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Ask TOH | Robotic Wall, Bench
Kevin
Today on "Ask This Old House"...
Ross
The challenge for the future house is how to take a small footprint and make it livable, comfortable, and sustainable. And the answer to that question may lie in robotics. Will your home someday have robotic walls and furniture? We'll visit a future house to find out.
Tom
And from an antique piece of pine to a beautiful sitting bench, we'll show you how to build it.
Kevin
Well, you said you wanted to make a bench. So I went down to the reclaim lumber yard, and I picked these up. I don't know what you've got in mind, but I'd love to save this stencil.
Tom
Well, I think it's a great idea.
Kevin
That's next on "Ask This Old House."
Ross
Hey, Dad.
Richard
Hey, Ross. How you doing?
Ross
I'm looking for the miniature toilet.
Richard
Wait a minute. That's my toilet. You doing a plumbing story?
Ross
No. We're launching a new segment called "Future House."
Richard
Cool.
Ross
We'll be looking at new technologies that may one day be used in the future home.
Richard
Sounds exciting.
Ross
Today, we're doing a robotic wall.
Richard
Can I offer you a little plunger to go with that little toilet?
Ross
No, no, no, no, no. We're good.
Kevin
Hey,
Ross. -Ross
Hey, Kev.
Kevin
How you doing? Good morning. I'm Kevin O'Connor. And welcome back to "Ask This Old House." If you got questions about your house, we'd love to -- hey, Tommy -- hear from you. Uh, can I help you?
Tom
Yeah. Where you been? You're running late. You know, I want to do a story today on building a bench.
Kevin
I'm trying to open the show.
Tom
I know, but I need you to go to the lumber yard.
Kevin
Can I finish opening the show?
Tom
All right. Make it quick.
Kevin
Keep your letters, your e-mails, your Tweets coming. I'm done. What do you need?
Tom
All right. Good. There's a list down on the table. Get to the lumber yard, and get back here right away. You want to be here till midnight? Come on. Go, Sonny. Go.
Ross
Think about the bare minimum furnishings and appliances that you need to live comfortably in the average home. You need a place to sleep, like a bed, a place to store your clothes, somewhere to prepare your food, some entertainment, and a bathroom. This plywood here represents the average home in America, about 2,500 square feet. And you can see, we have all the essentials covered. But we have space to add extra bedrooms, extra bathrooms. You can expand as you need. As long as you have the space, you could always build bigger and bigger homes. For the last 100-plus years, to find that space, people have moved further and further away from the city to suburbs like this. As we move into the 21st century, people want to move back into the city. Whether it's the young professional, whether it's the empty-nester, there is a growing trend for urban living. But how do you meet that demand when land is so scarce? One option is to cram as many people as possible into a small footprint. Enter the micro-apartment, a 300- to 400-square-foot space. But how do you cram all of this living in that small space? So, Thomas, have you ever heard of a micro-apartment?
Yes. -Ross
This is a micro-apartment scaled down on a piece of plywood. You know, the challenge I would propose is how are you gonna lay out all of this living equipment that you need in this micro-apartment?
Okay. -Ross
What's that? The TV on top of the refrigerator? Oh, I don't know about that. That's gonna be a tight, tight turn to get by that right there.
Woman
The living space should be bigger.
Ross
He's taking off. All right. All right. So you moved things around quite a bit. But I see what you did here. Looks like she's got some experience here, folks. Ooh.
Thomas
Can we do a Murphy bed? Is that cheating?
Ross
You know, let's go with it.
Man
Oh,
bathroom. -Ross
The most important part.
I like having a bathroom. -Ross
Yeah. We need that. So you're gonna sit on the toilet and have the sink right in front of you? There's not a lot of room there. You see the challenges here, right, trying to put all the furniture in the apartment and make it livable.
It's hard. -Man
It is. It is.
Ross
The challenge for the future house is how to take a small footprint and make it livable, comfortable, and sustainable. And the answer to that question may lie in robotics. Hasier?
Hasier
Hey.
Hey. -Hasier
Hi, come in.
Ross
Ross Trethewey, nice to meet you.
Hasier
Nice to meet you.
Ross
So I heard you're the guy in robotics and bringing robotics to the home.
