Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Wood Furniture Design: A Finished Piece of Furniture



Before today, I never had sat on something I had designed, refined, and built myself. The futon is sturdy and comfortable! There needs to be some small adjustments made in the channels, as the folding action doesn't quite work perfectly yet, and ideally I will stain and lacquer it as well. But for now, it works, it sits flat and sturdy, can support three people, and, when opened flat, you can lie all the way at the edge and it doesn't tip over. All in all, lets mark this one in the WIN column. Now for pictures!
















Thanks to Jake, Paul and Martin for all their help and tools!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Encouraging Progress, and Discouraging Quality

Dear Internet,

I wanted to let some progress happen on the project at hand before showing an update- I'm sure seeing a tiny new piece on a futon is not very thrilling, so I am happy to show you this:



The futon here is almost at completion, the two side pieces are built- just needing some sanding, the bars are cut, armrests installed, and the seating/sleeping portion was done months ago. Now, all that remains is the attachment of the horizontal braces (two of which can be seen sitting on the side pieces, a third on the way) with blind mortise and tenon joints.

I did, however, when assembling the panels, make a stupid mistake. I did not label the pieces as left or right, and somehow in the shuffle, I mixed up which panel went with which set of supports. Ideally, they would be identical, and it wouldn't be an issue, but my work is still shaky, and so, things like this happen:



This is the worst of the joints, so its not all that awful, but because of it I am now considering filing all the gaps with wood putty, sanding it flat, and painting it. While it would make it look better, it would also add a few days work to the thing, and I'd lose the natural wood feel.

I expressed my concern to Martin, purveyor of wise statements that he is, I got the advice I needed. He said, "Mike, don't worry about it. This futon, you're going to sleep on it, sit on it, stand on it, jump on it, and f*ck on it, and once you know everything, you'll build another."

So here's the plan: I will finish the construction TODAY. Look for finished pictures tomorrow.




Thanks Martin, and Happy Birthday.

Friday, June 25, 2010

San Francisco Design Week Open Studios - Thursday

Last week here in the Bay Area was San Francisco Design Week- hosted by AIGASF. On Tuesday and Thursday evening, many of the design studios in SF opened their spaces up to the public, and Jake, Monika, and I made a trip out to see as many of them as possible.

Thursday: CCS Architecture, Lunar Design, Frog Design, R/GA Media Group, Smart Design, Astro Studios

CCS Architecture was a brief stop, but the only Architecture Firm on the list for both days. What was most interesting about CCS was the space. There was almost none of it. San Francisco has very high rents, and I cannot imagine building some of these intricate models they had made without massive amounts of workspace, but here they are.

Lunar Design was a cool, relaxed workspace. The space was a great deal larger than CCS, and even as the employees were not currently, it still felt like things were getting done.



A favorite artifact was this tourney bracket for SF Design firm dodgeball. Look at all the big names that participated!



Frog Design had a neat set up, with videos being projected onto the windows of the offices. They had a live band and the usual food and drink- but boy were there hundreds of people there! The place was so packed that it was hard to get a look at anything they were showing!



R/GA Media Group focused on advertising and branding. They were behind such brands as the Barnes and Noble Nook, and various campaigns for Nike. None of us being branding designers, we found it neat, but we made our stay short.

We instead went next door for a quick stop in a fund raising soiree for some public bike company. I'm not sure what we were supposed to learn there, but we were definitely not supposed to be there, as one of the event organizers made it quite clear to us. I got three shrimp out of the deal, and Monika almost got some free socks, and we were on our way.

Smart Design had our favorite space of the night- a large open air studio with rows of desks. Here, the pictures tell a better story than I can. We did not win a raffle for a video camera or an "Objectified" DVD.



We thought we might be too late, but we headed to Astro Studios anyway, to see if they had kept their studio open late. They had, and to our surprise, they had turned their space into something of a night club, instead of any presentation regarding their company- although we may have just arrived too late for that part. None of us had come to schmooze, so we grabbed some more free drinks, played some foozeball in the dark, and went home.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A Photo Tour of the Studio

Dear Internet,

A few people have been asking what the loft looks like right now, so here's a photo tour of our space!



The exterior of the studio. We currently have a sign outside saying "Calcot Custom Fabrication." This is due to change once we think of a better name.



