I can also highly recommend Enzio Mari's Autoprogettazione furniture. Although slightly more involved in construction, all you need is standard planks, hand saw, a hammer and some nails. The instruction PDF can be found online (chairs in the latter half):
Two of the core ideas are that the majority of the work can be undertaken by a single person with basic carpentry skills, using readily-available materials in standard sizes so there is minimal cutting and waste.
regularfry · 4h ago
I'm always intrigued by the Segal method, but it's so closely tied to the sizes of construction materials available at the time and I can't help wondering if anything has changed since.
I've been thinking about doing this, and my main thought is that the insulation standards were probably effectively non-existent at the time, beyond "as few draughts as possible"!
Edit: not sure if these will be geo-blocked, but there are a couple of programmes about that project here:
Just looking through that PDF, unlike the chair in the blog, some of that furniture is not as robust. Pages 46 & 47 the load rests on the corner of the wood, and pages 46, 47 & 52 add almost all load onto the screws.
The chair in the blog benefits from essentially having all load bearing done by the wood, any screws or nails would be superficial only. We have several good hard wood chairs here with dove tail joints and spring based cushions - and they are excellent.
globalnode · 6h ago
Very nice! thanks for that. I really like basic agricultural do it yourself furniture. We should reclaim our furniture and be less dependent on IKEA et al. I'm defo going to try the adjustable table at the top of the pdf, thats a work of art.
Cthulhu_ · 1h ago
Ironically, companies like Ikea have started selling products aimed at people making their own furniture; the "outdoor bench made from pallets" is pretty popular, and ikea & co sell cushions just for those.
I never understood those tbh, used pallets are splintery. I wouldn't be surprised if you can buy pallets specifically made for use in upcycle projects.
fake edit after a quick search: yup, you can buy readymade pallet benches or benches "inspired by" pallet projects.
Like Amazon continuing the DIY door desk long after it became more expensive than just buying desks. For some reason, people will pay a premium for the refurbished industrial look.
aredox · 5h ago
What is interesting also in Enzo Mari's concept is that there is no instructions, you have to figure out the best order of operations and how to offset some planks with others.
And and and last but not least, the great Christopher Schwarz and team at Last Art Press just got out a whole video serie and book on how to make a highly respectable chair design from very basic materials and tools:
I had never seen this type of chair before moving to Senegal as an expat. For several months, I didn’t try them because I assumed they must be incredibly uncomfortable. To be honest, most are made from thinner wood (people here are really poor!), so they didn’t look very sturdy either.
But a few weeks ago, I visited a local woodworker and ordered one of these chairs. I had to let go of all my previous prejudices - this type of chair is surprisingly comfortable and stable. And it's even useful for certain "other" activities :-D
world2vec · 1h ago
OK, I'll bite: what "other" activities? Am I being too dense? :O
tasuki · 55m ago
I'd hazard a guess the other activities involve more than one person...
quickthrowman · 1h ago
Yes, you’re being too dense ;)
They’re talking about the chair being useful during sex.
peter422 · 9h ago
This chair is made from pressure treated wood. Technically speaking, it is safe to sit on, but personally I'd like to avoid those chemicals against my skin if I could. Regular lumber probably would be preferable, especially when it would take $10 and 20 minutes to replace it after 5 years when it has rotted (or you could spring for redwood or cedar for an extra $10 and double or triple the life of your chair).
bArray · 47m ago
We used to treat wood with oil (literally from kitchen oil to motor oil). Apparently the Japanese burn theirs to treat it [1]. I don't think you have to leave it to rot out.
Most pressure treated lumber eschews the old arsenic method. Most only have copper and an anti fungal (Tebuconazole) in it. Perfectly safe for an outdoor chair.
Bluestrike2 · 1h ago
The problem with using modern pressure treated wood for outdoor furniture is less any cancer risks like with the old CCA treatments, and more that it's just a bad choice for a bunch of different reasons.
Modern copper-based treatments--e.g. ACQ or CA--still cause skin and eye irritation. If you try to sand it so that people sitting in your new chair don't get a nasty splinter somewhere best avoided, you can compromise the effectiveness of the treatment (even when the treatment gets full penetration, it's still most effective on the outer layers you're now sanding away). Plus, while the dust you create when working with it might not include arsenic, it's still nasty to breathe in and can cause respiratory problems. Staining P/T wood can be a whole ordeal in itself, and because interact much more closely with furniture than say a deck, any imperfections will be more noticeable.
