Dorset Custom Furniture - A Woodworkers Photo Journal

take an object; do something to it; do something else to it ... part 1

2012-01-26T19:45:00.000-08:00

in a recent post, i wrote about refinishing a table i built 21 years ago in a style i am still working in today, and in fact, started working on in 1986. i'll give jasper johns some credit for that as i often use his quote in the title above when talking about a 'design language'. my introduction to 'my style' was by complete accident in 1986. a client/friend who had been living in germany for a few years described this desk she wanted me to build for her based on some furniture she had been living with during those years abroad. i kind got what she was describing and made her desk, as she described it to me. click the photos to enlarge them ...
there it is, in the upper right hand corner, mahogany and black paint with brass hardware. my wife and i both liked the style and since our house at the time was more or less devoid of nice furniture, i decided i would participate in a 'show' at a local gallery and whatever didn't sell (hah !), we would bring home for the dining room. well, we know how that goes, and i have had this lovely furniture in my own home for 25 years now. this was before the internet and before my book collection had grown to include anything regarding the biedermeier style. the desk above we liked, but was too formal for us so we used native natural cherry with the black paint instead of the stained mahogany. presto ... studio style ....that's our table and chairs in the upper left corner above and our sideboard in the top left corner of the top photo. so, what am i trying to say here?. this is a post i have been trying to write for a while about, really, how did i get here? we actually did two custom 'studio style' dining rooms last year, this one, and this one so on we go with it ...
so, here we are ... take an object, or a design, or a combination of woods or colors and try to imagine how they could be different, or similar but different; change a little here; change a little there; change a lot, but keep some stuff; keep at it; keep reading and looking; keep an open mind and keep changing ... when you look back 30 some years later you'll indeed wonder 'how did i get here?' , but you'll be pleased that your designs hang together from the same thread or threads that run through all of it ...

you can add some inlays ... here we have a studio style half round with abalone inlays, which led to some bed headboards with abalone inlays, and we know where that went, which was on to one of our most involved and challenging pieces. more on the 'wood and metal style' in a future post.
wood and steel tables ... the 'bethlehem steel series'.

21 years later

2012-01-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

it's not often that you get to see a table you made 21 years ago that lives 300 miles away. just after christmas though, one of my long time clients emailed to say that their table had sustained some damage over the holidays and needed some help. coincidentally, my shipper was in the area and was able to pick it up and return it to me for refinishing. i regret not taking a photo when it arrived, but i do have one below from early in the refinishing process. the scratch was not small, but neither was it deep, so it sanded right out. this table is one of my early 'studio style' pieces and loyal readers will recognize the style from a recent post on a dining room we completed early last fall. it's a comfort to me that we are still making pieces in a style i originally started working on way back in 1986. nice to know that an idea you came up with has some legs and staying power. click the photos to enlarge them ...
this is a close up of the red abalone inlay squares in the central element of the table design. the black is milk paint from the old fashioned milk paint company and looks as good as it did (minus the dog chews) 21 years ago. it polished up like new.
i had actually forgotten about the square detail, and now that i'm reminded, will maybe do a new piece or two using the square rather than our regular angled look.

regular angled look above from the dining room post last fall ...
early in the refinishing process. the oil finish we used in the early 90's has since been replaced by more durable brush on poly finishes and this client was good about refreshing his finish a couple times a year. theat did create quite an 'oil buildup' that, while it protected the table, proved difficult to remove. the table was also in a sunny south facing room, which created a kind of 'sunburned' bleached surface which was kind of whitish until we got through it.
this picture shows my first wiping with mineral spirits ... more work to do ...
and here it is after the first coat of finish ... i'll be interested to hear what the clients have to say about it after it is returned to pennsylvania on thursday ... it's a cool thing to visit with an old friend ...

a round expanding walnut dining table

2012-01-22T10:47:00.000-08:00

all done ... 1/23/12 .. off to new york city in the morning ... great project with local designer amy thebault ... a little hard to photograph, but you get the idea ... nice walnut; crotch figure inlay in the center of the top, continuing on to the leaves ... pretty wild, and we love it ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
with the 2-22" leaves ... 64 x 108 when fully extended ...
with the leaves in ..
center inlay ... photos below are 'in process' ... all for now ...

i see i have been a little lazy here with my writing at the start of the new year ... all those holidays i guess and getting organized again now that they are over ... had some people out sick ... on and on, you know ... anyway, we did start an interesting table this week. it's american black walnut; it's round; 64" in diameter, with two 22" leaves and some fancy crotch walnut inlay in the center. it looks like it's going to be a nice one. click the photos to enlarge them ...
the general idea came from one of my designer clients, amy thebault, of thebault design, inc. down the road a piece in manchester depot. we added or touches and changed a few things and now it's starting to take shape. we started, as usual, with some irion lumber walnut. nice big wide boards makes our life easy. after we glued up the halves, trevor cut them to shape and routed for the inlays. i have some video footage somewhere of that and i'll try to get it up here soon.
he also cut the slightly darker peruvian walnut borders and set them in before fitting up the shop made veneer inlays.
again with the nails for the first step. if you've been reading for a while, you've seen all this before ...
below though is the after cuts from trevors cutting of the main blanks that we then resawed into the .1" thick veneers.
he thought he had it all planned out so that all the triangles would be the same or half of that same triangle but ...
he didn't ... design aliens invaded his programming and caused a malfunction. luckily he discovered it before he cut all of the leaf inlays and there was no harm done, except to his pride.
we glued them all into the table pieces in the veneer bag, and then, for a special treat we took them a mile down the road to our neighbor steve holman's shop and ran them through his brandy newly refurbished sandingmaster 37" wide, wide belt sander ... a wonderful experience ...
that saved some planing and scraping time ... it's nice to have a new machine on the block.
here it is, on the base with the runners, but without the aprons, which are finished but for some reason, didn't make the photo ..
interesting design, but not a lot of structure for when the leaves are in so we're planning to add either some 'aprons' which will run from 'leg' to 'leg' and stiffen the structure somewhat, or add some drop down legs for when the table is fully expended.
we'll know more what we have to do once the base is final sanded and glued up and everything is firmly attached. 108" is a big table on a +/- 40" x 40" base ... stay tuned ... more later this week ...

the year in pictures ... 2011

2012-01-15T06:12:00.000-08:00

at my age, 64.5 years, i think that most people would agree, time accelerates (is it already the 15th of january?), memory becomes less able, and when we think back, we sometimes wonder, 'where did last year go'? so, for the last 3 years i have collected relevant (to me) photos in folders on my computer appropriately called '2011', or '2010' or 'recent work 2009'. this morning i uploaded the 2011 folder to my picasa account and it is now online and i can access my photos from anywhere with an internet connection. looking through it, i might have included too many pictures but it makes me realize that the year was actually full of life, full of work, and full of important moments. if you are a new reader, there are dates attached to some of the groups of photos showing the relevant blog post, which, if you are interested, you can access through the archives of my blog.

if you are interested in how to create online slide shows for your ownself and don't have an easily accessible young person, i wrote a blog post back in december of 2010 with instructions for downloading picasa and uploading your pictures ...

it's a beautiful sunny winter day and i am outta here ... on to 2012 ...

stuff in the works

2012-01-12T18:22:00.001-08:00

well, 2012 is certainly off to an interesting start ... we finished a stool this week for a client/friend who recently finished this needlepoint project after working on it off an on for a really long time (she claims 15 years, off and on). so, she is really excited to cross it off her 'to do' list after all this time and will be picking it up next week. click the photos to enlarge them ...
next up, next week we'll be transforming this 8 foot claro slab into a dining table that will then be shipped to england .. imagine that .. it's not my first international shipment, but they don't come along everyday .. we'll crate it up, get it to an agent in boston, and off it will go, i presume, by boat. the house will be finished in april so it should get there in plenty of time.
the leg structure is a new design and we're anxious to see it all come together. it's 1.5" thick steel and it will be blackened like others we have built in the past ... there's a model of the completed table around somewhere ..
and after that one, we have a show coming up in february at the southern vermont art center (why put things off til the last minute?) and we're starting to work on our pieces for that effort. i haven't done a show for a while and it's always a good exercise. the slab above is going to be probably a dining table or maybe a coffee table. i'm working on the room layout below. the flat art on the wall will be by marta johansen, and old friend, and we're trying to make things that will complement and not interfere with her work. it's not a huge room, but it looks like we'll have room for a couple of mirrors in the corners, a bureau, a bench and low console, and the claro slab above in one form or another... we'll have to see how we do ...
the bureau is nearly complete ... all the cherry for it came from the same log and it has nice figure.
four drawers and steel legs, like half the bureau we made as part of our bethlehem steel series below.
and, i'm working on a tapered corner mirror belwo that will mount on a wall in the end, but for the show it will have to have a freestanding base.
again, some nicely figured irion cherry...
it will be kind of like this one, only with natural cherry and some steel details.
my other mirror piece, which i have so far only mocked up, will have a fish eye type convex (security) mirror which will (hopefully) reflect all the drawings and furniture in the room in one peek. the base and rod support will need a little more thought and a little more heft, maybe employing some polished firewood ...
i turned and painted this on the lathe from mdf as a prototype. and will added a little gold leaf yesterday morning to set off the mirror from the dark background .. gold leafed mdf ... ha ha ha ! told you you can do a lot with mdf ...
and will's side business, seeders instruments, has banjo #8 in the works .. picolo style; cherry and walnut ...
he also got a repair/restore job from one of his clients. it's about a hundred years old and needs 'some work' ... seeders instruments to the rescue ... more on this stuff as it progresses ...
and sam's stretching a bit to create this half oval balcony. bending flat stock in a horizontal plane requires a great deal of patience, adjusting and care.
he made the oval frame where you stand and the bottom and top of the ailing using the same jig.
bending rectangular flat stock in a horizontal plane requires a series of saw cuts and a bunch of grinding. plus the stock has a mind of its own as it is welded and if you're not careful your piece gets longer as you go ... fun ...
then there's the challenge of keeping things square as you fit and weld and the fine challenge of bending thick stock to fit around thinner stock ... home stretch now ... i saw it had primer on it yesterday ...
also, we've got a couple built in bench projects in the works. one is straight and straightforward, and was primed yesterday, while the curved one is more complex and still in the estimating/approval, finish details stage.
cardboard and 1/4" mdf; micro pins and hot glue ...
a little resawn foam for cushions ...
for the straight bench, the designer added the back after he completed the drawings so it was left to us to decide on the angle ... our mockup was a little too vertical ( in the end we ended up with about a 1/2" seat pitch, front to back, and a 15 degree slope off of that. it seemed to look good with the mahogany side tables trevor was working on the tables below have a 'hidden drawer'
and we're working on a new postcard/handout design .. getting close to ordering them. i'm about out of my old '30 year anniversary' ones from two years ago.
i'll be teaching a short workshop course on digital design and fabrication at green mountain college in poultney this spring. lucas brown, the head of the furniture program there has designed a 'one sheet' desk and stool. after a couple of prototypes and subtle programming adjustments, trevor is nearly finished with his 'classroom' run of 22 tables ( +/- 288 total pieces) .. they are pretty cool, slip together, and require no fasteners to assemble. the concept is similar to others we've done for vew-do balance boards and wagatha's dog biscuits.
and lastly, i passed this slab of claro walnut on the stairs on the way out the door yesterday ... i have to make a quick poplar mockup, cut it down a little, add some butterflies, finish the wood and steel, and send it off to greenwich village ...
whew, how do i keep track of all this? you might legitimately ask ... well, i don't sometimes. it's a constant juggle and shuffle and as time goes by, i rely more and more on my guys to figure it out, help each other, and work as a team to keep ALL of us on track ... i'm lucky to have 'em ...

