Zen in Context

Final Design : Zen

Finishing Process

Porter's Clearcote

Dedicated a great amout of time to the finishing of stool, sanding prior to coating to shape edges and during coating to smoothen surface. Experimented with coating the Xanita board on a seperate piece but decided against it. 

3 coats were used per side. Sanded lightly with a 400 grade sandpaper in between coats.

Construction Process Part II

Since the CNC queue was way long and there was a good chance the seat was going to be overweight I decided to experiment with my original seat idea using laser cut 5mm birch ply that matched the frame. 

Laminated the bits together, once again great precision was required. 

.Finished seat looked better than expected

Stool was extremely sturdy. However with some force applied the seat was able to shift slightly. Although this wasn't a problem i decided that it should be rectified as it may cause frame to fail in the long run. 

Cut slots using the band saw and a cutter for a second top cross brace. 

Top Cross Brace

Bottom Cross Brace

Construction Process

Fresh out of the laser cutter. 5mm birch plywood. Tabs used to align pieces of ply and Xanita board when laminating. 

One side was laminated to Xanita board.

The Xanita board was then cut by hand on the inside. The outer portions was cut with the bandsaw.

Pvc pipes was used to ger the alignment right. This was in my opinion the hardest part. While the idea of using the tabs was "in theory" going to work. They shifted about alot. If slightly misaligned, the balance of the stool and the fitment of the two major frame parts will be compromised. 

Cross joint before depression is cut from Xanita board for the cross brace. 

Like the rest of the frame, it was hard to finish the Xanita nicely. It is virtually impossible to sand to a nice finish. These parts will however be concealed by the brace. 

After ensuring all 4 pieces are aligned, parts were glued together with PVA glue. The tabs were then cut off.

Seat Idea  

Bought some re purposed Douglas Fir for Urban Salvage. The timbers were meant to for the CNCed seat top. Realised that it actually weighed a ton and was hoping once CNCed it will be much lighter. 

Cut up the planks and glued them together for the desired size. Domino joints and pvc were used. 

Design of CNC seat

Sent in to CNC however the block of wood has been sitting there due to the long queue. 

Stage 5 : Final Design Sign Off

Changes made to design: Changed the direction of taper. Increased seat size and reduced base. Intention of new design was to allow the stool to be assembled and disassembled without the use of screws, bolts etc with ease and to promote flat pack design and portability.


Assembly Drawing / Exploded View Drawing

Individual Part Drawings

Evolution of Concept

Using the idea of the cross joint, I explored various forms on Solidworks. All forms utilized a triangular sheet metal "bracket" that sits on the top of the stool holding the two main pieces together, strengthening them while also acting as the seat.

Simplified form using triangulation on the seat "brackets" as well as on the frame at the various stress points. 

Reduced taper of frame as seat from previous forms proved to be too small. Also developed form of frame to be more aesthetically pleasing. 

Stage 4

Extremely interested in using Xanita as a material. Its light weight and structural properties were ideal of the project. But what interested me more was the fact that Xanita was made of upcycled material and is recyclable. It is non-toxic and is a sustainable material.

Experimented with the idea of bending Xanita board. Achieved by cutting out the desired angle on the board with a blade. Did not like the finish of the Xanita board and decided to add another material to neaten and strengthen the product.

Xanita was strong by itself. However once sandwiched and glued inbetween two pieces of 3mm ply, the material became extremely strong and not to mention really light for its strength. Its construct is similar to "hollow core doors". These are doors that are filled with a honey comb card board core.

Seeing as the material was really strong, decided to see how it would fare with cross joints. Passed off many designs as I thought these joints would cause the stool to be structurally weak. However, these proved to be really strong and showed no signs of weakness whatsoever.