a reclaimed chestnut and steel dining table

we finished this one a while back, but we are going to use the base design
in a couple of new projects coming up soon ... 

the table base is essentially 2.5" square tubing, with welded caps on the bottom to
accept small adjustable levelers .. the original design was wood, but
the clients for the matched tables above wanted to incorporate some of sam's steel work.

cad drawing for the chestnut table .. very straightforward ...

base alone .. tubing plus angle iron

we'll be making a curly maple table about 34 x 78, and probably at the same time,
 a base for this new mahogany plank that arrived recently from
our friends at irion lumber 
  ... +/- 42 x 120 .. and available .. will cut to suit

nice one!

beginning of the smoothing process .. looks kind of cool like this, actually

The Chandelier Project

We made a nice big recycled chestnut table for a client back in January and since then, they have acquired a very appropriate chandelier to hang over it ... The fixture was meant, I think, to hang a bit higher overhead, as the builder left the wires and ends of the tubes exposed. In this instance, however the wires were eye level and in your face so my client's design assistant called us in for help ... It was a challenge first to imagine how to cover them and then to actually do it. We all thought it came out pretty good though ... We were even able to kind of match the funky finish on the rustic fixture once we bought a new toy to help us .. Click the photos to enlarge them ....

The fixture with the new piece on it

The 'before' shot

In process before the first test fit and onsite routing

Will, operating our new toy, a 500,000 ??? btu torch, with which he toasted the fir to get the black, irregular surface on the finished piece ... Essentially, you get some flames going a little... (they die out when you move the torch away), sand the results and add the stain and finish ... presto ... old looking wood ... I imagine it works best on softwoods like fir, with flammable sappy wood .. The torch was handy on another project already too, blackening some piano hinges for the big tv cabinet ... update on that later

The finish sample on a cut off of the recycled fir plank

Project Parade

The last 10 days have been a whirlwind of activity in and out of the shop ... We finished up several projects that have been in the works for a while, started and finished a few new ones, and I have generally been too busy to write much about them individually. It just poured and Bill L and I canceled our golf date, so I'm taking a minute to try and get some stuff down here ... Lots to see .... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

We completed the last of the trim and returns on the walnut paneled room a week ago Thursday

Yesterday I took some furniture to Brattleboro for an upcoming show by the Guild of Vermont Furnituremakers at Gallery 2, Vermont Artisans Designs on Main Street there. I had a nice curly redwood console table that Sam, Jim and I whipped up last week, a piece for Steve Holman, of Holman Studios and a desk and a bed for Bill Laberge. In all, I think there will be over twenty pieces representing the work of members of the guild. The show opens next Friday ... more on that later.

Furniture and Fine Art ... good combo

A week ago Friday I finished the slate on the first side of the roof of our new woodshed ...

This past week we made and gilded a frame for a giclee of an NC Wyeth painting. Will, and Anne, (of Wood and Signs), did the gilding and it will go to The Image Loft in Manchester for John Conte to install the painting, maybe tomorrow ... We made a similar frame for the same print last year for this client's brother ...

Discovered (after a visit by a friend who works at the Met) that it's possible a chest we have been doing some cleaning and restoration work on (post fire) may have been in the client's family for over 300 YEARS !! Unbelievable !

Finished the cockatoo chairs ... delivery to Boston Tuesday

Flock of cockatoos on the bench .. Painting by Sam ...

Finished a recycled chestnut dressing table, bench and tilting mirror for the walnut room client. The mirror was unable to attend for the photo ...

Cut one of the big walnut slabs to make a wall mounted console

More on this piece later

Finished the zebra wood tables ... sweet!

Finished the custom bookcase and delivered it

Will and I made some progress on our banjos ... (Previous post)

Fretboard and peghead next

And started work on 4 lounge and 2 rocking chairs for a porch in Newton ...

Finished the Chestnut Table

Finished the table Thursday on the way out the door for the weekend ... It leaves for Connecticutt, Wednesday morning ...

7/1/09 update

Will and Jim sanding the second coat of stain .. The client decided to go with all stained chestnut, no paint on the base ... It's going to look sharp

Ready for the seal coat tomorrow
6/26/09
We're in the finishing process ... still work with the clients on the possible colors ( or not) on the base. the top color has been decided and that's set to go now ... We're debating a wash coat of paint, with more or less stain showing through .... click the pictures to enlarge them ....

