visiting some old friends

i had a call recently from some clients that i made some furniture for

in the 90s and very early 2000s.  they recently sold their original vermont ski house

and moved to dorset.  even though they've been here a few years, i hadn't made the effort 

to stop and see them.  they got a small 'ring' on their table after a recent dinner party

and i got the call to come see if i could help with that.  i am still thinking on the best 

way to handle it.  but, i rnjoyed my visiti and it was good to see some furniture

i made nearly 20 years ago look pretty much like it did when i delivered it,

back in the day.

this is a cell phone picture i took when i visited the lasgt week ...

and this is a picture from my website that i took with 

my nikon film camera when i delivered the table, chairs, 

mirror and sideboard when it was new ...

the table and chairs today

the table picture from the dining table section of my website

construction shot in the shop

and it was also nice to see this curly oak and lacewood coffee table 

with some ebony and reclaimed piano key details

and a pair of our arts and crafts cherry and burl stools 

with their original fabric .. it;s all good ...

another sideboard

this mahogany sideboard looks pretty happy 

in its new home on lake george ...

team design with the clients to accommodate their storage needs 

lots of mortises and tenons

and some interesting intersections

and all the wood came from one 21" x 13' plank of mahogany from irion lumber ..

some dovetailed drawers

and weare ready for hinges, hardware, stain and finish

this sideboard joins two other pieces we made
last year for this boathouse on lake george.

for a fascinating description of part of its renovation
here is a link to a blog post entitled
'adventures in underwater construction'

it sits completely in the lake with only a small 'causeway' connecting it ot land

we also made this custom walnut game table with a
compass rose inly

a nice walnut sideboard

we recently finished this mirrored art deco styled bar cabinet, and 

today we got a confirmation of delivery and a nice note... 

this new cabinet was a 'simplified' version of the original cabinet below that we made for another client way, way back in 2009

they are both stained/painted pieces, one with gray mirrors with a back, and the 

original with an open back ... both were fun and challenging projects.

cad  comparison

early stages ... mortises tenons and tapers on the cnc

the openings were filled in with walnut ply, allowing spaces for the mirrors

and some 'speed racks' on the doors ..

installed the grey mirrors and sent it on its way ...

a long pine console

always nice to have someone else do the design work ...

this piece was designed to make use of some pine planks sawn from a blowdown on the client''s property.. the cabine it is going in will be sophisticated, but rustic, and when we figure out how to finish this piece, i am sure it will fit right in .. the metal work design with the

cross bars under tension is an interesting concept .. sure makes things rigid ... 

as we often do, for an unfamiliar concept like this one, we make a full size mockup

to get down the basics

sam made some sweet double threaded connectors for the ends of the rods and

the cap screw that goes through the tapered wedge to apply 

tension to the rods and stiffen up the structure ...

he got some super long brass shavings while doing the drilling on the metal lathe

so here's the full blown mockup with the holes, wedges and capscrews

 

 we did the real drilling today ..

we've got to do some finish samples now and just a bit 

of tinkering with the lengths of the threaded rod, 

screw on the top, and we'll be all set .. updates as we finish up ...

a claro walnut sideboard

final update 6/7 ... ready to go ... click the photos to enlarge them ..

 all in all done ... rolling to north carolina soon ... good job boys ... will on veneers, drawers and finishing, sam on base, and trevor on case work ..

another update 5 29 ... almost ready for finish .. lookin' good

update 5 22

 faces of the drawers  .. inside of the doors

will is working on the faces of the doors and they should be glued up sometime tomorrow.

we're working on a fun one.  we have accumulated a small pile of cutoffs from the 15 or twenty claro walnut tables we've made in the past couple of years and now we've got a use for them.  this client bought our table back in february and it is being used as a desk in a law office down south.  so, next is the credenza and coffee table.  i made the sketch above assuming we would cut the cutoffs up into veneers and use them for the faces of the doors and drawers.  we're just starting that part of the project now, and i hope to have it into some kind of viewable shape by the weekend, when it's vermont open studio again !!!

more on that later.  in the meantime, click the pictures to enlarge them....

case with square pieces of mdf to straighten it up; before we added the back.  there is no face frame, so case stability and the connection to the steel base is paramount. 

here, the assembled case is sitting on a timber strand base mockup to work out the sizes and kinks in that.

and for the top and ends, we got these three incredible 28-30" wide walnut boards from irion lumber.

 

one piece sides about 24" wide and a one piece top, about 25.25" wide

here, we're working out the mdf substrate sizes for the doors and drawer faces.  in the end, trevor cut them back and installed 5/8ths x 5/8ths solid claro edges, which you'll see when the doors and drawers are opened.  it's now on its custom steel base that sam finished last week.

will, slicing up the veneers with out new starrett band saw blades,  mighty sharp!

 a quick mockup of a few of the slices ...

another

inside of the first door ... figuring out the process

ready to glue on ... i think we'll do the last piece of veneer and some butterfly work on the cnc after gluing.

the coffee table is ready to go and patiently waiting ... more later ..