a rclaimed chestnut table with self storing leaves

this is another edition of our tables with self storing leaves 

we have made a few different styles using this concept.

above it is upside down with the runner guides shown 

and with the leaves stored under the top    

  

all in, ready to go ...right side up with the leaves in

it is now in stowe, vt with the walnut desk in the previous post

the cad drawing

in the shop with the leaves opened

there is another way to store the leaves that you can see

in a fine woodworking article by tage frid 

it is a simpler mechanism, but it depends on the top 'floating'

which is best accomplished on smaller tables

we have used both methods, but the one above,

while more complicated is better suited to larger tables ...

(another) custom walnut dining table

 well, it's saturday, it is snowing pretty hard, the music is good,

 and i am thinking of having a beer .. 

i'm on a roll with the blog posting, two so far, so here's another ...

i've got my beer now .. here we go ...

there is our inspoiration photo from the client, and our first mockup 

using the tooling for the apron we had on hand. the apron knife i used 

was one i had made previously for big cove moldings and pencil trays ..

not perfect!  we had to have a custom knife cut based on a section of an angled oval ...

once the knife arrived, we ran em ... no problemo

we used some nice walnut from irion lumber,

5/4, 6/4, and 16/4 for the legs ... a couple thousand $$ of it .. 

54 x 88 with one 18" leaf ... pretty big table!

next we used what we refer to as our 'holes and pins' jig ... 

it never fails to line everything up

drill bushings from mcmaster-carr

center aligned ... good up to 6' diameter tables

drill one half one way, the other, the other way .. 

one of my handiest jigs ever ...

where was i?  oh yeah, attaching the legs ...

we devised a sort of complicated pair of corner blocks, 

for each corner, pocket screwed to the 6/4 aprons ...

the top and bottom blockes were, in the end, connected with pieces

of 3/4 ply that were later screwed to the vertical square tenon on

the top of the leg. we also included a 2.5" #12 wood screw 

down through the center of the top block.  a very rugged connection

considering the deisgn ...

kristian ran the fluted details on the cnc using a 1/2" round nose bit,

many passes, on 1/16th" centers perpendicular to the center line of the legs

hard to describe til you see it happen .. 

it took about 6 minutes per flute, four flutes per leg

it took 3 tries to get the leg design approved .. i think if you blow this one up

you can see the tool paths on the poplar test piece

so there you have it, upside down, and ....

 right side up ... headed to tampa sometime in early 2022 ...

anothe challenge, for sure!

A mid century modern oval table

ok ... it's been a while here ... almost two months since my last blog post.  but it's not

cause we haven't been doing anything, but rather that we have been too busy ...

 

here's an inspiration photo we got from the client ... we were tasked to simplify

 it a bit, make seating for 8, and then figure out how to build it ... 

from the drawing that i will post later, on the cnc, we cut a mockup mdf

top and an insert for a steel pieces that would attach to

the legs and theoretically make the whole thing strong and stable.

we got that and then just made all the parts from some

 nice walnut from our friends at Irion Lumber

we got it all together, but before we did the finishing, we 

realized that the top was 'shaky' due to the fact that there were no real

'aprons' up by the top to firm the structure up.  sam rolled a simple 

1/4" x 1" piece of steel that firmed things up considerably

good to go ... off to boston ...

an interesting, (and a little challenging), project ...

a custom round dining table with 3 leaves

 

 we delivered this one recently

here it is on site

it is a 60" round with three 15" leaves, in cherry,

with an ebony and maple burl edge inlay ..

this photo shows the layout on the bottom of the table,

runners, stiffeners, and apron attachments.

the leaves, in the end, had center stiffeners not attached yet here

with the base and sub top attached

an ancestor of this table that we first made back

in about 2015 ,,,

cad and cut list

seating layout

another summer project

  this project was a table retrofit for some old friends.  we go back more than 30 years,

but this is the first major project i have done for them.  good things take time to cook.

they have had this table since the beginning, as it came down from Fred's

grandfather a founding partner at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, a world famous

architecture firm founded in Chicago in 1936,

it started its life as a door that was too short for a ceo office in houston's

tenneco building, designed by SOM in the 1960s ...

 

the clients were looking for 'an Arts and Crafts feel' and they liked a

table i made fore some other clients back in 2005.  we did some back and

forth drawing exchanges and settled on the design you see in the first photo above.

there were some challenges ... the clients were looking to 'soften' the edges

and after i sent some samples, we settled on a bullnose design ... the edges of the

door were neither square nor straight so installing the new borders took

some time and effort, and a new $120. router bit ...

then, of course, we had to decide on a stain

and carefully strip the veneered door...

fortunately, it was still summer and i got lucky with a perfect breezy, warm day,

and the original (lacquer?) finish came off without a hitch

that about wrapped it up and off it went to its new life in its new form ...

i am pretty sure it is happier now ,,,

before shot

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