OUFM201 - The Bench is complete

I have finally finished making my three person outdoor bench, made from tanalised timber. I have named it the sunrise bench:

OUCE255 - Mission Statement

I have selected and listed a variety of different mission statements from existing businesses to help with writing my own:

"Give consumers and businesses what they want, when they want it. We never stop improving our world class operation's by putting our customers - and their needs - first."

- Ebuyer.com

"Microsoft’s mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential."

-Microsoft

"Skype’s mission is to be the fabric of real-time communication on the web."

-Skype

I have tried to write my own mission statement which is below:

" I am committed to crafting high quality furniture to suit the ideal needs of the customer, meeting personal, social, and economic aims." 

I have also decided to make a smaller version, which fits better on my business cards:

"Crafting High Quality, Bespoke Furniture"

OUCE255 - SWOT Analysis

This is the SWOT table for the furniture maker Andre Chalmers, www.andrechalmers.co.uk:

This is the SWOT table for the furniture maker Tim Whitfield, http://www.timwhitfieldjoinery.com:

Comparing the two within the SWOT Analysis, I felt that they both had the same kind of strengths and weaknesses, as they are both located in similar areas, producing the pieces to similar clients. 

Where the two differ is within the strengths and weaknesses that each professional has. One of the main differences is the use of a professional website, which I believe makes the designer  look much more professional and business orientated, rather than just a hobbyist. 

The main weakness I felt that both of them had was that they looked more like "Handy-men", rather than a professional furniture maker. This has a big impact of the way a client may perceive the business, and may have a significant impact on the type of jobs that they may get. 

Comparing this two my personal business there are some significant things that I can apply. One of these is two create and use a professional website, containing contact information and previous work I have created. I will also be careful on what skills and services that I supply, so I do not look like and odds job handyman. Some of the best Opportunities that I will have is the lack of local competition, although I will still have the threats of economic pressures, and wider competition from the likes of IKEA and other large furniture making companies. 

OUFM201 - Design and Manufacture: Bench Update

The bench so far......

OUFM201 - Design and Manufacture: The bench so far....

So far in this piece of outdoor furniture I have dry fitted the complete frame, shaped the arms and cut the seat to the correct size. All that is left to do is insert the dowels and glue together.

Above: Frame of bench complete

My next task is to create the sunset seat, I have started this my creating the arched back. This has included me making some jigs and a lot of sanding. Below is half the curve complete. After this I will be planing and fitting the sun rays.

Above: Construction of arch begins

OUCE255 - Value Proposition

From my studies and from the experiences I have gained I have decided to make high quality, contemporary furniture. This will include custom and new joinery techniques, new use of materials and a wide range of shapes, including bent wood.  My furniture will also include all aspects of manufacture from hand crafted components, to Computer Aided Design and CNC Components. One aim I have is to be as sustainable as possible; including sourcing materials from FSC approved sources, and minimising waste. Another aim I have is to all ways push myself and the skills that I have in order to make the best product possible, and the fastest possible speed.

I will also listen to any customer’s needs and want’s, which may include changing a design to suit their purpose. As “a customer is all ways right” mentality, I will never be happy until the customer is happy, which also includes before, during and after care on anything that is sold.  


One key value that I feel drives my work is being meticulous and also precise in all manners of practise, to produce the highest quality pieces as possible. Another key value is to be imaginative and bold, to produce unique pieces, with a strong story and selling point.

OUPD202 - Going Green for 2016...

For our task on Monday I found this article is a suitably named journal called "Sustainability" in January 2013  issue. This article was talking about the key points of sustainability, specifically in the housing sector. One of the key points within the article was that the UK government wants all new builds to be completely carbon neutral.  The image shows one design concept which incorporates new design and construction methods.

Above: Sustainability 2013 Journal

OUFM201 - Design and Manufacture

Here is my design for Design and Manufacture. I have decided to make a three person bench for my parents. Below is the final design:

Advanced Machine Production: Finished Piece

Due to technical difficulties and time constraints I haven't been able to keep a complete log of how this project went, but below is the finished piece :)

Advanced Machine Production: Day One

Today was spent  primarily getting the legs for my piece designed in Autocad and then imported into Alphacam to produce the NC code for the CNC router to cut the deign out of the plywood. Below is the Autocad drawings ready to be imported into ALphacam:

Above: Legs, shown on material and on bed of CNC router.

Once I had drawn the leg components out, I then had to get them to fit on the bed of the machine. The only way to do this effectively is to place the material at an angle on the bed. I also added bridges on the design so that the components would be held in place. Below shows what the design looks like without the bridges (and how it will finally look):

Above: CAD drawing without bridges

The next stage was to use Alphacam to start programming the actual NC Code for the CNC Router. I started of with help from Matt, and now I have started to get the hang of it, and have booked the CNC Router for Wednesday.

Advanced Machine Production: Final design

The last few weeks have mainly been me doing research and design development in order to fit the brief that I created. For my project I will be making a bookcase which also has a drawer at the bottom.

One main issue that I have focused on is transportation costs of tradition furniture, and therefore have made my design flat packable, and easy to machine produce. However, unlike the norm of flat pack furniture mine will not require and tools or glue to assemble, making it quick and easy for anyone to put the piece up in any room.

Below is my final design:

Above: Final rendered drawing

Above: Close up of 'Key' joint

Summers over......

Well summers nearly over, I have received my first brief so have begun researching ready for Monday :) 

Design and Prototype - Deadline

Today was the deadline, and I had a lot of work to do. I began by cutting the top and bottom piece down to the correct size, and then sanding them down. Once this was complete I then glued up the other side of the chair, ready for me to make the feet flat.

Above: Chair side gluing

Whilst this was being glued, I decided to sort out the tops of the chair frame, and round them off:

Above: Top rounded

Finally using the flat bed of a machine and the disc sander I flattened off the feet so it was level, and roughly sanded the rest of the chair. After speaking with both Matt and Richard, it was decided it would be best to leave a finish off rather then rush it and mess it up. However I did submit a sample piece with what the finish would be if I had enough time to apply it. Below is the finished chair:

Overall this has been a massive learning experience, with lots of mistakes but a lot more knowledge gained which I can take with me and also share with others.

Design and Prototype - Lesson Eight

I was beginning to panic at the beginning of this week, as I wasn't sure how I would ever get the chair finished in time. The first thing for me was to clean up the frame ready to start making the mortices for the slates.

I first used a sander which you manually apply pressure to the belt to clean up one side of each piece of chair frame:

Above: Cleaning one side up

After this I cleaned the other side using the wide belt sander to make sure everything was square. This then meant I could cut the mortice and tenon joints for the slats. To cut the tenons I used the tenoning machine, and the rounded of the edges. This is because to create the mortices I used a jig and a router. The jig was made to allow me to make accurate and exactly the same sized holes all along the frame of my chair:

Above: Jig to make holes

Above: Rounded mortice hole

Above: Frame with mortice holes cut

I was excited at this point, as it meant I could dry assemble the slates and frame to have a "seat shaped" object, as I liked to call it:

Above: Dry assembled frame and slates

 And what was even more amazing was that it it could take my weight easily, which I really never thought would happen.

Above: Me and my chair ;)

I then decided, for added stability now that I knew it was going to take my weight, I decided to make some stretchers from left over plywood. These were easy to make, and used a mortice and tenon joint on one end (with the same jig from before) and a dowel joint at the other:

Above: Using the same jig to create the mortices

Above: Opening leg to place stretcher

Above: Stretcher gluing in place

Once dry, I used the wide belt sander just to smooth the edges again. I then glued up one side, ready to start weaving and gluing the pieces into place:

Above: One side gluing in place

Once this was glued and dried, I could then begin to assemble the chair, this took along time, and I even went in today to carry on, as each strip had to be individually glued:

Above: Woven and straight pieces being glued into place

I was dieing to see what it looked like, so at the end of today I roughly cut all the strips down by hand, dry fitted the other side, and below is the result:

Above: Chair nearly finished 

This just leaves Monday (the deadline to finish everything of, and to submit. I should get this done, but probably without a finish applied.

Design and Prototype - Lesson Seven

This week was the first time that I finally got something that looked like a chair. I started on Monday still without my materials, and worried about time I made a jig which would allow me to make the woven pieces, which could then just be slid on from one side of the chair.

This jig was quite easy to make, I first made a base which was roughly the same shape as the side profile of the chair, and then mounted blocks onto this which would hold the slates in place:

Above: Blocks holding the slates in place

 This jig also allowed me to find the best distance between each slate with very little breakages, as show below:

Above: Plywood bent into shape

Above: Complete jig with woven strip in place.

I left earlier then  normally do on this day as it was my birthday on Monday :)

The rest of the week I spent mainly making all the components, as my material came in on Tuesday. However after clamping up the first couple of pieces I realized I was going to have to adjust my jigs, as each one needed 22 clamps. I started  converting them to block and wedges, and it meant that each jig now only needed between 3 and 5 clamps:

 

Above: Jig only needing five clamps

I also glued up both sides of the frame, first making one side, and then using this to try and make both legs the same size and shape:

Above: First frame gluing

Above: first frame glued up and holding second frame in place.

Design and Prototype - Lesson Six

This has been a slow week, with my materials still not arriving when they should have (Thursday). At the beginning of the week, I decided to make some test pieces to make sure that the materials I had ordered would indeed be strong enough, and also do what I required.

The first test piece I made was to find out if the joinery would be strong enough to support the weight and wouldn't split in half. This proved a success so I moved on to the next test:

Above: Test piece on joinery

The next thing that I wasn't sure would work was the woven pieces, as this required the plywood to be bend at very sharp angles in different directions around the slats. To test if this would work I clamped pieces the same thickness to one of the frame jigs, and then tried to weave one strip and then two strips of plywood around them. To begin with this wasn't successful, with the pieces just continuously snapping at every weave. I then spaced the fake slats further apart, and this solved the problem on all of the weaves apart from were the seat frame was angled. After some further thinking and research I tested wetting the pieces first and then weaving them. This was a SUCCESS !!! Once I had worked this out I was in great confidence that my design may actually work, (although will need a lot of clamps):

Above: Testing the woven strips

 Next I worked on the cross pieces that would form the frame of the chair.These were made with four layers of plywood glued together. This meant that they would match the rest of the chair. To speed up making them I used PVA glue, and clamped up four at a time.

Above: Slates gluing up

Finally I cleaned and squared them using the disc sander:

Slates cleaned and square

I also decided to make a couple of other jigs. One of these was another jig for making the framework of the chair, due to the drying time of cascamite (24 hours). I used the same technique as the first jig, but to make sure they were the same I screwed them together and reshaped them on the disc sander.

Above: Jigs screwed together

  Finally I made the jig for the new "U" shaped piece of the chair. This was made by using a leg and one frame as a template to draw round on a piece of mdf.

Above: Pencil line of the shape of the jig

Once I had done this I then found scrap pieces of wood to build it up to the required height and then glued these together.

Above: Scrape pieces gluing together

 I then used the band saw to quickly remove most of the waste of each piece.

Above: Waste removed using band saw

 Finally I used a combination of disc and bobbin sander to remove the rest of the waste and smooth the joints. I finally fixed a base to the jig like the rest of the others.

Above: Jig ready just need a base

Above: Jig finished and shown with the shape of the leg