Even then, it's not like P/T furniture isn't going to require ongoing maintenance in the future. At which point, you're better off with something like cedar or white oak. Hell, with a decent outdoor grade finish and proper care, even untreated pine is going to last for years without rotting away underneath you.
asdefghyk · 9h ago
RE ...pressure treated wood....
In my country such timber is banned in certain situations - for example children's playgrounds ...
mbrock · 7h ago
I'd rather have my kids play on pressure treated timber than rotting timber...
adrianN · 7h ago
Fortunately those are not the only two options.
Cthulhu_ · 1h ago
That's a false dichotomy and I'm sure you can do better.
sgt · 5h ago
As a parent you just spend a minute or two inspecting a playground. It's easy to spot something that is rotting.
keyle · 8h ago
I'm not familiar with this. What are the dangers?
steamrolled · 8h ago
Back in the olden days, pressure-treated wood contained compounds of arsenic and chromium. This made it pretty terrible to cut, sand, burn, etc.
The warnings persist in part because older wood still has that problem, so "reclaimed wood" projects can be risky. That said, since mid-2000s, wood in the US and the EU is treated primarily with much safer copper compounds. Copper isn't hugely toxic to humans at the levels you're likely to be exposed to from wood.
To be fair, the treatment often also includes an organic fungicide (the "azole" part in "copper azole"), which is probably not understood as well as copper.
Cthulhu_ · 1h ago
That puts me in mind of old railway sleepers being used for garden projects like raised beds and low walls. They were treated with ??? something, in summer the black tar would leech out of them.
In the book she starts with the basics and works up to assembly including woven seats. These are beautiful lightweight chairs. Even if you don't build the chair, it's a great lesson in wooworking.
hcarvalhoalves · 11h ago
This is the first chair one can make, it's a common pre-industrial chair design. Search for "tribal chair" or "2-piece chair" for examples.
It gets even better with wood carving (rather than building out of straight planks):
And gets pricier too. The prices are absolutely eye watering!
No comments yet
aziaziazi · 6h ago
How do you carve solid wood board ?
I've done ten's of carving by gluing thin layers in a mold to create carved plywood. Those are extra strong but required to use quite a lot of glue and get the right thickness wood veneers. Would love to learn the solid board way.
edit: fined tuned my English today: seems carving means sculpting and not bending.
Thanks for that!
I like that hardware is getting covered on HN :-)
verisimi · 6h ago
With pleasing circularity, the original post for this discussion, is referenced on the instructables page as one of the 17 people confirmed to have made it.
alistairSH · 1h ago
During peak COVID boredom, I made a pair of wine barrel chairs, using this design[1]. Old wine barrels can be found reasonably cheap and the pattern is easy - only a few cuts, a drill, and some screws.
The ultralight community never ceases to amaze me.
I always thought it was all about travel as light as possible
But I think it's more about travel with as many things as possible - the lightness of the objects is just an emergent requirement in order to not break your back.
I've done my fair share of hiking, longest being a 90km 5-day hike in the Namibian desert, with no facilities save for a river. Weight was a big factor, because you needed to pack food for at least 8 days to be safe and there is nowhere to get food once you start the hike. What equipment you pack and the weight of said equipment weight had to be kept at a minimum.
Having said that...
A chair or other seating arrangement was by a large margin the lowest priority item on my list. There is one giant chair under our feet the whole time: the ground. And if that is not suitable, finding a stump or a rock or whatever to sit on is really not that hard and it's infinitely more environmentally friendly.
cinntaile · 1h ago
No sane hiker brings a chair along on a 4+ hiking trip.
I find it weird that low weight is one of the main selling points of this product, but they don't say how much it is.
unwind · 6h ago
Yes, weird. I also liked this part:
Embers from a fire won’t burn the surface (If removed quickly).
I think that is true for many surface materials, and that "quickly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It also completely fails to communicate whether or not a carbon fiber chair is "safe enough" around an open fire. Annoying.
scotty79 · 4h ago
It's not made out of thermoplastic so probably you don't need to remove them that "quickly". Just not let them sit on there.
pnut · 2h ago
After digging around, the FAQ says "approximately 2 lb"
pimlottc · 9h ago
For those curious, the price is US$350
xnx · 11h ago
Clear example of why people like TikTok. There's no reason that video should be 10 minutes.
jader201 · 10h ago
I just watched the whole thing, and I didn’t mind.