Tell me about it. -Hasier
Yeah. So my team and I are working on how to bring robotics into walls, furniture, so that we can make spaces, you know, much more functional, much more intelligent.
Ross
All right. Well, we need that. I mean, a small apartment like this. You got, you know, a bathroom and a closet walking in. We got laundry. We got a kitchen, couch. I mean, you put a bed in here, you don't have any space.
Hasier
So this is more of a studio. This is a good example of all the big problems that small apartments have because, you think about it, you know, the bed takes a big chunk of the space. Then there's no way to divide the space. So you cannot have, really, two activities at the same time because it's only one. There's no storage, hello. So what we are doing is we are bringing a robotic wall that is gonna basically solve all those problems.
Ross
So a single robotic wall is what we're installing today.
Hasier
Exactly. A robotic wall that is gonna move to create a separate space. It's gonna hide the bed. It's gonna bring double the storage that you would have in an apartment like this. And we are gonna install that right now.
I like that. -Hasier
Let's just do it.
Let's do it. -Hasier
Okay. So this is a key component of the whole system...
Okay. -Hasier
...because what it does is basically it has this electric motor that is gonna run through this track. This is gonna grab the wall. It's gonna move it left and right.
Ross
This motor right here is gonna move it?
Exactly. -Ross
Okay.
Hasier
Exactly. And this is not very different to what you see in conventional systems like garage-door openers,
for example. -Ross
Okay.
Hasier
So this could be a retrofit. This could be a new building. In this case, it's a clear retrofit. So you can see that in this particular case, because the baseboard had a weird shape, we had to cut it. But this is just gonna go there. A few screws, and it's gonna be ready to go.
Ross
Nice. And as far as power?
Hasier
Oh, power, that's incredibly simple, you know. Conventional plug. We are just gonna go to a conventional outlet. And that's gonna be it,
the whole power for the system. -Ross
That's it? The whole system's powered on one outlet?
That's it. -Ross
Sweet. All right. Let's do it.
Hasier
So let's do it. Okay. So we just put this on the gap. And now we just go with some screws.
Okay. Good. All right. -Hasier
Just one more. So now we are gonna assemble the chassis. So you see those square holes?
Yep. -Hasier
Pretty simple. You just feed the colander.
Ross
There we go.
Hasier
So we just style these guys now. And then we connect the whole chassis to the motor.
Ross
Perfect.
Hasier
You know, once we hold that, now we have the chassis connected
to the track on the side. -Ross
Got it.
Hasier
We have an electric motor that is gonna run the whole system one way or another.
Ross
That will move it back and forth.
Hasier
Exactly. Now we have our chassis, which is the structure -- the main structure.
Ross
I see some large rubber casters. Heavy duty?
Hasier
Yes. Yes. Heavy duty. So what we need is rubber casters so that all the load can be well transferred because there's going to be quite a bit of load. So we want to treat floors very well.
Ross
Got it. Got it. And then these little brushes here in front?
Hasier
That one is basically so that, you know, maybe there's a pencil or a screw in the way, you don't want the wheels to go over that. So that's gonna basically push it out of the way.
Ross
Oh,
it's just blocking... -Hasier
Yep. Exactly.
Hasier
So now it's all about starting to build the cabinetry on top of this,
so... -Ross
Let's build our wall.
Hasier
Let's do it. So once we have this in place, now it's like building a cabinet. Let's just drop this in, in the center.
Ross
Okay.
Hasier
Right there. You see those lugs? Okay. There you go.
Ross
Just guide me in there.
Hasier
Yes. A little more. More, more, more. Yep.
Good. -Ross
Good. Okay.
Ross
Yep. I'm ready.
There you go. -Ross
Got it.
Hasier
So we just need the slats, the mattress, and that's it.
Ross
All right. Let's get it. All right.
Hasier
There we go with the mattress. There we go. It just fits nicely. So this is it. The system is completed. Right now, it's in its closed position.
Ross
Okay. And look at this. It makes it feel like a wide, open living room.
Hasier
And that's the value, you know. What if you could create a big living room instead of having your bedroom here? What if you could disappear and cover such a big space?
