Closing the curtain on the project

It is time for a proper post-mortem of this project- what was successful, what needed improvement, and the net sum total of the experience. And of course, as promised for those who did not see the show in person (ahem!), a couple of images.

The blogging format for this project was very complimentary to the process. Being able to sift through all of the minutiae of designing, like sketching, purchasing materials, prototyping, etc, is really useful and shows the amount of mental and physical work that is necessary to create furniture. Instead of a portfolio that only shows the end results of the work and effort, and considering that beautiful digital renderings are becoming commonplace, I think it is important to convey the process. As I go forward, I intend on updating this blog. I have incorporated it into my portfolio website and will treat it as a 'News' section. Those that are getting emails from these postings now, will no longer be receiving them after this post. If you wish to subscribe to this blog, go to the link at the bottom of the email and when you arrive at the blogger page, choose 'Subscribe to Posts' on the left side of the page.

Anyway, as I said, the format was great in general for this project. The posts allowed for direct feedback. I wish that my posts had engendered more discussion. I don't know what I could have done about that however. It might have been that the email sent from the postings did not mention a way to respond...a needed addition to blogger I would say.

Assessment of the project itself: Being able to see all of the work that went into this project in such an organized way underscored one thing for me and that is, it takes a long time to get something made from the initial idea. Or perhaps I should say, it takes ME a long time to get something made. However, I had many 2-week assignments in school that I managed to complete on time. So perhaps, when given a longer time frame, my process slows down. I'll be able to judge this better once I am making things again without having to complete schoolwork at the same time (I read insane amounts of philosophy this last semester1!).
Overall, I am very satisfied with the output of the project. I was able to perform some material explorations and let it inform my design ideas. The vast majority of materials used were environmentally friendly. I was able to work with other people and defer to their expertise, schedules, labor costs, etc. I was able to utilize resources around town and produce work that came in around my desired budget (more on that soon). In the end, I was able to produce work that very closely resembled the renderings I had created to help visualize what I wanted.

There were a few things that could have been improved. Though the amount of waste was relatively small, it could have been even less. Here is an image showing the total waste produced from this project (sorry for the poor image):



Most of this was from accidents on the CNC router. Either the material shifted or the toolpath was incorrect. If I were to reproduce this project now however, there would be only a very small fraction of waste left over. This is a cost of early models and prototypes. Most of this wasted material how is not full of formaldehyde and will break down in a landfill relatively quickly. The leftover EcoResin I will mail back to 3-Form. There is not much and I could argue that the cost of burning the gas to take it back negates the postive effects of reprocessing it, however if I throw it away, it'll take thousands of years to breakdown.

I also wish I could have collected more data on the energy needed to produce the materials that I used as well as the energy required to ship them. I should have factored in the amount of gas that I used to get around town to get things made. Energy consumption was a big hole in this project as far as being environmentally conscious was concerned. I felt at the time, that this would add a layer of complexity that I did not have the time to properly incorporate into the project. I didn't want to just tack on some data points at the end.

Another weakness of this process, mostly for the chair, was the lack of full size prototyping. The desk's dimensions were based from an existing desk, so I was not as concerned with that. But the chair is not comfortable for everyone. If I had designed the seatback to have perhaps a 5 degree change in angle, it would accommodate more sitters comfortably. This was either a time management issue or schedule issue. Either way, the next version of this chair would be more comfortable.
The magnets are not quite strong enough either. The next chair would have stronger magnets in the feet

The light conceived as a porcelain object did not make it into the show. Speaking with Jeff (the guy helping me out with this) at the show, he said that we had needed more time to mess around. If we had had another couple of weeks, a porcelain light would have been hanging in the gallery instead of a gypsum one. I am hoping to continue to look into this more with him in a few weeks.

The total cost for this project (excluding expenses for the signage and displays for the show) are (drum roll): $1295.66

Per piece cost is such (particularly if done is multiples with less waste) that the Room & Board or Blu Dot customer could afford them.

This project was a valuable experience for me. I am grateful to all of the teachers and peers who have helped me thus far! Thank you all!

