DWR Champagne Chair

Okay I'm going to step away from engineering for just a little because I find this very interesting but I'll be back with more timber frame engineering things later.

Design Within Reach held The DWR Champagne Chair Contest.  The contest is to create a miniature version of an original chair using the cork, cage, label, and foil of less than 2 champagne bottles.  I'm always amazed by what people can produce with the material from 2 champagne bottles.  The creativity and the unique concepts that people create are exciting to see.  I'm also always amazed by quality and level of finish. Some of the chair look as if they are ready to present to a client.  So here are a couple of ones that I liked.  To see more of the champagne chair follow the link.  If you want to see the winners, follow this link.

Glulam Frame

What's going on this week in the engineering world at Vermont Timber Works?  We have a glulam frame with steel connectors and a timber boat house.  (More on the boat house next week because I'll still be working on it.)  The steel for the glulam project is being produced by another company and then shipped to us.  We are responsible for fabrication of the glulams and we will need to check to make sure that the wood members fit together with the steel.  If we aren't going to be traveling to the job site, which is the case with this job, we check the fit of the pieces to try and alleviate issues that might come up during the erection of the frame.

This is the architect's drawings of what the truss will look like when assembled.