have a good weekend ... guild of vermont furniture makers meeting at my shop today.

a walnut table with carved legs

2012-01-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

1/10/2012 ... all in , all done ... leaving for arizona thursday morning ... we're all happy with the final and will is proud of his carvings ...
12/27/2011 ... we're on the home stretch on a new walnut dining table. this client came to me from reading this blog, so we knew how to work together immediately. and, the process was, as expected, a pleasure.
the concept for this table is based on two previous tables, the original, a more formal mahogany project with wildlife carvings (ducks, a turkey, a woodcock and a grouse) on the leg corners,
and the maple leaf table, a project that appeared in this blog in june of last year.
this table also, is a variant of our own dining table, a studio style dining table that first appeared in my design repetoire back in 1987, and still is a popular part of our 'style'. we have made many, many variations on the theme. you can see some by browsing that link to the 'small tables' section of our website. i'm working up to a post on the 'life' of various designs concepts and how they can run as threads through a designer's work and continue to generate new ideas. maybe soon ...

on to this table ... this client has a background in the california fruit orchard culture and while we kicked around a few other ideas, the fruit themed carvings were the final winner. after a couple of quick test carvings where we even considered paint and color, we gravitated to a natural finish for the whole table with some glazing in the carvings to make them stand out a bit and give them depth ... we'll be wrapping it up this week and hopefully sending it off to arizona shortly after the first of the first of the year.
here will is scraping the two board 42" wide, bookmatched walnut top. these are boards from the same log as the 'bethlehem steel' table, only without the defects.
beautiful natural grain, here with two base coats of gloss poly.
early stage in the joinery where the tenons are cut and fitted before the angles, shadows and borders are finished.... easier that way.
the original, client supplied avacado sketch, and will's sample carving of it.
the final with our inspiration photo below.
and below is the orange with a blossom and our brief experiment with color ...

might have been nice, but i prefer the understated elegance of all one color with hints of glaze.
last fit check before the carving.
and here's how we glue up those legs with the rounded, carved corners.

the 'vermont' banjo

2011-12-30T18:19:00.001-08:00

#007 out the door today, and what a beauty! a local client commissioned this 'vermont' themed banjo from will at seeders instruments a while back ... all vermont woods and inlays; local cherry from bob crosby at battenkill tone woods in arlington, vermont, walnut from my dcf stock, cut in rupert, hop hornbeam for the fretboard from a friend who was cutting some firewood and liked the look of the log and dropped it at our shop for will to dry and use ... it's all good ... click the pictures to enlarge them ...
the seeders instruments nameplate ...
the whole deal
side view
will set up a new photography thing by hanging the banjo from the ceiling on monofilament fishing line in front of some pool table felt we had on hand. we're wrestling with a new camera so some of the photos seem a little dark, but the details are crispy when you blow them up ...
back view with another map on the heel ..
peg head with a little knot figure in the walnut
nice tuners from stew mac ..
and the 'boat heel' detail on the neck ... very cool ... i had never seen that shaped detail before.
and there is a short video, both claw hammer and picking style on will's website and there are a few 'in process' photos below ...
other banjo posts here ... and will's banjo 'plays nice' with some of our other vermont stuff ... might be time for me to do something vermonty ... hmmm .
the boys are proud to be vermonters .. sam has sold about 150 of his 'vermont belt buckles' now ... great wedding and birthday presents.
and trevor made this coffee table for himself a few years back

merry christmas

2011-12-24T18:42:00.001-08:00

happy first day of winter ..
merry christmas .. happy holidays .. happy new year .. whatever .. have a good one .. dan

a custom cherry trestle table

2011-12-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

12/30/11 .. okay ... update here ... all in all done ... leaving for d.c. tuesday morning ... we're all liking this new trestle design .. the weight, the proportions, the floating arc element, the rigidity
low angle view
end view
12/18/2011 ... home stretch on another 10' table. we'll start the finishing tomorrow ...
the concept was loosely based (with a few modifications) on a table we made in the early 90s. the clients nixed the lower crossbar and the verticals in the model below, and sam came up with the idea of suspending the curved stretcher between the verticals with the metal pins. it called for some fussy and careful measuring and drilling, but the concept turned out to be really valid .. we all like the new design and the blackened, tight fitting steel pins give the structure total rigidity with a relatively light and graceful somewhat asian feel. click the photos to enlarge them ...
above the new and the old model that i first wrote about back in august ...
everything but the breadboards, which lorne completed today
view down the end before shaping the vertical ... the cold rolled 3/4" pins are blackened now ..
the top is 42" wide and 1.75" thick, made from some of irion lumber's finest 8/4 cherry.
glue up
rough joinery
1/4" mdf patterns ...
and here with a temporary spacer in the middle for fitting up the curved stretcher ... the real connecting piece was 'mason mitered' into the stiffeners at the tops of the vertical elements.
we decided to skip the middle stiffener and little outriggers at the ends. the middle stiffeners seemed 'extra' and the outriggers seemed to serve no purpose ... final photos next week sometime ... happy holidays ...

another custom cherry dining room

2011-12-16T04:05:00.000-08:00

we shipped out another cherry dining room wednesday ... and got a nice email below from the clients after it arrived yesterday, and that always makes us feel good ...
click the photos to enlarge them ...
the project consisted of a 52 x 86 pedestal dining table with one 22" leaf, 8 of our contemporary transitional chairs, and a 7' tall corner cupboard. the full plan view is shown below ...
as usual, we got our wood from irion lumber and, though it was close, we were able to fit the whole table top on 4 boards from the same log.
we start the base construction with 3 layers of 3/4" plywood for strength and stability and veneer that with either shop made or store bought +/- 1/16th" veneer. in this case, since we were tight for lumber, we used 1/16th" cherry veneer from certainly wood . it was beautiful stuff.
the main base support is a 'truncated pyramid', or 'hopper' geometric construction that require slight adjustments to the miter angles. steel runners are from our friends at moin hardware.
bottom view showing the angled aprons and center stiffener. the clients requested 'room to cross their legs' without interference from the table aprons. this was actually a new design for us, but it gave the table top a nice light 'floaty' look.
after the halves were glued up and cut to shape, trevor routed the pockets for the inlays and we installed them in our usual fashion, using bent temporary brads to apply some side pressure to the inlay borders as the glue set.
he also made a set of patterns for the shop made burl veneer which he then cut on the cnc as thick blocks, which we later resawed into the matching patterns you can see in the photos below. the burl was from berkshire products in sheffield, mass.
cutting veneers from solid burl is always a challenge in that the burls themselves are full of bark inclusions, small voids and generally pretty rough grain ... we like to leave a little of that texture which imparts a distinctive 'not from the furniture store' feeling.
the final inlaid surfaces are handplaned level and scraped and sanded and the resulting subtle texture felt when you run your fingers across the grain is also one of our signature elements.
nice pattern in the single 22" leaf. the design trevor created allowed him to use the same block for the triangles in the table halves and the leaf ... pretty clever.
next, the chairs ... 8 of em ... how many pieces total? interesting thought, let's see ... 18 pieces per chair (the splats are veneered on quartered cherry) x 8 ... sounds like 144, plus the seat blanks.
we've changed from the original corner block design on the left (a total pain in the neck to fit and install) to a routed solid seat base glued up integral to the whole chair, which makes me feel confident on 'my lifetime' chair guarantee. if you're not sure what i mean by 'routed solid seat base', you can see a stack of the seats in this photo from a previous post.
tah dah ... nice fabric choice ...
the corner cupboard ... natural cherry with beaded, handplaned pine backboards, a single pane door ... pretty traditional construction design with a nice contemporary flair
in process ...
the backboards ... numbered and removed for finishing.
all for now ... get that shopping done ....

