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Curved chair - far out design

4/30/20       
Jeff Member

Website: http://www.spugnardi.com

This is a modern chair build with curves and built to look like coral. The coral chair. No dovetails here, just veneer, wiggle wood, or fiberglass to shape like a curved chair.

Would you make the male mold then cut out the hole with a router / hand saw once it is built? Or would you make a form that somehow has "warts" or whatever that would be the holes around which you would wrap the veneer or fiberglass?

This is a collaboration with a non-profit arts center. This is not my design or wheelhouse, but I think this is a cool concept.

Veneer or fiberglass?


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4/30/20       #2: Curved chair - far out design ...
duster

This would be a nightmare to veneer. The only way I can see doing this is sculpting in foam and fiberglassing.

5/1/20       #3: Curved chair - far out design ...
David R Sochar Member

Wood - even veneer - will not bend to compound curves. Veneer can be forced to bend in compound in very limited bits. Wood is anisotropic - not having the same properties in all directions.

If you are committed to wood, then you will need to be subtractive - glue up a large blank, and remove what you do not want. Look up Wendell Castle.

If you want to find out more about bent laminations, look up Charles and Ray Eames.

5/1/20       #4: Curved chair - far out design ...
rich c.

You have to understand casting to be able to do "warts". You have to be able to pull the two parts of the mold apart. It requires draft angles to pop it out. A chair like that would require extensive design effort and probable something like a 4 piece mold. You could spend a month on just the molds. And routing would be no treat either. The router base will be sitting on the radius where the back meets the seat. A 5 axis router would make it a dream. Handheld will be a nightmare. Verner Patton did a pretty good job making plywood bend around for a chair.

https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2019/10/22/a-sinuous-seat/

5/1/20       #5: Curved chair - far out design ...
rich c.

Here's a link to the Eames chair design start. Catch a look at the picture of the mold with an internal bladder.

https://www.woodcraft.com/blog_entries/famous-furniture-eames-molded-plywood-chairs

5/1/20       #6: Curved chair - far out design ...
Tom Gardiner

I don't agree with the statement that veneer cannot be worked around compound curves. It can be done and I have done it without much preparatory effort. I have veneered automotive components with burl and crotch veneers with tighter radii than this chair would. The chair would still be a beast to veneer because of the size of the veneer sheet. It would take several pairs of hands to massage the veneer into a wrinkle free surface inside a veneer bag.
But that is not the real problem I see. The substructure would require cutting bending ply shapes with pleats to fold around a form. Each layer would have to have it's own pattern with pleats offset. 3D software and a talented designer could make that easier.
Quite frankly this is not a project to touch as a one off. I would suspect that there would be a hundred hours easily in this without a guarantee of success. If I were younger I would jump at the chance to do it though.

5/2/20       #8: Curved chair - far out design ...
Jeff Member

Website: http://www.spugnardi.com

This is not my swim lane, and I suggested to the non-profit that they need to think about finding an expert in casting and fiberglass.

I appreciate all your help here, and when I do get a vacuum press, I will be asking you for help on something much simpler.


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