a nice repair

sweet little desk top in the shop for a tune up .. 

the tambour door on the right was in two pieces and of course,

would not come out of the case except if we removed the back of the cabinet.

                             like this .. lots of rusty and old different kinds of nails holding it on

the canvas backing was split on one of the five door parts

and when we removed it, there was some old newspaper too

for some reason ??

                                               hard to date it .. might be the twenties or 30s

we put a new piece of  canvas on the pieces with sandbags for weights 

because the door had a sections that was curved at the far end ..

aside from this proper family protrait we found inside,

there is an interesting thing happening with this cabinet ... 

an acquaintance called asking me to fix it a few weeks ago .. i definitely

know the person, but i didn't write anything down like the name or

number at the time since they said they would be dropping it off.  so, i went

off to golf last friday and there was this desk top sitting on a bench 

in the shop on saturday morning.

when the boys came in monday morning i asked whose it was and they said

someone's brother, with out of state plates, dropped it off and when trevor went 

to talk to him after he carried it into the shop, the gentleman was already driving away .. 

anyone recognize this?  i need some help here ..

a calro walnut island top

we installed a claro walnut slab island top on friday, 

just in time for the labor day weekend

another beautiful slab from goodhope hardwoods in kemblesville, pa.

 in the rough, with measurements

in the shop with a layout to size chalked on .. 

one live edge, one straight one

final cuts

this is our first look at the figure in the smoothed slab

and in case you are wondering what it takes to smooth one of these slabs, 

it takes about a bag and a half of shavings to get one this size smooth

we had a finish problem on this one .. aliens .. too hot? too cool?

too sunny? not sanded enough?  bad can of varnish? who knows? ...

trevor made short work of it though, and below is the slab in the sun,

ready to roll friday ..

everyone's happy!

refreshing a george nakashima table

we delivered this 1959 george nakashima table to its new home yesterday .. it is a
beautiful octagonal room with floor to ceiling cherry paneling
it was a sunny day and the photography was difficult, but you get the idea.
see the finished top in the sunshine in the last photo in this post.

 the table had been kerfed when it arrived here and we added a few more
to flatten the top which had curled over a 1/2" over its six foot width .
we also moved the short stiffeners out a couple of inches to get them closer
 to the edge of the table .. it's pretty flat now if i do say so myself.

trevor and tyler attaching the base to the top on site ...
the laurel top is EXTREMELY heavy, and there is no
way it could have been delivered with the base in place.

on arrival, we discovered that the base could be completely

disassembled.  we labeled all the intersections,cleaned the joints, 

and reglued it with hot hide glue

trevor also reinforced the half lapped joints with long screws after the glue had set

you can see the curve of the top and the color that the top
was in its unfaded color

this is what the top looked like before trevor scraped it down
based on how yellow it was, we're guessing it was nitrocellulose
 lacquer applied at some time in the past

just starting to see the natural color in the scraper shavings

sanded and ready for finish

a little alcohol as a test

oiled up with 6 coats of waterlox .. 

ready for the next 60 years

great spot!

an 80 inch round table.. opens to 128 inches

we finished up this 80" round walnut table last week and the owners are waiting

for a custom carpet to be delivered before we can ship it

it is very similar in design to the 74" round walnut table we did back in july

when disassembled for finishing, we counted over 60 separate pieces
including aprons, moldings, and stiffeners ...

lots of time consuming staining, sanding and finishing on this baby ..

cant wait to see it in its new home, probably sometime after labor day now

half lapped base pieces with a central post

and we used some different, more rigid runners from hettich

to help with the weight of the table when extended and some

similar hardware from rockler for the drop down legs ..

the base is glued up from 4 'cs' dominoed and glued to the central post

these could have been cut on the bandsaw from a pattern, but trevor has

 found he can get faster results by cutting as deep as he can on the cnc, 

then a quick, rough cut the rest of the way through on the bandsaw,

and then a clean up with a large flush cut bit in the router ..

each pair is joined by glue and double dominos,

and then they are all glued to the post on the table saw, upside down,

 with the base attached .. similar to the previous pedestal table, the short grain at

the ends of the curves are reinforced by 5/8ths wide splines

glued into kerfs cut with the dado heads ... these spines also function

as places to screw the cross of the base and the sub top to 

you can see them more clearly in this blog post ...

i'd like to see that cherry table now.  i bet the color and figure are fantastic.

more miscellaneous parts and pieces below ...

a walnut table for a banquette

sent a walnut table shuffling off to bufflao a couple weeks ago

it was designed for a corner banquette to allow easy entrance

pretty straightforward on the top and apron.  trevor cut the shape of the top and 

the apron corners and moldings on the cnc, glued up the aprons

and added the beads

and i photo documented the mitering process this time ..

we've done this base numerous times, but if trevor were out sick, it would 

take me a minute to figure out the process .. got it now ..

make a jig, make the first cut, flip it end for end, make the second cut ..

the pieces look like this after mitering .. while they don't show here,
we insert 3/4" oak dowels into the miters to catch the
long lag boltscoming up from the  cross base.
we use domino joinery when we glue up the
four mitered pieces ..

there is a 3/4" subtop that ties the four verticals together and
splines in the tops to reinforce the short grain when the subtop's attached

always nice to have a happy customer ..

more testimonials here

a walnut dining table with leaves

a little update to this blog post i originally wrote back in may ... 

the client has finished the room and recently sent me these two extremely

lovely photos of the table on site.  we have done other projects with these clients

and they are ALWAYS appreciative, and a pleasure to work with ...

beautiful room ...

 

May 14, 2017
trevor and tyler put this one all together today .. the finish came out really nicely, 

and though there is a little red spot in the photo above, it is a reflection from 

the red walls in the finish room where we take our photos..

it is a dark finish, but not as dark as it looks in the top photo.  

the color in the photo above is closer to the real thing.  

click the photos to enlarge them ...

origin of the red ( and the black) reflection here .. satin finish ....

 below is the table before we disassembled it for finishing ...

we started with an inspiration photo from another client, 

and made the two models below to check the proportions in the drawing.  we ended up 

lightening the cross bars under the base, and minimizing the 'feet'.

the low down view

bird's eye

here we go, laying out the boards for the top ...

gluing them up ...

trevor cuts the shapes for the top on the cnc. he also cuts the apron parts 

the same way and and joins them together with small dominoes, 

glue, and pocket screws top and bottom ..

sub top and runners visible in this photos,

as well as most of the other parts ...

lastly, the 'arcs' with their flat spots to glue to the central post,

and their dominoes for strength and alignment ..

testing the runners and the fit of the leaf before diassembling for
final sanding, staining and finishing.
good to go .. off to darien where it will hang out with a bed, and a kitchen
table we made for these clients in the past ... it is
always a pleasure to make multiple pieces for the same clients.