Like a lot of Adirondack style chairs, you tend to fall into them and have a hard time getting out.
I had some older friends who tried the first prototype chair out (that’s this one Plastic Adirondack-esque Chair - Projects - Maslow CNC Forums) and they did struggle to get back out of it. No complaints while sitting in it though. That, and they’d just ask someone to get them a drink, “because I can’t get out of this chair ”
Main problem was that it was just too low. It’s also not quite as ‘traditional’ in form as some wanted. Here’s the next prototype with the lessons learned.
Jean and his wife enjoying the chairs. It’s his company that makes the plastic board. The paving bricks behind them are all made from recycled plastic and crushed glass.
The back leg is elongated to be more reminiscent of a traditional Adirondack chair, but because the plastic is so flexible the chairs did rock from side-to-side quite a lot. Also, they’re 75mm (roughly 3") higher, which makes getting in and out of them a lot easier. Although people tend to just sit in them and go “this is really nice”, and stay put.
The curve on the seat part is around a 600mm radius, whereas the back is around 900mm. Still no jig to assist with assembly.
I used the M4 to cut out a full set of templates for the chair, and then used the templates to mark out the parts for cutting using more regular power tools. So far, the jigsaw seems best for cutting the stuff. You do burn through blades quickly, so having cheap and quick to replace blades is very beneficial.
It does, but I also can get it un an untrimmed sheet. The board is not available outside of Timor-Leste yet. Caltech is thinking of export to North America, but I don’t think there’s any specific plans yet.
The curves or the seat and back wouldn’t lend themselves to using ply, because ply is too rigid. And if you switched to really thin ply then you would be up for doing your own laminations, not impossible, but a lot more work.
Thanks for the detailed info. I wonder if a kerf kind of cut (not sure what it’s actually called) would allow wood ply to bend as needed. I’ve seen a sim racing rig designed for CNC and plywood use a similar method to bend a sheet for the seat.
AKA kerf bending - and the answer is yes it would work. A ‘traditional’ Adirondack chair is made with slats for the seat and the back, so no bending of plywood required.
For this design I wanted to take advantage of what the plastic could do, which includes bending way more than plywood.
As Adirondack chairs are normally outdoor furniture, plywood is usually not the best choice, unless you can get something like proper marine ply (ie used for making boats)
”
