How (NOT) To Make A Chair With a CNC Machine...

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[@jamesdiaz4678]

I think it's so rare for designers to show the mistakes in the process, and I truly appreciate you giving us insight into the perils certain materials have. I would love to see you explore past projects that have effectively "failed"; an exploration similar to the manner of the art of Kintsugi. I know my advice might not be compatible with your initial concept. I love your work and I appreciate the content you provide. Keep it up!

[@ancampos9664]

Loooooooved that moment of pain after that "crack" and that disappointment face haha true feelings. Thank you for also showing the shitty parts!

[@TFlorian]

so sad for me But true moment and it's precious to share

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

Back when I was using a CNC router, I would generally run the toolpaths through a block of polystyrene foam to check them before cutting the final material. It's cheap, and you can turn the feedrates right up, saving time.

[@jack_brooks]

The electrostatic mess must be killer. I don't even like using MDF.

[@mlefe09]

I LOVE the fact that you showed all the issues that hit you: those learnings are invaluable! Thank you!

[@macedindu829]

Yep, you learn by failing.

[@warsuper4681]

You can use the large cutter for the finishing just with a small step over, this would actually give you a better surface finish than the small cutter due to the larger radius. Clearly if you have small corner to get into that would be a drawback as you would need to change out to a small cutter to reach into those spots. Nice work overall, always learning is part of what makes it fun!

[@acexl]

ajajaja when i saw he did that i stopped the video to say the same thing

[@DominusFeles]

18:30 The most honest and true display of emotions ever seen on youtube I felt it!

[@5teFX]

This was your best episode! A less polished final product doesn't make less quality content, au contraire

[@1Nolimited]

love the smile and the enthusiasm you have after broken the chair ;-) but the concept start with fails and wins :-)

[@ThitoO]

Thank you for your honesty and actually stress testing your product !

[@WIImotionmasher]

That visceral anger and sadness when the chair snapped Never thought I'd see that much emotion from him lol

[@flavianlihwa6909]

I like that you have been open to show all the mistakes and lessons. I am going through similar experiences with my cnc - every new product is a result of several trials that ended up in fire pit.

[@RickPiasecki]

Love your presentation style, and showing that design is an iterative process, no matter how smart or clever you are! Thank you for keeping it "real"!

[@tommydrake5682]

i have learned more than by other "perfect" videos

[@dragoncracker]

for the runners for the back, use 2 sheets at half thickness, glued together with the grain running perpendicular to each other (like plywood)

[@InfectedByEli]

Or steam and bend actual plywood like Ikea's Poäng chairs. Sure it won't be a circular cross section but it will definitely be strong enough, also it's at the back so 🤷‍♂️

[@jimhatch5873]

I thought I was the only person crazy enough to use stepovers to create curved pieces 🙂 Super job! To fix the back on version 1 of the chair, I'd glue the back on again. Then I'd cut vertical slots in the two supports. After that it's just a matter of cutting out a couple of thin pieces either of the chair wood or some contrasting material (walnut maybe?) and gluing them in - splines are used a lot in traditional woodworking to strengthen joints. I think that might work here.

[@brycelane6825]

Love it! great video and I feel your pain the moment the chair broke.

[@StevenDavisPhoto]

Thanks for sharing about the two sided process. I'm assembling a 4x8 avid pro right now and was wondering how it's done.

[@jogeirstrand1]

Great video, Alexandre! Looking forward to seeing your next version of the chair. 🇳🇴🇳🇴

[@Dodger__M007e]

Love the fact this chair isn't "chunky" for strength. However, I would look to incorporate a metal rods hidden in the back uprights for strength and stress on the Oak. You'll still have the same look but with added strength to last, if you plug the holes like the screws you did earlier on in the video.

[@DanteYewToob]

Superglue the back together again, drill down through the struts and sink some threaded rod and glue down in each one, and then plug the tops with dowel and sand it clean. That’s how I’d fix this, and I’ve actually fixed something similar with this technique. Hope this helps, I’m looking forward to V.2!!

[@roan5250]

After watching the video, the title and the thumbnail makes more sense now

[@idkmachining6892]

Love it! one thought on surfacing, quite a bit of burning in the surfacing passes. Might mean your feeds and speeds need a little adjusting, carbide wants to go fast, push it until the machine starts complaining!

[@sgavy]

Welcome to the frustrating world of cnc wood work 🤣 the first job I took was a paying one... And I very quickly realise the learning curve was steeper than expected

[@mohammedissa9448]

Amazing job on the design and the full process. Maybe use metal for the connecting pieces? It'll give it a cool contemporary look and it will be super strong. Good luck on version 2!