Here is the finished product:






More detailed images will be taken and posted on my website soon.

Happy holidays everyone!

Gypsum RP processes and Post Mortems

The rapid prototyper that uses gypsum as the main model building material worked fairly well at producing a very nice looking light. The model took up the entire bed of the machine (in fact I had to shrink the model a bit in the software program to get it to fit in the print bed.) The end result is close to what I had in mind for the porcelain piece.



Shortly after the printing was completed (6 hour print job), sifting through the powder, the light began to materialize. I needed to be very careful when removing the gypsum to not bump the light. Prior to it being dipped in wax, it is pretty fragile.




Here is another shot.



After removing it from the bed, I took this shot to show how the piece was laid out using the RP software.



Once all of the excess powder is removed from the piece, it is given a wax bath. The whole thing is submerged in wax for ten seconds and then left inside the chamber for 10 minutes to cure.

The light is very translucent. The top and bottom edges are less that a 1/16" thick! The only issue that I had with this process is that there is some discoloration on one side due to a new RP catridge being installed prior to running the job. Don, the shop manager, who helped me with this process, felt that a new catridge had to be used for such a large piece. If I were to do this again however, I would let the print head run for a bit before actually running the finished piece, in order to prevent the discoloration.

To see the finished piece, come to MCAD!

So in the end, the porcelain lights did not work out. The pieces warped considerably in the firing. Also, they were too thick (and hence, too heavy) and would not have had the translucent quality that I wanted. Jeff and I wold have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a different process and/or different model. I'd like to explore this more...perhaps I will outside of school.

Here are some photos of the pieces that survived the firing:








I might be able to use them as individual lights...

After the commencement exhibit reception Friday night (Dec 12th), I will post images of the show. I will also post a true post mortem for this project that includes remaining bits of information, images of waste material and thoughts about the processes and what could have been done differently.

Stay tuned.

Update from Jeff

Jeff sent to me an image from his cell this morning that shows (albeit in a blurry way) the light pieces together- they are just stacked, not physically connected...

Hanging light: The Next Chapter

So with Plan 'B' in full swing (the RP model will take 8 hours to print and will start tomorrow morning), the worry is gone about the outcome of the light, which is good considering the current state of things. The digital trace in the porcelain side of the design is gone now. The plaster mold did not release well from the wood mold that I had made. All molds at this point have been damaged, modified, broken and discarded. This leaves...throwing the shapes by hand. Yes, arguably the way to go from the get go. When I stopped by Jeff's studio yesterday, he had already thrown them, so that no time is lost. What may result might be interesting. One of the early ideas that I had had was to make the diffuser out of 2 pieces and have them held together by the lighting hardware. This looks to be what will happen here. Presumably with the aid of a caliper, the radii of the thrown pieces were measured and will line up nicely when held together.

So with that obstacle out of the way, the next thing is getting the pieces fired. The kilns that Jeff has used before are all booked. He assured me that he has some other connections for getting them fired in our tight time frame. More on that when the time comes.

Ouch!


The Horror!


4 pieces of hope

additional expenses

Additional expenses, so obvious that I forgot to add them:

Fabrication of Table Base: $150
Power Coating Base: $85

New total: $1235.87

Only $264.13 left...

additioanl expenses

Light Status and additional costs

So I finally was able to get together with Jeff on Monday to begin Operation Last Minute Light. The mold, as it was, proved to be not quite right for our needs. The male/female approach was problematic because 1) it was hard on the porcelain (causing some cracking) and 2) popping the porcelain out of the female section was impossible to do without screwing up the shape. So after some experimentation with cutting the mold up and applying the porcelain sheets in various way, it was determined that a plaster mold should be made of the male part and we could cover it with porcelain. Plaster is an ideal surface as it absorbs much of the water from the porcelain allowing it to pull away cleanly and quickly. I am stopping by the studio again tomorrow to help out with the next round.
Apparently it takes six days of kiln firing and drying to get the piece to harden correctly. If we can hold to a perfectly executed schedule, then the lights will be completed a day before the show needs to go up.