a walnut trestle table

2011-12-10T03:47:00.000-08:00

jim and i took a road trip to stowe, vt, yesterday to deliver the walnut trestle table we've been working on . we also dropped off the 'x' table while we were there. whatta place! ..right at the base of the mountain with a shuttle chair to the main base of the mountain literally right outside the sliding glass door. the dining table went in the great room, which was pretty great. the 10' table seemed a little lost for now without the rest of the furniture, but once the house is complete, i'm sure it will be right at home ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
they were installing the pavers in the driveway, which at first we thought would be a problem but they let us back right in over their completed work and we went in through the garage door.
it was too heavy to carry in one piece, so we assembled it on site.
there are 9" flip up leaves on each end which add 2 more people to the mix. the supports we designed for them worked pretty well. sam milled up some metal supports on his new milling machine and the way they work is they have a notch on the face side. you push the support in until it hits wht stiffeners, fold up the leaf, then pull out the support so the notch supports the leaf. total view of the underside below.
sam made the twisted metal bracing which added a really nice handmade dimension to the design.
in place, more or less. i think it will actually be turned 90 degrees when the room is finally finished.
the 'x' table downstairs ...
and the process is below ...
rough lumber from irion lumber
glued up
routed on the ends for the leaves with sam's steel bracing in place.
early stage of the leaf installation and figuring out.
routing for the breadboard ends ... the taped together file folders on the table top raise the breadboard ever so slightly without changing the router setting ...
the breadboard is clamped to the bench to rout, and the clamps are leapfrogged until the groove is complete ... we then fill the slot with short, long grain loose tenons and the breadboard is secured with square peg covering long screws in ovalized holes ...
and we had a nice, tbough gray, ride home down the champlain valley with the adirondacks in the distance ...

banjo #6 ... a remake

2011-12-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

will shipped his latest banjo project yesterday afternoon. it was a 're-necking' of an antique instrument made by W.A.Cole, of boston mass. the client had the original nickled brass pot, head, and tension hardware, but the original 8 string banjo mandolin neck was missing. click the photos to enlarge them...
the client is a banjo collector and w a cole was mostly known for his banjos so she wanted a five string, short neck to go with the diminutive 8.75" pot. will was able to find pictures of w a cole's original inlays online and was able to replicate some of them in the new neck ...
here's a close up of the original maker's mark on the dowel stick which is now back home in the original pot, which, as you can see below, polished up nicely.
it has a surprisingly loud and robust sound and i'm sure at some point soon there will be a video online on will's website, seeders instruments, so you can hear it ... great sound ! 12/18/2011 ... the video is up now ... here's a link to it.
this photo shows the 8 string end from its original banjo mandolin configuration which will was able to adapt to the new five string mode.
he had to fabricate a missing, tricky, dovetailed brass piece that tightens the neck to the pot. he had it chromed to match the original by a local electroplating service, vermont plating, in rutland.
in the new case, and ready to ship ... should arrive at its destination tomorrow ...

cute little thing

2011-12-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

yesterday i fixed a really cute mini bureau for a friend and client ... she's had it for a while and has always wondered if it was a sample or a kid's piece ... who knows ... whatever it is, (i suspect it could possibly be a journeyman project) (scroll down) it's a cool and friendly object ...
closed.. 18.5 high x 21.5 long x 11" deep ... 10 drawers on the top behind the fall flap and 3 regulars in the lower case.
aside from refinishing the top and fall flap, and replacing the bras around the keyhole, the lock was the most troublesome thing .. it was in one of the drawers and had been for 'quite a while' ... mainly, because there was no wood left to attach it to ...
first i routed the recess level, then added some 'prefitted' new mahogany support pieces glued to the freshly routed surfaces ...
after and overnight dry, i remounted the lock to the new blocks with really small (1/2 x 3) brass screws ... can't wait to get my good camera back from the repair place ...
all in, all done ... good to go ... all the scalloped pieces on the top row have drawers attached

a little custom cnc work

2011-12-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

we did a little custom cnc work for our friend bill laberge recently. he designed a table with a 2.75" thick edge, cut on a 60 degree angle ... we had a bit that would work, but it was too small to do the work efficiently, so for a moment, we considered alternate methods ... bandsaw it with circle jig? different angle like 45 degrees? in the end, trevor found a larger 60 degree bit and the cuts were faster, very smooth and exact. bill glued up the apron blanks with the grain running parallel to the table top to minimize the effects of seasonal movement. the table has four 22" leaves. (wow...big one), trevor cut and beveled the leaves to length and bill cut the leaf apron edges on his tablesaw ... i'll try to wrangle a finished photo when it's finished ... i saw it mostly assembled last week and it looked pretty cool. cilck the photos to enlarge them ...
stepping cuts had to be made ahead of time to allow room for the collett that holds the bit
in the middle is the top mated with the apron piece .. very smooth and precise ...

mysteries revealed

2011-11-27T07:20:00.000-08:00

a friend/client stopped by to look at the walnut coffee table he had commissioned (in the post below), and we were looking at the 'x' table. i didn't see the model at first, and so i showed him the blog post and realized that the joinery was still not clear from the photos ... after he left, i found the model, (right next to the table base, behind some cardboard), set it up, and took some more helpful pictures ... it should all be clear now ... in the end, you are gluing up two identical (except for the angles) 'ts', both with lag bolt reinforced joinery and large (2.75" x 2.75") long grain glue surfaces ... totally rigid. click the photos to enlarge them.
two 'ts' are assembled individually ...
the tennons are glued and on the real base we used countersunk 4" timberlock screws to connect and reinforce the joinery for the 'half' pieces. you can see at the top how the two ts intersect when they are assembled to create the full 'x'.
glue up and level check ... perfect !! gold star for lorne ...
and here is the jig lorne used to cut the exact angles on the chop saw (55 degrees). the timberstrand was screwed to the wood fence to orient the 3" stock on the proper vertical for cutting the 55 degree angle where the oak meets the glass and the floor....
and, i noticed will had been by the shop yesterday to take the rubberbands off his fretboard glue up and install some frets in it.
and, this morning, i got an email from another client who will be stopping by shortly to check out this expanding table which we'll be delivering to them shortly ...

odds and ends

2011-11-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

ok ... thanksgiving weekend's almost over ... back to work tomorrow. and i'm sorting it all out (hopefully) today. from the looks of it, i've got a lot of balls in the air, but some of them are either out the door or are in their final throes of being figured out. in the background, not pictured in this post is another custom dining room that will later get its own post. in the meantime, here's what we'll be working on monday ... click the photos to enlarge them.

above, a 'practice' carving that will did recently for the corner of an upcoming dining table project. he'll be doing more of those samples this week as he finishes up the corner cupboard you can see below.

lorne and i have been wrestling with this, what we are calling the 'x table'. the concept came from one of our designer clients, and seemed pretty easy until i tried it .. i kind of had it, but lorne took the ball and ran with it and got it all figured out in the end. he got the angles figured out so they came off the saw perfect and precise and came up with the idea of assembling the two halves, one solid piece and one leg, and then gluing the half laps together last.

here you see the 1/4 scale, half scale and full size mdf mockup .. it was alm ost impossible to find the 12/4 white oak for the real thing, and we didn't have much extra so we were extra careful.

this is one of the halves. with the final concept we were able to reinforce the third leg tenonss with 4" timberlocks and glue, making the entire structure very rigid when it was glued up.

with the 3/4" glass with the 1" bevel. there will be a white pickled finish on the white oak.

and i stopped to see steve holman and he's coming along on the fancy reception desk that trevor helped him with ... that's going to be something ...

a walnut and steel coffee table is headed for the big city this week.

and will is finishing up another banjo project. this is an antique, complete pot and dowel stick, but the original mandolin style neck (banjolin) was missing. there were pictures available online so he could copy the original inlay style and once he adds the tuners, it will be headed for england i think.

the inlays with the original mandolin style, 8 string tailpiece in the jar.

and next up, a 'vermont' banjo. all vermont wood including a dramatic hornbeam fretboard that is covered by the rubber bands here ...
this table will be leaving next week with the x table ... distressed walnut with flip up leaves on the ends and twisted steel supports by sam ... the schedule's tight, but doable with a little luck and extra effort.

and in the background, we've got another custom dining room happening. a table, 8 chairs and a corner cupboard ... more on that project later in a separate post.

and we got the crazy little bobbin leg tables out the door last week. i missed that estimate by about 120% ... win some, lose some. can't say i wasn't warned ..
and lastly, below, i'm working with my chestnut cabinet client on a console table concept.
they like the 'bridges' bench and we're trying to see if it will adapt to console table shape.
looks promising to me. we'll see ... it looks like the last sunny and 50 degree day of this beautiful unusually warm vermont fall. wash the convertible and put it at the neighbor's for the winter .. take the pump out of the pond ... winter's coming ...

things to be thankful for

2011-11-24T11:20:00.000-08:00

so, another thanksgiving ... the 41st for kit and i, and we have a lot to be thankful for ..

