Arch DLXX.
A Chair for a Contemplative Writer:
William Morris
Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
A Chair for William Morris
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
“Combine clearness of form and firmness of structure with the mystery which comes of an abundance and richness of detail� -William Morris
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A Chair for William Morris
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
William Morris
William Morris (1834-1896) was a man of many talents. Throughout the course of his life he would be known for designing textiles, furniture, writing poetry and novels, and for being an early leader of England’s socialist movement. In short: William Morris would become one of the most influential people of his time. Born in Essex, he grew up in a wealthy middle class family before attending university at Oxford. While at university he was heavily influenced by the writings of art critic John Ruskin, developing an interest in the medievalist ideology that put him at odds with the current rise of industrial capitalism. After graduating in 1856, Morris studied architecture and with some others including Edward Burne-Jones and architect Phillip Webb started a decorative design office named Morris, Marshall, Faukner & Co. “The Firm”, as it was known, formed around the ideals of Medievalism; which meant a return to craftsmanship that reconnected the artisan to the object and an anti-elitist attitude that focused on affordability and accessibility. Despite their socialist business model the firm would become quite popular with the bourgeoisie for their high quality products and attention to detail. Morris was a staunch believer that anybody could learn anything; a belief that often led to the Firm hiring orphan boys to work and learn skills as apprentices. William Morris himself attempted to learn every craft there was: from bookbinding to tapestries to furniture and stained glass, everything his firm had a hand in. Throughout his life Morris had always been interested in writing and had written several successful novels and translations of classic texts. In the 1870’s he became interested in translating Icelandic poetry and creating illustrated manuscripts as he established a publishing company in his family home to support this passion. His works broke new ground and defined an entire genre that would inspire authors like Tolkien and C.S Lewis: fantasy. In 1875 Morris gained full ownership of The Firm and renamed it “Morris & Co.” involving himself more deeply in all aspects of the various production processes. From the 1880’s onwards Morris’ life took a turn for the political. International tensions and new national voting rights pushed Morris to vocalize some of his long held beliefs on equality and in 1884 he helped form the Socialist League.
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A Chair for William Morris
We would like to thank everyone who helped us along this journey, to all those who offered their assistance, advice and humor to our endeavor. A special thanks to these few: Elizabeth English Audrey Fischer Dan Jessel Shabaan Khokhar Heinz Koller Tom Nugent Brad Paddock Brenda Reid Exotic Woods
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
Contents Biography 5 Manifesto 9 Chapter I 11 Chapter II 19 Chapter III 31 Chapter IV 45 Chapter V 71 Bibliography 81 ` Appendix I 83 Appendix II 99 Appendix III 109 Appendix IV 119 Appendix V 129 7
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
On Morrisian Philosophy
Two young men set out with nothing more than the intention to build a chair and learn while they did so. Inspired by the life and philosophy of William Morris, a man who above all else believed that one must always expand into new fields; and that at it’s core, design frames the beauty of the world. Morris was a man of his time, and over the course of his life, influenced European culture in as many ways as it had influenced him. So the question became: How does a man who has experienced so much, sit? A chair in many ways is both the most humble and profound piece of furniture one can own for this very reason. A desk chair epitomizes this as it must both be supportive and comfortable, while also allowing one to shift their position to find a momentary reprieve from their work and simply think. A chair, in these terms must allow one to sit and move however they wish, and above all it must allow them to rock back and think... Yet a chair must still exist in the world, for one cannot simply sit on a idea. And to build a chair for William Morris is to step into his shoes and learn a new craft, all the while striving to make something elegantly simple. For the young men who set off on this journey; who learned to be fine carpenters and thoughtful designers, the journey of building the chair was all that mattered.
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Chapter I. Statically Dynamic
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A Chair for William Morris
Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
Many of Morris’ design tenants revolved around creating objects that elegantly achieved their intended use. From the first design session we decided that the chair would be able to rock back and lean. However part of the course requirements were to build a chair that had two positions and was mechanically dynamic. Experience told us that unless the mechanical movement was completely effortless, it would never be used; there is a reason the Murphy bed never fully caught on. Parallel work from Dereck Revington option studio explored how “static” architecture changes through use and time. Why couldn’t the chair do the same thing. We decided that in order for one to comfortably use the chair, to be able to simply lean back and think as we intended, the chair would have to be designed as a static object and the leaning would have to be effortless.
