DinoChair - Children Reading Chair
This chair was designed and executed as part of my digital fabrication course in Fab Academy. I used fusion 360 to design the chair, and then cut all parts with the CNC machine before sanding and assembling.
In this page, I will explain all steps of the project, and how I made it from scratch.
For this project, we had to create a piece of furniture. The most important condition to follow was the use of joints ONLY. We were not allowed to assemble the result with screws or use glue, and should rely solely on joints we make using the wood itself. This requirement came with a set of challenges in my project, since I was designing a children reading chair.
I had to make sure the seat is comfortable, while still being sturdy and strong enough to carry the weight of the user, since I wanted it to carry up to atleast 10 years old.
Below are some screenshots to show the progress in fusion360.
After the design phase was complete, I proceeded to cut the pieces individually. For that, we used the VCarve program and the CNC machine.
For the back of the chair, which will be laid on the supports, a kerfed piece needed to be used.
Kerfing refers to the process of creating a small groove or notch, called a kerf, along the length of a material, typically wood, in order to allow it to bend or flex without cracking or breaking.
The kerf is made by cutting a thin, shallow slot into the wood, typically using a saw blade. The width of the kerf depends on the thickness and type of the material being cut, as well as the desired amount of flexibility.
Kerfing is often used in woodworking to create curved or rounded shapes in furniture, musical instruments, and other decorative objects. By strategically placing kerfs along the length of a piece of wood, it can be bent into complex shapes without breaking, allowing for greater design flexibility and creativity.
There are several types of kerfing, shown in the picture below. In this project, the zigzag kerf was used. This piece will be shown in the assembly below.
When the design was done and cut, I proceeded to the assembly stage, which came with several different issues. Before explaining the issues and how I dealt with them, I will talk about the main assembly steps.
The first step was sanding, which was very much needed due to the large amount of wood fly-a-ways that was a result of using the CNC. Since my pieces were very large in size, this stage took a very long time, which postponed my work. You can see in the pictures below some of the pieces and how much sanding they required. This process was done both for the outer edges of the pieces, as well as the smaller joints inside.
After that was completed, it was time for assembly. However, because of some issues with the cutting and the arrangement in the program itself, the joint placements were not correct for some of the pieces. We dealt with this issue in two different ways depending on the situation.
The first way, which we followed for the joints that only changed places sideways, is to cut more of the pocket to the side, so the piece can be fit correctly.
The second way, which was done for the pieces that were very far from the pocket placement, was to remove the whole joint and attaching them together with a nail gun instead. The pieces that were cut off were then placed back into the empty joint to fill in the space.
On the other hand, other joints were working just fine, especially the press-fit joints used in the skeleton. However, since the fit was a little bit tight, and to prevent it from breaking, a little bit of WD40 was sprayed on it. This made them fit together easier and without any issues.
After all of them were assembeled, the kerfing piece used for the back was fit using the nail gun. This piece was then sanded to make it smoother. Finally, before moving on to the finishing, I added a filler to all the joints and on the sides, to prevent fly-a-ways, and to give it a cleaner final look.
After the chair was assembeled, and the filler was put and sanded to make it smoother, it was time to paint the chair.
The main color used was blue, for the dine sides. For the shelves, however, several different colors were used to make it more colorful and fun, since it will be used by a child.
This picture shows the first coats that were done.
After the first coat dried, the second coat was applied with a bit more caution. We made sure to get sharp clean lines, and so we covered whatever were not painting. This gave us a much more clean look.
Finally, after the second coat was dry, we added the clear coat to make it look shinier and to seal everything together.
Then, the chair's skeleton was complete.
