Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Stool...

Well this week has been very interesting. We finally started officially. Our first lecturer has arrived. His name is Jono Everett. He is a designer maker from Canberra, which for those of you that don't know is the capital of Australia. He has done a lot of design work and making of fine furniture all over Australia, but right now works under contract at the Parliament house in Canberra. But he is a great teacher and is very inspiring.

So we have to come up with a production item. The good things is that it can be anything and cost whatever we want it to. I was under the impression that we were going to have to make some small for the tourist market. But luckily that is not the case. But we have to come up with three different things. So I have thought of my "8" table from last year, but redesigned a bit, another chair that I don't have any pictures of yet and The Stool.





Now I know what you are going to say. Is that even possible. Well first off, in these pictures there is no seat or back rest. But there will be, and they will be slats that are shaped. They will be attached to the front rail and float off the back. There will be one that attaches all the way from the back to the front. Thus give the whole stool alittle more strength. The joints on the front legs fro both the arm rest and the feet are finger joints. The reason for this particular joint is the fact that it gives the most long grain to long grain glue area. This the strongest type of joint.

By the way, the pictures are computer rendered and the stool in the picture has a chrome effect on it. So I know that it looks like it's metal, but it won't be. That is the beauty of this stool. Is that if it was made of metal then nobody would question the strength. But with wood, well lets just say we are pushing some boundaries on wood design with this one.

Now will it work I don't really know. But today I actually made the two front legs exactly the size that I want the stool. I glued the joints together and tomorrow I will be putting the whole prototype together and I will make a mocked up seat and sit in it. And if it holds all 110 kilos ( 240 lbs ) of me. Than I think it will hold almost anyone. But we will find out tomorrow. So I will most likely update you all again then.

Wish me luck, I will post some pics of the whole thing. Until then?????

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kaleo, is there a footrest? Also did you see the 'Z' chair on the woodworkforum site? There they used a bridle joint and used a brass pin through it. I guess finger joints are just a bunch of bridle joints. Looking forward to pictures of the mockup

Chris Johnston