Bastón
a foldable cane for my abuela
Bastón is Spanish for cane. This project was as personal as it was technical, co-designed by and for my grandmother.
A foldable cane, designed and built by hand. The build combined old and new techniques: a hand-turned wooden shaft on the lathe, a machined metal folding mechanism (designed by me) milled and drilled (by me), and water-jet-cut links.
A 5.8" hole was drilled straight down the center of the hand-turned rod to house the internal folding mechanism, invisible when assembled and essential to how it works. Every joint was tested individually before final assembly: milling the slot, drilling the center bore, lathing both the long and short shaft sections, and shaping the outer wooden shell.
Bastón's Journey
From Sketch to Finished Cane
Hand sketches of the folding mechanism beside a cardboard prototype of the same joint. Cardboard first, because it costs nothing to cut it again.
The same joint printed, so I could feel the fit before committing it to metal: the slotted arm and the stepped barrel it pivots into.
Turning aluminum for the custom joint. The wooden shafts were hand-turned on this same lathe.
Everything that goes inside: two turned shaft sections, a brass tube, water-jet-cut links, steel pins, and the two machined aluminum joints.