Here is Jeff's plan from an email: My plan is to try and have three diffusers finished and drying by Saturday. Trying to kiln dry them on Sunday firing Monday pulling them out on Tuesday night. Glazing and throwing them back in a kiln late Wednesday. Pulling them out on late Friday or early Saturday for you to have a day to make it work with the fixture.


Slumping the porcelain over the male mold piece


Trimming away the excess


Male meet female



The ends of the female mold were cut off in order to try and press a larger porcelain slab and allow the excess to squeeze out of the sides.

Being the seasoned pessimist that I am, I have a Plan 'B' which I am starting concurrently to guarantee that a completed light is hanging in the show. MCAD has another Rapid Prototype machine that uses gypsum and sugar water to build models. It is pricey ($160 for a completed model) but will share a closer aesthetic quality with porcelain and is more eco-friendly than the plastic RP (and is cheaper than the RP which would have cost more than $200). So one way or another, a light will be hanging in the show!

Adding costs to the previous total for this project:

Previous total (as of Oct 22):
Total expenditure to date:
• 3-Form panel $178 ($125 for the panel + taxes and shipping)
• Porcelain and stains $176
• Biofiber Wheat $90 + tax
• MDF board for mold $31
• 12' Cold Rolled Steel bar $49
• RP chair model $89

Total: $613

Recent additions:
Hardware from McMaster Carr $26.92
Hardware from McMaster Carr $22.17
Hardware from McMaster Carr $29.73
Pine Particle board for model $24
1/2 Straight Carbide bit for CNC Router $25.05
Drawer fabircation for desk $100
Gypsum RP part $160

New total: $1000.87

$499.13 left to blow!

assembled chair, drawer and more

I finished cutting out the pieces to the chair this past week. The BioFiber Wheat board machines well. There was hardly any chip-out of the material and the finish passes with the CNC made the surfaces fairly smooth. It smelled like a loaf of bread in the CNC room, which was a nice change. ;-)
Cutting out the pieces was more complicated than other things I had cut out before because holes need to be drilled precisely and the pieces need to be planed smoothly. Ultimately it took 4 separate tool paths for the CNC to do it right (compared to a typical 2, I had 1 for the holes, 2 rough passes- 1 to cut out contours and the other to roughly plane the surfaces and then 1 finish pass to make everything smooth).
After the pieces were cut, assembly was straight-forward. The seat back had to be glued to the armrests and the cross brace pieces need to have the tenons chiseled out by hand because the CNC can only cut from one direction on the Z-axis (top to bottom). All of the edges were sanded, the handle opening in the seat bottom needed to be cut out using a drill, chisel and round file. And then the hardware was added and everything was put together. I then added the magnets. They did not work quite as well as I had hoped. Instead of arresting motion or making the legs come together tightly, there is more of a slight pull. I would need stronger magnets to get it work better. I had erred on the side of caution because I would rather have them be too weak than too strong.



The drawer for the desk is being made this week. It will be made out of Maple and will have Dovetail Joints. They will be 'Through' Dovetail Joints so that the front of the drawers hints at its construction. A guy named Patrick McMahon is making it for me. He is a busy guy and I appreciate him taking the time to do it. He said it would take him about 2 hours. I am paying him $100 (which I am sure is below what he would typically charge). Once it is done, I will stain it a very dark brown or ebonize it- not quite sure yet.

Jeff Haddorf and I will finally be getting together Monday to begin the light. I am hopeful that we will be able to produce something nice in the next 2 weeks...

I received my gallery space assignment this past week. My work will be the first thing you see as you walk in the main gallery! I am really excited about this but also a little nervous. With the lamp still incomplete and the graphics for the space yet to be created, I still have a lot hanging in the balance.

Wish me luck!

new legs

I dropped off the table base at Midland Powder Coating on Wednesday and picked it up today. As I was coming in the back door, I snapped this photo with my phone (hence the poor quality):

And here is a shot in my studio to show the main materials and colors together. Practically spot on with the rendering I had made.



$85 for the job and of course, worth it. The table is getting there...

