readers

now that I no longer have to keep three employees busy anymore

I have been a bit lax in my blogging for the last year or so. 

 as I finished the previous post about an art deco sideboard, out of

curiosity, I clicked on the 'stats' page … it has changed since the

last time I looked when it showed 30 day visits and you had to manually 

enter dates to view total page visits

here's where we are as of September 6th …

 one million, seven hundred seventy three thousand, eight hundred and forty five page views!!!

so, thank you readers.  I hope you have enjoyed your visits here,

and I am flattered by your attention.  I will keep writing occasionally, but

certainly not like I did from 2010 to 2014 when I was trying to share and document 

everything I did so I could remember the process and explain how we did things both 

to my employees who maybe weren't here for a particular project, or were 

working on something else, and also so as I aged, I could remember 

how things were done my own self.

as I look back through the 900 some blog posts, I am amazed and honored

at the number and variety of complex and rewarding projects our clients

have allowed us to create … 

Onward we go!

steel base for a slab table post 36,401 views

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a custom stair rail

just before christmas we installed the final sections of 

this custom stair rail a local clients house. 

we have been working with this client for, literally, years ... 

we made seme nice cherry shelves when my brother in law was

redoing the masonry of the fireplaces, and then a few years back we made

a nice cherry bar ... here's a link to that project

and after that we made four new vanities, also in cherry ...

 

we talked about replacing the existing stair rail for 

quite a while, and i made several sketches and drawings, 

finally settling on the tapered 3/8th steel spindles we had 

cut by wayne jones metal shop and his cnc plasma cutter.

from the cad drawing we made some full size mdf templates 

that we checked and adjusted (slightly), on site

since they were to be finished with a custom powder coat by

r&b powder coat in poultney, vt

we test fitted them before the powder coat, which

turned out to be a good plan in one case ... 

anyway, the finish was beautiful.

it was a 'translucent' powder finish which meant the

fabrication marks were still somewhat visible giving the 

railing more of a 'handmade' look.

we made the handrails in the wood shop and installed the last sections the day
before the clients arrived for the holidays .. nip and tuck ...

june

where does the time go?  it's almost the first day of summer !!

since my last blog post on may 22nd we have been ripping through

lots of projects including some that were in the works a month ago.

below is a sample of some of the more interesting ones

a nice walnut coffee table .. 40 x 60 x 18 with two drawers

a beautiful job on a king size cherry pencil post bed by trevor

first time running the pencil posts and mortises on the cnc

safe and perfect .. gold star for trevor

 and i got some time in on the lathe for the finials .. 

first time i turned anything in  quite a while ... 

kinda like riding a bicycle, but not quite ... i'm a little rusty ...

 and the metal shop has been particularly busy the last couple of weeks

sam installed this railing high above lake george today .. 16' 7" long ..

and he made some parts for another railing before this one .. 

same  builder, different house

lots of parts

lots of railing too

and tyler did 5 repairs the week before last ..

this chair was a family heirloom and needed some love

like some new front rail tenons

tah dah .. ready for another hundred years

and the cutest little chair about 18" high ... 

it needed a disassemble, reglue and polish 

and we installed vanities 3 and 4 on the vanity project

chris has become the resident vanity expert .. 

danby imperial on site now by bennington marble and granite

ready for plumbing by GSK climate control this week

and we picked up the 'thoreau cabin project' bed from sandy sherman chair caning yesterday

beautiful job by tyler and sandy

and today tyler and i finished the reproduction rocker for the cabin ..

though i have made a lot of windsors over the last 40 years, this one was

the first in this style and the first windsor in about 15 years

talk about rusty for sure .. 

quite the four weeks ...

march

well, i realized yesterday a whole month has passed without a new blog post.

first time in over 10 years ... sign of the times, i suppose.  70 is not the new 50.

we have been busy though .. actually busier than usual, which in some ways is nice .

below is a parade of projects from this month and a little bit of february .. 

cherry vanity and mirror #1

cherry vanity #2 .. had to replumb from 1 sink to two

and we also had to decide how tall the mirror should be

we had to assemble it onsite because it wouldn't make the turn on the stairs

tahdah, in place ...

next was a built in reading bench

a ply case with dovetailed drawers

testing the function

built in ... awaiting cushions

also, a couple of items for a client's pool room .. above a plaque to mount the lights on

sam made brackets to hold the 15' counter up

the 15' walnut counter

driving south in the snow

installed

the walnut game table with the edge inlay

and with the center inlay

your basic old fashioned veneer press

glued in an leveled with some alcohol on it

the base has a tapered hexagonal center column
it's all finished now, but i missed the pacture and it's wrapped now.

 and sam made some steel brackets and we made some barnboard shelves

 and a 12' bench for a local client

with a fine slab of curly maple

3/16/18 ... down to 16 projects that week

 an oak table using the client's antique legs earlier in the month

40" x 7'

back up to 23 projects in the works this week ...

and currently we are wrapping up this custom kitchen island in natural cherry

counted them today ... 67 pieces

it is disassembled and in the finish room now ...

hope to ship that out one on tuesday ... verde antique top coming 42 x 60

and somewhere there we squeezed in a butternut cremation urn

and we repaired this beautiful old oval table this week.

i dropped it off today.  it was sloped about 2" due to the broken leg when i picked it up

we reglued the cracked leg

rebuilt the dovetail and shimmed it

reinforced the glue joint under the new ebony veneer

added a new copper spider

good to go

and sam made this cute little stand for a friends glass panel

black powder coat finish

 and next week i'll be taking a little trip to boston to drop off these steel

benches, visit some friends and play a little indoor badminton. 

something i haven't done for 50 years now ...

i am looking forward to that

 

original equipment, 1968

and i will be totally glad when this snow goes .. this is from last thursday

when we got about 12 inches on top of a foot already on the ground.

we are just starting to see some grass now ... crocuses before too long ...

i am ready for spring.