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
From the first design session we devised the simple method for the chair to tip back and rest stably on two points. By extending the diagonal stretcher beyond the back leg and rounding both ends we could create a stable plane that would act as a fall back stop similar to those on wheel chairs, however instead of prevent the chair from tipping beyond a few degrees, this would allow the occupant to comfortably lean back and remain supported without completely tipping over.
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
Also within the first few sessions we imaged two curves coming together to create the arms. The shear resistance created between the two surfaces would allow the arms to cantilever out and create a graceful sweeping language within the chair. Although this ultimately didn’t make it to the final chair, it provided the founding ideas to use glulam curves and combining structural elements into curves to distribute the loads and provide lateral stability to the chair.
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Chapter II. Lessons Learned from Making and Using.
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
With the first few design rounds under our belt we knew that we needed to move into full scale and build a prototype to test and use. It also gave us the chance to test the chair’s comfort and proportions. We had been measuring other chairs we found comfortable, but we are both very large people, Brendan is 6’2” and Michael 6’4”, and in the end we wanted a chair that would fit us comfortably.
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Using the CNC route in the school’s woodshop we build the first prototype out of 3/4” Baltic Berch. By assembling the entire thing out of bolts were able to see how stable the chair acted as a pin frame and understand where it wanted to rack and sway. Using plywood allowed us to test general shapes and the overall frame, however plywood’s grain directionally meant that it was prone to splitting in certain situations. The front stretcher eventually snapped after extended use. Who knew a 1/4” in a 3/4” member with half the layers running in the short grain direction of the wood was a bad idea. We did... But it was a prototype so who cares.
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Originally the chair racked significantly as the side stretchers creates a rectangular frame, as shown in the previous drawings. However two quick holes with a drill and we shifted the diagonal to creating a triangular frame between the seat beams and the diagonals meaning that the back legs and seat where very stiff and the chair could comfortable lean back. Unfortunately this now meant that the front legs were incredibly unstable. With the addition of a few air nails and some glue we secured the leg, and made the chair stable enough to use. Building the prototype taught us a lot about how the chair behaved, and that true pin frames are really difficult to make work in simple structures. But as an educational tool it was invaluable and a lot of fun to make.
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We fitted the back rest with slots to make the whole thing adjustable. Despite all the measuring and reading were doing, its very hard to find a definitive number that equated to comfort. This allowed us to fine tune the chair’s position until we found a comfortable position, then take measurements to carry forward with us.
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
Despite a few minor flaws in the design, we were able to modify the prototype to work very well as a desk chair. It was an odd little creature, short and stout but it was very comfortable. So comfortable in fact that Michael ended up using it as his studio chair for the term. After three months of use the plywood had a dull blue sheen from constant jean wear. Objects, like people change over time and start to tell their life’s story on their skin.
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Chapter III. Not all prototypes work...
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With the lessons learned from the first prototype we began working on the second, this time with the intention of refining a real style to the chair. After all, William Morris did say “There is no excuse for doing anything that is not strikingly beautiful.� We wanted to expand the curving language to other parts of the chair, and tie together members to better distribute the weight (and make the analysis more interesting). But we also wanted to make the chair more graceful; taller, slimmer. Like a swan rather than an ox.
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Using the CNC allowed us to cut any profile we wanted and eventually make forms to laminate from for the final chair. Although we both prefer traditional tools for building, we couldn’t argue with the speed and possibilities opened up by digital fabrication tools for prototyping. But we still wanted the final chair to be build by hand.
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We knew the front legs needed some serious bracing and wanted to continue the stylistic and structural language created by the arched stretchers, and expand the curves to other members of the chair. By extending the diagonal braces down to connect the front legs to the seat and back legs, we thought we had created beautifully elegant solution to our racking issue and now no longer needed the seat beam...
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
We were wrong. Removing the seat beam meant removing one side of the triangular frame; without which the seat was only connected via two small pins to the back legs. Again the pins were running between the plywood layers. Our oversimplification of frame meant that looking at the chair too intently would cause it to rack in the most important plane. Leaning back was accompanied by stomach turning shaking and a terrifying cracking sounds as the tiny back stretcher tried to resist all the moment acting on it as one attempted to lean back.