Mitigating small disasters

The legs for the table are finally complete. They are extremely rigid and exhibit no racking. Dave bowed them ever so slightly so that they sit flat on any floor (this is necessary as no floor is totally flat and the table would rock otherwise.) Cold roll steel was used which apparently was too rigid for the radius I required for the bends at the bottom (either that or the metal had some impurities making it brittle...)


Dave kept a piece that showed how the metal cracked. Circled in red. The Piece to the left shows how he has bent thousands of pieces of cold roll of the same thickness in a similar way.

Dave managed to fudge it so that it looks like the legs were nicely bent. If I were to make this again, I would use hot roll steel as it is more flexible. I had thought that cold roll was just better than hot, and in many applications this may be true, but not in every application. I checked all measurements and they are to spec. The job wound up costing $150, which I think is fair. He said it would be more cost effective to do mutiples...go figure! Dave was really nice. It was good working with him.



A couple of shots of Dave's shop. Pretty cool.


Now it is time for the table top to be cut on the CNC and for the drawer to be made. I spent more time resizing all of the table parts so that they fit on the 4'x4' 3-Form panel and leave enough room for the handles of the chair. I am nervous about cutting the material. It is expensive enough that if anything goes wrong (knock on plastic) I am in a bind. I have just enough material to make what I need and can't afford any snafus. Other than the handles, the pieces are not complex, so my fear is mitigated somewhat.

(Update- because it has taken me so long to get this posted I now have the table top cut completely. It was VERY scary there for a half hour or so. Because the job would take longer than the shop is open, I had paused the job in the middle and went home for the night. Unfortunately some time during the night, the power in the neighborhood went out causing the computer with all of my setup data/coordinates to reboot and loosing all of this information. A shop tech, Patrick Brennan, helped me get things lined up again. A laborious and slightly imperfect process. But the pieces look great now. Thanks Patrick!)

The mold for the lights is proving to be the most frustrating part of this project so far. As I write this, I am cutting more pieces on the CNC. The last couple attempts in MDF were not satisfactory. There was also an issue with an MDF panel not being held down hard enough onto the table (which has a fairly strong vacuum to keep panels secure) which caused a piece to go flying and the board itself to shift in such a way that the job could not be recovered. This was after being 3 and half hours into the job...anyway, I am using a low formaldahyde resin partical board. It is more porous than MDF and there is some risk of little pieces chipping out when it is being cut. But it does seem to cut better than MDF. Crossing my fingers. I am starting to feel the deadline heat a little bit.

I'd like to address a couple of issues that I had considered to some degree prior to the design of the pieces, but which I had not spelled out explicitedly early on. The first is my target demographic and the second is weight of materials.

I had in mind a middle to upper-middle class person for these pieces. I think I was concerned about too many restrictions when weighing cost of environmentally friendly materials against a demographic with less disposable income. I think it would pose an interesting and challenging design problem to address this demographic in this way, but that is not my focus this time around.

I think price would ultimately be comparable to Room & Board prices when the cost of labor is controlled more (multiples, right Dave?). The 3-Form material cost is very high unless I use only the reclaim panels like I have for this project. But I would be at the mercy of whatever is available, which changes frequently. New panels are so expensive that I would need to reconsider the application of the material so that more of it could be stretched over more pieces.
The BioFiber Boards are somewhat pricey but not prohibitively so and most of the board gets used so cost from waste is less. Steel is relatively cheap with little waste (I had a 3" piece left over from the 12' I purchased at Discount Steel.) Hardware is a little pricey but has price breaks when purchased in quantity.

Once I have total costs tallied, I can add in labor and time and have a more accurate price point. Not quite there yet.

One thing that was considered but not dealt with in a satisfactory manner is the weight of the materials that I am using. The table and chair are going to be much heavier than I thought. If I had more time, I would redesign the chair to have more pieces cut out of it to reduce weight but not impact structural integrity. The table should have either hollow bar or aluminum for the legs. The table top is heavy but can't really be avoided with the current design. 40lbs is heavier than I'd thought.

Lesson learned.