[@EwanWills]

The five stages of grief: 18:32 Denial 18:29 Anger 18:33 Bargaining/Depression 18:34 Acceptance

[@MrTapanes]

How did I not ever come across your channel before? Great vid, subscribed and will be doing a deep dive into your past vids. Cheers!

[@PrimevilKneivel]

Dude I felt that when it broke. The idea that comes to my mind is maybe engineer a block of wood, maybe 3 or 4 layers. Then machine the arms out of that wood that has multiple layers of cris crossing grain.

[@AlucardWulf]

Drill a axial hole through the broken parts, insert a steel axle and make some wooden dowels to cover them up.

[@willaiml]

Failure creates innovation.

[@SimondelaCourt2]

The chair looks great! Also great you've shown your hiccups in your process. My solution for this would be using bent laminations for the backrest. In this way you can align the woodgrain perfectly, and also use the strength of bent lamination. Just using two pieces will leave some parts still weaker as they have crappy grain orientation, and connecting those pieces will become a complicated job.

[@marieerwan9212]

Nice vidéo and total honesty. I’m sure you will master the associated processes soon. Why don’t you try to make a Wood Bike?

[@albertblanco7427]

Kepp on trying! you know, trial and error and repeat again. I'm sure you can get it!

[@cfox28]

nice video, I particularly like the idea of how to the piece over on the CNC. I'm sorry about the ending! would it be possible to some steel dowels fix the break? in other words, if you were able to jig something to drill perpendicular and centered on both halves and then have a steel rod running into both new holes with the wood surfaces glued.

[@joem6859]

Man... you have a beautiful shop!! and a lot of energy... nice job and video. I've had issues with my xy zero moving on my Avid unit as well... not sure what the root cause is.

[@tec4303]

I'd make some kind of jig to drill into the parts of broken wooden rod, insert a M8 or M10 threaded rod and epoxy it in place. That would make it strong and save the chair!

[@snakedad]

I think I can explain why you were having trouble with the XY when switching tools/starting a new operation. When starting a new op, your machine assumes the position of the tool is at X0. Y0., so when it reads the G54 command, the machine thinks it is already at your 0. You can fix this by setting your work coordinates at the start of the program. It would look something like this: First start homing the machine, then jog your tool to where you want to start your program. Write down the X, Y and Z-values that's in the digital read out. G10 G90 L2 P1 X?. Y?. Z?. (input the machine coordinates for your work offset at the ?-marks) G28 G91 Z0. (this will raise the spindle to it's top position) G28 G91 X0. Y0. (this will put your spindle and gantry at your machines X0.Y0. point) G0 G90 G54 X0. Y0. (this will position the spindle above your work coordinates that you set set before) If you want more work offsets, just add another line with the and change the P-value (P1=G54, P2=G55, etc etc.) Hope that helps.

[@polarfox_]

a solution could be to add some seel rods inside the back support thing, would kinda break the CNC only tho. Would be really simple tho, just drill a really deep hole, glue in a rod and take a wood plug on top. Great that u show fails too tho :)

[@Zachary3DPrints]

Hey, I think that chair looks great, maybe glueing 2 thinner pieces of wood with the grains crossed against eachother

[@gaveintothedarkness]

I just gotta say I love your channel. KZbin recommended one of the 3d assortment box videos last week and I have been binge watching ever since. Only sad part is I only have a few vids before I've seen everything.

[@fholgado]

Love this experiment. You should check out the Stick Chair Book and the Anarchist Design Book by Christopher Schwarz and Lost Art Press. It’s quite the opposite in terms of approach (hand tools vs robots) but the fundamentals of chair design and engineering are very well covered. The answer to your structural issue is covered in the books. Keep it up!

[@whereisdave]

hey man, you've probably worked this out already. but every time you hit the stop you need to re-home your machine. as soon as you hit the stop it no longer "Remembers" its position, you also don't know how many steps the motor makes after you hit the stop. great usage of pins for the flip. that's a very simple and clean way of doing it.

[@ThermalX90]

iron rods inside the support for the back rest and some glue to put it back together. The iron rods will take the load. Easy, quick fix that will last.

[@joem6859]

Gotta watch out for that short grain!!

[@mv2vanced527]

18:30 I could feel your pain, my friend 😔

[@tsehh2867]

Спасибо за опыт!

[@CDRaff]

I just got my first CNC and all I can say is: so much wasted wood. There is just so much to remember, so much that can go wrong, and so much new stuff to learn. Right now my big hang-up is Fusion's CAM; it's so hard to get it to do what you want it to do.

