instructions

final file

This is the final dxf file from rhino. It is only a jpeg version and am working on uploading to thingiverse

final images of my chair

My final chair. This was made on the shot-bot with a 6mm milling piece, cnc routed from a sheet on 18mm ply. The final files will be up shortly. These images show how the chair looks, and how a person looks on the seat. i am pleased with the outcome as it is a very simple and easy slot togetehr piece of furniture only using 6 pieces.

final idea getting refined

here is i,ages of a lazer cut final that i have been working on. i believe that i have all of the slotting together finalized, just sizings and styling that needs to be confirmed. this is a 1:6 mock up of my rhino final

Tutorial for Partworks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSHQsthRajg

full scale mdf chair

I built this full scale mock up to test ergo. i have found that it is quite comfortable with a few of the students in my class saying the same. i will need to bulk up some parts and change a couple of aspects of the design.

Full scale mock up

Full scale cardboard mock up. This mock up showed me that the sizing is a little small and that i need to make a more sturdy mock up to test ergonomics. I will do that asap. But i want to change up the lock system a little too

Chair development - final idea

This is toward the final idea/concept. i added in some more slots to lock the chair together. next stage is to make a full scale mock up to see sizing and ergonomics

Chair concept development

Now i am really starting to get somewhere with my chair. The chair all slots togetehr easily in 6 parts. it has the traditional chair shape to it but the way it all locks together is really nice. the main problem is that the back doesnt lock too well so i need to come up with a way of lock that

Stool development into chair

this is a development of my stool. i have been playing with a way of adding a back onto the stool to make a stool. next i will try to refine this further

flat pack/ slotting together chair idea

I posted a chair the other day that had some really nice slotting together ideas. I have tried to figuire out how this could work for me in a similar way.

here is a quick laser cut stool

lego chair

such a simple idea. very minimalistic and basic but also very clever. may have already posted this as i have  had inspiration form this earlier in the paper

Flat-pac Fantas-tac

another simple but nice aesthetic and form to it. 

Link Chair by Cragelmeyer

I really like this simple locking system and the way it looks. a basic chair design re interperated to have some nice slotted pieces together. i will experiment with this asap

"This is one instance of my Link Line, a mass customizable contemporary slot together furniture line. The use of a white Formica Brand laminate (roughly 75% recycled material) and FSC certified North American Plywood. There is no glue, no fasteners, no tools needed and the best part about it is it can be assembled in reverse to make a wood chair with white interior highlights. If you want one, you get to choose the scale, the width, the laminate, the icon or graphic engraved into it and the substrate material. I make them out of Plyboo, Medite II and other highly renewable or recycled resources in my little shop in San Francisco.See more at www.cragelmeyer.com"

Ash Monument Chair

Simple yet cool, effective piece of furniture.

"Simple aesthetics, simple construction.

Lounge style White Ash Hardwood Seating-

2 3/4 White Ash blanks Are CNC milled to the contour of the seat, and also to accept the 1 3/4 White Ash dowels.

The Dowels Are bought in bulk and cut to the correct length before being glued to the solid seat base.

Each Chair or bench has a plaque of stainless steel and laser sintered emulsion which reads "MONUMENT"

The seat of each chair was dyed with Black India ink prior to being glued.

VOC compliant clear sealer will work over the ink and natural white ash.

The idea behind the chair is that many Michigan communities cut ash trees down to stop the spread of EAB. Aside from wood chips and or fire nothing much comes the inert material. Thus making the it free to any one who can harvest and mill the Michigan native White Ash Tree."

Expressionist Slot-Together Kids Chair

a basic slot together but it has some characteristics that  i like. the simplicity of the chair is really nice. the angles and slight curves make the chair look as tho it would be comfortable

timeline/ steps

This next section is meant to assist you in the stages of your project. It gives you context and reason of moving the project forward.

(1) I have defined (a) an item of furniture (b) context / situation (c) Function 

(2) I have then Built specifications over this list i.e

A chair
for working in the electronics lab
for soldering surface mount components

It should be X mm height to work with a table at X height
It will be made on the shopbot
it will use easily available fixtures from the DIY store
It will have a magnetic section for holding tools

(3) I now have parameters to work with within my project

I can consider the tools I will be using (I have already looked on the fab lab site and looked at the core set of tools, but I have also gone to the autoprogettazione site and looked at the different tools offered at fab lab turin, then I have scoured the web for the different capabilities of different labs) so I look at the design parameters for these tools. I have already had lectures about this which are online, and I use the workshop technicians, and sites like Ponoko to get more information.