1. each other ... 40 years ... how could they go by so fast ??
2. our two kids and their girlfriends ..
2.5 our respective families of aunts, uncles and cousins ...
3. the fact that both our boys work here everyday and we get to have lunch with them, and then they go home to their own places ..
3.5. our 3 non family employees whose skill, happy attitudes and dedication we hugely appreciate.
4. a nice place to live and work, in a fantastic small town, with no traffic lights, in vermont
5. our furniture and metal clients and kit's jewelry and gardening clients who make this all possible
6. the friends we have been hanging out with since the 1970s, and the new ones who have come to town since.
7. an incredible community of supportive and sharing artists around us

like someone who gets an oscar, i could go on and on but i feel like i should just stop with the highlights ... happy thanksgiving to you and yours ... dan
the traditional 'share the burner' turkey day woodburning event ..
dinner ... just the six of us
the pre thanksgiving event at kit's father's house last saturday ... about 20 aunts, uncles and cousins ..
mini concert for grandpa

a claro walnut slab desk

2011-11-17T05:23:00.000-08:00

we shipped another in our series of 'shaker' leg claro walnut slab desk and tables this week and it is now on its way to wisconsin. it's similar in design to the last claro slab table we made and is, in fact, a slab from the same log ... this slab was closer to the heart of the tree though, and the figure was a bit darker and richer. lots of little curls ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
the process for this project was typical, and it started with the selection of the slab ... this can happen on the internet through one of my suppliers, like good hope hardwoods. we then planned the trim cuts and did a plan view drawing, placing it in the room to check clearances and proportions above.
we decided to straighten the angled edge somewhat to get rid of most of the spidery crack which required me to fire up my trusty chain saw. that always takes me back to me logging days in the early 70's..
we trimmed the ends just a bit too to get rid of some drying cracks
next the base pieces were bolted together and routed into the bottom of the slab for additional stability. once these bases are bolted on, the structure is completely rigid and there is no wiggle or shake whatsoever. in this case, the client chose a blackened rather than our original satin polished base. i kind of like the new blackened look myself ..
we then had to design the drawer structure to provide knee room and acceptable storage at the same time ... we came up with drawers that were about an inch and a half deep inside, which seemed to provide ample room for knees.
we ended up with some (3) 'secret' compartments in the structure which are always fun to design and execute .... there is even a hidden tool that sam made for opening the main compartment ...
here's a final look of the bottom of the desk. in the end, we notched the sides of the drawer box so that the base could be removed without disturbing the drawer box itself ... the desk's final destination is a second floor home office and, completely assembled it probably weighs close to 400 pounds ... two people can pick it up, but flipping it on it's side and carrying it up a flight of curving steps would be a challenge for all but the most rugged of us. the movers were extremely happy to have us disassemble it for them ... reassembly is 8 lag bolts and 4 #14 screws. 5 minutes, tops ...
we added a few dividers to the drawers and went with chestnut pencil trays in each drawer ... good to go ... blanket wrapped shipping by plycon was professional and reasonable considering that wisconsin is not around the corner from here ... happy thanksgiving if i don't get a chance to write again !!

a walnut bar cabinet

2011-11-16T18:57:00.000-08:00

we're shipping out a little walnut, curly maple and ebony bar cabinet tomorrow. it went through a lot of iterations to get to the final layout ... (my client likes the design process) and it was loosely based on the proportions of the ebony cabinet we built a few years back. needless to say, it is for sure a simplified version, though almost as effective. same nice proportions and nice detail. click the photos to enlarge them ....

i know i have quite a few early sketches somewhere and i'll add them when i find them.
but, basically, it's a box. the sides are walnut ply set back from solid wood edges and legs. the joinery is done with our domino machine and the cabinet went together fairly quickly. the rails are mortise and tenoned into the legs and the ply panels were added after ...
the top is a nice piece of walnut about 14" wide that had a nice 'eye' in it ...
here will is adding the edge inlay, made from big leaf maple burl and ebony ...
all done ...
the core of the door is to the left before it was veneered with shop made .1" veneer. the stack to the right is culy maple for the door panels ...
which were added after the veneer was applied and the ebony borders were installed ..
the doors are on self closing european hinges and the client selected the hardware from a supplier in her new jersey area ,,, looks great ... some of the other projects we have worked on with her are below ... seems like it's been about 10 years now and she was one of the first to commission one of our single pedestal dining tables, a style that has become one of our standards ... in fact, we are working on one in the shop right now ... more on that as it happens ..
this one had some matching transitional chairs with it ...
and this one was a complex little case project ....

andy rooney

2011-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

i sometimes comment here on folks who have 'left the building' and was sad to hear of andy rooney's recent passing. i have always enjoyed his way of complaining ferociously without a hint of whining. a rare talent that i would enjoy, at times, having a little more of. i knew somehow that he was a woodworker and happened across this article he wrote about tools .... it's worth a read, regardless of how you feel about tools. it's more about andy ... check it out here. you might have to be a fine woodworking member. i'm not sure ...

hold on to my hat ....

2011-11-06T04:20:00.000-08:00

well, ok, out of control here. not really, but looking at the pictures below, you might think we were ... there is just so much stuff going on, all at the same time, all different styles and directions, but all cool. above and below are two new belt buckles from sam in the metal shop. the top one was for one of our guides on our montana trip ('fish in montana'), and the one below was for a local bass tournament that ended recently ... the rest of the stuff below is just a short summary of last week and the rest of the month coming up... click the photos to enlarge them.
and in the woodshop ... we finished and delivered the dining room this past week; it all looks good and everyone's happy, including me ... it's always nice to wrap up a big one ...
it was hard to get it all in the picture, but the light in their room is fantastic in the late afternoon ...
arm chairs .... very sculptural process getting those arms on there ..and the clients threw an eastlake armchair restoration at us at the last minute ... we were all surprised how much we liked it when it was finished ... it had been in the client's basement since they moved in and it was pretty questionable looking when we picked it up.
and, a friend's mom died ... she was a client of mine too and so we made the box for her ashes, which i always consider an honor. we have made a bunch of these and i went back and read one of my blog posts about the process ... glad to do it ... the service was last saturday ...
and here we have a claro walnut slab desk that's happening now too ... here it is, as of friday afternoon, with the drawer framing just starting ...
here it is on its feet today. will was doing some banjo work this afternoon and we decided to put the first coat of finish on the top ... more on that piece as we progress ...
and we're watching our friend steve holman make progress on a challenging piece that trevor did some fancy cnc work on. essentially, trevor's job was to take the concept of the small handmade model above and convert it to full size. without trevor, it would have been a daunting task of freehand, large scale drawing. changes and adjustments would have been painful ...
trevor first converted the plan view that steve gave him at 1" = 1', to digital form, and then made the 1/4 scale model you see in mdf above. from there he made many small and subtle adjustments before making plan view templates of the shapes to test the full size fit ups. he then cut the curved plates and forms for steve to build the walls and laminate the applied curved and veneers walls on .
note the allowances for varying wall thicknesses, handicap, wheel chair access, etc.,etc ..
full size plates and shoes here
and friday, we saw some of the full size walls ... it's going to be a cool object ...
and then there are the troublesome bobbin leg tables for an interior designer in northern vermont ... looked easy on paper, yet will warned me it wouldn't be, and, he was very right ... we finally figured we had to make four forms to glue up the 3 piece mid rails or else we would have too many pieces to deal with at once ...
got it now ... we're going to reduce the space between the top two rails to get the joinery and proportions to be better and then all we have to do is make another one, just like it to match ... seems like they are taking forever ... win some/lose some ...
and then there's the bar cabinet that will is building ... it's loosely a simpler version of the art deco macassar ebony cabinet he built a few years ago. he's on the home stretch now ...
the doors, with their curly maple center inlays, went into the bag friday afternoon .. saw them this morning and they looked good.
and then there's that $5000. load of wood that arrived from irion lumber last week. 4 dining tables, a coffee table, a corner cupboard and 8 chairs, and some other odds and ends, coming right up ...

the table and corner cupboard cad drawings ... the client chose the slightly larger version on the left after we sent her a cardboard full size plan view ...
and there's the cherry trestle table from this post ... coming up soon
and this morning, in our driveway, was sam's new/old 700 pound clausing milling machine that he picked up yesterday from plaza machinery in bristol, vermont ... all we had to do was figure out how to get it out of the truck, into the shop and then off the dolly ... in the end, all it takes is the proper equipment
and a competent support/cheerleading staff, including uncle pete and his tractor, jennifer and kit.
getting it off the 6" high dolly and onto the floor was a trick involving about 8 layers of mdf blocks on each corner, removed one at a time ... it felt like we were building the pyramids, in reverse ... lever up, remove, lever down ... got it ...
and there was still time to help kit plant the garlic ... indian summer here this week ... beautiful.

four years of blogging

2011-11-02T03:52:00.001-07:00

well, what to make of four years of sporadic writing? i'm not famous, i'm not richer, except in the experience of writing, at which i have gotten vastly more comfortable as a process, and i still don't really understand exactly why i do it. part of it is for my boys, sam and will, who if they want to continue this business will have a visual and verbal record of our processes: the processes of design, visualization, method discovery and a written record of how we built stuff to go with it. i also enjoy the comments and interactions with my readers, and the surprising amount of new work that we get that is a direct result of our blog and website. for the first time this year, slightly more than half of our new work came from the internet rather than from our existing client base. i think it's the stories and the visual depiction of the pieces, from drawing to completion, that validate what we do. click the stuff below to see the statistics ...
and, people read the thing ... people i don't know ... (395,000 page views? hard to imagine)
from places i'll never visit ... ( 168 countries? who knew? ) spreading the word ... make something .... wood, metal, pottery, art, jewelry ... the process is the same and the rewards are the same. a psychological bonus we don't often get from paying bills, shuffling papers or raking the yard. it's been great ! thanks for reading; feel free to comment or question ... 500+ posts down (wow, if i do say so myself) more to come ... enjoy ... for other anniversary posts, visit this one from last year with links to the others ... check it out ..

a custom 'studio style' dining room

2011-10-31T03:55:00.000-07:00

update 10/31 ... we're on the home stretch on this project now. we'll be delivering the sideboard and table today and the 8 chairs later in the week. coincidentally, we have another dining room coming up next. an oval table (52 x 86), 8 chairs and a corner cupboard ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
the 8 chairs before the arms and the finishing ..
here we have our 'arm adding process'. essentially, we use the mdf too keep the arm blanks parallel to the seat rails until we can do the joinery and the final shaping
the completed armchairs ...