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Built Prototype from Design Review
YZ Lateral Resistance YZ Lateral Resistance The second prototype
Current Single Pin Connection
Modified Design
Simplified truss shape
New arm member New Embedded Double Pin Connection
yz plane a chair for William Morris Michael Nugent, Brendan Lacy
was doomed from the beginning resistance in as our Lateral simplification of the the yz-plane is predominately chair’s structure eliminated provided by diagonal the lateral stabilitybracing created produced by the arched in the first prototype; stretchers. weakening the structure in theplace currently exactlyInthe where built it prototype the design needed to from be strongest. review, this is of a weakest Omission the seat plane for lateral stability, beam caused significant although it must be the lateral instability in the strongest due the chair’s yz-plane as itto lacked the tipping nature. single pin triangular frameAcreated in at back diagonal allows thethe first prototype. the point to freely rotate A single pin at the without moment resistance back diagonal allows the beyond marginal point to freely friction, rotate causing deflecting without serious moment resistance in the member. beyond marginalAdditionally friction, the backserious stretcher does not causing deflecting provide any moment resistance in the member. Additionally as connection theall back stretcherpoints does not are on aany single line. The provide moment resistance final stretchers will off as all connection points axis toacreate triangular are on singlealine. The resistance. The members final stretchers will offalso flex areacut from axisas tothey create triangular plywood and only have short resistance. The members also grain through them, flex asrunning they are cut from building final members of plywood and only have out short built glulam ash should grain up running through them, create much stiffer members building final members out of as the grain will run with built up ash glulam should the member. create much stiffer members increase lateral as the To grain will run with stability in this plane the the member. diagonal be embedded To will increase lateral in the back a stability inleg, thiscreating plane the strong moment diagonal will connection. be embedded Additionally the bottom arm in the back leg, creating a rest will be curve to marry strong moment connection. into the seat, creating Additionally the bottom a arm triangular connection rest will be curve to between marry the back leg. a intoseat the and seat, creating triangular connection between the seat and back leg.
Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
Analysis II more technically described the magnitude of our oversight. But like everything so far, it was about learning, and this failure taught us plenty. The following review helped us devise a strategy for tying in all the pieces together. By connecting the arm rest support to the seat we could once again create a triangular frame. However, the initial arm rests which had never actually been designed wouldn’t make it past this point in the process.
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Prototype II taught us a great deal, despite its failures, many of the final chair’s defining characteristics and details were established at this stage. The idea to notch the front leg into the seat as well as using two wooden dowels in ornament for the connections came about here. Like everything in the project it was part of the process, and ultimately found a use besides Brendan’s desk as a very non-tippy seat for John McMinn during desk crits.
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Chapter IV. Measure Twice, Measure Again, Cut Once
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
The final chair, or as it should really be call: Prototype III; brought together all of the lessons learned throughout the process and offered us the chance to finally learn fine hardwood joinery. And like everything else along the way, it was imperfect. But at some point we needed to culminate the work and land the plane. The previous prototypes and process analysis lent themselves to the final round of design changes and the establishment of the final stylistic language of solid maple members connected by curving ash glulams. The proportions were refined, the weight distribution finessed and the vision of a desk chair designed to lean back was fully realized.
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
Once the final design had been worked out it was time to make it a real object, but before we could do that we had to make some form work. The forms were for the components in the chair that needed to be curved and required a steam bending operation. Something you don’t always think about when designing in the computer is how these complex shapes will actually get built. We had a basic idea about how the forms would work but after a conversation with Dan decided to make them as solid blocks with multiple holes for clamp points. We used jigsaws to cut out the profiles which were then stacked up and glued together. The blocks were then shaped and smoothed to ensure the correct curvature and large holes were drilled around the edges for the clamps. The final step was to attach the blocks to flat bases. We used one 4’x4’ sheet of plywood to make 4 forms for the creation of 6 curved parts.