CNC'ing and neodymium magnets

I made another go at cutting the mold for the light on the CNC today. Here is a photo of the process:



The toolpath for the router was not quite right and the result was a rough surface that was not usable (Wasteful. I will try to use the remaining material or give it to someone else to use). I am going to use the pieces that I cut out last week instead and sand them a bit to make a nicer surface. The pieces remaining to be cut will use a better toolpath thereby minimizing, or removing all together, the need to sand afterward.

I shopped hardware for my chair at McMaster-Carr today. Based on the hardware measurements, I added correct holes into the pieces of the chair where the hardware will fit. They are stainless steel have a very high tensile strength (80,000 psi). One of the things that I realized from my quarter scale model was that the seat would rub against the hardware that connects the legs to the armrests/seatback piece. So I changed the design of the seat slightly to clear the hardware when it is flipped up. I also changed the way that the seat is connected to the back legs. Making these changes however means that the seat no longer flips up without hitting the seat back. So I am going back to the use of neodymium magnets (purchased here) to make the chair hold together when it is folded up and keep the seat upright but prevent it from flipping back to far. Below I've highlighted the areas where the magnets will be placed (red arrows) and where little metal slugs will be placed (blue arrows). The illustration does not show the holes that will have to be drilled for metal pieces to be inserted into the seat bottom.



I've made sure that the magnets are strong enough to hold a connection to metal through a 1" thick piece of MDF to approximate the connection stength when I use the BioFiber Wheat Board. The connection is not too strong where separating the pieces will be hard. The seat bottom when flipped up will be pulled evenly from both sides and appear to float. Hopefully this all makes sense.

FSC Certified wood and totals to date

I am going to visit the ReUse center to hopefully purchase some FSC certified wood (ash or oak maybe). More about the Forest Stewardship council here.

Forgot to mention in my last post that I have finally received a 4'x4' panel of 3-Form Varia (its delivery was delayed due to mix-up). It is beautiful stuff.

Total expenditure to date:
• 3-Form panel $178 ($125 for the panel + taxes and shipping)
• Porcelain and stains $176
• Biofiber Wheat $90 + tax
• MDF board for mold $31
• 12' Cold Rolled Steel bar $49
• RP chair model $89

Total to date: $613

Remaining expenses:
Powder Coating Table Legs
Hardware for Table and Chair
Paint for chair
LED for light (I have a fixture/cord already)
Labor for getting drawer made
Stain for drawer
Epoxy & Hardener

My desired budget is $1500. So far it looks like I will fall within that.

Hoops and Hurdles

Forgive me blog, it has been over a week since my last posting. A lot has been happening. Not all of it great, but I am moving forward. I had hit a snag as far as the mold making part of the light creation was concerned. Using the rapid prototype machine would have produced a model that would have cost well over $500. In the 'real world' the cost would be 4 times that. Still, Plan B has been put into effect. Plan B is to use MCAD's CNC router to make the model instead. The problem with this is, (1) I have to assemble the pieces together (this will fall under the heading of 'finishing work') and (2) the most ideal material for the job is MDF. Typical MDF is not eco-friendly. There does exist an eco-friendly version on the market and I do have some samples coming (I can't find a distributor in the Twin Cities) from a place called http://www.sierrapine.com. They have some really cool green materials. I'd like to get my hands on their MDF that can be powder coated. Some day...
Anyway, the mold had to be redesigned and cut into pieces that were the same thickness as the MDF (3/4"). The file looks like this:

These pieces then are stacked and glued together. Viola, a mold! The same process will be completed for the other (postive) part of the mold.
I thought that the light would be the easiest part of the process, but so far this is proving to not be the case. I am hoping that this will come together in the next 2 weeks.

I have finalized my chair design.



To give the chair more character and to make a material connection with the table, I have added plastic components from the left over ecoresin of the table to the chair. Handles in both arms as well as one at the front edge of the seat will be emphasized with inlayed ecoresin. They are both decorative and bring attention to the places that have been designed for grabbing (be sure to click on the image to see it in a larger scale).