10/16 ... on our website you can see a type of furniture we refer to as our 'studio style', which could also be thought of as a 'signature' or 'default' style ... the kind of stuff we have made for 25 years for many clients and for our own home. it design nidea originated with a client who spent some time in germany and commissioned us to build a custom desk for her like the furniture she saw when she lived there. i later came to understand that what she was describing to me was actually furniture in the biedermeier style. that was in 1986, before one of the definitive books on the style was published about 1992 and, believe it or not, before the internet and google even. so we kind of made it up on our own. these pieces are direct descendants of that german and austrian idea from the mid 1800's. must have been in my german blood. click the photos to enlarge them.
the construction process for these designs requires first building the piece and then completely disassembling it for the painting and varnishing. the pieces above are for the sideboard that is part of this commission. it is identical to one in my own home except that the center detail will be part of an oval instead of the angled geometric one in the photo below.
loyal readers have probably seen this one before ...
here's how it goes ... in the early stages, all the details are left flat so they can be registered with each other and then the shadows and bevels are cut when the individual pieces are disassembled for painting and finishing ...
at this point, nothing is glued, though the web frames are screwed to the insides of the face pieces, and the piece is completely rigid.
we leave the lower rail element uncut at this time too ... and then the drawer faces and the central element are fitted tightly in the holes. the final fitting happens after the case is finished and glued up ...
dovetail time ...
pulls and more finish tomorrow ...

the palette for this project is natural cherry and curly hard maple, with ebony and black milk paint details
here will is reassembling the table base that he made a few weeks ago.
the top and leaves of the table have a curly maple and ebony inlay that we routed out and filled back in. ... here lorne has finished installing the ebony borders before fitting up the 1/8th" central curly maple veneers.
once the bottom of the top is finished, the base is assembled and installed, the table is flipped, and the top is final scraped, sanded, and finished on its base ... runners again from our friends at moin hardware.
tah daahhhhh ... with the leaves in, before the fnish. 10' x 42" wide
a quick finish sample/palette study for the clients
we will be wrapping up the chairs and the sideboard this week ... delivery time soon ... more on all of it as we finish up ....
lots of pieces to keep track of ....

tune up that bandsaw

2011-10-22T04:49:00.001-07:00

we just finished a project for a local interior design firm that involved making 12 new feet for 2 big couches whose feet were not really in proportion to the rest of them, or to the room where they went ... the new feet are 7" in diameter, 7" high. we glued up some blocks from8/4 and made a sample and a template for the duplicator and had at it. before will could start turning them, i cut them to length and round for him. will had recently tuned up the bandsaw, adjusted the guides, etc. etc., but i didn't realize what a good job he had done until i cut the blanks ... square ... straight ... cut after cut, through 7 " of maple ... click the photos to enlarge them ..
in response to the comment below, i am posting a link to the bandsaw blades we use. THE most important part of the tune up is a new blade from doall. we've tried many brands i won't name, but these are, in our opinion, THE best. i have to go to the shop to find the exact info ... next is to adjust your guides close to the teeth and square your fence to the table and the blade ... fussy stuff but worth the effort. see the last photos below.
this is how they lined up across the top of a stack 3 high ... barely a 32nd difference across the tops.
the chips flew during the rough out stage ...
and made quite a pile ...

first coat of stain ... after distressing we used a second coat of english brown mahogany lockwood water stain. then a coat of oil/poly, then gel stain on the lathe spinning on low speed. the final coat of satin poly was brushed on with the feet on the lathe, and then they were transferred to the finish room to dry where you see them below.
all in, all done ... they will be installed to the couch frames with 2 - 8" timberlock screws per foot
in the photo above, you can see a stack of 9 - .1" veneers cut sequentially and sanded after from one piece of 8/4 walnut. and 4 - 10.5" wide curly hard maple slices also from one board.

a clock case repair

2011-10-18T18:43:00.001-07:00

we fixed another clock this week. there was a handwritten note pasted inside the case that said it was "old in 1854 when _________ gave it to my grandfather." i'm waiting to hear from the british clockmaker, who is repairing the works as to his best guess on the date and geographic origin. it's american, with a cherry case with mahogany details, and appears, with the exception of the lock, pretty original. like the last one we fixed in the spring, the weight had fallen and taken the floor with it ... all better now. click the photos to enlarge them ...
we started with the easy stuff, some missing moldings here and there. a brainstorm i had was to do the first couple coats of dye and shellac before gluing them in, which simplified the blending of the finish later on.
this was the most troublesome aspect of this project. it's the front right leg, and it had been nailed through the glue block in several directions. it twisted off easily in my hand, the nails, not so easily. eventually, i worked them out through the hole and repaired the surrounding area and drilled a new, slightly larger hole. i had to make a stacked jig to keep the little foot vertical while i drilled the new hole for the new tenon, which was simple once i worked through the concept phase of it.
viola ...
new bottom from recycled chestnut ...
out the door ... pics with the works when they arrive later this week i think ...

fall in vermont

2011-10-14T19:58:00.001-07:00

it wouldn't be fall in vermont without a few foliage pics from yours truly. the season started off kind of slow and brown, but the colors have come on like always now. i've been sort of chained to the table saw lately, but tuesday i did go for a ride up to whiting to look at some lumber. i stuck my camera out the window a couple of times as i was driving ( i wasn't texting) and got kind of lucky a couple of those times. at the bottom i threw in a few of sam's new belt buckles, in case you are not into leaves ... all foliage pictures, route 30 north, dorset to whiting .... click the photos to enlarge them ...

largemouth bass tourney, 'derby champ'
'fish in montana'

a commercial reception desk

2011-10-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

along with the 14' fumed, fsc, quartered, figured eucalyptus table, we've been working on a painted reception desk for a client in boston. it's a crispy commercial project designed by the worldwirde architectural firm, gensler. the granite is from johnson granite and marble of proctor b=vermont. loyal readers may recall that they also did the granite for the large conference tables we made last year. click the photos to enlarge them ...
cad plan view and granite layout ..
no overhangs, everything flush and fitted ... though it looks easy, now that it's done, there were a number of interesting and exacting challenges to solve along the way ... timing was one, and we had to order the granite and the glass before we even started building the piece. the glass will actually not arrive until about a week after we deliver it this friday. fortunately, there is a commercial glazier working on site and he will install the glass when it arrives, saving us the trip.
the glass is mitered and 'back painted' and will cover the low protruding, overhanging counter face, the short return, and the far end, and is bordered by 1/4" satin stainless edge pieces. not having the glass on hand, we cut mitered 1/4" mdf panels on the cnc to the exact sizes of the glass we ordered and hopefully, our tape measures are the same. there is not much room for error and few places for adjustment now that everything else is finished.
we made a slick jig for sanding the stainless steel edges and sent them on edge through our wide belt sander. probably not a recommended application, but it was the only way we could come up with, and it worked perfectly ... the flat pieces were no problem and we sent them through with the exhaust off and used an old 80 grit belt. there were virtually no sparks or heat build up, and i would say it was a valid technique for surfacing them to create the 'industrial' look required.
the miters were cut to rough length and adjusted and fitted using a 45/45/90 jig on the edge sander.
we framed the piece with timber strand, a stable flat stud material becoming more popular in high end housing projects around here. it's not cheap, but it is flat, straight, square and stable. except for the weight, it's a pleasure to use.
we also created a flip down 'door' for the electricians, which i am sure they will approve of ...
and a sturdy 8/4 ash and steel frame to support the +/- 600 pounds of granite counters.
the blue line denotes the largest piece that had to fit in the freight elevator .. 44 x 42 x 80".
the granite was cut from one large slab so the grain matches over the entire counter surface.
lastly there is a little box of drawers that supports the frame end and ties everything together. below you can see the steps in the simple assembly. looks easy now that it's done.
the corner piece will be set first over the wiring feed and the L shaped 'glass' piece is attached from the inside of the desk.
here trevor is installing the screws to secure the two main pieces together.
the granite frame is next. it sits temporarily on two angle iron pieces, and then is securely bolted to the stud framing with 4" 'timberlock' hex head lags.
the drawer box is slid in to complete the base assembly and the removable panel on the inside back wall is installed last.
the first piece of granite is slid into the corner, and the rest are added to complete the puzzle.
and while we were at it, we put some cardboard on the top of the eucalyptus table frame and took a quick snapshot ... all in, all done .. onto the truck for boston tomorrow.
crazy wood that eucalyptus ...

first fall open studio

2011-09-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

this weekend is the first vermont fall open studio weekend .. saturday and sunday, october 1st and 2nd, 10-5 ... there are a few fewer participants than in the typical spring event, but there are still plenty of things to see. just in our area, bennington to west pawlet, there are 19 artists's studios you can visit as well as some incredibly beautiful vermont foliage. the 'peak' viewing according to the foliage 'experts' usually happens around now or a little later, and take my word for it, it looks pretty good and will be even better in a couple of days. stop by if you're in the neighborhood. look for the yellow signs and then pick up a map with a driving tour at the first studio you stop at ... for more background, here's a link from the spring event with more pictures and info .... the usual suspects will be here: kit will be showing her handmade jewelry, penny viscusi will have her local pastel landscapes, banjos by will, metalwork by sam, and i've got a ton of projects completed and in the works in the woodshop ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
in the shop now ...
an expanding cherry table with a curly maple and ebony inlay
a sideboard to go with it
a steel and black round expanding table
a recent 'fish in montana' belt buckle by sam ...
iand will is making a new neck for a circa 1900 banjo using the original inlay design that he found in a picture on the internet ...
and these projects are waiting to be shipped ... a fumed, quartered, eucalyptus table base
a 17' elm slab table
and a 10 footer too ...

psychology ... getting their heads on straight

2011-09-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

well, this was fun ... we got to do a little 'psychological repair work' last week, you know 'getting their heads on straight' ...

this is actually a pretty amazing story. my friend lisa bought this special shona sculpture called (i think) 'the family', for her new husband dave on the occasion of their marriage and the joining of their boys from former marriages into a new family. it resided in a special spot on their lawn for several years, and then one day about a year and a half ago, it just disappeared. gone ... not a trace ... poof! granted, it was on their lawn, on a quiet dorset street, but you wouldn't think a 3 or 400 pound sculpture would just vanish, but it did. it stayed missing for about 5 months, and then last thanksgiving day they got a call from the poultney police saying a deer hunter had found their sculpture on the edge of a field. back it came with some scratches and the two heads that were broken off, but it was back! .. they asked me to help them fix it this spring, and eventually, i did. a little special stone epoxy from eastern marble and granite supply, a couple steel pins, and a couple deep breaths while i was drilling ... good to go ... click the photos to enlarge them ..
getting the holes to line up in the matching pieces took a little trial and error, but the epoxy allowed for a little wiggle room .. above, we employ one of our best clamps, 1.5" blue masking tape.
with lisa, smiling away
and back together again ...
you'd hardly know on this one, but the other head will require a little paint touch up
rover approves

apologies to my readers

2011-09-25T05:09:00.000-07:00

10/15
update from my friend jeff branch has fixed the problem !! gold star for jeff ! here's the recipe if you have a blog of your own:

"The lightbox feature is back, but Blogger has added a setting to disable it. From your dashboard go to Settings, then under Settings, find Formatting and there is an option: Open Images in Lightbox, where you can select no. This worked for me.

