Introduction: Paper-thin Chairs 101

In school for the final v or six years, I made a handful of paper-thin chairs for various studio projects, blueprint competitions, and to furnish my apartment. Here, I will schematically present a couple of those projects every bit an introduction to edifice with cardboard in general.

Cardboard is cheap/costless, recyclable, potent, and if treated well, very durable. It tin can be fastened with glues or mechanical fasteners (drywall screws or rivets), and readily takes a few coats of polyurethane to create a harder, more than durable finish. About of these chairs were made from 100% waste cardboard. Cardboard dumpsters are plentiful on college campuses, peculiarly behind cafeterias. Other proficient scavenging sites are big-box stores, strip malls, and appliance stores. Yous'll want to assemble the flattest, biggest contiguous sheets you can find, mostly costless of tears, h2o stains, and other weak spots. The other key is a box cutter and a lot of patience.

Step one: Support Structure

In that location are two basic ways to resolve the construction problem: an interweaving, carton-similar grid of sheets, or laminating a massive amount of sheets together and carving out a chair shape. The latter solution is the most mutual one (see Frank Gehry). All the same, I think information technology'south kind of a inexpensive way out, considering you are not forced to deal with the actual backdrop of the material. Information technology also makes for a lot of cutting, a lot of cardboard, and a very heavy finished production.

This first chair is actually fabricated from corrugated plastic campaign signs, held together with hot mucilage and epoxy. Campaign signs take great potential for Pop-Art designs. To make the support structure, I cut a regular pattern of slits in a serial of sheets so they'd all notch together. Then, 2 top sheets acted equally a floor plate does in a house, locking everything in place.

The second case is pure paper-thin. Be certain to orient the corrugations so that they run vertically; yous can see in the picture, the exposed edges (the bottom of the chair) are the ends of the corrugations that run vertically upward to the seat. These tiny tubes or flutes are what actually conducts 1'due south weight to the floor.

Pace 2: Structure 2

For this chair, I used the aforementioned technique of interlocking ribs. This time, I made horseshoe-shaped pieces with horizontals that locked them together. The top was covered in some super-strong, triple-corrugated packing material. I made a lot of shallow slits parallel to the corrugations so that information technology would curve over the the arch form. To round it out and give information technology some more force, I newspaper-mached the outside with newsprint and glue solution.

The "neck" holding upwardly the dorsum was a little more than complicated. To foreclose information technology from fierce out or shearing back, information technology actually goes into the support structure all the way to the forepart border of the seat. The seat'due south shape is derived from the tombstone-shaped pieces that were left over when I cut the arched ribs.

Step 3: Tube Structures

Some other nifty cardboard resource is the tubes that come in the middle of rolls of plotter paper. Bank check out architecture/applied science/art studios on higher campuses, behind fine art supply stores, or at local printing companies. On some other calibration, cardboard tubes used for physical formwork are available at hardware stores. Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect, has built a number of bridges, houses, and other structures out of newspaper tubes. They are incredibly strong, and take screws well.

The first chair is fabricated from tubes for the seat and backrest, and more tubes are buried in those side pieces to make the support structure. The corrugated paper-thin is screwed into the tubes with drywall screws to make substantially a behemothic gusset that holds them all in identify.

This second chair is made from shipping tubes. I wrote a whole instructable on this one, found here: FedEx Stool

Step 4: Hybrid Structures

By combining the high compressive force of corrugated cardboard and the high tearing strength of another sheet material, similar chipboard, new possibilities open upwardly.

For the cardboard cantilever chair, the vi continuous pieces on the outsides were light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-cut from i/iv" chipboard. They sandwich a two-inch thick layer of corrugated cardboard. The inside pieces are not continuous; each consists of four striaght pieces interlocked and glued together. I have used many glues in these chairs, but plain sometime white glue or forest glue work the best, are the cheapest, and the easiest to clean up.

The corrugated cardboard supports the weight of the sitter, while the chipboard pieces human action as gussets to prevent the back from tearing away as the sitter leans dorsum. The cross-sections of the pieces also get thicker towards the centre then every bit to put more support where there is more weight. Aforementioned printing tubes concur the pieces together without whatsoever glue, just friction. A few coats of polyurethane will extend the life bridge of the chair and give information technology a nice polish finish.

Despite the fact that this chair is "paper", it achieves a version of the classic modern course, the cantilever. Paper-thin is strong and versatile, every bit long as you work inside the known confines of the material and find creative means to bargain with its limitations.

The lounger-blazon chair is a hybrid of masonite and cardboard, with the same organizing principles as above. Machine bolts both concur the layers together and penetrate the webbing to keep it from tearing out.

So, some ideas for all the cardboard out there: Look for boxes from certain stores and play with the graphics on the outside. Use tubes to make a conventional four-leged chair. Mix and match plywood, masonite, chipboard, tubes, and corrugated. Utilize corrugated plastic and rig a light inside and then it glows.

Just spotter out for papercuts and be careful with that boxcutter . . .

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