No special tools are required to build the lean 9209-009P chair. Just some glue, some masking tape and some sand paper (I like to use a little brush to move the glue around). I compressed an hour build time into about a minute.
9611-009K Drops below 1290g!
The skeleton without the "skin".
The lightest Chair we have made to date. 1290g
We're still learning and evolving. This chair utilzes ultra-light poplar plywood and has hollow braces between the legs to prepare it for the 113Lb leg test loads it must withstand to comply with the ANSI/BIFMA standard.
Fast Forward, Dinner for Eight
Chair Numbers two thru eight, each a one-of-a-kind experiment
Hundreds of variations were attempted in this iterative process. Each chair incorporates dozens of changes from the previous one as we changed the seat, back-rest, plywood material, experimented with lightening strategies and made structural revisions. The chairs are shown in chronological order, with the closest being the oldest. Each chair took about a week to design cut and assemble and the weight slowly dropped as we learned where we could remove material.
Gio Ponti's Superleggera
When I went to do some research on the subject, I found this chair that I was familiar with from my time as a vintage Modern furniture dealer but I had never purchased or even sat in one I also did not realize that this chair held the minimalist title of Lightest Wooden Chair tipping the scales at 1.7Kg. Almost a full kilogram lighter than our first chair.
From Cassinas Web site:
Design: 1951 - 7
Production: 1957 to the present
Manufacturer: Figli di Amedeo Cassina,
Meda, near Milan
Size: 82.5 x 40 x 44.5; seat height 45.5 cms
Material: varnished ash wood, Spanish cane
Ponti himself describes this chair as the “normal,” “true” chair, the “chair-chair devoid of adjectives.”1 With it, the architect pursued his own standard of keeping things to a bare minimum. At the same time, Ponti’s interest in classic forms finds expression in the chair, just as it does in his buildings. Ponti borrowed the concept for “Superleggera” (super-lightweight) from a series of simple, traditional chairs that have been produced since the nineteenth century in a plant near the Ligurian fishing village of Chiavari. Their stable, lightweight construction and low price made them extremely popular.
The Uber Leggera
For the last few months, we have been concentrating on making the lightest wooden chair in the world. It all started when my my engineering school buddy, Jon Kipp came to Southern California for a shop visit. Ihad been working on the CNC cutting files for the chair for months but felt they were a long way from being ready to make something, Jon said "What are you waiting for? Lets build it!". Jon is a great engineer, a brilliant problem solver and was ready to roll his up his sleeves. It turns out I was right....and Jon was right too. Forty eight hours later, after a number of work-arounds, redesigns and re-cuts, we were sitting in our first laser-cut plywood chair. As the photo below on the right alludes, we were not sitting on it for too long before we discovered a weak spot. But we made a chair! and it weighed only 2.6Kg...and that made me wonder: What is the lightest wooden chair in the world?
Safety First
When the light sabers are on we wear special glasses that offer protection from CO2 lasers (10600 nm) radiation. Laser cutting is actually vastly safer than the dangerous, sharp, limb severing tools found in almost every wood shop or garage. Did your wood shop teacher have a complete set of digits? Mine didn't.
Done With Less.
We are always looking for ways to make our products with less material. Our new 9209-431 sconce has shaken off all but the essential walnut and linen parts. Almost ready to be added to our line, it weighs only a few ounces and diffuses the warm efficient LED light with dramatic efficiency. It will be made available for mounting directly over a junction box or corded as shown. Surfboard not included.
Moving In
It took us a while to find the right spot with cool California Ocean Breezes and a community of creative surf and furniture peers…but we found it.
Assembly record broken!
This Woman is amazing! Assembling Ninety 9209-211 blocks in just a couple of hours, she is the assembler to beat! Good Luck..
Double Head Laser at Work
Does a two headed laser cut faster than a single head? Why yes, yes it does! If you need two or more of anything cut by a laser, this is a very efficient way to double your production capacity. We had this machine custom made for us to accommodate our special material considerations and efficiency requirements. This time-lapse video shows two CO2 lasers cutting prototype parts for our new large console table in development. We are excited to add this table to our line soon!