Jeff"

worked for me too ... what a relief ... thanks again jeff

10/14
they're baaaaaaaack !!!!! aaaaahhhhhhh !!!!! the slideshows are back ..and i STILL hate them !!!!!

9/25 .. update
well now i have to take back my rant on google below. miraculously, my blog is now back and working how it used to work. click the photo; it gets bigger, like always. unless will did something that i don't know about, i give google a gold star for hearing blogger's complaints.

9/18
well, the folks at blogger seem to think they know how i want the photos to be displayed on my blog. after 4 years with them, they have now decided that everyone wants to see facebook slide shows when they click on an image ... that feature disconnects the photos from my text and effectively pretty much ruins the continuity of a post. it also, at least at my house, now takes every blog post longer to load. my apologies. this new format is not my choice and unless they change it or unless will can figure out how to work around it, i'll most likely be looking to move to wordpress or some other platform. in the meantime, thanks for your loyalty, comments and support ... we'll see what happens...

best,
dan mosheim
dorset custom furniture

ps ... after a little reflection, the lightbox thing kind of works but you have to wait for all the pictures from each post to load (which may or may not be a problem, depending on the speed of your connection,) before you see them. to exit the slide show, just click anywhere outside the box, which will return you to the post.

fsc, figured, quartered, fumed, eucalyptus

2011-09-24T04:03:00.000-07:00

we've never used this wood before, and i'm not sure i'm real anxious to use it again. as you can see in the photo below, it is completely wrinkly off the splitter. so wrinkly in fact that we couldn't actually join the veneers, but had to glue them down to individual pieces of substrate, which we then glued into a panel. the problem was that the edge of the cut veneer actually change shape as it flattened out (duh) so unless it was perfectly flat when cut, the cut wasn't straight. i'm not sure how folks deal with this in a commercial veneer shop, but we did it the only way we knew how... click the photos to enlarge them ... close up of the veneers on arrival
cad stuff for estimating material costs ...
in the architect's specs, there was a 1/4" x 1/4" reveal, which, after making the mock up above, we determined also had to be veneered, which called for a change order for the considerable added very fussy labor.
we started with the legs and the tops of the legs ...
then will veneered the individual 'boards' that make up the central 'box' which was on the specs at 7 x 48 x 42 high. this is a tall table for an employee lounge ...

we finally got it all together and created these extra 'legs' so that it can be shipped in pieces.
there are metal plates that join the aprons on the inside, so the set up will be:
* set the central box in place
* remove the temporary legs and install the steel plates.
* move the table base to it's approximate final placement.
* add the central support frame, adjust the legs and aprons to suit
* add the stainless steel screws to complete the joinery.

tough stuff

basket case rescue

2011-09-17T12:34:00.001-07:00

i wish i had taken a picture of this one when it came in the door. the back legs were completely sheared off at the seat, and the front legs were both broken off about where you see the hole in this one and we didn't have all the pieces. it was riding peacefully in the back of an open picked and was sucked out by the current created by a tractor trailer going in the other direction. the chair did not belong to the owner of the pickup, who was moving it for the owner, and he felt responsible for fixing it. i was going to take a pass, but i could see the fix he was in and also, he's a fellow member of the dorset chamber of commerce, will was friends with his daughter .. you know, all that stuff ... in the end, i took it on and it was kind of a 'test' if you will, and, in the end, i enjoyed the challenge. click the photos to enlarge them ...
in the end, there are three metal braces that sam made, two from 1/4 x 1/2" stock, and one from 14 guage flat, on each back leg. the front legs were considerably more complicated.
butt the broken piece on where it broke off ...
neaten up the hole, make a piece that fits in there; glue it in ...
make some saw cuts and bridge the break with a reinforcing piece
patch in the missing chip at the top
let it all dry and shape back to what it used to be ... add a little latex paint and stain for color.
move on to the other leg
cut off the broken, missing part
add something back with a couple 3/16ths dowel up into the leg
shape it and redo the little carving at the foot and...
ta dah ... all in, all done ... oh happy day ...

two chestnut cabinets

2011-09-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

we finished one up yesterday that we've been working on for a while. it was good to wrap it up since we first started with our design work back in april. there were delays along the way while the stone was changed on the fireplace, which added to my work and required some additional site visits, but all in all, they look about the way i imagined them in my photoshop paste up below ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
here's the 'before' shot. the clients purchased this house last winter and remodeling started in earnest in the early spring ... sam made about 65 feet of new steel and wood railings for the stairs and the balcony; we made an expanding pedestal table in chestnut, and this pair of cabinets. nice job ....
here's my photoshopped mockup using a picture of a cabinet we built back in 2002 ...
the cad drawing showing the interiors of the cabinets one of our first design issues was accommodating a tv that was wider than the space between the retracting doors. we made a couple of mockups using our standard sanus bracket, with different ways of mounting the bracket and decided on the 'sidewall' approach, which worked fine ...
we also had some fitting issues as the client requested that both cabinets be identical in width. after they changed the stone on the fireplace, that increased the width of the space and thus the cabinets, and brought a twisted spruce beam into play that was previously not an issue.
the tops and molding backer boards actually slid into a slot created in the masonry
we also had to revise our installation plan from a grouted board against the existing stone to a 'slot' created by the masons when they reset the facing. that made me define my spaces pretty exactly and while it was fussier to install made for an elegant look of the cabinets integrating into the whole fireplace surround ... looks greatwhile we were checking the twisted post, we also mocked up a paneled end, which is what you see when you come down the stairs.
tight fit; twisted beam; all ok in the end ...
we also had a kickspace heater on the job and had to integrate a design for the grill into our finished cabinets, as well as make the heater accessible from the top for later repairs.
so, a removable floor was installed,
and the drawers in the lower case are in a separate cabinet that slides in and out of the main cabinet.lots of door parts, something like 85 or 90 pieces, plus the panels.we finished and assembled everything in the shop before loading it up for the jobsite.
below you can see the way we accommodated the 46" tv in the 44" cabinet opening with the retractable doors....
and yesterday, we installed the 'turnstyle' hardware that arrived last week from england.
the finished interior of the left cabinet ... it's a wrap ....
with the big windows to the right, this was a hard project to photograph so i have included these two other images. the sunlight sort of emphasizes the 'orange' in the finish that is much more subdued in person. a challenging project, all in all .. below are a couple pictures of the original cabinets that inspired them, and here is a link to my website listing on them ...

a round expanding table with a steel base

2011-09-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

9/25 .. all done now

9/10/11 ... we're moving along on the table we're making from the model above. i posted that picutre, i think, in one i wrote back in june sometime. great concept; exceptionally stable for a small base/big top table. the 3" hollow steel tubing has a nice weight to it, and the 30 x 30 footprint under a 60" diameter top allows plenty of room for chairs and knees.
sam did a great job mitering and welding the pieces. he did have a nice jig that trevor made for him on the cnc, but i can't find the photo of it. it was a simple piece of mdf with a 'u' shape the size of the base routed into it. it made mitering, fitting and welding the pieces of tubing a piece of cake.
add the 'aprons'
and the top plate ...
and the moin equalizing slides ...
i think the model is 1.5" = 1' or 1/8 scale
these runners actually opened further than we needed them to ..
with the leaves in (96" long)
closed, and ready for the black conversion varnish that will go on the top. sam still needs to roll and polish a piece of 1/4" x 2" steel that will be attached over the 1.75" wood apron currently seen under the top and it will be ready to go. fun new concept. gold star to my client for her design input ...

veneer bag storage

2011-09-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

we finally bought a new veneer bag recently to replace our old one that had multiple, more or less, irreparable leaks. i got about 15 years out of it so, no complaints. part of our problem with the old bag was storage, so this time we took a cue from our friend steve holman and 'raised it up' to the ceiling and out of the way. here's a link to a video of it going up, up and away ... it kind of blocked the light over will's bench when it was up so we had to add another light fixture, but the whole rigging is sweet. lower it down, load in a piece, and raise it up and out of the way ... pump and all. click the pictures to enlarge them...

we got the electric hoist, good for about 1100 pounds, for about $100. on line ...

a couple pulleys from mcmaster-carr and some 1/4" safety chains and we're all set ...

big sky country ... 5 rivers, 5 days

2011-09-05T12:24:00.001-07:00

well, you know what they say about all work and no play .... sam and i just returned yesterday from 8 days in montana. one out, one back, and one day, saturday, of rest. nice to have a holiday to recover today, before we both get back to work tomorrow. as planned back in july, we 'evacuated' vermont the day before the hurricane and only saw it as it happened on the internet. the damage was incredible in vermont.

