Homasote Wall Runners

Got the homasote up on the wall. Just a little extra space for more pinning. The wall was really tuff to drill through so we ended up Liquid Nails -ing the 2x3s to the wall. Half the wood is attached with anchors and the rest is just glued up.  

2x3s attached to the wall

Homasote runners 

Whiteboard Table

The other day Tod and I took a large whiteboard down to make some more pinning surfaces. The whiteboard is a really nice one so we did not want to toss it but we where a little unsure of what to do with it. I figured we could use more work surfaces so I decided to turn it into a writeable desk. Looks really good but is huge and weighs a ton so the final assembly wont happen till most of the stuff is out of the room and walls are done. 

 Finally got the doors up today. Need to do some adjusting of the hinges so they all line up right. But now we have a new pinning surface in the space.

I started another blog tonight to have a place to show my personal work. Something I will keep working on after this summer project is over with.  Hope people enjoy it.

http://64bit-design.blogspot.com/

So I made a dumb mistake last week in my painting of the cabinet doors. It was really one of those mistakes I am glad I made because I know I will never do it twice. To keep things clean while I painted, I laid some paper on the floor underneath the doors. When I panted the edges of the doors I inadvertently glues the doors to the paper.  When I came in the next day I was pulling paper off the doors and leaving behind bits. Then spent the next hour scraping off the paper.  

    

Doors guled to the  paper

Well at lest I made it now and wont do agin. Better now then at a job. In the End I got the second coat of paint on, need to do another coat then assembly.

The doors with bits on them before I scraped them all down

After the second the coat with the wood interests over the hinges

Contract: john.t.pickard@gmail.com

Just wanted to add some of the sketchs I was doing for the lockers.

Contract: john.t.pickard@gmail.com

                                New storage system rendering.

Contract: john.t.pickard@gmail.com

Quick one today. We are working on a modular storage system for the studio. Our new studio was many different things in its life so the walls are weird and odd shapes. It will probably be something different later, so the space needs to be flexible. Our system will be built from three box sizes, that be stacked on top of each other The biggest shelf/box is designed to  hold the "standard" tool box that students use. The other two sizes are just half  and quarter size of the largest box. Right after I post this I am will be working on the Soildworks model to figure out the consecution method. Most of the parts on the CNC so anyone in the future can make more boxes as needed.

Also I am panting and assembling the cabinet doors this week. I will get the pics of the finished doors up by early next week.

Contract: john.t.pickard@gmail.com

I made some headway this week on the cabinets. I made a dumb mistake when I cut the doors. I did not take into consideration the extra thickness of the particleboard that I was as a backing when it came to the hinges. When I first made the prototype doors I had to cutout space for the hinges to fit. The second version had a particleboard backing for extra support. The backing had a cut out for the hinges to fit in. It tuned out the backing was thick enough to accommodate the hinges without need to remove material from the homasote. However, I did 10 doors the wrong and did not want to remake them.

 I tried to turn this into a design opportunity though. I wanted to get rid of the cut outs but did not want to re-cut all new doors, waste of material. So I decided to fill the holes with .5 inch plywood I got from the school store. I think it turned out well. The contrast of the wood and homasote is kind of nice and a little different a little thing to see in the studio when you look around. I still have to either paint the doors or cover them in fabric.  We really don’t want to have the cabinets look like homasote if possible.  Now I need to make the other 9 doors and put them up.    

           An almost done door

Door with MDF backing for support and hold the hinges 

            As obvious as it sounds I am always impressed by how much light can change the feel of a  room. The new studio went through a lot of changes in its life before we got it and it has some interesting charter.  At some point a drop ceiling was put in, but not across the whole ceiling. The large windows had to be built around and the drop ceiling could not go all the way the the wall. 

These windows also are below ground level looking at a concrete pit, cutting down on the amount of light coming into the space. This is especially true in the winter so the studio relies on artificial light.     We identified improved lighting as a necessary feature in the studio.

           The odd shape of the space actually gave us the opportunity to install "hidden" florescent bulbs for indirect lighting. This simple row of lights has really improved the studio. It is not so much about being able to see work, but the whole space does not feel so dark. Making the studio feel better is about productivity and getting people to work in the same space. If people feel comfortable, they will want to work there. If they want to work in the same area  random positive interactions will happen.    

    One of the installed lights

           

         Another little trick we have be working on is a scale layout of the room. We have been able to move cut-outs of desks and furniture around the space to see what different layouts would look like. 

    Scale layout of the space

      

      One of the things that we have been working on is taking some cabinets in the studio that are not use that much and put homasote board on top on them. The idea is to give them a little more use as tackable space. One of the issues that we where running into was very close tolerances on the doors and the fact that homasote is not strong at all. Mostly we did not want to remake a ton of doors but also not just have homasote glued to the door.

           

      I cut some homasote to do some mock ups of the doors to see what we where dealing with. The cabinet door is a weird thickness of 13/16th and the homasote is .5 inch so getting the thickness right will be key.  We actually like the look of the door but worry that the hinge would snap the weak homasote. Now we are going to look at reinforcing the door along the sides and maybe in the middle to solve the weakness issue. 

          Over the summer at Philadelphia University the ID Grad students have been asked to participate in a project to design and build the furniture for our new studio space.  In the Fall of 2012 the program is getting 15 new students on top of the 7 we started with the first year. With more people comes more space for the program. This is an opportunity to build and design the work environment we want. 
         The first part of this project was getting the book Make Space  by Scott Witthoft. We are using it as a jumping off point for ideas.  It is great book that offers interesting DIY pieces for school studios. Make Space has tips,insurrections, and materials lists  for simple and cheap materials to build mobile pieces for any studio. So any space can be rearranged at a moments notice.  
        We have many goals for the room, the first is flexibly in a space's arrangement and use.  The room can be a "regular" studio at one moment then change so students can work and have a class on the other side of the room. The studio is also going to be open to all student levels as well. Undedrgads can walk though/hang out in the space to check out what is going on, have as many random interactions between students as possible to talk about work.  


So their is going to be lots of work over the summer.   


Here are some before pics of what our new studio space.