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The chair is made out of two types of wood, Ash and Maple, and each type of wood has a different way in which it is worked. The maple, a hard white maple, was to be left solid and would be sanded, planed and chiseled. The ash was cut and planed into thin strips flexible enough to be bent around the forms for steam bending and glu-laming. Steam bending was one of the processes that we were interested in learning more about as we had no previous experiences with, it would also increase our chances of making successful curved pieces. For each curved part a stack of ash strips was placed inside the tube of the steam chamber. Water was boiled in a pressure cooker and the steam was fed into the back of the tube, permeating the wood under pressure, and exiting the front. The general rule of thumb is “an hour per inch�, meaning for every square inch of sectional area the wood had to be in the chamber for an hour. We learned that steam bending takes a long time. Once the stack of ash strips was fully saturated we pulled them out and rushed them onto the form, starting at one end and clamping as we went. Everything was then left on the form to dry and take its shape. After the strips were dry enough we took them off the forms covered them in glue and re-clamped them onto the forms.
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Normally when something is being laminated for gluing, or a solid piece of wood is being steam bent, the grain need to run the full length of the piece, commonly known as quarter sawn. This is because if any grain exits the face of the piece while in a curve it will split and crack at that point. Buying wood with this kind of grain is very expensive so we bought ash boards with less than perfect grain direction. If we had tried to bend our imperfect boards when they were dry, and given that the curvatures were hoping to bend around were tight, they would have snapped immediately. We learned, however, that even with all of our careful precautions there is something to be said for practice, and in the end our first few attempts at laminating pieces failed spectacularly.
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William Morris was largely concerned with the questions surrounding craftsmanship, but he was also operating in an industrial period of time and knew when to use the right tool for the job. For us this meant that even though we were interested in learning new skills in hand carpentry, we were ok with the fact that a large number of necessary operations needed to happen with power tools. What this really did was open up an opportunity for a whole other set of skills we could learn. Specifically with the table saw: how do you set up a run of precision cuts? And how do we make these tools do the complicated cuts that we have designed? In the top left picture Michael has built a custom jig to make a 60 degree angled cut through one of the chair’s back legs that will eventually hold the diagonal support pieces.
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As mentioned earlier the chair is made out of two types of wood: Ash and Maple. The maple is hard, solid and dense, forming the front legs, back legs, arm rests, seat and back rest. The seat and the back rest were made out of planks that were glued together on edge to become larger pieces. We liked the look of that the planks gave, something akin to hard flooring or the deck of a ship, and finding smaller dimension wood is always easier and cheaper than larger single pieces. Once the glue was dry the seat and backrest were scrapped clean of any excess glue and put through the planer to bring them down to the required thickness. Always make things bigger than they need to be! In designing the final iteration of the chair we encountered some issues between our dimensions for the width of the seat and the width of the planer. Our seat was designed about 2� too wide. So, in the end we learned, it is the limitations and tolerances of the necessary tools that determine the constraints that help you design the project.
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Even though many of the operations were done on machines or with power tools we still had lots of opportunity to make nice details by hand. Here Brendan used a block plane to shape the front legs. He gave the square profile a conical taper, smoothing the edges into a circle towards the bottom of the leg. This was done by first taking the corners off of the square making it an octagon, then carefully planing down each corner equally until it became a smooth taper. Woodworking constantly gave us lessons in patience and how to read materials, how to listen to materials.
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Sometimes even when we use precise power tools parts don’t fit exactly like we expect. Sometimes you have to trust your hand and the tool that’s in it. Sometimes you need to chisel out your awesome angled DATO cuts to fit that weird parabolic curved piece...
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After the seat, back rest and arm rests had been brought down to their final thickness we needed to give them their final profile shapes. To do this we first made some patterns out of thin MDF that were cut out on the laser cutter. Then we cut the curves out roughly with the band saw and, using the pattern as a guide, used the router to make the curves smooth. While everything was still in pieces we took the opportunity to drill every hole that we could accurately produce dimensions for. The challenge being that for some of these pieces we had no way of figuring out where to drill holes until the chair was more together. Then every part of the chair was treated with the full range of our sandpaper arsenal.
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Deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths. In...Out... It’s 6pm and the power is off in the shop, not much we can do. Dan and Heinz have gone home for the day but the shop is very much alive with students. It’s 6pm and we have half of the pieces that we need. Tomorrow is the deadline and we have to present a completed chair. Deep breaths... We will have to do as much as we can tonight, and tomorrow we will finish it because, well that’s what needs to be done.