I feel like people have just gotten so used to 10-second videos, and anything longer now feels like an eternity.
I really hope people don’t stop making longer form videos in favor of TikTok-sized videos.
neilv · 10h ago
But, clicking around randomly, it seems that this video has been dragged out in length for no reason other than to be longer, presumably for YouTube financial (perverse) incentives.
jader201 · 9h ago
For sure, I’m not advocating intentionally lengthening videos for financial incentives, either.
I guess I didn’t immediately get that impression when I watched it, but I wasn’t watching it with that in mind.
My point is I don’t mind filler in videos, if it’s true to what’s naturally happening.
But intentionally adding filler is, indeed, poor form.
gherkinnn · 7h ago
I don't watch any reels/shorts/etc and find this style of bloated YT video unbearable. I am all for long form videos, but have the decency to go beyond an empty vessel for ads.
seszett · 9h ago
Not sure about TikTok, but in this video and YouTube in general, you can just directly go to where most people go, and this way (I'm always a bit amazed that this actually works) you can generally see the actually important points of the video.
MangoToupe · 9h ago
TikTok caps video length. Indeed, the #1 issue with youtube is the videos are way too long. (Also the ads, and comments, recommendations, search, etc,) but video length is certainly why I haven't bothered to watch anything on youtube for a long time (edit: logged in. I still watch clips people send me ofc in the group chat ofc). I'd delete my account if it weren't tied to my email for some inexplicable reason.
woleium · 10h ago
There is a “ten minute rule” for youtube video to maximize reach / clout / whatever the kids are looking for.
spencerflem · 10h ago
Its ad revenue, I think. Yt pays out more for that length since it has midroll ads.
quantadev · 9h ago
That carbon fiber seat is cool. Could be made to integrate right into the back of a backpack (like the rigid frame), to help the backpack stay rigid during use, so it's kind of dual purpose.
It starts out not much more complicated than this and builds to a surprising array of furniture projects with a very small number of techniques. Although the actual materials are a bit annoying: it leans heavily on cut nails and specifically not the more easy to buy wire nails you usually see in DIY shops.
But also, the book is a physically gorgeous artefact in its own right. The illustrations are delicious.
ansgri · 3h ago
It's deceptively simple.
I have a lot of lumber from previous construction projects, and all the basic woodworking tools. I also have some relevant skills. Would I be able to build it right now? No, need a wide and sturdy board, widest I have is 150x30mm pinewood. Would I make one if I had a proper piece of wood? Also no, I just don't want to accept the structural weakness here. And this joint actually requires some precision, which is not trivial (at least for me) with handheld circular saw!
Haven't built a chair yet, but my go-to design would be something like Adirondack.
parham · 41m ago
Looks like a minimalist Rietveld chair! Nice job
denzil · 5h ago
When it comes to woodworking, I quite enjoyed watching some of the videos of Granpa Amu on youtube. When I seen him make table from one piece of wood, it felt like magic.
This chair looks really interesting. It's extremely simple, but also full of character. When you build something yourself, even if it's not perfect, it somehow feels more real than something you just buy.
skeptrune · 5h ago
Equivalent of vibe coding a mini tool to replace some SaaS product you might have paid for
Semaphor · 3h ago
Cool to see that, those are very common for medieval groups at German medieval markets and music festivals.
yboris · 11h ago
Soon I'll be making a 2-piece footrest (imagine a T shape up-side-down leaning towards you - giving lower leg and foot sole complete support). A friend said it was a very comfortable (and instantly customizable due to tilt angle) design.