our house and shop are on high ground and there are no big rivers in dorset, so kit and i and the shop escaped with no noticeable changes. friends in other towns nearby were not so lucky. it will take years to get vermont put back together again even with the federal disaster aid that is heading our way.

click the pictures to enlarge them ...
we started on the missouri, floating with russ dobrzynski of pro outfitters in craig. it was for us, a day of hard fishing in big winds, but we were able to land some good size missouri river rainbows, 18-20" long, but were unprepared for the serious physical effort it took to fish a big windy river for 8 hours standing in a drift boat. phew!
and, as soon as we got off the river we had to leave wolf creek and drive about 60 miles over an incredible road above (route 348) to lincoln, where we spent the night and next day at a friend's camp, fishing the grantiers, a spring creek tributary of the blackfoot.
it was a great cabin that was moved to the site from another part of the state, log by log. it was estimated to be from the late 1880's and was beautifully dovetailed and scribed.
nice front yard
the grantiers is a small spring creek full of feisty cuttthroats, and sam managed to land a good one in the afternoon.
we caught quite a few other small ones, which were about the same size as, but slightly stronger and more fun than our local foot long rainbows. it was challenging, technical, fishing and we had an excellent guide, chad harberd, also from pro outfitters who walked us through the mile and a half stream and told us where to try and present our hopper flies. sometimes we got it, sometimes not. we all, including chad, missed opportunities at the cagey big browns that chad knew were in there. they were too fast and smart for me, but sam's cutthroat was the star of the show anyway.
that night, we moved on to philipsburg and the rock creek below.
we had a little rain, which chased off some of the other fisherman ... a nice size cutthroat above ... we then headed off to melrose, and the big hole river, about an hour to the south.
the next day, rather than fish the actual big hole (i hope to go back and float that one sometime), we fished a small tributary just out of melrose, which was beautiful, and reminded us of home, and again, sam caught the best one of the day, a nice 18+" brown.
on to ennis from there, and into the heart of the rockies ... breathtaking in every imaginable way. ennis is on the madison, and is definitely a fishing town with lots of friendly people and good food. coincidentally, there was a 'fly fishing festival' and there were boats everywhere. the river is big enough to handle them all so that you don't notice the traffic, and the fish don't seem to mind either. we had a great day with clayton paddie, of the tackle shop in ennis.

we caught rainbows, browns and whitefish and one the of the bigger rainbows coughed a sculpin into the landing net, which is a sort of prehistoric looking thing that he had apparently recently eaten.
a nice brown
another one with the proud fisherman
and sam and clayton again here with the sculpin rainbow ...
the sculpin
we floated about 10 miles in clayton's extremely comfortable sit down driftboat, and took out at the mcatee bridge. after another night in ennis, we drove up to bozeman for the flight home sunday morning.
interesting architecture in all these towns.
we had a little time to kill saturday afternoon, so we drove about an hour east to livingston, thinking we might cast a few into the yellowstone to make it six, but we were fished out and took a pass.
there were great galleries and a thriving arts community in livingston, so all was not wasted, plus the drive was incredible. shortly, there will be more photos of scenery, fish and architecture on my personal facebook page. send me a friend request if you want to see them ... back to work tomorrow ...

some claro walnut slab tables

2011-08-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

well, we shipped out a couple more fine slabs of claro walnut from goodhope hardwoods today. i've been buying slabs from them for about 10 years now and i've never been disappointed. these two were no exception ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
a crotch slab my client found for me in the 'specials' section on their website, a category that comes and goes as needed apparently. this client chose the same simple 'block' base we have used on tables like this before ...
the table above is part of our 'shaker' series with 1.5" thick solid steel bases. this client wanted to have his base 'blackened', a patina process we do with a chemical called 'redi brown' from, i think, triple s chemicals ? in LA. i'll have to look it up.
sam did a beautiful job applying the patina and neutralizing it, and we then sprayed on a couple coats of clear satin metal finish.
we started with two of these slabs ... the one on the wall we previously made into a coffee table and shipped it to aspen; the horizontal one is now the coffee table above, and the one on top of the stack standing vertically became the dining table.
here trevor's chiseling in the butterfly keys to restrain the natural drying cracks.
ready to plane flush ...
off to the finish room for its first coat of gloss ...
and today, jim took off in the town and country for north east hampton, long island. i can't feel too sorry for anyone who gets paid to take six ferry rides over two days, even if it is a long drive ... he was ready to go when he left. you've got to be at least a little amazed that we can get two 7' plus tables and 8 chairs in here and still have room for more, even if there will be 'some assembly required' on delivery ... and, it's a smooth ride to boot ... almost wish i were going myself ... next time for sure ...

other claro walnut tables
50 x 120 x 3" thick
36 x 120 x 2.25" thick
a 5/4 coffee table
36 x 94 x 1/25"

two cherry dining tables

2011-08-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

ok, here are a couple of cherry dining tables we made last week. 42" x 120" with a 1.75" thick top and 2.25" vertical uprights. click the photos to enlarge them ... we debated between the arced stretcher above and just below ...
and the 'cloud lift' stretcher below, a greene and greene inspired detail.
our first version was a little 'heavy', so we took a little off and slimmed it down.
better, but not as good as the arcs ...this is the first version, upside down, with the heavier stretcher ... scotch taped on ...
couldn't get my 11 x 17 printer to work so we taped two 1/8th" = 1" drawings together to have a full size paper patten for the model to work from
ok, cat's out of the bag .. these are 1/8 scale models. we made them for a meeting with our clients on friday and the models were extremely helpful in arriving at the final design concept below ..
which is currently a combination (as so many designs are) of the two models above. the top one is a previous table we first made in about 1992 ... sam actually had the idea of 'suspending' the stretcher on pins between the open verticals of the trestles. his idea would require that the whole trestle be glued up as a unit which might be fussy but it can be easily done. in that case, the pins become part of the structure and the design ... there's still a little final design work to do, but the client is on board and enthusiastic, and i'm sure we'll work it all out.

more posts on models and mockups here ...

news from the metal shop

2011-08-10T18:23:00.001-07:00

just like in the wood shop, sam is humming along in the metalshop, welding away. now that all the table bases above are finished and ready to ship, he's been working on other projects. click the photos to enlarge them ...
these are the, i don't know, 25? base shoes for a large railing project with a local builder in rupert. stairs and a deck around a pool house that's 80 ' long and 50' wide.
looks like 116' of it, without the stairs. gonna take a while ...
and then we have a new style 'blackened' shaker steel base. i really like it. it's kind of shiny, but not too shiny, kind of black, but not too black ... it's just a really nice complement to the claro walnut slab top.
a corner of the table top. more on that later ...

and then he fabricated the full size version of a steel table base shown in the model below ...
first make a 'U' and then add two 'Ls' and some 1/4 x 2 aprons.
trevor routed fitting jigs on the cnc which made the job a little easier. it was still fussier than it looks. mitered corners in 3" tubing ..
and then, after making the curved towel bar above ...
he use that concept to come up with a leg design for another client's table base. roll the 3/4 square stock and then give it a half twist to make the 's' shaped legs. pretty cool imho.
leveled and flattened all 8 legs and then
added the plates so it can sit outside on the grass ...
and then we met with a client about a hoist bar over his new barn loft ... that'll be coming up soon as it's been in the background for a while ...
and then, when i came home for lunch yesterday, i was surprised to find this object in my driveway. take a guess .... no, ok, i'll tell you ... it's for hauling your hounds in the back of your short bed toyota pickup. the bed is 63" and so is the unit above. it will have welded on open mesh sides, top and door, and it will be just like the dogs are riding in the back of your pickup, but legal. in vermont, technically, you can't just stick 'em in the back, (or strap them to the roof for your family vacation), but this'll be fine ... enough update for now....

dorset artists ... then and now

2011-08-06T19:09:00.001-07:00

this evening was the opening for a new show called 'dorset artists...then and now'. an extraordinary selection of works by 22 artists living and working in the immediate dorset area, as well as an equally incredible assembly of works from private local collections that represent 26 artists from dorset's past. the works of the 'now' folks were selected and curated by georgine macgarvey-holman, ( one of the nows ), while loans for the 'then' works were arranged and assembled by barbara melhado. putting on a show like this is an incredible feat of organization and i would say this is easily the most impressive collection of works assembled and presented by unpaid volunteers that i have ever seen. my hat is off. the opening was well attended and people were extremely interested in both the variety and quality of the works on display. it's impossible for me to cover them all here, and i would hate to slight anyone; essentially, these are the photos that came out the best as i casually strolled through the show with my camera late friday afternoon and today. you have to see this show in person to really appreciate it and you've got until september 8th to do it. come on by. 11-6 daily, except mondays. the show is located on the green, in beautiful downtown dorset, next to the dorset union store ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
an overview of the mission ...
some 'then' folks ... cleade enders on the left... i think those are humphrys on the right
more 'thens' ... remarkable stuff .. love the woman with the trumpet by lorenzo hatch ... also there, david parsons, john lillie and claude dern ...
a jay connaway ... a local artist famous for his homer like seascapes, who was as good as they get
sam and jen, getting their history lesson
and sam and i on the 'bridges' bench ... metalwork by sam, woodwork by will, inspiration by my grandfather ...
nancy howe russell on the left;
pam marron left, barbara rowles, right
penny viscusi
arthur jones
and, they were kind enough to include us furniture makers ... above, william laberge
and here, steve holman of holman studios .. also in this photo, john pitcher on the left and ace manley on the right. john and his wife sue westin are proprietors of the gallery on the marsh, just down the road on route 30.
and that's georgine, bursting on the scene, wrapping up the final details on friday. our table and chairs are in the foreground ...
and these are my woodburnings, out and about from the studio for maybe only the second time ever. i'm sitting the show sunday and i'll try to capture a few more of the highlights then. come on by ...

