Top 5 Specs and Constraints: Extending Coffee Table

This project has become my favorite pastime as designing and engaging in aesthetic thinking is a nice oasis for my brain and energy to focus on. Within this passion though it is still important to focus on the constraints and the important aspects of the project to ensure that I can complete it by the deadline. for my project I currently have the following top 5 as my priority things to ensure as I am making this project:

1. Make sure that the overall aesthetic is still modern and minimalist and does not stray away from this core.
2. Get the bottom and top to interface effectively so that the artifact can display the aesthetic candidly.
3. Get the insert into the design and resemble the aesthetic properly.
4. Change the color of one of the table tops to give the design a dipolar feature.
5. Lastly is to ensure that the force torques are taken care of in the design and the table doesn’t have a tilting point.

When thinking about what success would technically look like in this project I think of a design that has a working dynamic second tabletop and a strong modern minimalist aesthetic and has some kind of unique novelty to it.

Now that we have talked about the specifications that I am looking to achieve and striving quickly towards as the project comes to a close I next have to address some of the constraints that are holding my project back a bit. The largest original constraint was being able to source materials that were the size that I wanted them to be while also not accidentally making an artifact so heavy that it was unmovable from its assembly location. I fixed this by sourcing a table that I am going to repurpose its tabletop and some of its legs to have the weight and size I was hoping for. Looking forward my top 5 constraints are going to be:

1. TIME TIME TIME we all know it’s a busy time of the semester so I am acutely aware that there is not much time left and that I need to be very on top of finishing this project if I want to have something to present by the end of class.
2. Will the wood give me a good finish for an insert? The table top that I sourced is not a pure maple so I am concerned with the idea of cutting an insert into it and having a really bad finish on it. I look forward to getting this answered early next week as I have a meeting with the wood shop scheduled on Monday.
3. I am still a bit concerned about choosing the proper hinge to use and as a result, have been quite apprehensive to purchase one. I look forward to buying one or two that I think might work next week to just send it into fabrication.
4. Painting location might become a constraint because most of my fabrication is happening at my house with me only using the idea forge for one of the parts so I don’t know if I want to bring the entire assembly with how big it is into the idea forge just to paint it.
5. TIME PART 2!! Time is a huge problem!! And I just have to keep reminding myself as we all do that this project as fun as it is to just tinker and play with is very crucial to get out of designing and get into building and doing fast!