Submission Day!

After a sleepless night of worrying about the possibility of my stool collapsing beneath me in front for the entire class, I am pleased to announce that it didn't! Coming in at just under 2.5kg, the stool still exceeded the weight limit, but still functioned as a massively over-engineered stool. There were no signs of twisting, buckling, bending or cracking, which was a massive relief, as it was the first time anyone had sat on this stool. The stool is actually more comfortable than an implied seating plane made of metal tubes might suggest. I would consider this design a success, though if I had to redo this stool, I would, as mentioned before, increase the thickness of the plywood frame and do away with the aluminium sheets, in favour of a cleaner aesthetic; tubes that protrude out of the wood, without any apparent fasteners. Having said that, the aluminium sheets do have a certain aesthetic appeal, and when considering the weight constraints of this project, are indeed necessary for load distribution and structural rigidity.

Prototyping Day 3

Today was the final day in the workshop and the last few tasks to complete included spraying WD-40 on the aluminium frame to remove dirt and glue from the frame.

Domino joints were cut using the domino cutter

 The aluminium frame was glued in with Liquid Nails and screwed into place, starting with the standing plywood frame, before applying PVA to the domino joint and Liquid Nails to the lower part of the plywood frame.

Tomorrow when the glue has set, the final part of construction will include sanding the frame to a natural and smooth finish and polishing the aluminium.