Whether wittingly or unwittingly, Canadian fabricator and skateboarder Andrew Szeto purchased a faux Eames Lounge Chair.
The only good thing about owning a lousy knock-off is that you have no psychological problem ripping it apart, which is exactly what he did.
Szeto then refabricated the back--by recycling old skateboard decks.
After cutting the decks (so many decks) into strips, he then began laminating them together.
I was wondering how he could possibly bend these pieces, which are laminated along the wrong axis to be put into a mold. Then I realized he wasn't going to put them into a mold at all, as he began mitering the edges and laminating them into upwards wings:
Once he'd reached a rough approximation of the desired shape…
…he again impressed me by going at it primarily with rough construction/demo tools, like a reciprocating saw, an angle grinder and a power planer:
It was incredible to see how well the shape came out after some sanding:
By way of finishing, he applied a fiberglass film:
And finally, the pieces were ready for remounting:
A pretty good result, I'd say.
While I know the knockoff trade isn't going to go away, I do wish all faux pieces would be ripped apart by their owners and re-interpreted. I damn sure wouldn't do it with an original.
Anyways, if you'd like to see the full video of the build, it's all here:
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And if you want to see how the real thing is/was put together, click on either of the following:
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