[@user-jchjkitv77896]

Use 3D connecters to fix the back.

[@duncanrae]

Maybe you could brace the back risers with an imbedded threaded rod somehow? Or wood spline?

[@rosenrusev8656]

As i am working with cnc, my suggest as it is really visible your first initial stepdown is too big. Seems like you do 5-6 mm first pass. Keep it alittle lesser and that will result in less stress on the spidnel and also on the bit. The bit will last longer time, the spindel will work cooler. And even you will give less stress to the material potentially moving it and or losing you referal zeros.

[@deefdragon]

Alex is slowly assembling an art piece of chairs made with different methods and materials. I suspect the final form will be a chair made of all the other chairs.

[@Pharaoh-99]

as what pop ross would say "only happy accidents" .. design something that would fortify it and look pretty at the same time ... in my world of programming we make a patch and we call it a feature :D

[@lithros1]

I was thinking that the gap under the seat was going to be for an LED strip for mood lighting.

[@artemscrafts131]

Love the video

[@Jeku-]

could that back brace be fixed by inserting steel rod inside them? not on the final version, but on that broken one.

[@thirdbeat]

what about stiffenting the back brace with a steel rod?

[@martinhowden]

I don't have much clue about CNC and whatnot I just really enjoy watching your channel. But (And I can be completely wrong here) that gap that you had between the legs and the seat. I'm assuming that the top of the legs are leveled? and if so since you made the seat itself in two parts and those edges that meets the legs where machined. are they leveled in the same axis? Could there be a small degree difference that shows up on the edge? If not from the CNC itself it could have happened since you hand planed the middle section. Just wanted to try some ideas I thought of. Best of luck and thanks for showing all of your work, the successes and the failures that leads to learning! =) Awesome work Alex!

[@martinhowden]

If what I'm suggesting here could be the problem, then my suggestion is planing the edge on the seat afterwards. So having it slightly thicker from the CNC then fixed after the glueup.

[@gregg3364]

Redesign the rear legs to be long enough to be used as back supports

[@soft2x]

at least in the router i worked, there was a saved home coordinate and a partial home coordinate, if i started the machine, it would go to the saved home (i could save it with a command), but if i starded a job in any given home position that position will remain the start position until i reset the machine. i dont know if this is what happened to you

[@Rouverius]

13:17 "I just put everything back together and cried again.." Man, I feel that! But even through all those trials you got a great looking backless chair! Hey, could lamented wood for the chair stiles work?

[@saschavolling7808]

Nice Idee Alexander

[@insignio1]

I guess I'd cheat and lay a piece of steel inside of the back supports. You can cnc a pocket to fit the steel (I'd make 2 halves for each support). 3-6 mm would do the trick I guess.That machine should also be able to cut the steel.

[@mortpunch]

Why epoxy for the wood dowels, and not wood glue? Asking to learn

[@hlynurth6259]

Steel. I would use steel. No grain, no dramas. Polishes up nice too.

[@bobd.]

Actually I think it went well for your first project on the CNC. Chairs are challenging enough without adding in the complexities of a CNC, and one of your first projects on that CNC to boot. You learned a lot, so in that respect it was a good experience. Plus you got some nice looking firewood. :-) I look forward to seeing the Mk 2 version come together. I like the idea of steam bending the back supports. Could you bend an oversize blank then machine it to size with the CNC or do you have something other method in mind.

[@KimbrellBrad]

I built a beautiful "Maloof-style" rocker in a class at Marc Adams School of Woodworking about 8 years ago. He told us, and was correct, that a chair takes more of a beating than any other piece of furniture in your home. Leaning back on 2 legs will snap some of them (don't ask me how I know that at 6'6" x 310# LOL), twisting in it, etc. Of course I had over 200 hours of filing, sanding, shaping, finishing, etc. I appreciate you showing the fails as it helps the rest of us avoid obvious problems that were not obvious until you tried them LOL. I am sure your next version will be nice!