goldtown rips it up on the town green

2011-08-03T16:00:00.001-07:00

we live in dorset, but when we say we're going to town, it's really manchester, about 9 miles away. in dorset we have no traffic lights, a couple general stores, a post office and some inns. manchester, for the past few years, has been hosting a series of tueday evening free concerts on the green and last night was will's band, goldtown's, first appearance there. several people, including the woman who organizes the events, said last night was, by far, the biggest crowd ever ... and, they were psyched ... it was a great show! ..click the photos to enlarge them ... .
after an early afternoon shower threat, the sky cleared and it was a perfect summer evening, sunny and 72 degrees. it was my first concert with a serious waterfall in the background and loaded log trucks passing by, but the sound was great. lots of kids, like our friend kate's, and andrew weill , the glass blower's below. kate's kid had on her best too-too and did some great dancing.
andrew, on the other hand, looked like he was carrying a six pack ... but kit rescued her for a moment below. andrew said it was his daughter's third goldtown event, counting one in utero ...
they closed with a traditional tune, 'ruben's train'. i'm not a video guy, but i took this one and you can feel the energy of the crowd by watching it. even ma was dancin' ....
great crowd ..
great waterfall ...

the montshire museum benches

2011-08-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

back in the beginning of the year, we were awarded a commission for a bench for the montshire mueum, in norwich, vermont. it was part of a contest, and they selected 5 winners, bought benches from all of us, and installed them in their 'woodland garden'. click the photos to enlarge them ...
'bridges 2' variation on the bench for the bennington museum show, 'state of craft' ... dan and will, wood; sam mosheim, metalwork and paint
dave hurwitz, one of the other bench makers visited the museum recently and sent me these photos of the benches in place and the documentation the museum posted inside. great job by the staff there ... it's an impressive show ...
dave hurwitz, white oak
mark dabelstein, burlington
lars larsen, furniture maker, and rolf kielman, architect, also of burlington
and doug clarner of east burke, vt

interior design ... dining rooms

2011-07-31T14:02:00.001-07:00

one of our favorite projects is creating a custom dining room ... we have a project coming up where we'll be doing an expanding dining table with a hard curly maple inlay, 8 chairs, and a cherry and curly maple sideboard. we get to make the pieces relate, in essence, determine the style of the room ... the designs for this new project are loosely based on the furniture in my own dining room above, with of course, the clients' unique input which is based on their own experience with a table i made for the client's brother in 1990 or so ... round and round it goes. click the photos to enlarge them ...
this is part of the proposal for that project ..
meanwhile, for a potential client who is coming to visit this week to discuss furniture for her dining room, i rounded up photos of different projects of different styles, most of which consisted of at least a table, some chairs and a sideboard ...
while in the natural cherry photo above this one, we were going for a more contemporary look, here we're shooting for the traditional, with the dark, carved mahogany legs and stained mahogany and walnut chairs with burl backsplats ...
here, we've clearly taken a contemporary slant on the traditional, dark, arts and crafts style, taking our cues from the designs of greene and greene and stickley, but by using natural cherry we have (hopefully) brought it up into the present.
hanging fir and burl table lantern ... inlays in the top and 0n the aprons of the table
here we have the 'one board' bubinga dining room ... plain and simple design, the table top and face of the sideboard was made from one 46" wide, 19' board of bubinga ...
here, the view from the other end ...
another take on what we refer to on our website as our 'studio style', a mix of natural or stained woods with painted details and accents. (love the milton avery boxers over the mantle) we used to make quite a few windsors, but, not so many any more ... i'm encouraging the padded seats ...
the sideboard for that table ..
and another ... for more, check out the 'dining table', 'seating', and 'sideboard' sections of our website for other styles and designs ...

more piccolo banjos

2011-07-26T16:20:00.001-07:00

short concert here
will put up a website back in may and boom, boom, boom .. three piccolo banjo orders. he's working on all of them sort of at the same time and finishing up the first one, which has to be in california for a festival next week. i haven't been paying 100% attention and i only caught the highlights, but watching him figure out efficiencies to produce multiple editions of similar designs has been really interesting. click the photos to enlarge them ...
first, he cut all the pot ring parts at the same time. it was quite a stack ...
then, based on some stuff he found on the internet, he designed and built a machine tool type setup for the wood lathe to rapidly and accurately turned the pots.
eventually, he'll have a steel plate made to more firmly hold the reversible tool post, but the wood plate worked surprisingly well.
three necks ... cut on his refined swing jig ...
he then added the inlaid and slotted fretboards
and refined the final shapes
he finished the wood parts with tru oil, a hard oil product made primarily for gunstocks, but it works great for banjos and other small things too.

a new challenge was installing the natural skin head, which the first client requested for a traditional sound. this one's goat skin which has an interesting, natural look.
you soak it in warm water, and then lay it over the rim and install the brass flesh hoop, which Will and Sam rolled from brass and brazed in the metal shop.
then you place the tension hoop over that
and pull the excess up through a little at a time.
last step is to install the tightening hardware, snug it up and trim the excess. after drying for 24 hours, the skin will shrink and tighten itself ... pretty slick ... i was fascinated watching the stretching process. i had my camera nearby and took the really short video here as will was finishing up ... about all you can see there is how quickly you need to work, but it's still a pretty cool process shot.
other banjo related posts

a couple of restaurant tables

2011-07-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

well, here's a fun project ... two large english elm slab tables with metal rebar bases for a restaurant in bethesda, maryland. we've been working with amy krol, a competent and responsive designer at aria group architects in oak park, illinois. her concept sketches are above and we have gone back and forth with her over the last two months, refining the construction and material selection details. we're on the home stretch now and aside from a column location question (the column hasn't been built yet) we're ready to wrap them up and ship them out. click the photos to enlarge them ...
we started at berkshire products in sheffield, massachusetts, a great source of amazing and unusual wood for woodworkers the world over. we picked these three slabs from their photos on the internet. the one above for the single long table ...
and this matchinig pair, which will be butted end to end and notched around the column as shown in the drawings below.
next came the model stage. i drew them in my cad program, but in the end, the random, 'this looks good' placement was the way to go ... some things you can overplan.
there was some concern that the skinny rebar (actually, it's 5/8ths and not that skinny) would flex, as in theory, rebar gets its strength from the concrete surrounding it ...
sam said it would be 'no problem' but just for fun, we loaded the unglued model and applied a little side pressure ... solid as a rock, even with 1.8th inch rubberwood dowels and no glue ...
we trimmed, smoothed and stiffened the single slab ...
cool top ... and started construction on the real bases in the metal shop.
sam came up with the great concept of temporary pipe and threaded rod through the corner holes where the table bases will be bolted to the floor and to the wood tops, which held the two 1/2 x 12 steel plates parallel, and, when the bolts were tightened, completely square. he tacked the rebars randomly and checked them out, then welded them securely ... very cool, but when we figured it out, the long base weighs +/- 450 pounds !! fortunately, we were prepared and actually constructed all the steel bases on dollies.
base #1, 'resting' in the driveway ... this dolly was a touch under built...
the double table is wider at +/- 42" and we built those bases upside down, using 1/4 x 20" steel plates for the base tops to give the wider wood tops more support.
we bolted them to some timberstrand on the floor of the garage ...
and built a two piece mock column the appropriate size for the full effect.
view down the 17 footer
the column 'top' is shown here moved off center to its approximate location. the final column location will be determined with cardboard templates by the job foreman on site and we will cut them to the templates before shipping ...
the single slab table ... 9'8" x +/- 30"

loyal readers will note our upgraded garage 'extended workplace' we thought we were done up here after the 'big tables' last year, but noooo ... so, now we have a painted floor, full insulation and sheetrock, heat if we need it, and today, a commercial dehumidifier arrived for summer work ... we're officially ready for 'the big ones' ...

what to do ... what to do

2011-07-23T06:52:00.001-07:00

well, friday afternoons ... you just never know what might happen ... as we were cleaning up, somone put this claro slab cutoff out on the porch just as i happened to go out the door to the finish room. this piece has been hanging around the end of the sander for oh, a year or so? who knows. anyway, i suddently had this urge to clone it by resawing it with a chainsaw. kind of like the rubber stamp tool in photoshop. so i did. jim was johnny on the spot with the photos .... now comes the hard part ... what's the 'best' thing to do with them ??? comments? we're open to suggestions ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
1st obvious arrangement with the curving negative space ...
not so obvious, but maybe cool on the wall ... or, as a table with a glass top?
free standing 'swans'
have a good weekend ....
other chainsaw adventures

opening the cherry dining table

2011-07-17T05:27:00.000-07:00

i wrote a pretty long blog post about this table a couple of weeks ago, but i never detailed how the runners worked. we had to do a little creative engineering to get the pedestal to open at the right moment, but, in the end, it all worked slick.

this just in from the table's owner ...
there is a you tube video showing the opening and closing the table at this link here
here's how it worked ... click the photos to enlarge them ... above, you can see the channels we routed in the top of the column base. the purpose of those was to stop the first set of runners that the table top halves are attached to after they open far enough to insert only the first leaf. with more than one leaf, we wanted the base to open so the center leg could support the four foot span required for all three leaves.
we added little aluminum pieces to the bottom of the runners and those stop the first two runners after about 9" of travel. you can hear the stops engage in the video. the second runners were screwed to the base top itself and engage to open the pedestal once everyhting seen below is unlocked.
there is a central locking device which sam fabricated in the metal shop to secure the base of the pedestal when it's closed ...
this shows the two halves opened to the 'one leaf' position
as usual, we burned through some mdf mockups figuring the whole thing out but, as usual, it was worth it ... great client .. great project ...