One angle of our shop. All the work tables you can see here I built. Looky at all the tools we got!



The shop again! Some of you with a keen eye will recognize a futon in yet another stage of development.



The drawing/prototyping desk. I built the desk and Jake made this awesome chair.



Our kitchen, still devoid of dining table and kitchen island (Coming Soon!)



Living room complete with borrowed futon from Paul, custom made coffee table by me, and the frame portion of my futon. On the table is our living room projector, giving us a TV 8 feet wide by 4 feet tall. Hi Jake!



The upstairs office is in the foreground. We built our desks, and I built the shelves to the extreme right of the picture. Jake's room with Jake-built curtain separator is in the background.



My bedroom. Still missing a bed frame, but that's the next project. So this is like OUR open studio. Thanks for reading!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

San Francisco Design Week Open Studios - Tuesday

Last week here in the Bay Area was San Francisco Design Week- hosted by AIGASF. Though I found out a bit too late to attend the more formal design events, but on Tuesday and Thursday evening, many of the design studios in SF opened their spaces up to the public, and Jake, Monika, and I made a trip out to see as many of them as possible. Amongst the inevitable wine, cheese, and pretentious banter was the air of creative thinking and the expectation that these spaces will bring about awesome ideas.

Tuesday: IDEO, Adaptive Path, FuseProject, HOT Studio, New Deal Design, Ammunition

IDEO's
studio was right on the waterfront, at Pier 28. While the space looked interesting enough, it isn't the home base in Palo Alto- something I'm going to have to make some time to try and see. Too much of the studio was closed to public and cameras to really enjoy it I think.

Adaptive Path is a experience design and branding firm, not our focus here, but they have a wide open space, and gave an informative tour.



We agreed that our favorite studio from the night was the one opened by FuseProject. Yves Behar did not make and apprearance, and though some spaces were closed to the public, it was only through this screen of grass-like plastic rods, so it was visible, if not accessible.



In the basement, there was this incredible materials wall, with samples of just about anything you could think of to make something out of- for inspiration when designing.



There was a slide show on the work they had been doing, and a large number of projects out on display for visitors to gawk at. So Big Name Studio + Great Show of Work + Great Accommodation for Visitors = Winner!

Hot Studio had one of the coolest spaces we saw that week- a loft-style layout with offices up top and a two-story corridor running down the middle. Would be an awesome place to have to go to every day, I just wish they did product design there.



New Deal Design was a small space, but the entire studio was open to the public. Individual workspaces, meeting rooms, project areas, all could be fully explored. I hadn't heard of them before, but I recognized many of their products. They have done all the netgear modems and routers, and most high profile, all of those Dell computers that look awesome, but aren't really sold much on the website.

Its a real shame, but Dell waited too long to get these on the market, and people already associate Dell with bad build quality and proprietary parts. But anyway- cool looking computers.



Unfortunately we were already behind schedule by the time we hit New Deal, and Ammunition was another 8 blocks out of the way (excuses, excuses) so we did not get to see their probably awesome studio.

I hope this gave you a look into some of the really neat spaces where creative folks work- and when I'm working in one soon, I'll invite you over to check it out. I'll give you the rundown on Thursday's Open Studios soon!

Monday, June 21, 2010

A Dearth of Blog Posts



I have been very busy, and alternately very lazy this week. So its been a week since I last posted. Time to get back on track.

The Futon is coming together. The side panels are nearly complete. I am a bit hesitant to cut the channels out, because if I do it wrong, it means a whole lot of work getting back again.

I started routing out a half inch channel in all the pieces, creating what we affectionately called "The Jig That Used All the Clamps." I thought I had taken a photo of this, but it seems to have disappeared.

I carefully cut the side panels using a circular saw, which required a little editing and trimming, but in the end, I have my first pictures that actually look like something was done. Hurrah!




Monday, June 14, 2010

Wood Furniture Design: This Thing I Made Yesterday

I want to show you what I made yesterday.

I am two days into the build of the futon, and after spending some time making the final versions of the joints I was practicing late last week I determined I was going to need an oddly shaped angle piece that ended up looking like this.