Ross
Got a television. Look at this. You got some storage here, I see. And look at that.
Hasier
Everything is customizable. You know, some people will want more storage. Some people will want a bigger entertainment area. Everything you can personalize depending on the user.
Ross
I like it. I like it a lot.
Hasier
What if you could create a different space? And over here, there's a control interface, which is the brain of the system.
Ross
That little keypad there?
Hasier
Exactly. And just with a finger. Just with a finger touch in a very effortless way, the whole wall is moving. So I really feel like Superman right now because I'm pushing with one finger a huge, huge system.
Ross
I mean, you're making it look easy. You're making it look real easy. That is amazing. Look, to see a whole wall that size and scale move that easily with one little finger like that, wow.
Hasier
And now we have two spaces.
Ross
I see what you're doing here. Look at that.
Hasier
And now we made one of the spaces smaller, and we just created another space on the other side.
Ross
So what have we got in here?
Hasier
A lot of things we got here. First of all, you know, a walk-in closet. Lots of storage here.
Ross
Wait, so the lights go on to show you your clothes. Wait. This is the walk-in closet. Like, in a typical house, this should be a framed area, and it would be wasted space.
Hasier
A lot of wasted space. All this utilization area would be lost.
Ross
Look at all the storage.
Hasier
Here you have a, you know, ridiculous amount of storage...
Look at that. -Hasier
...in your studio.
Ross
Wow.
Hasier
That's not all. You have storage. Now you could also have an office area, you know, home office area.
Ross
So you got power. You got -- you know, could bring your desk chair over. You got a home office.
Hasier
And you just create a home office.
Wow. -Hasier
But that's not all. Alexa. Tell Ori to move my bed out.
Alexa
Sleep well.
Ross
You got to be kidding me. Your bed is robotic, too?
Yes. -Ross
That is insane.
Hasier
Now you are creating a bedroom here. And you still have a living room on the other side.
Ross
So this bed looks a little bit low to the ground. It looks like a fold. Could you get this thing in different sizes, heights?
Hasier
Exactly. That's all customizable. It could be a full. It could be a queen. It could be a lower bed. It could be a higher bed. The reason this one is specifically is low, 'cause we like the idea of having a bench area on the other side.
Ross
Okay.
Hasier
So you see the bed kind of fits on that volume. And now we can have coseating.
Ross
So the bed is actually underneath this
when it's closed. -Hasier
Exactly. And now we can have a cozy, you know, seating area.
Ross
And a little entertainment space.
I like it. I like it. -Hasier
Exactly.
Ross
One of the questions that I do have is we're so fixated on electronics these days. What happens in a power outage?
Hasier
That's a great question. And we are not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We are looking at systems that have been in buildings for decades. Think of garage-door openers. What happens when the power goes out? You can have a mechanical, a manual disengage. So if you come all the way here, this is a manual disengage that you can just disengage. And now you can push the system manually.
Ross
So you can push it open or closed.
Hasier
Exactly. It's not as magical and as effortless. But you can go to bed if the power goes out.
Ross
Gotcha. Now, I mean, I see it in the micro-apartment, where this wall really maximizes the space, being able to open and close it. I could see it being used in a suburban home, as well, though, you know, for, you know, a walk-in closet or a guest bed, being able to open it and expand it or shut it down.
Hasier
Yeah. I mean, the vision is to make space be more. So that could be smaller spaces, bigger spaces. It could be offices. It could be hotel rooms, restaurants, hospitals. We are actually developing using the same technologies. We are developing prototypes of drop-down beds from the ceiling, drop-down tables from the ceiling, closets, walls, all this kind of, you know, army of architecture and furniture with superpowers.
Ross
I mean, it's amazing technology. It's great to be here and see this technology unfold before our eyes. You know, thank you for the tour. I appreciate it very much. And hopefully, one day, I'll get this in my house.
Hasier
Yes. We hope is that in 5, 10 years, these technologies are gonna be as common as garage doors or elevators in our buildings.
Kevin
So cool. Huh, pretty cool. But here's the million-dollar question. And I hope the answer isn't a million dollars. What does it cost?
Ross
So price is gonna vary. The robotic systems themselves are not that expensive. Less than $1,000 for the steel chassis, the robotic motor, everything like that. What you put on top of it is where the price can really change.
