[Closed] Furniture makers - Critique my plan

Are you going to use box-section or tube? Would imagine that it’s going to be fairly wobbly otherwise. Size of section/tube may be determined by bend radius - round tube can be bent tighter. I’d probably use 18mm plywood for shelves over that span - 12mm is quite flexy - and it would need to be screwed in place.

Looks good, like a level in Angry Birds 😉

Seroiusly I like it, crack on 🙂

As always we need finished photographs in the future.

I was planning on box section and fairly wide radus bends - mainly to make the welding easy and wide radius as I will be bending it by hand.

18mm for the shelves is fine by me and I may well screw it in place anyway to add to the rigidity of the structure.

29er rims for the big hoops, BMX for small, couple of surfboards, job done.

It's a lovely design and drawing.

The big arches make the shelves less usable, I’d also draw it using the thickness of steel you will use, it’ll look a lot more industrial especially with ply. Will you have the steel polished?

*Joshua's Opinions*

I think you need to flesh out your model to show steelwork thickness.

Personally I think your tower is too busy the arches are unnecessary and when thicker will make the whole tower took heavy and clunky. No arches there will make the big arches more stand out.

I don't really like the mismatched shelf end one round and one pointy is really grating on me especially as it's not that clear if the pointy one is a quadrant of a circle or an elliptical curve. Also see next point...

I like the idea of the bigger arches but they don't tie in with the shelves, I don't like them extending above top I think it will be really annoying especially as they end up in random places on the top aka huge gap on the near face which is probably structurally okay with a ladder frame underneath but still looks odd. Also you have a huge loop on the leftermost rear arc that does nothing it's just in space, extending the top shelf and finishing it like the bottom to tie into the arch makes more visual sense to me.

I don't think you need two arches either. Have you tried them upside down that would make the whole thing more floaty.

So... Yeah as I say my opinions only and I don't know where it's going and if you like it then I say go for it with the caveat that should model the steelwork because I think that will drastically alter the look.

Also another thing... I think you ask for too much opinion on your artistic endeavours, you have done it with paintings before. Just go for it and ignore everything I have said.

Aesthetically a bit of a mess IMO.
Mix of arches, rounded end and semi-arc end all looks a bit of a mish-mash.
Needs to be simplified - remember the design maxim...KISS.

The steel isn't the right thickness because I am not that good with SketchUp, same with the mish-mash of curves on the wood but I get the basic point being made.

I think that extending the top shelf to match the shape of the bottom one but slightly shorter so it ends at the intersect with the arch makes sense.

There is only one big arch at the front to reduce the amount of shelf front being blocked while two at the back provide stability and something to stop books falling of the back.

The arches in the tower were originally to hold the shelves up until I realised that they only touched the shelf at the centre. Kept them there to keep the front and back of the tower connected.

My biggest doubt was the visual link between the square tower and the curved arches which doesn't seem to bother anyone else.

I post stuff like this up here as much for my own benefit as to gather opinion. It makes me explain why I have done what I have done and then either agree with the points made or defend my choices which also confirms thoughts. Also, it is pissing down and I don't have any materials to start with so what else should I do?

Furniture maker (and sometimes designer) here.

I'd agree with many of the above suggestions.

To me, the top two shelves need to continue the pattern (long, shorter, shorter, shortest)

I'd put an asymmetrical arches to support them all, one on each side. Being ruthless, I'd then sack off the tower completely so you have four shelves of varying lengths, all the same width, supported  by an asymmetrical arch on each side, connected by ladder frames concealed by the shelves.

Bit like this

But the right way up. Sorry if that's too much of a departure, or doesn't hold what you need it to hold.

Also beware that an asymmetrical design with a front and back like yours won't work if you need to point it the other way in another situation.

The steel isn’t the right thickness because I am not that good with SketchUp,

Draw a circle on the ground to the diameter you want.
From the centre of the circle, draw your arc to the radius you want.
Next, select this line.
Then in the Tools menu, select 'Follow Me', then click inside the circle.
The circle should extrude and follow the path of your arch.
Triple click, right click, save as component.

That should work I think. Not got a computer in front of me.

Edit.

Looks a bit like a 1970's interpretation of 50's minimalism, my question would be what goes on the shelves because that will define what it looks and functions like when in place.

I post stuff like this up here as much for my own benefit as to gather opinion. It makes me explain why I have done what I have done and then either agree with the points made or defend my choices which also confirms thoughts. Also, it is pissing down and I don’t have any materials to start with so what else should I do?

Sorry if that comment came across as a bit dickish it was meant as a leadup to my "ignore my advice" comment because ultimately it's your choice and you know what you like best. You do you post what you like it's always interesting.

Also kayaks instructions are sopt on but forgive if obvious you can put the arc line anywhere in your case a corner or middle of an edge might be more appropriate.

forgive if obvious you can put the arc line anywhere in your case a corner or middle of an edge might be more appropriate.

True dat.

Also, before you use the follow me command, right click on the line and use the 'Divide' command.
That way you can increase the facets of the curve making it look smoother rather than those big facets.

Thanks - I shall definitely improve the drawings going foirward.

joshvegas - not dickish at all, I understood what you were saying. I just wanted to explain that I use STW as a sounding board for many of my ideas. The advice I get is good, bad and funny in about equally measures but I also learn stuff like the drawing tips. All I have ever used before is squares, circles, lines and the stretch tool to make them into boxes.

