand cut by his skilled hands. Frank described himself as a father, husband who has keen interest in architecture “at a small scale” and expressed them through woodworking and film making. In short, Frank is an expert when it comes to wood.
This particular wooden Death Star, created to mark Star Wars day, was made out of bamboo plywood and it consists of two segmented halves that comes together at the trench. Frank said on the video “it’s all fairly simple,” well about that, it was nothing simple about his work of art. Each half is a composition of 9 rings and each ring is furthered composed of 13 individual pieces. After each half is formed, Frank then painstakingly hand turned them into near-perfect roundness and also creating an extra ring to allow the two halves to be joined together.
Frank’s demand for details is astounding as proven by the result and in particular, the super laser dish. Instead of machining or hand turning a concave into the wooden structure, which we thought the thickness could afford, Frank chose to fabricate a separate dish and cut out a hole in Death Star using a CNC router to fit it. The result is nothing less than awe-inspiring and even more mind-blowing if you watch entire creation process. And frankly speaking, Wood Turned Bamboo Death Star by Frank Howarth is anything but simple.
YouTube via The Awesomer
