Banjo Progress 8/28

8/28/09 Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

The strings were on briefly Thursday, just to check the fretting, and, while it was tempting to tune it up and play a little, the next step was to take the neck off and finish it before installing the fifth string tuner and the little nut that goes with it. After some internet research, Will decided that he would try French polishing the neck even though, except for a few small furniture repairs, we haven't done much of that.

The process .... and there are many descriptions of the french polishing process on the internet ... (Here's one) ... It's not brain surgery, but you definitely want to practice a little before attempting it for real, and you want to have some time AND some patience ... It takes a while to get it right

After doing the research, Will went with thinned, dewaxed shellac, olive oil as a lubricant, and rottenstone as a filler/polisher ...

8/28 The french polished neck curing for the weekend .. it is sooooo smooth ... Strings/notes/music? Tomorrow? Soon? I'm ready whenever ....

Inside view of the pot and the steel rod that holds all the parts together ...

8/26/09 ... Frets and side dots are in, neck is final shaped ... drilled for tuners and ready for the nut and the strings ....

Filing a bevel on the peg head .. I was not on hand for the installation of the frets, but I know it involved a brass hammer, a sand bag, some filing with a special fret file and some sanding/polishing

New banjo top right ... 110 year old project banjo from ebay lower left ... 12 and 3/4" pot ...really short neck ??? Peg head looks right with others by the same maker but Will has not yet found a picture of that exact model number with the short neck online

In an earlier post, we got to the point on our banjo where it was time to shape the neck and attach the fretboard. Will's got that all under control now and says he just has to final flatten the fretboard and then he can start installing the frets. After that I think, is a little finish on the neck, final fit up and bolting to the pot, tuners, strings, and music .... This week, I hope ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....

The jig for holding the neck blank for shaping. The neck is clamped to it on both ends.

The heel inlay

The peg head overlay

Locating the fingerboard placement using the nut against the peg head.

Gluing the finished, slotted fretboard to the rough shaped neck

getting close
The previous banjo post showing the steps in fitting the neck blank to the pot, turning and drilling the pot is here ....

dorsetcustomfurniture.com

In these economically challenging times it is probably a good idea to spend some time doing a little marketing work. For me that means it's time to update my website for the first time in a while. Faced with that task I reviewed my pictures of new work and realized that, in fact, 'writing my blog' has replaced 'updating my website' pretty much completely. So rather than have all these new pieces at the ends of all my product categories, I decided that it would be easier for website visitors to see our most recent work if I created an entirely new category. It's called 'New Stuff' ... All of the items in that new category have at least one corresponding blog entry. So, for folks who occasionally read my blog, it's a place to see individual items they might have missed and about which they might like to read. My website is sot of a 'picture book' ... little pictures with other captionless little pictures and a little text which give people a rather small idea of what a piece might be like. My blog, on the other hand, has photos that enlarge almost to full screen and detailed, sometimes lengthy descriptions of design background and process photos. I also plan, at some time in the near future to add another new category to my website called 'homeless ideas' which will show pages from my working sketchbooks of ideas that I have explored, but as yet have not built. I have no idea if these efforts will generate any new business but it's an interesting thing to have my new work (and Sam's metalwork) in an easily accesible and linked place. Check it out if you have a minute...Click the photos in this entry to enlarge them ...

Click here for this page ...


Click here for this page ...

And click here for this page ...

The Furnished Walnut Paneled Room

This morning, I saw the finished room that we have been working on, (and here), counting the design process, since the first of the year. It looked great. The architecture was by Liz Calabrese of Calabrese Architects and the interior design, fabrics, wall and floor coverings, colors, and some furniture was by Mary Jo Gourd of Ramsay Gourd Architects. While I kind of had a vision of it in my head as we were working, it had even a better warmth and depth as a completed project than as a visualization in my mind's eye ... The light coming in from the windows made it a little tough to photograph, but I think you can get the idea. We're going to put a folding, black speaker cloth door over the stereo equipment under the Claro walnut desk (bottom photo) and build a bar (we worked up an interesting concept to pursue this morning) for the longer wall opposite the fireplace. There are still personal touches to add, but, on the whole, I could move right in .... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

Beautiful, bright, screened in porch on the south side

A game table area

The bar will go against the longer wall

Back to the beginning ... the door will go on the now open equipment cabinet under the desk

A Claro Walnut Slab Table

This post actually starts back in February when I wrote abut some claro walnut slabs that I had on hand. So far we've completed projects with two of the slabs ... I still have one available ... The latest project is a desk/table for a niche in the walnut paneled room we completed recently. It involved some fine metal fabrication and welding by Sam, as well as a good effort from the woodshop team to polish up the slab and get it to Holman Studios for one of Steve's fine finish jobs ... Anyway ... Here it is ... Click to enlarge the pictures for better viewing .....