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The only thing we could do that night was clamp the seat to the top of the work bench and glue the front legs on. Hammering the first peg home sent a wave of relief over us; the pegs worked, nothing split and at least we had started. The next morning Brendan arrived at the shop with two piping hot coffees in hand, which he promptly spilled all over himself. Michael had been at the shop since before it was open, measuring and measuring and remeasuring again making sure the complicated DATO cut would be perfect. As soon as the cut was made he realized it was completely backwards. 20 minutes later Brendan left for a job interview. Not the smoothest morning but soon the two were back in the shop and settled into the work. A large part of the time in constructing the chair was spent trouble-shooting or just working out the complicated order that things needed to happen in. Much of this was due to our design itself which was put together with 3/8� dowels. Many of the pieces couldn’t have been measured to have holes drilled beforehand meaning that how we put the chair together was very specific.
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Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
The atmosphere was tense but efficient. Each of us working on pieces then coming together to attach them to the chair and to figure out the next step. The construction became a little tricky in the final hours when our supply of dowels ran dangerously low and we experienced some major alignment issues between the arm rests and the back legs. But we managed to get it all straight and put together. In the end we got it done. The glue was still wet and the clamps were still on, but we brought it upstairs for the review and how sweet it was to sit on this thing that we made. We had done battle and emerged triumphant! Looking back now it’s an amazing project, and an amazing process. And that’s really what it was: a process. Every bump, every challenge we faced was an opportunity to learn and grow from. And for us the understanding that, like everything, this was a process, is the most valuable lesson of all.
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Chapter V. Chairs for the Contemplative Students
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Brendan Lacy
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Bibliography Text: William Morris, Walter Crane, G.T. Robinson, W.A.S. Benson et al. Arts and Crafts Essays (New York & London: Garland Publishing Inc. 1977) William Morris. News From Nowhere: Or an Epoch of Rest, Being some Chapters from a Utopian Romance (New York and Bombay, Longmans, Green and Co. 1905) Peter Stansky. Redesigning the World: William Morris, the 1880s, and the Arts and Crafts (New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1985) Web: “Medievalism” Accessed October 1, 2016, https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medievalism “William Morris” Accessed September 28, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris “William Morris Society” Accessed October 1, 2016, http://www.morrissociety.org Images: “Wikimedia Commons” Accessed December 18, 2016, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/ William_Morris_age_53.jpg “William Morris & Co.” Accessed December 19, 2016, https://69445235844b78bbd4c8-40765e7850b487e7db6d0b 1ca2adcee0.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/_assets/images/cache/ productcatalogue/productdetailzoom/DARW212564_zoom.jpg Photographs by Audrey Fischer, Shabann Khokhar, Brendan Lacy, Michael Nugent & Brenda Reid
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Appendix I. Chair Weight & Reactions
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Chair Components 2
6
Seat Back Rest Front Leg Back Leg Arm Rest Arm Curve Diagonal Front Stretcher Back Stretcher
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
5
9 1
8
7 4
3
Design Notes Chair proportioned for occupant between 180-200cm tall All connections are glued, lapped dowel joints for strength and aesthetic decisions. However all connections are considered pins to make the structure indeterminate and ultimately solvable.
Chair Isometric
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Item
Cost
Date
Stage
Laser Cutting
$20.00
09/26/2016 Schematic Design
Cardboard
$16.00
09/27/2016 Schematic Design
$9.05
09/28/2016 Schematic Design
Glue Wood
$160.92
10/11/2016 Design Development
CNC`
$10.00
10/11/2016 Design Development
Home Hardwaere
$46.24
10/11/2016 Design Development
$7.86
10/14/2016 Design Development
Dowels Pizza
$19.00
10/20/2016 Analysis 2
Template plot
$11.30
11/01/2016 FInal Chair
Exotic Wood
$314.56
11/01/2016 Final Chair
Lunch
$20.21
11/01/2016 Final Chair
Total
$635.14
Exotic Woods Final Shopping List 3x3x36" maple Sqaure
$28.00
5
$140.00
5-1/2 Ash Boards
$25.00
4
$100.00
Danish Oild
$20.00
1
$20.00
Sandpaper
$46.30
1
$46.30
$8.26
1
$8.26
Misc
$314.56
Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy
Appendix V. Costs and Materials
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Produced for Arch 570 Dr Elizabeth English, University of Waterloo, School of Architecture Michael Nugent & Brendan Lacy