Chop and change: Hacking is making its way to furniture
1843magazine.com
1843magazine.com
Which I think is really interesting, sure there's some kind of obvious things in there, but also some really genuinely useful ones as well.
For example, I quite like this Ikea Pax to Synth station build: http://www.ikeahackers.net/2017/06/pax-synth-workstation.htm...
> In 2016 Vitra, a high-end Swiss furniture company, unveiled Hack, a modular desk designed by Konstantin Grcic. Made of chipboard panels that slot into aluminium brackets, its £2,557 ($4,775) price tag sits awkwardly with its knocked-up-in-a-garage aesthetic – but, as with Delaktig, this unfinishedness is deliberate.
I believe also the name and price tag are very deliberate.
>The “flexible and dynamic” desk can be adjusted in height, folded up, turned into a sofa, drilled into and sawn.
Just like £ 25.57 each chipboard panels.
It's hard to imagine the feeling of turning junkyard scrap into gold.
What Ikea sells you is, essentially:
a) a set of instructions for making furniture out of basic components b) those components, produced and distributed through a highly-efficient supply chain
So break those two apart! Let hobbyists and carpenters share or sell their furniture designs. Just specify the components in a standard way, so suppliers can compete to supply the components for each design.
So you turn a monolithic business into one where smaller groups can compete on each part of the system. One company can cheaply supply cut wood in Seattle, another just sells its funky shelving designs without worrying about the infrastructure.
Most bits of this ecosystem already exist -- the furniture-making hobbyists, the DIY stores, the suppliers of nails and screws. They just need a bit of systemisation (and marketing) to pull them together into a system that can compete with a monolithic supply chain.
General public (especially the millennials) have better knowledge and insights about good design and it has become much more democratic. The problem is that millennials just don't have as much money to spend on furniture, let alone a space to put them in. Ikea's Delaktig line is definitely a step in the right direction, but it still can't provide the level of freedom that "Ikea Hack" does.
I believe the answer lies in a system that provides the basic structure, which lets the individuals design and build on top of it. This way, you can achieve designs that are more unique, multi-functional, and affordable.
On your "about us" or product page you should do a small write-up about that actual materials and components. Basically, how is this different or better than cast iron pipe or Klee clamps?
I'd really like to know if your system can support significant weight because most of the designs (except for the garment rack) are small structures that you would expect to hold only 10-20 lbs. I would guess from the weight and dimensions of the garment rack you are using 1-1/4 OD x .065 wall aluminum round tube.
Our goal in terms of functionality, is to make it easier for people to enjoy the versatility of pipe fittings (Kee Clamps, FitzKitz) and slotted extrusions (80/20, Minitec) while providing a seamless design better suited for living spaces.
As you suggested, it'll definitely help us to have a better explanation of our materials and structural integrity. I'll work on updating the information :)
Right now our components are designed to widthstand similar loads as a 1"x1" T-slotted aluminum framing system, and it's been a fun but difficult challenge to make it more cost efficient and user friendly.
You seem like you have very good knowledge of building materials and furniture making in general! Would love to have you on our beta creator group so you can give us even more feedback as we develop the product. Thanks!
It's not "hacking" when it's deliberately designed to work like that.
>Hacking is making its way to furniture
It's not like this is new. People have been modifying Ikea furniture in particular for quite a long time now. And modifying furniture in general for centuries.
You should be able to build most modular furniture using two power tools, some jigs, and raw materials. It's sad that this isn't a common thing.
Not quite like building your own wood furniture but I would be more keen to buy this then a $1k+ sofa that is impossible to move and will not last that long.
Edit: https://www.campaignliving.com/products/the-sofa?variant=389...
You can go a long way with a decent hand-saw and a $30 Black & Decker cordless drill. People are weirdly impressed when you can knock together a book case or a picnic table. And probably the most fun project I've worked on in the last year was slamming together a tool shed over Labor Day weekend.
The flip side of that is that the sawmills will take absolutely garbage logs in and saw them out these days. My father has taken up logging again pretty much full-time since he retired (he loves cutting trees, but you can't do it as anything but a hobby unless you're fully mechanized these days), and he's just astounded at what they'll grade logs out as. Stuff he used to have trouble getting accepted as pulpwood they're taking as saw logs and sometimes even veneer.
i think the appeal of Ikea as stock is that its already cut down and comes with fasteners/brackets/etc. but you can come out ahead and have considerably more design flexibility if you know how to shop.
i built maybe 60' in shelving for my bedroom. light steel frame, inset reclaimed pine flooring. the whole thing was probably $50 in materials. and when i leave it on the street when i move out, someone is likely going to want to take it its not going to look like an old cardboard box.
I recently had to buy an entire house's worth of furniture due to a fire. We shopped every store we could find, and apart from any store that sources from the Amish, its all crap. The prices are obscene. We also got to see the innards of the old burned furniture... there's so much chip-board and laminating that I think there must be more plastic/glue than wood fiber. Just like electronics are being designed with obsolescence as a requirement, maybe more so is the furniture in your house...
Its so much more rewarding to build a giant custom table and be able to grunt, "hey look what i did". OR even pick up some older pieces at an estate sale and upcycle with a new varnish or paint and some modifications.
Table tops will warp if you just screw the boards together and to the base. You can avoid this by gluing the panels then attaching to base with proper fasteners to allow for expansion/contraction.
You can build them properly but this requires using true edge s4s lumber or removing the dimensional round edge with a table saw, band saw or jointer. Your glue up then requires a good number of large clamps. Even out of poplar, adler or basswood which are cheaper hardwoods you'll have $250-$300 in the table. Oak would be $500+.
>there's so much chip-board and laminating that I think there must be more plastic/glue than wood fiber. Just like electronics are being designed with obsolescence as a requirement, maybe more so is the furniture in your house
The problem is people want things cheap and nice looking. You can get a solid white oak table from Crate and Barrel for $1500; which isn't really that bad considering that's around $750 in ready to go s4s lumber from a mail order supplier. It's a lot cheaper to do as Ikea did and have a particle core with a 1/8" oak 'veneer'. Ikea's table is $600.
I would like to get some time back this winter and make some inside pieces.. I agree with the pocket screws, but I think I can get around some of that with a joiner. I feel like a joiner and planer are the next tools I will invest in.
>>people want things cheap and nice looking
I agree 1000% but, after the aforementioned fire, I personally have a new perspective. "Collecting" things is way below being able to say I invested in myself/family and built something.
That said, a lot of IKEA furniture does not have the most dense/durable wood. Hacking's one thing. Big bucks for the finished hacks, is likely still getting you something that's not that durable, especially if exposed to any considerable wear and tear.
[originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe]