Furniture Design - Futon Takes Shape

Another late night means another morning blog post!

Thursday morning meant a trip to Ikea for some parts- a glass top for the coffee table I'm making, come locking casters for the drill press and band saw stands I'll be building, and some bowl- you know, to eat out of. I had lunch there too- not easy for me to resist- I love the mac and cheese.

I also stopped at office depot for some circle drawing tools- the mechanism for the futon is going to take some precise drawing and cutting. Then I stopped at AutoZone on Jon's advice to buy some rear view mirror glue to attach my hardware to the glass table top.

I came back and set up the table saw and did another round of the same as the day before, but having done it once already, putting together the wider part of the frame, which would be the back, went a lot quicker.



Once complete, I installed a piano hinge- a six-foot long steel hinge with 72 screws to hold it in place. This ensures a strong joint and smooth opening and closing, with a smaller profile than, say, a door hinge. As you can see, I now have a futon-like couch thing! Again, no arms to support it- the design and build of these should be done today, or at least by early next week.





Satisifed with my progress on the futon, I switched to a less labor-intensive project- the coffee table. My coffee table will be supported by the structure known as a "quad" from Nomadic Display. Ever since they made me one, I wanted to turn it into a table. I found some lock-nuts that were actually the perfect size to snap onto the hardware of the quad and glued them to the tabletop, setting them to dry over night.



Here is what the table will look like in its finished position when it sits upside-down.



I am a bit concerned that the aluminum frame won't be strong enough to support the heavy glass top, and if that proves to be true, I do have a back up plan.

The evening was spent watching the movie Contact in Paul's apartment with Paul and Martin- who looks just like Ben Kingsley, and realized that everyone would believe Jody Foster if they just dropped another person into the machine! I mean, come ON its right THERE!

Anyway, the plan today is to finish the futon and the coffee table, and I will have what some call a living room! Very exciting!