Castelli DSC 106 part II – Reupholstery

One of my first posts on this blog was about a Castelli DSC 106 I picked up at City Liquidators. That was ah, a while ago. 2012 is further in the past than I’d like to think about. But without dwelling on that too much, here’s the long due followup!

Since it’s been awhile, here’s how that originally looked. Lots of split seams, cracks in the vinyl, and splotches in the color… Not great!

I’d originally intended to ditch the vinyl entirely and just paint the underlying plywood. But, after having it all apart, seeing the condition of the wood, and trying some experiments with refinishing, I decided to back off on that idea and reupholster it.

I picked apart the old covers, patterned out new ones, and set to the task of putting it all together.

The zipper on the backrest made things a little complicated but I was able to get a decent result. I did a trial run with some scrap material and ran into issues with fitment, but once I added the foam padding in all of that cleared up nicely.

The final seam of the seat was put together with staples originally, and I attempted to duplicate that with my BeA 71. I ended up with a few spots where I estimated the stretch of the material wrong and had some rippling. Fortunately this part of the work is decently hidden on the underside, with the cross-bar between the side supports over top of it, so I didn’t feel the need to tear things back apart and try to achieve perfection.

Once I had everything stitched and stapled back up, final assembly was a matter of quality time with a mallet and screwdriver. I banged on the thing futily for a while before I tried using the screws to draw things tight and found success with that, clearly the way to go. Also had some added difficulty with the plywood having warped a bit during its nine years on the shelf, but I was able to finesse everything into place.

Clearance was much, much tighter than I expected and I found myself cursing the fact that I went with a thicker vinyl than was originally used. I used a plastic wedge to carefully push the vinyl into the channels of the supports when it would bunch up. In one spot some staples actually started to pull up due to the amount of force on the material. I knocked them back down with a pin punch and slowly got everything where it needed to be.

All in all, pretty good result! I’m pleased with how it looks, and confident I could do even better next time, though I might be loathe to take on another of these now knowing what a pain certain aspects of the job are.

Castelli DSC 106 part I – Teardown

Curious how it turned out? Click here for the followup to this post!

The upholstery on the Castelli DSC 106 I bought was torn, and rather discolored from damp storage, not worth trying to salvage. I decided to pull it all off and see what the plywood underneath looked like.

First step was to take out the screws, and knock the frame apart. Surprisingly easy, only took a couple whacks with a rubber mallet and it came right apart.

The seat and back fit into notches in the cast frame pieces.

The vinyl covering was stapled into place with what look to be brass plated steel staples.

The back cover is odd. It has a zipper for one of the seams.

The wood underneath was not perfect, but it’s not bad for plywood. The back has a few cracks in the top layer of plywood, and marring from the production process. I’m going to sand things a bit, mostly to get rid of splinters on the edges, and varnish it. Should look pretty decent at the end, if a little bit richer in character than the ones originally produced with a wood finish.

The rest of the pictures I took of the tear down process are in the gallery below. Lots of detail shots of the upholstery seams and fasteners, so I can get as close to original as possible if I decide I want to put a new cover on in the future.

Curious how it turned out? Click here for the followup to this post!

Find of the day – Castelli DSC 106

Picked up this sweet old Castelli DSC 106 chair for $30 from City Liquidators today! It was part of a pair but the  other one was missing some of the feet, and I’m pretty sure they are made of unobtanium.

It’s apparently a 1965 design, by the Castelli company. It’s a pretty handsome, and cleverly engineered. Only four  screws are used in the entire thing. The chairs consist of cast aluminum side brackets, with tube steel legs and  under-seat crossbars clad in grey plastic. Small nylon stops set into the bottom of the side brackets keep them  from clanking when stacked up. The seat and back are molded plywood, and can be found upholstered in vinyl, cloth,  or bare with a varnished finish.

They’re still made today, sold as the Haworth DSC Axis 106, and retail between $570 and $787 depending on finish.  More info from the company here.

Not sure how you can date one of these chairs accurately. One of the differentiating characteristics seems to be a  number cast above the logo on the inside of the side brackets. My chair’s logo has an 8, and I’ve found examples of  the logo with castings of 22, 73/7, and 69/6. I think it’s safe to say that the latter two are year/month combos,  but I’m not so sure about the single and double digit ones. Maybe month of production since launch?