Slotted Design as a construction method

Today I spent a little more time researching the use of slotted panels as a construction technique and stumbled across an example that further confirms my early tests. The following example is an illustration of just how solid, sturdy and reliable the structure is while under force. I'm almost convinced that this could be an avenue to explore further with some of the current designs I'm playing with. The comfort level 'looks' to be ok but without actually making some prototypes it will be hard to determine the correct spacing for the grid. Too far apart and it will be mighty uncomfortable, too close together and excessive materials / construction time become a limiting factor.

Food for thought and something I'm definitely going to be exploring further. For now though enjoy the eye candy from the Chick 'n' Egg chair by Manuel Kretzer. Hard to believe that it is 100% cardboard.

The designer suggests that the form was completely modelled in Rhino with further support coming from Grasshopper. Having already experimented in this kind of construction in a 3D environment I can confirm that it wouldn't have been an easy task setting the cutting templates up for this project.

Someone has already made a piece of software that makes this kind of construction easier with a low cost entry barrier and low learning curve. However, the software is limited in its functions, based on Processing and only runs on one operating system. While it shows promises of being something great it will require substantial development. Something that I hope the software developers are working on now. I shall post more about this radical software in the coming days.

Exploration of Shape Intersection

So, as I alluded to in my last post, one of the stools I've been tinkering with has taken a slightly different direction to the original sketches. Below is an experiment in shape intersection and a combination of slotting for ease of construction, which incidentally provides an enormous amount of natural rigidity and strength, and steam bending.

I have a fascination for organic shapes and these experiments will be a good lead into the final work pieces. Steam bent wood brings a whole other level of natural movement and shape. Something that I will be exploring further in the coming months.

enjoy the eye candy of what would be, if i built it now, a plywood stool with steam bent dowel. I have another seat that I've been tinkering with that really pushes the idea of slotting as a valid construction method.

Eco Stools - a furniture series with a big future

So as part of my study into organic connections and naturally strong structures I'm working on a series of stools that will be the base of my eco-stool range. My aim for this range is to produce a series of functional stools and chairs that are visually appealing, functional and environmentally sustainable. The first part of this process is to work on the designs in a digital environment allowing me to accurately model the structure and thus calculate load forces, experiment with different materials and varrying finishes. This will help me keep the waste, cost and environmental impact to a minimum.

At the moment I'm totally taken with two different yet highly versatile materials - bamboo and plywood.

Plywood has been around since 3500BC where there is evidence of sawn veneers being glued together crosswise to form wooden articles. The primary purpose was to give the illusion of high quality when infact the substrate that the veneers were being glues to was of a low quality. Why'd they do this? The abundance of fine/high quality wood was somewhat lacking and by using a lower quality wood with veneer the effect of opulance was achieved easily.

Plywood didn't become as we know it today until the 1900s with the invention of the rotary lathe by Immanuel Nobel (father to Alfred Nobel the man behind the Nobel prize). This particular lathe helped revolutionise the way in which veneers where cut and opened up a whole new world of possibilities to the wood species from which veneers could be sourced.

Bamboo has equally been around for a very long time with its origins dating back several thousand years to the chinese. Where it was used for many different things ranging from writing on, shoes, tiles, coats, and cooking. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on the face of the earth and as such makes it an ideal resouce for mass harvesting and leaving little to no impact on the environment.

However, it is only in recent years that the harvesting and manufacture of bamboo products has really come to the fore. Whilst bamboo fabrics, small workable pieces of timber and matting is readily available, the production of bamboo in a plywood form or in a solid sheet form still remains somewhat of a new thing and not easily sourced.

The good news for me though is that there are a number of people embracing this material and are beginning to produce the kind of product that make it possible to produce high quality furniture items. One such manufacturer/grower is based right here in Queensland Australia and is quite literally just over an hour away from my home.

I'm hoping in the coming months to make a trip up to meet with these people to chat to them about the process of harvesting and manufacture of Bamboo and to see what they have on offer that I might be able to use in this series of furniture.

My goal is to have 3 prototypes made before Christmas of 2010 with a release of 5 stools/chairs within the first quarter of the new year. The plan to have items for sale is fast becoming a reality and I've hooked up with an importer/distributer of high end furniture in Brisbane and am in discussions with them about the possibility of them promoting/distributing my work to the greater Australian region. I'm also making inroads to potentially having a friend in Milan do some promoting for me to the local stores. Oh how nice it would be to be at the Milan Furniture Fair exhibiting my goods.

So here's a sneak peak at one of the stools I'm working on right now (it has since taken a slightly different diretion though) with a second and third currently in early conceptualisation stages. Not only am I exploring the possibilities of plywood and bamboo as building materials but I'm exploring the use of alternate media for finishing the pieces - including using felt, bamboo fabrics, recycled/reclaimed/eco threads, ribbons and buttons.

Baby Change Table

So recently I built a baby change table. Why? Because I wasn't satisfied with the quality of product on offer in all of the baby stores out there. Not to mention the price point on these things, which leads me to a comment made by someone close to me "why didn't you just buy an ikea one". While I appreciate what Ikea are trying to do with their sustainability and environmental goals I didn't want to buy into a throw away furniture lifestyle and I already had a large pile of timber laying about that was just begging to be used.

It took me two weekends of building, pulling apart painting, putting back together, putty and more paint and finally I ended up with something that fits perfectly into the room, addresses all of the requirements my lovely wife had and above all - CAN HOLD OVER 80KG. Yes, I did test it out.

Here's the eye candy for you:

 

 

Window Bed

As part of the process for setting up the nursery I wanted to make a window bed so that my wife had somewhere to laydown and rest while being with the baby. Looking at the most material efficient way of doing it I came up with the plan to rip two sheet of flat stock up the middle and stick it to a stud frame. One weekend later and voila, we have a window bed - sans padding. I've got the padding in the workshop ready to be cut to size and the convered but I'm awaiting a loan of my mother in-laws sewing machine.

The window bed has 4 large hinged lids that open up to give direct access to the storage compartment underneath. I've built it in such a way that the two halves could be separated if required - which I envisage will happen as the baby grows and moves into a proper bed. Only time will tell if we end up changing the layout of the window bed or not.

For now, the eye candy:

Caring Heart - trade show stands

so tonight I quite literally bashed out a couple of vertical stands/vertical banners for my wife to use tomorrow at a trade show. while they aren't exactly as I'd planned, they are at least half way to what I'd wanted and will suffice for tomorrow. I plan on modifying the design and adding embellishments so that they can be used over and over again. Over time they will have decorative trims and framing added and I'll modify the feet a little bit to feature some nice scroll-saw cutouts.

keeping true to my word of catching up on the blog here are the first photos of the finished product. I didn't take any progress shots as I was focussed on getting something functional produced. It uses no nails, no glue and is made 100% from sustainable forestry timbers and using 50% green energy for the tools. We're well on our way to having an eco-friendly woodworking workshop producing high quality pieces.

I'm so slack

has been so slack with his furniture blog lately. i have about three posts that I need to catch up on this weekend.
1. maleny wood festival
2. the old man's epic cupboards
3. whifey's vertical trade show displays

Then shortly to follow will be a fourth blog post for the window bed / toy storage that I'm building for the nursery. I'm hoping soon after that I can begin blogging about the construction process for the 3 axis cnc and also to blog about the pieces I'm being commissioned to make. The commissioned pieces will utilise a lot of the techniques that I've displayed thus far however I'm hoping to ramp up the surface and edge detailing of these pieces with the 3 axis cnc.