[@kholdsworth27]

Steam bend!! Please and thank you

[@DominusFeles]

If one doesn’t trust the super glue long time there’s always the combo trick: use regular wood glue + some dabs of super glue just to hold things in place until the wood glue has dried 🙂

[@blahorgaslisk7763]

Sometimes I think people turn glue into black magic. It seems there are a lot of "truths" about gluing things that often conflicts. Personally I've never read anything about gluing or really wondered much about it. I just tend to do it the way my father did it as it seemed to work for him. Well almost, as he never used super glue in any form, while I like the stuff. Now he in turn learned from his father who was a furniture carpenter. My father sometimes spoke of making batches of glue for his father. That is they cooked up their own glue from scratch instead of buying it, but I don't remember anything about the process. However when I grew up my father just bought what he needed, and there were basically three kinds. Wood glue for when he just didn't want things to move, contact glue for flexible materials that he REALY didn't want to move, and two part epoxy resin when it were never to come apart. And that epoxy was what he used just about any time the joint was critical and yes it worked on wood, stone, glass, most plastics and metals. So personally I'd probably go with epoxy to attach the back rest and not superglue. Now as I said, I'm certainly no expert on this, but correctly applied epoxy seems to be pretty close to permanent when used on most kinds of wood. Wood glue on the other hand I never felt my father really trusted to keep things together on it's own. Any time he used it it was in addition to screws, plugs or even nails. However if the material is thick enough there is nothing hindering you from sinking the screws and put plugs on top to hide them. That was something I saw him do quite often. With a good match in the wood of the plug and attention to the grain he could blend the plug so fine it was almost invisible once the surface was sanded. Add some varnish and it was even harder to see.

[@virgile5373]

For me it's 00:31 and i see a video, so, why not watch it ? (I should sleep but nope, a video is better) : p

[@andrewbain-lindsay]

I think your design is very cool but while you were making the CNC seat and back, I was thinking why isn't he stream bending this... I think there is real potential to use a combination of steam bent and CNC machined. Perhaps CNC the rough shape flat and steam bend it to final shape allowing you to use a much smaller amount of raw lumbar which is getting very expensive.

[@ezrarichardson279]

Definitely not regretting subscribing! I think you’ve gotten better at this! The first video I watched of yours was the drill powered scooter or something and I’ve gotta say it’s gotten better and better since then! Keep it up!

[@Metal-Josh]

This chair was never meant to be I guess. It happens pal, don't beat yourself up. Good attempt, was looking good. I thought after the mishaps with the seat, I thought that was the only issue, oh well. Great video all the same

[@wyrmisis]

But what if I want to make chairs that break when you sit in them? Y'know, as a passive-aggressive means to remind houseguests that I do not want them here.

[@polhub1]

Sandwich some solid wood in an alternating pattern for the back supports, like thick plywood. Conversely you could glue the back struts together and route a groove and place a spline with the long grain running up and down.

[@tomasn3]

Please try steam bending!

[@Brokhael]

18:30 I can feel the pain.

[@ernahubbard2062]

Great to see the failures aka features of the design and making of it, that makes it so real, and the actual learning is from mistakes. Kudos!

[@radry100]

Time to learn about wood grain direction ;)

[@ClintonCaraway-CNC]

Looks like it needs tramming. The surfacing bit should make pieces as smooth as if it just came out of the planer.

[@bloho_design]

The burning of the oak also makes me think the feeds n speeds could use some tweaking

[@AnthonyBowman]

I'd just hand cut the back arms off the chair and use it as a nice shop stool!

[@raymitchell9736]

Here's my idea how to repair the back of the chair where it snapped off: Drill deep holes (about 1/4" / 5 mm or whatever size makes sense) in each of the wood pieces tops and bottoms, these holes are aligned so you can insert (and glue) a long metal rod inside each "arm" to reinforce the weaker wood... like you did for the seat and back, except make these longer to go a longer distance... and since you're gluing on the seam where it cracked, nobody would see the repair... outwardly it would look like the wooden chair you wanted, but hidden inside of the back support are metal reinforcers that would keep the chair from snapping again... at least that's my idea... will it work? or is it crazy?

[@doubledarefan]

Getting the holes to line up will be the hardest part. But AlCh will figure it out. The same idea is already use in the medical industry. Look up intramedullary rod. Basically the same thing.

[@rustymetaII]

Man I love it how you're dealing with this designing process, it takes so much dedication and humbleness to not give up on the project and still present the results no matter if it fails, that's art

[@Crushonius]

and that is why you see a lot of bend wood and laminated pieces in furniture no worries that could have not gone better this way you learn from your mistake and become a better designer its much better this way than to get away with bad design so it turns into a habit and then later down the line it comes back and bites you in the ass

[@Crushonius]

also you could make the back pieces out of laminated veneer the process is called bent lamination and a lot of the greatest pieces of furniture are made this way dont give up you can only get better . P.S. drilling out the backrest support and inserting steel tubes into then filling the tubes with epoxy could be an option to save the chair you have already created . you could try steel rods but they can bend while a tube filled with epoxy tends to stay flexible in my experience . I mean what do you really have to lose

[@lukaswernetz3258]

From which country are you Alex? I'm your biggest German subscriber ;)

[@WoLpH]

He's from Switzerland :)

[@mardikas2]

@@WoLpH Nope, he should be from Norway

[@WoLpH]

@@mardikas2 He's not though. In the Chocolate Pikachu video he told us that he's Swiss :)

[@mardikas2]

@@WoLpH Strange, his email is norwegian plus his youtube channel description says Norway under the location. In the video you referred to he used Swiss made chocolate, but I didn't really catch the moment when he mentioned being from there.

