Getting bent
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I've wanted to model a bentwood chair for quite a while, and finally managed to do it last week. This is the B9 armchair, by August Thonet. It turned out to be quite an exercise with SketchUp's native tools and a plugin.
I began with a circle inscribed in a square to represent the seat. I pushed this component to the thickness I wanted and moved it up to its proper height. That was my anchor point for positioning all the bent parts.
To make the arm, I followed a technique Dave Richards used to make a barrel chair. You can see it here:
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/111204/a-barrel-chair-a-follow-me-lesson-pt-1
The rear legs bend in two planes and proved the hardest to model. I spent a couple of days trying to make Chris Fullmer's Shape Bender plugin do the bend. When it finally dawned on me that Shape Bender wasn't the right tool, I drew two shapes--one for the front-to-back bend, one for the left-to-right curves--intersected them, and used the intersection line as the path for Follow Me. I had to repeat that exercise two or three times until I got a satisfactory curve.
Everything else was relatively easy. I shaped the seat with Push/Pull. And I went back to Shape Bender to make the curved and tapered front legs.
I've uploaded the model to the 3D Warehouse. You can find it here:
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=u35f186af-b9bc-439f-adbc-29d0f36850fe
Enjoy.
Best,
dh -
Nice, I think you shouldn't wobble to much with this one
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One of my favourite chairs from all times!
I've been collecting old thonet chairs from garbage cans and garages for as long as I can remember (only managed one original)!
My Thonet Rocking Chair rocks!
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Thanks, Cotty. The chair is pretty well grounded.
Like you, JQL, I've always admired Thonet chairs. They're so simple and graceful.
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