Replies

1. 
   Westchester | Sep 12, 2012 06:21am | #1

   Eames

   Janet - if you mean bend the wood - it was done with machinery - I think it was the museum of Arts & Design I visited years ago and they had an exhibit with a bent wood chair tumbling around in a large barrel to show the chairs strength -

   SA

2. 
   user-64052 | Sep 12, 2012 10:05am | #2

   just like doing

   a bent lamination. laying up the lamination. use of a mould, glue and pressure to bring it all together.

   ron

3. 
   hammer1 | Sep 12, 2012 10:24am | #3

   They didn't take a flat sheet of plywood and bend it, they made their own plywood in shapes by laminating veneers in a form.

4. 
   acornw | Sep 12, 2012 11:39am | #4

   More History

   They actually learned to use the new resorcinol glue that Howard Hughes developed to build the Spruce Goose. The glue was also put to use in PT boats towards the end of WW2.

   It responds very well to heat and pressure, so they learned to build forms that eventually required hydraulics and heated platens. Their first products were splints to support and immobilize war-damaged limbs.  The chairs came as the war ended and the process got simpler.

   It is the tremendous heat and pressure that makes the 2-dimensional wood sheet look more like a 3-dimensional part. Seat depressions are slight radii, and gentle curves, again with heat and pressure make it all work.  They did push the materials, and many failures taught them how far they could go. Herman Miller offers the low round table - check out the rim. These still have a high failure rate today - during manufacture.

   Herman Miller still makes many of the Eames designs today, and the process remains the same. Male and female molds, veneers and lots of heat and pressure.