[@KimbrellBrad]

@@mardikas2 Yes, he moved to Norway. I remember hearing him say that but forget the video...I have watched so many! :-)

[@JoeMalovich]

Mathias Wandel would have that repaired and reinforced in a jiffy. But the normal method of splining it with wood wouldn't work, you need to use Aluminum or Steel. For future builds they could be 50% thicker and made from plywood.

[@DanteYewToob]

For ver.2 why not make your own laminated plywood? Do some contrasting woods with alternating grain direction to make it super strong. It could look amazing if you give it that ALCH touch!

18:29 I died 😂😂😂😂😂

[@WayneEarls]

The low camera angle and exaggerated moving back and fourth about made me dizzy.

[@xagvsx1521]

Loved the video. As I don't know how to work with wood, I would "sandwich" that back rest support using a steel middle part. But probably that's cheating.

[@ZerodJailbreak]

Most of the time, I'll feel down when I make such mistakes just because those I learnt from (KZbinrs) barely show fails. That's really nice you included them in the video, I feel a little more confident now. :)

[@zjpeterson]

I find watching your fixes and re-design iterations both entertaining and interesting. Seeing some of your journey gives important context and so the final, finished product will feel more earned and triumphant. Thank you for sharing.

[@DeneF]

I would have gone to Ikea. Lol

[@3ddiy]

Another fantastic video. Fails are just more XP to leveling up. Love watching your editing to help me step up my channel. Keep up the great work love to see chair 2.0 in another vid.

[@MidnightMaker]

Dude, for your first CNC project, this was amazingly advanced.

[@AleksandrEfimov]

I really like your videos, you make great designs!!! And yes, sometimes you can learn a lot more from failure than from success. Some thoughts: 1. If you want to fix the chair, you can put steel rods inside the broken parts. Glue them together, drill in and glue the rods inside. 2. Steam bending sounds like the best idea. But with several parts with different directions you can create an interesting structure on the surface... Especially if you'll use some kind of oil that shows up the wood structure. 3. To align material sheets on CNC, you can drill a "matrix" of holes of the same size on the table and use them with small rods or bolts to fix the material on the table. Welding tables have similar idea...

[@keysimfr]

I love when your true self come back at 18:30. 😂 Awesome video, I also love the fails, when it seems like everything goes as planned for you, I feel so bad for my mistakes. Thanks for showing some of your fails, I also try to add them on my channel, people seems to like it, please continue !

[@puyakhalili]

Hey Alexandre, really loved this video! It was great to see the whole process including the initial test runs and the failed attempts! Love where your channel has arrived! Also congrats on 300K followers! wow it's unstoppable now!

[@DaBuild]

Failure is the real life. We fail all the time! I appreciate it much when people shows it. Cheers!

[@guitarchitectural]

Love that you show your troubleshooting process! Sorry but I think your seat and back were also going to fail... They are too thin to be made out of solid wood. I disagree with steam bending for the back supports - basically everything should be laminated strip veneers, glued against forms that give the piece the shape you want, and then you shape it. for the seat and back you may be able to steam bend really thin plywood, but for two-way bends it would be easier to veneer against a form with a vacuum veneer bag. Luckily the CNC can make short work of the forms with MDF!! For some good laminated strip veneer techniques and ideas about joints look up how Sam Maloof makes his chairs

[@HenkeLevin]

I love your videos and great quality but i need to adress one thing.. I always have to turn down the volume low because you always speak soooo overly excited and end some of you phrases HIGH and laughs while you are talking. "Then do like THIS because its FUN".. I feel like its from trying to hard in front of the camera when you dont really need to.. Maybe im the only one thinking this but Im trying to be constructive and may comes out like an a***hole

[@arcimaker]

Hi Alexandre, good job as all you realized, for the crack …. could matter if you are a creative💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 the idea of steam bending is nice, and eold be nice also a your video on that tecnology. In the gap under the seat, you could insert a splint with a touch of color like a detail in the room where the chair must stay… red, blu, orange… like a lamp, a curtain, a cuschion around the room… ser you next video!! Have a nice day and a great work day💪🏼💪🏼😉