Production Before Computers

[Ryan]

This isn't terribly on-topic, but I just couldn't resist... And what garage guy doesn't enjoy watching real tools in action? The Charles and Ray Eames Shell chair was first designed in 1948, but didn't see real mass production until the 1960's. ...
To read the rest of this blog entry from The Garage Journal, click here.

 

[Torque1st]

I am old enough to have designed and built parts like that. Back when I was in college a computer took up several rooms and the waste heat was used to heat the comp center. It took many years for the use of computers to filter down to small businesses for design and drafting work. I still have a number of French curves, drafting instrument sets, drawing boards, T-squares, triangles, pencil sharpeners, pencils, lead holders, Pentel mechanical pencils, ink pens, vellum, film, tape, slide rules, etc.

 

[Stuart in MN]

If you notice, at the very end of the video there's a computer printout with some production numbers on it.

Drafting was probably my favorite class in school; I still have all my drafting tools, curves, etc. and use them at my desk to sketch things up before I hand them my CADD guys.

 

[Eds_tls]

When I was in college for engineering, I was in the last manual drafting class they offered. That was in '97. Once the class was over, they were giving away all the tables and other equipment.

I'm glad I was able to take that class. I can sketch by hand now and still do a decent job at it. I feel bad for engineers who never took a manual drafting class and have to rely on AutoCAD for everything

 

[Keep]

Is it just me or was that "made in China"?

Pretty cool video though.

 

[A_Pmech]

Ryan,

Great video!

The process at work there is very familiar to me, as are the materials in use.

Although the personal computer is now a modern-day small business appliance I, like Steinway, believe that true quality comes from the hands.

 

[Jay H 237]

When I was in college for engineering, I was in the last manual drafting class they offered. That was in '97. Once the class was over, they were giving away all the tables and other equipment.

When I was in high school I took drafting (along with woods and metals) and everything was done by hand too. This was in 1993, there were 22 tables in the room but only 4 or 5 had computers. They were slowly converting over but the technology departments would only get the "leftovers" in the budget every year after the other departments took the money they wanted/needed. They used CadKey but I've never heard of anyone using that out in the real world. These days they have Solidworks and Autocad, which is great since those are like industry standards. A few machines have Inventor on them too, bit I don't think there's enough licenses for all of them.


I still remember the big tape ball the teacher had on his desk. Everytime we were done with drawing we would peel the tape from the paper and stick it to the tape ball!

 

[Jononon]

If I were being pedantic (and I am ) 1970 is 16 years into the age of computing for record-keeping and 169 years into the age of programmed industrial machinery.

 

[bimmer1980]

I enjoyed the video as well..... I especially like the mock up of the right curve for the chain to fit a person. we could use various jigs in the shop for testing fitting various items on various projects.....

p.s. I noticed that the web page crashed a few times with the video on the home page. I had to go directly to the forum to keep it form crashing.....

 

[MotoDave]

I wish manual drafting were still taught, at least in high school if not in college. I find I almost always start from a series of rough sketches before I do anything in CAD.

 

[mikeyr]

Wow I actually have one of those chairs, my father in law died last year and there were 4 chairs like those deep bucket ones they were making in the video (you only seen a full shot of them twice in the video, they are the ones with the solid sides, like a bucket) my wife threw 3 of them away before I rescued one for the garage, rescued the worst of the 4 but its a cool chair.

 

[Stuart in MN]

my wife threw 3 of them away before I rescued one for the garage, rescued the worst of the 4 but its a cool chair.

If you want to make her feel bad you can tell her how much vintage Herman Miller furniture in any condition is worth these days...

 

[godremmas]

Herman Miller is two townships over from me. Great company when they were still privately held. Once they went public, the beancounters took over their operations and out-sourced large chunks of logistics, production, and yes, upholstery work.

Interesting to see the footage from when they performed many of those functions here in West Michigan. Just about all of their metal and casting work has been off-shored. They still do some fiberglas lay-up here, but a lot of that has also gone bye-bye over the years.

Michigan - we used to make stuff here.....

 

[JMURiz]

Cool footage, I'd send it to my wife (interior designer) but she's probably too busy to watch the whole thing. I like seeing how stuff used to be done, more work and better products, go figure.

BTW I love our Eames Lounge.

 

[DashEight]

I enjoyed that video. Craftsmanship is fun to watch.

 

[idoine in toronto]

After graduating grad school I went back to visit the university where I had gone for undergrad. While driving through the campus with my now wife we noticed a lone shell chair sitting at an intersection. It looked lonely, kind of like it was waiting for us to come and visit. I stopped the car, got out and took a seat. I then looked over towards the dorms where in a previous life I’d spent many a night, and low and behold there was a giant pile of these shell chairs, forty or fifty of them sitting in and around the dorm dumpsters. The university was redecorating the rooms and tossing the old furnishings (literally tossing the furniture out the windows).

As we were then living in Venice CA, home of the former Eames Studio and had recently finished architecture school, we knew what we had stumbled upon. We were able to salvage nearly 20 of the chairs and by removing the bases even fit them in the back of our car. Back in LA we traded several to Modernica, who at the time were making repros. We still have three of them, and have added several other Eames chairs to our “collection”.

There is some interesting history to Eames work including a period of time during WWII when they designed and produced “bent wood” products such as leg splints and aircraft seating for the DOD out of plywood when there was a need reduce the use of metal. Their studio was not far from Howard Hughes Air field where HH was building the Spruce Goose.

 

[61Tbird]

Great Post!
Really liked how "hands-on" they were in the development of the chair.
From the measuring of different curves of the back of the seat to the clay modeling.

 

[Mario428]

. They used CadKey but I've never heard of anyone using that out in the real world. These days they have Solidworks and Autocad, which is great since those are like industry standards.!

WE still use Cadkey 99 daily, best 2D drafting program for machine shops ever.
We have had Solidworks for some years now and use it more for everything now.

 

[mikevango]

cool video. i too love vintage furniture.
did you notice the upholstery guy had some duct tape on his thumb. you got a cut tape it up and get back to work.

 

[tradspeed]

Man what a great video. I'm selling Eames reproductions for a buddy of mine down here. They were an incredibly talented pair.

 

[NTAPHSE]

Awesome post.