Home Base

Well, finally it's posted. It's been finished for over a month, but I'm just getting around to posting the finished Home Base.

I'm actually lucky I even have them now, they were stolen from the Architecture of Objects show and were not returned until a good friend from the architecture school wrote a rather strongly worded stern email to all of the architecture school and someone anonymously dropped it off. I still owe my friend a beer for that one.

I made 4 of them, in the range of colors seen above. They went over very well in critique and everyone was very positive about what I had made. Shaun (my professor) seemed to like them very much as well. I think the best comment I received on Home Base was (paraphrasing) "These are strong enough as a product that they don't really need heavy marketing to get people to buy them. I would like one in my apartment. The blue one specifically."

I was very happy that I got the pieces powder-coated, there nothing like a professional paint job. I'm getting pretty good at making my models, but the guys at Cramer Tech know their stuff.

I decided not to exhibit the black Home Base in the show because of a little paint blemish and the wood piece for it was a little uneven so I pulled it. The three remaining did well I thought.

These are the custom magnetic note holders I made. I took steel rod, hollowed it out on the lathe and made a pocket for a neodymium magnet to sit inside. Each end was then capped with a rubber bumper to protect the steel frame of Home Base. I was quite proud of these little buggers, simple but because of the strength of the magnets they hold well.

These are the custom fasteners I made to hang Home Base. Similar in form to the magnets, these are a polished steel jacket over a press fit aluminum threaded insert. A hanger screw (coarse wood screw on one side, fine metal threads on the other side) was then threaded in and Loctite was used to fasten them in place. The bumpers were the final caps to the fasteners.

I presented Home Base with these as the hangers and people had no particular issues with them and they held heavier keys well. For the final public show however I used a different fastener that Shaun showed me that was wider in diameter and had a groove in it to hold the keys. Similar idea, but a bit nicer finish so I went ahead and substituted them.

I'll follow this up soon with pictures of the public Architecture of Objects show, it was pretty nice, if a bit packed with objects. The class made many many nice objects so I think Shaun had a hard time picking what got in. I was quite happy to get my clocks and Home Base in, 2 projects out of 4 in the final show isn't bad!

Thanks for reading!

She comes in colors ev'rywhere!

Just got my metal pieces back from powder coating, they look very nice. I'm quite happy I decided to spend the money on having them professionally painted. I picked a cobalt blue and a semi-gloss white and stuck with the matte black on the third piece.

The cobalt blue with an unfinished wood piece hung on it. The magnets go in the holes and it will then be covered in a birch veneer and shellacked. Besides finishing the wood pieces up, I'm working on making some custom mounting pieces out of aluminum stock and hanger screws so that the Home Base sits flush with the wall. Trip to the hardware store and Alro metals for parts to fabricate the fasteners out of and then I'll be ready to glue the metal to the wood! Busy few days ahead!

Thanks for reading.

Full Scale Prototyping of Home Base

Just a few quick pictures from yesterday's work session.

I'm making a full scale prototype with the final materials and it's coming along nicely. The metal is working great, I ended up going with at 3" wide curve in the metal to hold the mail. 2" was just to skinny for large packages or when the Sunday paper comes.

The prototype is painted matte black and I'm actually enamored with the color. I was planning on powder coating all of the pieces, but I may stick with the flat black on one of them. I does take fingerprints quite easily and I'm a bit worried about scratching the paint. The powder coat will be much more durable, a matte black powder coat may be in the works.

The unpainted metal forms waiting to go to powder with the painted metal prototype.

Tomorrow I'll be routing out the new wood pieces (a bit wider than the originals) and we will see how well the meld with the metal.

Thanks for reading.

Paint Testing

Today for Home Base I started cutting out the metal. So far so good, simple straight cuts for the metal. I bought 18 gauge steel yesterday, not to thick, not to thin, but thick enough to hold it's own weight up.

Next up is bending the U bend on the rollers, luckily we have a small sheet bender with a 2 1/4" diameter. Perfect for the bend I'm looking to create.

I'm also doing some painting tests with some spray paints I have left over from the clock. Flat black, gloss black and flat white. I'm planning on powder coating the metal, but I wanted to test just in case the powder coating ends up being to expensive or takes to long. Deadlines and budgets after all.

I'm still not sure what colors to try, partly I wanted to see a white and black on the steel. I'm thinking painting one black (just need to decided gloss or flat), another flat white, and then a different color. I'm thinking a flat secondary color (maybe a yellow or cyan). Really something to throw some color on the wall.

Testing, Testing.

Thanks for reading.

Home Base Sketch Model

Well, it's final project time in Architecture of Objects. We were supposed to do a furniture piece, but I really felt interested in a wall storage product and Shaun let me explore it.

So, I'm working on a storage solution for keys and mail. The product will go beside the front door and would magnetically hold keys on it's front and hold the mail in a curve created by the supporting metal structure. It's sort of a J, placed on the wall.

Below is a sketch model, affixed to my fridge because I didn't want to nail the sketch model to my wall. The keys pull the cardboard down a bit, so the front is not vertical like the final metal model will be.

The cardboard here is going to be powder-coated steel and the foam core will be routed out fin-ply covered in a birch veneer and stained with a light shellack.

The curve in the metal provides a nice 8" x 5" x 2" slot for storing mail, and is deep and wide enough to support magazines, newspapers and small packages. Above the mail slot there is a large 10" tall by 7" wide metal area perfect for notes and reminders held by small magnets. The smooth Birch front is the perfect place to store your house keys with the embedded bank of neodymium super magnets holding them securely with out the tangle of hooks. Simply hold your keys up to the wood and let go, the magnets will do the rest.

I've gone through a few different names for my product, I feel that this is really one of the first products I've worked on that needs a name that describes what it does. My possible list includes,

Home Organizer (all ready used)

Key Base

Wall Organizer

Key Home

Wall Store (all ready used)

Home Base

Home Store

Wall Base

Store

Home Store

Right now Home Base is the front runner. I was thinking the packaging could read,

HOME BASE

Your Families Mail, Key and Message Board Base

Or something like that. It needs work.

I'm starting routing right now, initial routing tests were mildly successful. I've made the product as a whole 1" wider, providing more room on the metal for messages and more room on the wood for keys. It also provides a wider place for the mail to sit so that it dosen't easily fall out if it's not centered in the slot.

Routing the rough pass.

Routing the finish pass.

After the finish pass. I'll take this to the table saw and cut off the excess stock.

So that's were I am currently, on Thursday I'll be spending the afternoon routing out the new wider pieces. In the mean time, cutting out the metal and bending it. Then it needs to be taken to the powder-coater for finishing. Step by step.

I'm making multiples (I'm thinking 3) since they are quite simple and with a smaller object multiples really read nicely.

Thanks for reading.