(4) I develop constraints from the specifications above. I look at ergonomics data on chairs from the library and online. I also use existing chairs as references to develop measurements, shapes and forms that I can use.

(5) I examine the process of soldering and the other operations that happen around this.

(6) I make models and full size mock ups from a range of different materials. Some are rough and ready and use existing furniture, some are made in the workshop using traditional tools to test my thinking.

Note:

Just because this is a digital fabrication project DOES NOT mean that all you use are digital tools (unless you have decided this in the specification above). You need to use a combination of traditional model making, testing, prototyping with a consideration to how this would be made by someone in the fab lab, and what level of skill they require.

(7) When I am not sure about something in my design I test it to see if it works. It could be a hinge, or slotting system - but I never merely assume it won’t work and move on to a completely different idea. I use making and prototyping as the way to empirically test my designs.

(8) When I have developed the work to a stage I am happy with, I then make it with the tools in the fab lab. I have developed the files from the lectures and what I have learnt online to be well detailed and executed with the available technology.

(9) I have a well finished prototype - but it may not be right, so I go through a couple more iterations to refine it.

(10) I pick a way to finish the piece in a way that I am happy with. I may be using colour or material detailing or a joining method as a visual language, but I have made these decisions through the process.

(11) All of this work, sketches, photos, prototypes etc I have recorded in my usual way, but it’s all on my blog and shows 12 weeks of work that I have done through the project. It also has some inspirational work that I have seen by other designers - but I have not changed my process to fit the blog, merely gone through my normal design routine and translated this online so it can be seen by others.

(12) I have also designed the instructions for the project, alongside the digital files I am using, as these will be downloaded by others and I need to communicate them to people who have never made this object before. This is where the process of my blog acts as a good reference as I shows all my mistakes and learning, as well as my success.

(13) My instructions have a strong design aesthetic, being a design student, and I have examined graphics, layout, typography and other instructions by other designers, which I use as a reference.

(14) I now have my blog showing my process, in it’s entirety, I have a series of developments, prototypes and mock-ups and a completed piece of furniture. I have the digital files online for people to download and easy to follow instructions to make my furniture place, which could be made in any lab around the world that has the tools I specify. I have a strong body of work that is illustrative of my process and I am happy to present to the class, confident in the decisions I have made, the work I have done and the furniture I have produced.

Email from chris

"if you are doing slot together furniture - what has been done - and how can you push the concept?

Examples of what has been down?

Explore the possibilities?

What are the opportunities - what are the processes - how can you break out of the standard aesthetic.

A chair has a number of issues - you need to test out the ergonomics of a chair / seat /come up with an ergonomic blueprint (so makes test rigs etc) then translate this into a manufacturable, slot together design."

http://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-Scissor-Chair-Plywood

CNC scissor chair

"CNC + plywood = furniture. Search instructables and you'll come up with over 47,000 results for "CNC furniture." But for the great majority of CNC machines -- the 2-1/2 axis CNC routers that can move only in X, Y, and Z (no tilting or rotating controllers) -- a very specific condition has come to be part of almost all projects that result: the orthogonal joint. The orthogonal joint, essentially a product of the needs for tightly-fitting "notches" to fit together with friction, is a defining characteristic of furniture made this way.

This project, the "Scissor Chair," takes its design inspiration from the non-orthogonal joint cut on a machine capable of cutting only orthogonal (non-beveled) profiles. The finished chair is as purely a CNC project as I could manage: it requires exactly one sheet of standard 1/2" plywood, no extra parts, no hardware, no glue, and no other tools (except maybe a mallet to show it who's boss).

The Scissor Chair will be one of the first chairs available for purchase through Fabsie, a new website aimed at letting people buy highly designed small-run furniture anywhere in the world by connecting buyers with local fabbers and digital designers from all over. James McBennett, Fabsie's founder, made the world's second scissor chair. He is working to smooth out the fabrication process to open up the design everywhere!

More and larger photos are available on my website, http://www.phil-seaton.com (click "Scissor Chair" once you get there). I will share the DXF files with anyone emailing from an academic email (".edu"); in exchange I ask that you send back photos of your process and finished chair, and tell me about any snags you hit while making it. The goal is to iron out problems people encounter during the making process: if you get the file, that's not license to distribute or sell the file or the finished chair."

Stool Concept

This stool design was influenced by the cahir that i designed below. but this stool ahs more pieces and has some different curves. Still playing with interlocking and flat pack

interlocking chair

Here is a chair that i designed from an exsting chair seen earlier in the blog. I have used the interlocking/ flat pack idea to deisgn and model this chair. It is one of my 3 scale models