How do you plan on spending your retirement? Moving to Thailand, or taking up painting, perhaps? Izzy Swan, a retired furniture shop owner, is spending his by making impossibly complex transforming furniture.
Swan runs a site called Think Woodworks, where he posts projects like how to build a lathe and how to salvage wooden planks from those ubiquitous shipping pallets. He also builds transforming furniture that folds up and out in seconds — pieces that, considering the pieces are made out of dozens of moving wood mechanisms, are pretty great. For example, check out what he calls “the world’s fastest folding table”, which disappears into its own carrying case:
Or his latest, which is considerably more complex, which popped up today on Reddit:
Or a picnic version that includes an umbrella:
Swan actually sells the plans for some of his works online — you can buy the plans for the transforming table for $US10 on Paypal. Actually following them is on you. [Reddit]