Close up of the model and the figure in the Claro walnut top (from Good Hope Hardwoods)


The whole deal

Fine welding by Sam ... that's 3/4 x 6" solid bar welded to 1/2" and 1")

The naked base ...
The base building process below

The flat trestle bases and a 1.5" solid round bar connector ... drilled up through the bases and bolted to the tapped solid round stock ... Bolts and unbolts for shipping ...

The jig for welding the steel parts together

First end welded

A Cool Project from the Metal Shop

Sam's uncle, Peter Moore of VermontBrickOvens.com , Pawlet, VT, builds elegant wood-fired pizza ovens. Sometimes he needs little details like this digital thermometer door cover above or a fancy damper handle that Sam made earlier in the week (The camera missed that one) . The outer door frame shown here is maybe 8' x 10" made of 1.5" angle iron, but I thought it had a cool look when it was done so here it is .... Click the photos for a better view ...

First step, cutting and welding the 1.5X1/8" angle iron frame, fitting the 1/8" door

Step 2, scan a logo and cut a tree out of thin, (14 guage?), flat stock... or maybe it was an 1/8"flat stock ... Sketch on some mountains

Find some brass hinges and rivets and practice your mountain making and all you have left to do is make your mountains and stars on the real thing, hand forge a small pull, texture the big copper rivet, figure out how to epoxy on a little rare earth magnet to hold the door shut, patina the brass hinges, and you're all set .... Nice Job Sam!

click to enlarge for details

'Story Board'

The Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers Show opens tonight at Gallery 2, Vermont Artisans Designs, in Brattleboro. (See previous post) ... The piece I made for that show has an interesting story that goes with it .. When they originally cut the Northwest Coastal forests in the late 1800s, a lot of the trees had bark so thick that they had to cut them way off the ground using springboards that they notched into the lower sections. Looks like fun. I bought a slab from Berkshire Products about 4 years ago that was cut by a harvester who was going back into the woods, cutting the stumps, and sawing them up into boards ..... The redwood pretty much lasts forever, but you can see evidence of the 100+ years of exposure on the one end of the plank. For this piece we left it. For the other piece of the plank that I used to make the coffee table shown below, I trimmed the live edge and cut most of the discolored wood off. While I was making that piece, we counted the growth rings that you can see in th eclose up (484 in the coffe table) and again when we made th console ( another 177) so the part of the stump where the plank we got came from had over 650 years of growth before it was cut.....Kind of humbling .... Anyway, the table is part of our new metal leg series. The tables all bolts together and are extremely rigid for tables with such delicate looking legs .... Click the pictures to enlarge them and enjoy your tour of a remarkable board ....

At the show

A less dramatic photo ... Lots of fine art too ..

First couple passes of the smoothing plane

The coffee table I made with Sam a couple of years ago

The new table slab juxtaposed with the coffee table top showing the width of the original slab

Close up of the growth rings

In process mockup
Save a tree ... use recycled wood

Arts and Crafts Pool Tables

I posted an attachment photo of a Greene & Green style pool table to a newsgroup forum I belong to (Green & Greene at Yahoo) and the attachment shows up for some members and not for others so I'm posting it here. It's a table by Catskill Furnituremakers from a 2004 or 2005 ad in American Bungalow Magazine (the price is from then) . Coincidentally, we'll be starting an Arts & Crafts, though not Greene & Greene, inspired pool table for a client in Virginia in a couple of weeks and Ill be documenting the building process for that once we get underway. I have also posted some of my other Arts & Crafts inspired pool tables. Other models with different design influences are shown in the 'pool and game tables' section of my website ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

The ad from American Bungalow

We built this table in 2004 and we'll be doing another version of it in a couple weeks ...

Got some walnut for it today ... Actually, I talked to my friend Myron at Irion Lumber Tuesday when I was looking for some 10-12" walnut for the legs and rails and I ended up talking myself into a whole log of walnut. There are about 10 boards in the 18-20" range which I'll use for other projects in the future and the other 10 boards (10-14" wide), (it was a big log), I'll use for the legs and other parts of the table ... Hey! how can pass that up ... I can always refinance the house...

Mahogany and maple burl ... this one had a nice hanging light with it ...

Other pool accessories in vertical grain fir, cherry and oak that went with a table similar to the one shown below. The spectator chair I notice has some vague Greene & Greene references ...

Vertical grain fir in a simple though very pleasant combination of elements .. End grain cherry details and gold abalone sight inlays.
Pool tables are great ... As long as the slate's level and the cushions work well, you can hold it all up with whatever kind of a structure you want ...