I've been a web dev for 8 years but my heart is in woodworking for the next many years :)
I have one of these, the only issue is that you can't lean too much forward, otherwise you're going to fall :D
mehulashah · 9h ago
The best part about this chair is that its design is timeless.
regularfry · 5h ago
The FORTH of chairs.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF · 8h ago
> I sealed up the ends using end cut sealer
Oh. Just realized I have a lot of unsealed end cuts on my latest projet
hereonout2 · 6h ago
Been making things with wood for a while now, never used or heard of cut sealer! I usually put some type of finish on, maybe more on the ends as they absorb it better, but not just specifically on cuts.
regularfry · 4h ago
I usually put an extra couple of coats of whatever the finish is on end grain. It does soak right in.
brador · 7h ago
You’re already there with the cutter, I would cut more holes to allow different sizing.
patapong · 5h ago
Neat! I am jealous of people who make physical stuff with their hands, seems so satisfying. I grow some plants, which brings a feeling of joy compared to buying from the store, even though the latter is much easier.
If anyone is interested in chairmaking, I can recommend the book "The Use of Weapons", by Iain M. Banks. (/s)
silversmith · 2h ago
I have the good fortune of working in an office, with easy access to never-ending physical labour options courtesy of relatives living in the countryside.
Every now and then the issues of IT projects make me say "screw it all, I'm going to be a lumberjack". And then I go work the chainsaw for a weekend, and come back thankful for the office chair in a climate controlled room.
Working with your hands is great meditation in small doses, but brutal when you need to do it enough to make a living.
https://syllabus.pirate.care/library/Enzo%20Mari/Autoprogett...
Two of the core ideas are that the majority of the work can be undertaken by a single person with basic carpentry skills, using readily-available materials in standard sizes so there is minimal cutting and waste.
I've been thinking about doing this, and my main thought is that the insulation standards were probably effectively non-existent at the time, beyond "as few draughts as possible"!
Edit: not sure if these will be geo-blocked, but there are a couple of programmes about that project here:
Build: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/...
Revisit 10+ years later: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/...
The chair in the blog benefits from essentially having all load bearing done by the wood, any screws or nails would be superficial only. We have several good hard wood chairs here with dove tail joints and spring based cushions - and they are excellent.
I never understood those tbh, used pallets are splintery. I wouldn't be surprised if you can buy pallets specifically made for use in upcycle projects.
fake edit after a quick search: yup, you can buy readymade pallet benches or benches "inspired by" pallet projects.
https://www.online-pallets.nl/products/pallet-bank-2-hoog-me...
https://www.karwei.nl/assortiment/wakefield-palletbank-lina-...
For those of you who start from really zero and have no idea how to start, here is a step-by-step for a couple of pieces: https://lieu-subjectif.com/documents/caue-22-rietveld-mari.p...
If really you want a "cheat sheet", there's whole book to help: https://filmandfurniture.com/product/hammer-nail-making-and-...
But try not to use it too much, because it really defeats the purpose of Mari, which it is to get people to "think with their hands".
Digging through the legacy and follow-ups of Autoprogettazione is also interesting:
https://lieu-subjectif.com/documents/autoprogettazione-revis...
https://greg.org/archive/mari-x-ikea.pdf
The "Harz IV" (Germany's working poors) furniture project: https://www.guggenheim.org/articles/lablog/hartz-iv-mobel-it...
Simple Japanese Furniture by Monomono / KAK Design Group: https://woodworkersinstitute.com/simple-japanese-furniture-c...
https://www.core77.com/posts/42562/Nomadic-Furniture-DIY-Des...
And and and last but not least, the great Christopher Schwarz and team at Last Art Press just got out a whole video serie and book on how to make a highly respectable chair design from very basic materials and tools:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pWLHAJr5zI
Note also that Lost Art Press makes their books free after some time after first publication, and have a very interesting blog:
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2024/12/27/download-ingenious-...
https://blog.lostartpress.com/
But a few weeks ago, I visited a local woodworker and ordered one of these chairs. I had to let go of all my previous prejudices - this type of chair is surprisingly comfortable and stable. And it's even useful for certain "other" activities :-D
They’re talking about the chair being useful during sex.
[1] https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Burn-Stain-Wood-Aka-Sho...
Modern copper-based treatments--e.g. ACQ or CA--still cause skin and eye irritation. If you try to sand it so that people sitting in your new chair don't get a nasty splinter somewhere best avoided, you can compromise the effectiveness of the treatment (even when the treatment gets full penetration, it's still most effective on the outer layers you're now sanding away). Plus, while the dust you create when working with it might not include arsenic, it's still nasty to breathe in and can cause respiratory problems. Staining P/T wood can be a whole ordeal in itself, and because interact much more closely with furniture than say a deck, any imperfections will be more noticeable.