I made a quarter scale model with the rapid prototype machine ($89). I am glad that I did this as it shows that the connections will work where I have them and that the seat will flip up and stop before hitting the backrest but at an angle where it can be carried and not flop around.



My man James at North Star Surfaces has secured some sheets of Biofiber Wheat for me at a nice discount ($90 for two sheets that are 3'x 4'). Normally one 4' x 8' sheet cost twice that. Thanks James! I had wanted to use Plyboo for the drawer of my desk but he had no left over material in the thickness that I want. A new sheet of 1/4" Plyboo is $250. Too much especially when I need to spend money on labor to have the drawer made. I am going to look into FSC certified wood instead.

The table legs are being made by David Hill. I expect it to be done any time now. I hope to be able to take a few pictures of his shop. It is definitely worth a picture or two.

BTW- if you are getting this in e-mail form, know that there is a link to the blog itself at the bottom of the email.
More to come.

Continental Clay, metal work, table legs and more chair designs

I met up with Jeff at Continental Clay Monday morning. We looked at different types of porcelain and spoke with the owner about the characteristics of each. The higher the temperature that porcelain is fired, the more translucent it becomes (due to its glass and Mullite content). We're going to get these puppies hot! This also means that there is substantial shrinkage- between 15 and 16 percent. I have some flexibility in the design as far as this is concerned, but I will grow my mold by 15.5% to compensate. I settled on a brand of porcelain called 'Southern Ice'. It is hard to describe the qualities that this material displays. Looking at a cup that was made from it helped give me an idea of what it might look like. It had a better tactile quality than the other choices. I also bought a couple of bags of stain for a post-firing glaze. The glaze runs about $6 a bag and the porcelain runs $1.74 a pound. I bought 88lbs of the stuff. All said, the total bill was $176.42.

I will print out the mold tomorrow which will mean that we can get rolling with this very soon. I am anxious to have some physical objects in hand!

A few images from Continental:



Bags and bags of clay


Here comes the motherload!


Southern Ice in the trunk! It sounds like Miami Vice.

From Continental, I went over to a place called Q shop on 18th ave N. They do metal machining and welding. They were referred to me by George Mahoney (who's shop used to be located in the same building). I thought I would see if they could put together the table legs for me. They don't have a brake for bending steel though, so they referred me to a guy 'down the hall' named Dave Hill. Dave's shop door is unmarked. Entering into his shop was like stepping back in time. He had old machinery all over the place. It smelled like MIG welding and cigarette smoke. I had brought along a print out of the table design that I have posted here already. I told him about the type and gauge of metal that I was wanting to use (1/4" x 2" mild steel bar- though I got home and realized that I meant 3/8" x 2"). His opinion was that there would be too much racking. I do not want to increase the thickness of the steel because it would make the desk much too heavy. Either a redesign is in order or aluminum might be needed instead (though Dave doesn't work in aluminum). Dave said he would be happy to make whatever I wanted for $50/hr (he ballparked the amount of time spent on my project at around 3 hours).

I headed over to Discount Steel from there to look at and feel the different gauges of steel and aluminum. Going up from 3/8"x2" is too heavy using steel bar. I don't think that I could get the radii for the the bottom bends with aluminum. So a little redesign is in order.

I would like some feedback on the following:

If I change the legs so that they are angled in and are joined on top, would that prevent racking from side to side? The legs are 24" high. Just the legs look like this:

3/8" is pretty thick and I find it hard to believe that this would rack that much.

On a side note, powder coating is in the running because it a leaves no waste as any left over powder is recovered and the process releases very little VOC's into the air. So once I do get the legs made, they are going to look nice after a powder coating. I have used Midland Powder Coating in the past and will probably use them again. I hope to get some photos of that place. It is very creepy!

The chair design is coming along. Here is where I am at with it.

Sketches:

Other considerations: Once the chair has been folded, it needs to remain folded so that transporting it is not awkward. One of the things I am debating is whether it would be too gimicky if I were to use very small embedded earth magnets in help keep the legs together and the seat upright when folded. I will do a little testing to see how well this might work. I feel like it wouldn't be that gimicky if the process felt natural. We'll see...