Each edge, each angle, each distance measured and cut specifically, each bit removed with either band saw, hack saw, miter saw or chisel where needed. I wore out my right arm getting this piece as accurate as possible, a piece with not enough flat edges to clamp in place for chiseling.



It goes here, connecting the front legs to the cross piece between the front and back of the side panel:



In the end, hardly anyone will notice it.

And I am very proud of it.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Wood Furniture Design: Practice Joints

Dear Internet,

Yesterday Jake asked if the Futon would be ready by next week for people to come over and have movie nights. I laughed.

Then I reexamined. I have no other immediate projects, I have the tools I need, so why not? I set a goal of Thursday to have this done. I have other projects I need to get to.

I broke out the old Ryobi tablesaw. I am starting to realize Ryobi is a Latin word meaning "cheap, partially working version of a tool" as my Ryobi band saw, drill press, and table saw all frequently cause me accuracy problems. Yeah, I can cut, drill, and rip on them, but I just can't do it well. My brand loyalty, for most tools goes to DeWalt.



I started by ripping some 2x4s into smaller strips for my Futon's side frames, and then made the major cuts into the front and back legs. But now I had an issue- my plan for these frames involves some complex joints, and I didn't want to use my finished piece on a first go. It was time to make some practice joints.

I started with the one where the front leg meets the floor. At this point, one of the side pieces also meets the front leg. I chose a complex tongue and groove joint for this. Since I'm trying to avoid using screws I had to go all "New Yankee Workshop" on it and break out the chisels again. I am starting to get a feel for how to do smooth work, but my chiseling still comes out ragged. Still, it appears better every time. Plus if I hide the rough parts under the foot no one will see:



Then I proceeded with a few more joints; the top of the front legs and the complicated 135 degree bend, and I had my examples for all the new joints in the frame. Rough, ragged, gapped examples.



However, they are now close enough that I can model my final work after them. This is the next step- lining up, tracing, and making them part of the final item.




Hopefully by this time next week I will be sitting on my first piece of finish quality woodwork.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Blog Day Afternoon 3 of 5 - F3 at The Cotton Mill

Oakland downtown has the Art Murmur on the First Fridays of every month.

Alameda has the Art Attack on Second Fridays of every month.

Coming soon- F3 at the Cotton Mill - 3rd Friday of every month!

We have been talking for some time- and provided we can get landlord approval look for F3 at the Cotton Mill coming this July 16th. There is still a great deal or work to do to plan this, but I'm proud to say I'm in charge of pushing this forward. Although most of the work will be done with a large committee of enthusiastic friends within the building.

Won't you please join us?

Pictures/logos/artist list to come.

Blog Day Afternoon 2 of 5 - Get Sh*t Done Now!

I want to share a story here.

On the 12th of January, this year, as you well know, Haiti was hit with a catastrophic 7.0 mega-something earthquake causing immense damage and ending the lives of over a quarter of a million Haitians. The event most severely affected the capital city of Port-au-Prince, the coastal city of Léogâne, and the Southern city of Jacmel (population 40,000).

When you donate to a non-profit who is supposed to provide aide to disaster victims (Red Cross) you rarely ever get to see your money at work. Organizations will do their best to take video and publicize the work they do, but it becomes difficult to know that your donation made immediate effect.

The first boat full of supplies to reach Jacmel was not the Red Cross, not Doctors Without Borders, not any huge multinational humanitarian organization. It was a hero named Sebastian Velez with supplies bought by money from the AHA. Now, I promise to stop plugging the AHA here, but what I really want to put across is what Sebastian did that was so novel.

He knew what to do and he just did it.

If you get to know Sebastian, and I suggest you do, you'll get the sense he is direct to the point. He won't talk your ear off, but what he will say comes with a sense of urgency. "We all recognize what needs to happen. It's time we stopped talking about it and just help."

On the day of the earthquake, Sebastian, who was at the time providing aid near the Haitian/Dominican border, made a call to the AHA. He told them he was going to Jacmel to help, and needed money for supplies. And the donors who sent the money got to see exactly where it went. And very quickly at that. Within days he arranged for a boat, aquired the funds, bought the supplies, and delivered them (over $100,000 in medical supplies alone).



It was not so hard. It took less than a day. But it made a huge difference. You reading this right now- I guarantee you have at one point transported a large load of things.

