Cardboard Furniture

The assignment that was given to us was simple: Design a piece of furniture out of cardboard, then build a prototype 1:6 of the original size. Analyze the prototype make changes as necessary and then build a life size object.

Elliot and I quickly decided to do a one-man table, which we could use to do our school work. The night after the assignment was given both of us developed ideas for the design. The next class we then discussed our ideas and settled on Elliot's design: two triangles put on top of each other one with the base on the floor on with the base on top. (it looked like an hour watch in 3-D)

After we settled on the design we discussed which dimensions the table should have. By sitting on a chair, we thought we would get the measurements we needed and started to build our prototype. But is soon became clear to us that the sizes weren't right and we recalculated our measurements using a ratio between a desk and a table (we already knew which chair would go with our table). After calculating our measurements for a second time, we finished the prototype. To build it, we used a compass to draw donuts on cardboard. Then we estimated the measurements to make the circles smaller and smaller (the first three donuts/circles we made where the top, bottom and middle on to know the rage of size we needed to cover).  We then cut out the bigger radius with a pair of scissors and the smaller one with an X-acto knife. The inner circle had the radius of a thin metal rod which we used to keep everything in place and to make the circles centric. Then we stacked the circles up by size and glued them to the rod and to each other. This is how our final prototype looked: 

The picture where you can see the rod is the prototype upside down. The other one is how it is going to look.

After our prototype was done, we started building our life-size table right away. For it to be stable, we used plywood to make the bottom circle and then used a metal rod for the rod in the center. Since the rod was longer than the calculated height for the table, we had to cut it. But while marking, we noticed how short the table would be. So we measured and calculated again and shifted the height up by ten. Then we cut the rod and screwed it to the plywood: 

But since our bottom plywood circle was already cut, used two very thin donuts to make the radius exact. (See above)

Elliot and I then went into the production of the other layers for the table. 

To get all the circles/donuts together we used a compass and a Milwaukee multi tool. After we had out layers (more than 200 in the end) we stacked them to see whether they were high enough. After adding another 10 layers or so they were. 

Then we glued every layer together.

We used a dryer to sped up the gluing process. And when everything was glued together, we sanded it off to make it nice and smooth.