Flat-Pack Furniture Project
January-June, 2017
Challenge
Design a piece of furniture from a half sheet of plywood that could be assembled without the use of glue or screws
Constraints:
The piece of furniture must be built only out of a half sheet of 3/4” plywood
The piece must be able to support the weight of the user
The piece must be fully assembled from a “flat pack”
The piece must be fully assembled without the use of glue, screws, or any other fasteners
The furniture must not wobble when assembled
Process:
I chose to build an Adirondack Chair, I wanted to make something I could sit in for this project
I started brainstorming and drawing different chairs on paper
Modeled the individual parts and assembly in SolidWorks
Printed out the full size drawings on a plotter and traced them on the half sheet of plywood
Cut out the individual parts using a jigsaw
Finished the parts by sanding, and staining them
Assembled and exploded view of the Adirondack Chair in SolidWorks
The final product, the chair was stained with clear polyurethane wood stain on the slats, and a dark mahogany oil based stain on the sides
Results
The chair was able to support the weight of myself and any of my classmates that sat in it
It did not shake or wobble because of the locking hooks built into the top slat and supporting rail
I learned how to design a piece of furniture from start to finish, as well as manufacture the product using shop tools