Here are some pictures

I know I posted yesterday, but I finished the prototype today. Mainly I wanted to test the strength of the finger joint at the bottom. So I really have done all the thing to this that I wanted to. But this was just to let me know if it was possible.



But as designs evolve, this one has already. The problem that I am finding is with the back and arm rest. I've been moving the seat up and down and have finally found the best seat to armrest ratio. But the problem is that the stool is getting to low. And when you sit towards the front, your feet touch the ground, and it's like your in a stool. But when you push back and sit against the back rest, your feet come off the ground and it gets uncomfortable.



So what's happening now is that this stool is becoming a chair. And I'm not sure that I want it to become a chair. So I am going to spend some time this weekend and redesign. I have a good idea for both a chair and a stool. But the one thing that will remain both will have slats. The chair would not be a dining chair, it would be more of a lounge chair. But you wouldn't normally think that a lounge chair would have slats. But what I plan to do is apply leather to each slat. I think that I will do this to which ever design I end up going with.

The best part so far of this project it that even though I will only get to make one of the design, at the end of it I will have 3 fully resolved and possible design. Anyway I will post soon whatever it is that I decide to do. Have a great weekend all.

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?????

The next big thing...

Well first of all I need to say sorry for having not updated my blog for awhile. There really hasn't been much to report on. Although we are back at school, our lecturer doesn't show up until Monday. So the last few weeks have not been to exciting.

The Lumber Jocks online contest came and went, and sadly to be reporting to you that I did not even place. Needless to say there were days of crying and gnashing of teeth. But I am finally over it and am ready to start making some more furniture. So THE NEXT BIG THING.... What could it be??

I have been spending these last 3 weeks designing a piece that is for what we call our production unit. A piece that can be reproduced rapidly. And I have come up with something that is going to blow your minds. It is a..... ( wait for it ) bar stool. That's right can you believe it. I bet you weren't expecting that.

Anyways at this point I have been doing a lot of drawing. Right now I am getting ready to mock it up to see what it will look like and make some final design decisions. Sorry I have no photos of this yet. But needless to say they will be something that you have never seen before. My goal with this production unit was to come up with something that if someone wanted to by it, they would have to buy more than 1 of them. Nobody buys one bar stool for there kitchen counter, they buy 3 or 4.

But today I took a break from mocking up this stool, to think of THE NEXT NEXT BIG THING.... (your thinking what could it be this time) here we are:





That's right Chopsticks. I had an idea today to make a set of chopstick. So the first ones that I did I tried to turn on the lathe, lets just end this part of the blog right here. And never talk about it again.

The second set, I developed a jig to hold the wood and then pass them through the spindle moulder ( for you in the states it's called a shaper ). Thus allowing me to make hundreds of these things in a matter of a couple of hours. Then I thought that I needed a way to hold them together. So I fashioned a piece that has a small groove cut out of the back. Thus the set of chopsticks slide up and because of the taper in the shape on the sticks they wedge themselves against the sides of the groove. The holder also becomes a place to set your sticks at the table.

I am going to take these to a couple of the tourist shops around town here and feel out the market. I think that they would sell, especially if I ask like 20-30 bucks for them. This allows the gallery to make it up alittle bit more. I'll will let you all know how things go with them.

Well until next time my friends, Happy Valentine's Day. Give that loved one in your life a special set of Kaleo's chopsticks. Nothing says I Love You better.



Kaleo