Furniture Design- Prototyping a futon

After my stuff finally arrived from the shipper today, I did some unpacking- at least the items for which I had places- I turned my attention to the built tables that needed leveling. I was less interested in that, and far more interested in designing a futon, so I began sketching for that.



About four pages in, I decided on the method that would employ- curved side runners in the arm sections that would allow the futon to tilt very easily. I struggle with the exact shape, as you can see in the sketches- thats what those wiggly shapes are- but came up with two I quite liked. I made a really rough prototype, decided I needed some better prototyping materials, so I bought some bamboo skewers at the local grocer. Way cheaper than wood dowels- and can be cut with scissors. My rough protos:





After this my new buddy Paul stopped by to say hey, and to loan me his drill press, band saw, and table saw. He hadn't used them in a while, and was reorganizing his shop, so he said I could have them until he needed them. So Paul effectively doubled the size of my shop, with three tools I was going to buy anyway! Now I just need to build a work table for those to sit on so they may be used. The cart they are on now is not staying.



So I then took my ideas to the computer, to make sure my engineering would be right- I didn't want the futon to tip over if one person was sleeping on one side, I wanted the top of the mattress to sit above the arm rest when flat so you wouldn't hit your head, and I wanted it to be easy to put up and down. I arrived at this solution, at about 10pm last night (thats why no update until now)






The arm sections need some refining- I am not going to go with a simple mailbox shape- but that is form stuff where I get to be all creative and artsy. The plan is now to make a full size prototype in pine for proof of concept, and then, once that works, a final version in oak with copper pipe as the moving support rods.

On a completely unrelated note- I thought you might like this- my building's garage houses the actual head from the video for "do the Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground. This is no joke- it has been verified. It is about 15 feet tall and is about the weirdest pop culture artifact I have ever seen. I will update tonight on the progress of the first futon proto.