By my calculations the long shelves will be at least 150mm away from the wall. You will be forever picking up stuff that has fallen off the back of the shelf.

I assumed as a freestanding it was a divider.

If it is against the wall that's a very valid point. God that would get on my nerves!

I think Changing Rooms did something like this! 🙂

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It was indeed a divider where the bit of the wall it will sit against is the width of the square tower but that is too wide for the long shelves, hence the narrowing. The 'back' with the 2 arches is the less used side for putting things on the lower shelf and the top shelf will have mostly ornaments, sculptures and plants.

It is now unlikely to happen as MrsWCA has changed her mind.

It is now unlikely to happen as MrsWCA has changed her mind.

I think you'd best tell her that the design has now been approved, working drawings are signed off and it's now in production.
Too late to change.

Let us know what happens.

[i]Let us know what happens.[/i]

The same thing as the plans for the Jewellery box I suspect. They took several hours to extract and I couldn't sit down for days afterwards.

MrsWCA is a saint and very tolerant of my ideas but not all get as far as a (bad) diagram - the bus conversion, MKV1 Daimler Electric conversion and Rabbit farm are three in the last few weeks that have been rejected - but she normally lets me see one or two plans a month get to fruition.

Can I ask how many stages its taken you to get to this ?, as its all really an ongoing design How You Like It, and not really concerning that of other makers no matter how experienced.
I dont mean that in a nasty way to anyone else, but crit is one thing and opinion or like is clearly another.
Its a good use of materials, boards and steel will always look good.
I would point out though the depth of the shelves in the stand to the depth on the shelves, so it will stand out from the wall, which isnt perhaps the best use of space.
Other than that crack on.
I was taught the tracing paper process of design, not sure how that translates to modern computers, but I expect there should be some way of temporarily removing one section or other and redoing it so you can jump back and forth in comparison.

Best of luck.

I think Changing Rooms did something like this! 🙂

We'd a very similar incident in the Vitra shop build that used to be in the lighthouse in Glasgow. They wanted big display units, with really thick glass shelves and specifically wanted the shelves supported on glass mounts into the side of the cabinets. This was for the Vitra models of all the furniture they do(and bloody expensive little things they were too.
I was working on building the staff kitchen behind them, when there was an almighty crash and howls of horror went up.
Seems the specc'd shelf supports werent up to the task and we had a cascade effect that affected every unit. Top shelf supports sheared off and 4 heavyweight glass shelves and their models just dropped one on top of each other but also set off a chain for the other 3 display units. Everything got smashed
Thankfully it was not my fault 😆

I can't see this mentioned before but that looks like 12mm ply supported every metre at the bottom. That's a big gap if you are putting large plants on it

DynaTi - I look for 2 types of feedback.

1) The aesthetic which normally takes the form of "What a gopping pile of shite" or from kinder people much of the advice above about the arches and the shelf lengths.

2) The structural such as use 18mm ply, not 12mm as the gaps between the supports are too big.

Both are appreciated but the second tends to be given more consideration as I don't design things to be deliberately ugly in my eyes. The debate about 12mm vs 18mm is a short debate ending up with using 18mm. For the aesthetics, the comments about shelf lengths would have been taken on board and incorporated.

Tracing paper design - I use my version of this which is to draw the complete design and then make multiple copies of that file and delete various different parts on the copies so I can see what it looks like without those bits.

I think the design by cb200 achieves what you are hoping for, but in a much more elegant and aesthetically pleasing manner. Because the form is much more simplified, and all unnecessary aspects have been removed. And it's one cohesive unit, not two things stuck together.

@WCA

1) The aesthetic which normally takes the form of “What a gopping pile of shite” or from kinder people much of the advice above about the arches and the shelf lengths.

2) The structural such as use 18mm ply, not 12mm as the gaps between the supports are too big.

Yup ok, got ya. Didnt really want to say too much in a negative sense, I know you've plenty of experience and would automatically know most things by yourself.
I think it will be wobbly, in that there are no diagonals or flat backs to tie it together.
Also shelves should be supported from underneath, and yes 12mm is not good in that it will sag in unsupported sections, which incidentally 18mm will also do, dependent on what you are going to place on it. Nothing wrong with upping the shelf thickness to 25mm or more. Personally I like thick shelves, and the thicker may also help support an edging strip should you not want bare ply to be showing, which is aesthetically unpleasing to the eye at the best of times.

I also think the shelf ends are spot on. Given the placements of the supports you cant really have any other shaped end.
I'll also stick to saying the difference between the width of the shelves compared to the width of the tower means it will be floating in the breeze so to speak, and that will aid instability. Placed hard up against a wall at least, the wall offer's a solid surface.

So to recap - Too wobbly, shelves too thin at 12, 18 better,25+ best. Extended 'diving board' to open, needs to be placed along one axis, closer to the wall, at least in line with the tower supports.

I asked about tracing paper because I spent 4 years at college doing this, totally immersed in it.. It can be a pain in the bum to do 50 drawings. I much prefer it hand sketched as is considerably faster and allows your own mind to examine and reject far quicker than a computer program. I just prefer hand drawing and you've also plenty of experience there. Which is why I asked if the drawing program had facility to overlay previous sketches. It is just the design process itself, theres in inference at to whether its better or such to use software over pencils.

Dyna-ti - Viewed from underneath there are lotsof cross braces to avoid the wobble and allow thinner or 18mm shelves. Could add one from where the top shelf currently ends to connect to the far left arch and allow the longer top shelf.