Even then, it's not like P/T furniture isn't going to require ongoing maintenance in the future. At which point, you're better off with something like cedar or white oak. Hell, with a decent outdoor grade finish and proper care, even untreated pine is going to last for years without rotting away underneath you.
The warnings persist in part because older wood still has that problem, so "reclaimed wood" projects can be risky. That said, since mid-2000s, wood in the US and the EU is treated primarily with much safer copper compounds. Copper isn't hugely toxic to humans at the levels you're likely to be exposed to from wood.
To be fair, the treatment often also includes an organic fungicide (the "azole" part in "copper azole"), which is probably not understood as well as copper.
Wood is typically treated with nasty chemicals. For example, formaldehyde is extensively used in these applications, and it's linked with cancer.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/chemicals/form...
https://lostartpress.com/products/make-a-chair-from-a-tree
In the book she starts with the basics and works up to assembly including woven seats. These are beautiful lightweight chairs. Even if you don't build the chair, it's a great lesson in wooworking.
It gets even better with wood carving (rather than building out of straight planks):
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seating/chairs/african-sol...
No comments yet
I've done ten's of carving by gluing thin layers in a mold to create carved plywood. Those are extra strong but required to use quite a lot of glue and get the right thickness wood veneers. Would love to learn the solid board way.
edit: fined tuned my English today: seems carving means sculpting and not bending.
1 - https://hungarianworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/EZ-...
https://youtu.be/-GEwwMbqU2o
I always thought it was all about travel as light as possible
But I think it's more about travel with as many things as possible - the lightness of the objects is just an emergent requirement in order to not break your back.
I've done my fair share of hiking, longest being a 90km 5-day hike in the Namibian desert, with no facilities save for a river. Weight was a big factor, because you needed to pack food for at least 8 days to be safe and there is nowhere to get food once you start the hike. What equipment you pack and the weight of said equipment weight had to be kept at a minimum.
Having said that...
A chair or other seating arrangement was by a large margin the lowest priority item on my list. There is one giant chair under our feet the whole time: the ground. And if that is not suitable, finding a stump or a rock or whatever to sit on is really not that hard and it's infinitely more environmentally friendly.
https://rovagear.com/products/rova-chair
(Not an endorsement. Just if you’re curious.)
Embers from a fire won’t burn the surface (If removed quickly).
I think that is true for many surface materials, and that "quickly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It also completely fails to communicate whether or not a carbon fiber chair is "safe enough" around an open fire. Annoying.
I feel like people have just gotten so used to 10-second videos, and anything longer now feels like an eternity.
I really hope people don’t stop making longer form videos in favor of TikTok-sized videos.
I guess I didn’t immediately get that impression when I watched it, but I wasn’t watching it with that in mind.
My point is I don’t mind filler in videos, if it’s true to what’s naturally happening.
But intentionally adding filler is, indeed, poor form.
It starts out not much more complicated than this and builds to a surprising array of furniture projects with a very small number of techniques. Although the actual materials are a bit annoying: it leans heavily on cut nails and specifically not the more easy to buy wire nails you usually see in DIY shops.
But also, the book is a physically gorgeous artefact in its own right. The illustrations are delicious.
I have a lot of lumber from previous construction projects, and all the basic woodworking tools. I also have some relevant skills. Would I be able to build it right now? No, need a wide and sturdy board, widest I have is 150x30mm pinewood. Would I make one if I had a proper piece of wood? Also no, I just don't want to accept the structural weakness here. And this joint actually requires some precision, which is not trivial (at least for me) with handheld circular saw!
Haven't built a chair yet, but my go-to design would be something like Adirondack.
Link for those interested: https://www.youtube.com/@GrandpaAmu
I've been a web dev for 8 years but my heart is in woodworking for the next many years :)
Oh. Just realized I have a lot of unsealed end cuts on my latest projet
If anyone is interested in chairmaking, I can recommend the book "The Use of Weapons", by Iain M. Banks. (/s)
Every now and then the issues of IT projects make me say "screw it all, I'm going to be a lumberjack". And then I go work the chainsaw for a weekend, and come back thankful for the office chair in a climate controlled room.
Working with your hands is great meditation in small doses, but brutal when you need to do it enough to make a living.