Designer furniture generally comes with excellent aesthetics and (sometimes) functionality. However, such furniture comes with a price to match. One such piece of furniture is the Magis Spun Chair. It’s a striking piece with a fun party trick to match: it works like a top spinning while you sit inside. However, it has a prohibitively expensive price tag of $1,200 to match. That’s why [Morley Kert] is on a mission to build one for less.
This isn’t [Morley]’s first time building a spinning chair. The first attempt featured numerous 3D printed pieces glued together. It did not inspire confidence in spinning, nor was it a striking piece of furniture. So a revisit was in order.
This time around the chair’s construction was CNC milled plywood. Some surfaces featured 3D carving, but the majority were left raw with carving the final shape handled manually. Despite its size, the chair only took four and a half sheets of 3/4 inch plywood by hollowing out the base allowing for more efficient use of material. Once the router had completed the pieces, they were stacked and glued together. Each layer was aligned with hidden dowels making the assembly process fairly straightforward.
However, while usable, the chair looked rather unfinished, so [Morley] went to town on it with a power carving angle grinder. To ensure even carving on the circular profile of the chair, he placed it, or for some sections glued it, on an electronic lazy S. After some practice, the carving process turned out really well with a well-shaped and professional looking chair. Some wood varnish and a large amount of sanding finished up the chair very nicely for a total material cost of under $500.
We were happy to see the completion of this chair building saga. If you want to see [Morley] make even more designer furniture for cheap, make sure to check out his other 3D printed chair!
Nice thumbnail, I can’t wait not to watch the video.
“I saved $1200 on a chair by spending $500 on filament and paint and bondo, which I promptly threw away and then $500 on wood. It only took me about 500 hours total and I only needed about $10,000 worth of hardware, software and work space. Subscribe to my channel and buy stuff from my sponsors.”
This reminds me of that guy who 3D printed a big spirograph for his router, also spent a gazillion amount of hours both with his hand router and sand paper while getting many comments that he just should have used a CNC machine. (I think he even agreed to that in the end of his video).
I clicked briefly though the 22 minute video above and saw a lot of sanding (probably used >EUR100 on sand paper alone). He even made a jig that spins his top. It would have been so easy to put his sander on some kind of arm so the thing gets sanded while he is drinking a cuppa tea or whatever.
Some 30 years ago I was amazed by beautiful handmade things (and sometimes I still am) but a lot of those things boil down to just endless hours of tedious work that can be done much faster and neater by a CNC machine.
Also reminds me of the proverb:
“Once you reach a certain age, you become permanently unimpressed by a lot of things”
Meh.
Most hobby projects cost more than commercial products. In this case the 3D printed version was probably a mistake in terms of expectation versus outcome, but the wooden one is better than the inspiration.
I just keep thinking how long until he rolls over his own foot with it.
Like so many other modern “designer” items, it’s an utter fail when it comes to usability. It’s not as bad as those images you’ll find when searching for “dangerous designer stairs” (ex. https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-dangerous-stairs-designs/) but close.
I wonder what happens with the surface below the chair after using it for a week.
I wonder if you can use it for a week. I think after 10mn, the chair is thrown away since it’s both useless, uncomfortable, ugly, unpractical, huge.
It’s only a fail in terms of usability if you expect to use it like a normal chair, that’s clearly not what it’s for. You’re judging a fish by its ability to run and missing how well it swims.
The problem with pricing is the time factor. When you build someone for others, you have to factor in the price of your time. Unless you’re making something with very little effort and very expensive wood, time will always be a mayor factor in canbinetry pricing.
However, if you build for yourself after work hours, then you can factor time at a lower or zero price.
However, in this case, the “I did it cheaper” doesn’t hold: afaik the Magis Spun Chair is only available as a polypropene shape, and that for €500.
It’s still a cool process though!
I want the robot mop!
Neat build, but I would have been more impressed if he had created a large lathe to do the finishing.