Why then, when something like this happens, is there such a long delay in getting relief where it is needed? How long can large organizations wait before realizing there is a need? How about this- WHAT THE **** ARE WE WAITING FOR?!?!

It was a feeling we all had as we watched our fellow Americans drown in New Orleans and it took days for help to arrive. How it this possible? We have helicopters, boats and bottled water. If we have one thing in America, its bottled water. Why are volunteers, shippers, pilots not getting this taken care of sooner. Why is there not a network in place to get the means to the Sebastians of the world, so relief arrives even sooner?



So here is my idea. It is crude and idealistic, but I believe not impossible. Why not have a worldwide network of people with access to transportation vessels, and when something like this happens we speed past all the bureaucracy and just get the tings there. If I can get any DVD sent to my apartment by the very next day, then why not thousands of gallons of drinking water?

Its just the beginning of GSDN.org (Get Sh*t Done Now) which will be funded by donors like you, who are tired of feeling helpless when you see human suffering on the news. Let's get started! Who is with me?

Blog Day Afternoon 1 of 5 - Bill Nye, the Rap Guy

It has been well over a week since my last post- I have been quite busy- not getting any specific work done, but first helping out with the American Humanist Association and their conference, and then entertaining my good friends from said organization for a couple of days around the bay area.

To make up for that, or to interrupt the quiet you were getting used to, I will attempt to provide you 5 blog posts in one afternoon/evening!

Part 1 - Mike meets Bill Nye the Science Guy



At the AHA convention this year, they chose to honor Bill Nye, of afternoon kids TV fame. While most known for his work on Bill Nye: The Science Guy (Science Rules!) he has been on a few shows, and most recently hosted "Stuff Happens" on the science channel. The AHA usually honors specifically non-theistic authors and thinkers, but often the award goes to science promoters and rational thinkers. Bill Nye falls perfectly into this category.

Being good buddies with the people in charge of the conference, I was actually given the chance to meet Bill, and even cooler, hang out with him at the hotel bar for hours after the show.

I haven't had many brushes with celebrity before, but it wasn't long before he made us forget that he was one. There was some talk about oil spills, I asked if he was a fan of Richard Feynman (he is!), but the Science Guy doesn't want to talk about science. He wants to talk about old school rap music.

He talked of a favorite song by Kurtis Blow, back when rap music used to be positive. He not only remembered this song- he knew nearly all the lyrics, and recited them from memory. Unreal. This song is obscure enough, that even Google couldn't find me some lyrics for it.

It wouldn't have been that impressive, had it not been Bill Nye. We often want to typecast people- especially famous people, because we see a small bit of who they are, and we think they know them. But whenever you find yourself making assumptions about someone you've never met, remember Bill Nye loves old school rap. And that should set you straight.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

One Month In, One Comission Complete


About 12 hours of work, about $180 in materials, and here it stands commission number 1 done. A cat ladder. Rumor has it, that other people in the building now want cat ladders. This might be the start of something weird. Some are saying Mike's Cat Devices, I'm thinking more like Mike's Custom Fabrication: "Because you need it, and it doesn't exist."

I have now lived in Oakland a month. Things have begun to settle here, and I'm quickly finding my place within the community. We are a large group of fun people who are getting things done- creating the tangible items with the intangible qualities brought by the creative mind. And I'm the guy who builds cat castles.

Or more likely, I'm a guy who makes things happen. Today I initiated a wildly successful e-mail thread regarding opening up our building to the public once monthly in order to show off our work, and get some free attention for our in-house businesses of which there are many. It seems everyone is on board- an amazing thing to get a whole 74 unit building to act in concert- Chris refers to it as turning a battleship. It appears this ship is a-turning.

On top of that, I have ordered a digital projector, and plan to host movie nights on Thursdays with films projected on the side of the building. Paul has offered the screen- he has quite an assortment of blank white material, and there is plenty of room in the handicapped space in front of his unit to seat lots of people. Making things happen.

Tonight I am headed to San Jose to see Maggie for the first time in over a month, and to help the AHA get ready for their bitchin' conference. I might meet Bill Nye the Science Guy you guys. The conference will keep me busy all weekend, but I'll try to keep you updated on goings on. Hasta Luego!