Kevin
The piece of furniture.
Ross
The furniture on top, right. So the big block furniture is gonna be probably a few thousand dollars on top. But your custom design system is where it can really escalate. So you got custom wood, you know, high-quality design. That could be $10,000 or even $20,000.
Kevin
Wow. All right. So a lot of money,
potentially. Ross
Potentially, yeah.
Kevin
Now, in terms of timing, I mean, he's saying this is coming in 5 or 10 years. And I don't know. I mean, that seems pretty aggressive. Do you think that's true?
Ross
I believe him. I mean, robotics is part of our everyday life. You think about the modern car today. Right? You've got a driver seat that can move with the preferences of the driver.
Right. -Ross
You've got a sliding, you know, minivan door that's all automated.
Kevin
Or the back opens automatically.
Ross
The trunk, yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, I think it's just natural that the transition from robotics from the car into the home is the next, you know, natural progression.
Kevin
Well, whenever it's coming to the house, it's still pretty cool. Nice story.
Ross
Thanks, Kevin.
Tom
Hey. What do you got here, Sonny?
Kevin
Well, you said you wanted to make a bench. So I went down to the reclaim lumber yard, and I picked these up. I figure the width was about the right size for a bench. And I really like the thickness. It's nice and beefy. And she tells me it's heart pine.
Tom
Well, you're right. It is heart pine. And heart pine comes from the center of a long-leaf yellow pine tree. And do you know that it takes 30 years for a yellow pine tree to grow 1 inch in diameter?
That's crazy. -Tom
Unfortunately, this was really overharvested in the '30s and the '40s. So now you can't even buy a new piece of it.
Kevin
Well, you can get it if you go to the reclaimed lumber yard.
Yeah. -Kevin
So I picked this up. And like all reclaimed lumber, it has a story. But in this case, its story is stenciled right on the front. Check this out. From P.S. Huckins & Company, Boston.
Tom
Hmm, wow.
Kevin
And I did a little bit of research. And it turns out that these guys used to be a lumber yard and they supplied material to the ship-building industry in the 1800s and the early 1900s. And this was taken out of a warehouse in downtown Boston.
Tom
Hmm. I love it. You know, I might have shopped there when I was a kid.
Kevin
You're not that old. Well, maybe you are. I don't know what you've got in mind, but I'd love to save this stencil.
Tom
Well, I think it's a great idea. And this piece is probably about 8 feet. Why don't we make a bench? We can use this end for a leg, that end for a leg. Take the center, use it for the bench.
And we'll flip it over. -Kevin
Nice.
And we'll always have it. -Kevin
I like it. All right. So how do you want to get started?
Tom
All right. Let's clean 'em up and see what they look like. I'm gonna use a grinder with some 50-grit paper to take off the dirt and the high grain. And why don't you follow me with some 220? Once the boards are cleaned up, we can cut some rough lengths.
Kevin
Okay, Tommy. I've got the legs. We just cut the length off here. So these are the end cuts. Although, they've been ripped to make 'em a little narrower so that we've got this little half-inch offset.
Tom
Yeah. Simple, little touch. Now, we're actually going to assemble this bench using a simple mortise and tenon joint. Let me show you. I've already cut a tenon on the end of this leg right here. And it will fit into the mortise that I've cut on this end. And it'll fit right in. It'll be nice and snug. And it's a good, strong joint.
Kevin
Well, it sure is. And it's all over the place. I mean, we've seen 'em around forever. Even our barn has got one right here with the cross bracing and the post. So that's a nice, tight joint.
Tom
It is a nice, tight joint. Now, they're pretty simple to do once we've made the template to cut 'em with. All right. What I did is I made a jig to cut our tenon. Okay? And I just took a piece of plywood. And I took my leg, and I put it on the piece of plywood. And I kept it flush with the top.
Mm-hmm. -Tom
All right. Now, I put two stops on each side, running down the side, tight to the leg, which will hold it into position. And it will hold it straight with the top. Now I have to figure the height that I want to cut the tenon. So I want the tenon to be about inch and a half deep. 'Cause I'm gonna use a router and a following bit, I've kept it up an inch and seven-eighths, a little bit higher. I put a stop in here, so now if I take and position the other leg, it'll be held in the exact position.