Proposed paint samples for the legs and aprons

2nd coat of stain .. Lockwood aniline dye

The first coat of understain is sanded and ready to go ...
6/21/09
By the end of the day Friday, we had most of the construction and joinery completed .... Tomorrow we will cut the center legs and fit them up and then disassemble the whole thing for final sanding and glue up. Click the pictures to enlarge them ,,,,

Table top glue up

Handscraped and sanded ... Breadboard end stub tenon detail

Gluing up the two tenoned half rings ...

All together now .. 4:00 pm, Friday ... Trevor, doing his best 'Stayin' Alive' imitation before heading out for the weekend ...

Original post below

Close up of the original table base ...

We're making more and more pieces using recycled chestnut. It's a 'green' material, being that's it's timber recycled from old buildings, and, though I sometimes wonder about all the trucking that has to happen to get it to me from West Virginia, still, I feel good about it, people like it, I like using it, and it makes wonderful furniture. This table is more or less a copy of one we made in 2003 for my friends Susan Sargent and Tom Peters. It's a little wider than theirs, same length, and I think it will be all chestnut, no paint. It's an interesting table to build. Luckily, we have some handwritten notes from Ethan Verner, the last guy to carve legs like this in the shop. We don't do them often, but we've got it figured out now so it goes along pretty good when we do. Will's carving these and he's really got the hang of it now. More later as we progress.... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

Laying out the spiral carving divisions using string and nails

First leg carved

Most of them done; top roughed out in the background ...

First page of notes from mahogany carved leg table 2004 ... I think Will used the saw on the first one, but then switched to carving directly with a freshly sharpened 1/2" veiner ('V' shaped chisel) (chizzle) ...

Page 2

Update on the Recycled Chestnut Table

11/30/09 ... We recently went back to visit this table and do some remedial work on a new light fixture that hangs over it now ... Lookin good if I do say so myself ....

home stretch ... delivery Friday ....

hand applying the varnish finish

Update on the new custom dining table coming up here. This post is getting to be a long one, but tomorrow we're ready to start the finishing ... Click the photos to enlarge them ..

Will glued up the base yesterday. First, he put the first coat of water stain on so he could sand the legs on the lathe before gluing them up. The runners went on today and it was kind of interesting. Because of the 30" inside dimension of the aprons we couldn't use our normal 2.5" high extension runners so we ordered some extra section, short, 2" high ones from Moin Hardware. These folks are very knowedgeable and when I described my problem, she suggested I use a set with extra length which is kind of counterintuitive I admit, but she explained that the sections would not then be fully extended and thus more rigid, and, with the extra sections, we could add a center leg if we needed it to one of the non moving sections.

There are no aprons becuase we wanted to be able to push the arm chairs under so we have added thin stiffeners to prevent warping.

Jeremy is putting all the screws in the runners before....

Trevor does the 'dancing (or meditating) on the table' test...impressively, negligible, very slight sag .... it should hold the turkey OK ...

As is usual with recycled wood, we had a crack or two to stablize with butterfly keys

glued up the panels yesterday ... 1/23

Scraped and cut them to shape today (funky late afternoon color above)

Pins and leaf cuts Monday

The legs and the lumber .... 1/22 ... The two on the left are hand turned and sanded and the two on the right are as they come off the Vega duplicator if both the cutter and the operator are nice and sharp.

Will, cleaning up the turnings by hand

1/15 New custom dining table coming up here. We finalized the designs early last week and the wood arrived today from my friends at Appalachian Woods "a premier provider of reclaimed antique lumber" in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, and, I might add, especially speedy on this order ... I have been getting recycled chestnut from them off and on for several years now and this latest load did not disappoint ... We just got it today and haven't milled any of it yet, but it appears bright and clean with just the 'right' amount of worminess. It's stacked in the finish room to acclimate for a while until we finish the projects were working on ... won't be long though before we get started on it ...

The table is a 64" diameter expanding round with leaves and it's loosely based on a rectangular expanding farm style table we made for another client a few years ago ....

Plan view closed

Plan view with leaves

The chestnut including turning stock for the legs ... The inspection dog is checking the lumber for edibles...

Inspiration table ... Half of a 23'6" table we made for another client ... This table 36" wide, hooks onto this table, also " 36 " wide