Matching A Table Leaf

Surprisingly, we've got a lot going on right now ... We're about to start a large entertainment center that has required some intensive design work, we're finishing up a couple of other small projects, doing some repairs , switching from tennis to paddle tennis season, and chopping the last of the firewood for the winter. One of our smaller projects was to make a new leaf for a table we made about 5 years ago ... Our client has two houses and he decided to switch dining tables, moving the larger table to his main house. He bought the table below back when I had piecess in a local gallery and that table had only one leaf. In it's new spot, two leaves would be more useful so he had us duplicate the original leaf. Click the photos to enlarge them ...

The room before the switch

The original table in that room

With the 'new' table ..
When we did this 'house full of furniture' project in 2003, I was just discovering the work of Charles and Henry Greene. While never one to make slavish reproductions, I found their work interesting, challenging and inspiring on many levels. Still do .... So, this particular room has mostly G&G inspired detailing, but surprisingly, when I switched out the tables, the new table did not feel completely out of place ... The hanging lantern over the table is still one of our favorite pieces. The whole room though is in the middle of the house and is IMPOSSIBLE to photgraph effectively. Someday, I might have to call in the professionals ...

Testing the fit and pin locations of the new leaf, seen on the right with the first coat of finish ..

This picture shows the understructure of the table that allows te table to expand to 8' with only a single pedestal ... We've made other central pedestal tables like this using this Hafele hardware and we're always surprised what you can get a way with ... Biggest one so far with a single pedestal opens to almost 10' ...

We did the routing for the original inlay by hand, but Trevor did the new leaf on the cnc ... beautiful tool pathing ...

The burl inlay itself is a series of equal triangles, cut and fitted to lines drawn on the wood below .. Faster than using the cnc ...

He then lined it up with the old leaf, put masking tape on the old leaf to mark the pin centers and drilled for the pins with our old doweling jig ...

It lined up really well and at this point we took it for the prefit ... I've got some detail photos of other furniture in the room and I'll post them later ...

Looking up into the lantern

Greene & Greene Style Sideboard Construction Details

I'm a member of a Yahoo Newsgroup, fans of the work of the architects Charles and Henry Greene. Two of the recent posts were requests for information regarding construction of a sideboard similar to one I am currently working on. For more information on that project scroll down to the post below. The first request was regarding the details of the post and panel ends of the sideboard and the second was regarding the fabrication of Greene & Greene style drawer pulls. In the pictures and drawings below, you can find relatively detailed information regarding both processes. Click the pictures to enlarge ... The exquisite figured cherry, all from the same log is from Irion Lumber in Wellsboro, PA ... 200 board foot minimum, but shipped right to your door ... Ask for Myron .... Tell him Dan sent you ....


Leaving for Greenwich Tuesday AM 5/6/08

Close up of the shop made hinges and pulls
Making the hinges ...

My son Sam made the hinges by cutting down some 2 x 2 blank hinges that we bought from SSS Steel Supply and welding on the shaped long leaves. He then heated them in the gas forge and chased the detail line around the outside edges while they were hot. We then heated and finished them with a linseed oil and beeswax coating, and lastly, created the 1/8" offset by bending the long leaf cold to acommodate the stepping face frame, one of our signature construction details.

Hinges in the gas forge prior to finishing

Cold bending the 1/8" offset.
Clamp is tightened to offset the long leaf on a 45 degree angle.

Waiting for the hardware ... Pulls are done .. hinges will be finished very soon ...


CAD elevation of the the front and end of the cabinet

Detail of the layout for rabbeting and mortising legs of the cabinet

Detail of the end post and panel joinery

Top view showing end panel attachment to case after gluing up
The front frame is glued to the case first
Drawer Pulls

Side view of the pulls installed

Elevation, plan view and back side of the pulls .. 4/19/2012 ... i see this post has made it to the otp of my 'most popular' list ... i am adding a link here to a blog post i wrote shortly after this one that more thoroughly explains the steps to make these pulls ...

The sketch above shows the production process using a router table and curved fence. For safety, we tend to start with wider stock (6-8") and rip off a pull at a time and then the pulls are all from the same piece of wood. If you need more detailed instructions, email me, as I have written out very detailed instructions for my employees.

May 8th After several requests for the details, they are now in a post above dated May 6th .....