Kevin
Got it.
Flipping it over. -Kevin
Flipping it over?
Tom
Yeah, because I'm gonna cut it from the top.
Kevin
Mm.
Tom
This is what I'm gonna remove. As I said, I'm gonna use a straight cutting bit in my router. I've set the depth already. And I'm gonna use a templating guide.
Kevin
So it's gonna ride along the edge of this and actually set it off just a little bit, which is why this is a longer length than your tenon.
Tom
Exactly. So now that I've set my depth, which is gonna be cutting about a quarter of an inch down, when I flip it over, I'm gonna take the same amount off the other side. And what that will do is center the tenon in the leg.
Kevin
Perfect.
Tom
To finish up the tenon, I'm gonna take about a half an inch of off each side. And I'm gonna do that with a hand saw. I'm gonna just take my chisel and knock that piece out. All right. We're ready to cut our mortise for our tenon. All right, so when you're trying to figure out the dimension to cut your templating guide, it starts with this dimension right here, the size of the tenon. So now, I have to add for the outside dimension of my templating guide minus the outside dimension of my router bit.
Kevin
Right.
Tom
And you'll end up with a hole that is actually too big. So if you look at it like that... But once you add all of those offsets in, it'll fit perfect.
Kevin
Okay. So you took a piece of scrap and you added those dimensions to it?
Tom
Yep. And now we'll screw it and center it over where we want it and follow it with a router. And it's gonna slip right in here nice and snug. Oh, yeah. Now, that's gonna be pretty strong the way it is. But I want to make it even stronger laterally.
Mm-hmm. -Tom
Okay. To do that, we're gonna take a spreader right here and put it on the bottom. All right. We're gonna let it stick out about 4 inches on each side. The way we're gonna do that is we're gonna make a tenon on this end and that end and a through mortise on each leg.
Very cool. -Tom
All right. So now what I have to do is take the legs out, make the tenon and the mortise. Because the tenon is so long, I'm concerned about the router tilting. So I want to get the right depth all the way down the tenon. We'll slide the templating guide down as we go. We're gonna cut a notch in each leg, and that will increase the stability. Okay. We've sanded everything really good. We wiped it down with a tack rag. Now, before we put it together, I want to put a coat of oil on everything because we can get it in all those spots that never get oiled.
Kevin
What do you like about the oil?
Tom
Well, I like it because it soaks right in really good. So you can put another coat on, say, in another hour or two. But you can put multiple coats on over the years without a lot of prep work.
Kevin
Look at it just soak it right up.
Tom
Yeah.
Kevin
It's good.
Tom
Yes, it is. All right. Now we can start assembling. So we'll put the spreader into our legs. Okay. Now, to hold it together, to keep the legs from separating, I have a peg. It's actually tapered. So when I drive the peg in, it'll tighten up against the inside.
Kevin
Now, that's not going anywhere, is it?
Tom
It's not going anywhere. And now put the other one in.
Kevin
Huh.
Tom
To hold the top to the legs, we're gonna use some wood glue. All right. Let's get it on there. Line it up. There it is. There it is. Hit it one more time in the back. We want to check our measurement to make sure our overhang is equal. All right. So now that it's on, we can get a coat of oil on the top. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Nice. Beautiful.
No finish on the bottom. -Kevin
It's nice. That way, we get the Huckins stencil.
We get to save that. -Tom
Yep.
Kevin
And I think if Mr. Huckins saw what be came of his old long-leaf lumber, he'd be mighty pleased.
Tom
Take a piece of frame and lumber, and you turn it into a nice piece of furniture.
Kevin
Nice job, Tommy. Next time on "Ask This Old House"...
Roger
If you haven't bought a washing machine in a while, you might be surprised at the level of choices. We're gonna help a homeowner in Seattle break it down.
And... -Tom
A table saw is one of the best tools in your shop. And it can be one of the most dangerous. We'll show you some new technology to make it safe.
Chuckling
Kevin
Oh. No matter how many times I see it, it is amazing.
Tom
Not a scratch on it.
Kevin
That's awesome.
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