I have been looking for headboards recently and had not realized until now that there are a myriad of headboard designs that uses a wide variety of materials. First up, Apartment Therapy posted in January 10 Headboards one can make for under $50. Cost is definitely the constraint here so these are some very cheap or easy to obtain materials. Burlap Pallets Hankies Books Paint Painted Screen Cardboard Salvaged Wood Ribbons Framed Photos And then there are some more in Apartment Therapy archives… Corrugated Sheet Metal Natural Wood Headboard Vinyl Decal Why do we need headboards? Traditionally, headboards literally hold up one end of the bed off the ground while the foot board…
A Purposeful Process
it's about what happens in the middle…
Archive for
I’ve never understood why leather trash cans existed. Surely one would not discard liquid or viscus waste in it? And it would be somewhat absurd to have a leather trash can and then line it with a plastic bag. This might be one of those situations where someone would line this trash can with a linen bag? Perhaps a high-class hotel? The perception of leather is usually one of luxury and of relative toughness. Perhaps once upon a time there was an abundance of leather and it was easier and cheaper to shape one into a bin than metal? Perhaps in the world of executive stationery sets, it made sense to have a matching waste paper basket along with leather in-out trays and pencil…
Categories: Materials, Thesis Research
Categories: Furniture
Tagged: Desk 25
After a week of redesigning and redefining, here is a half scale model of the desk. These first two images shows the left hand side with deflectors which made it look a little flat, but it provides a little bit of rigidity to the second level that is required when a monitor it put on top of it.
These second set of images here, Mark, our professor, suggested removing the deflectors to see how it would look.
Without the deflectors, it does look a lot more like as if the second level is floating. This will present some engineering challenges.
Categories: Furniture
Tagged: Desk 25
Hopefully, sheet metal will be as easy.
Categories: Furniture
Tagged: Desk 25
It’s not really “work hardening” and a lot more intense than anodizing, micro arc oxidation is also known as plasma electrolytic oxidation. It is an electrochemical surface treatment process for generating oxide coating on metals. Similar to anodizing, it employs higher potentials (voltage) so that discharges (dielectric breakdown of the naturally occurring oxide on metal) occur and the resulting plasma modifies the structure of the oxide layer. This process can be used to grow thick oxide coatings (end or hundreds of micrometers, largely crystalline, i.e. structural) on metals such as aluminum, magnesium, and titanium. The oxide coating provides a continuous hard barrier protecting against wear, corrosion, or heat as well as electrical insulation.
The coating is a chemical conversion of the substrate metal into the oxide, and grows both inwards and outwards from the original metal surface. Because it is a conversion coating, rather than a deposited coating (such as coating formed by plasma spraying), it has excellent adhesion to the metal the oxide grew from. High levels of silicon in an alloy that needs to be coating can reduce the quality of the coating.
Processes include melting, melt-flow, re-solidfication, sintering and densification of the growing oxide.
— From Wikipedia.
Categories: Materials, Thesis Research
These latest set of renderings is inspired from from the F-117. While the old design was nice but it just wasn’t meeting some of the requirements I had originally proposed.
Tagged: Desk 25
Why do we like shiny things? have come up quite a few times in various settings. I thought I should look it up… here’s a few from New Scientist. This answer was selected and edited by New Scientist staff. Arguments on this point are necessarily speculative, but it’s worth noting that we associate shininess, cleanliness and crisp outlines with objectively favourable attributes. In assessing a mate, a companion or a rival, we spontaneously see bright eyes and teeth, glowing skin and glossy hair as signs of health and quality. As children, we like things that stimulate our nervous systems with clear, vivid colours, contrasts and light. Art may be seen as a form of play behaviour, in that it relies on elements that matter…
Categories: Thesis Research, Words (Inspirations)
Categories: Science & Engineering (Inspirations)
After Häfele, I walked over to Simon’s on 3rd Ave. Simon’s is a distributor for many companies like Håfele so I think I’ll have more choices there to source hardware for my desk. Here, I found something that made me think about my thesis… A chrome handle, vs one wrapped in leather.
 |
 |
It’s really a shame that we can’t feel materials through the internet yet. Of course chrome felt cold and leather felt warm. Chrome also gives the impression of being “new”. The leather with darkened metal looks sophisticated… like something that would belong to an old-school athletic club.
Here’s another set of handles.
 |
 |
Sure the styles are different, but the perception of these two handles judging by their materials where our hands would touch is also different. Are we more likely to want to touch the one with the natural wood color? or painted plastic?