Sail Away

Pete called last night to say he sailed for a while Sunday afternoon. We made a new mast (see posts of May 2nd and 10th) to replace his original non-folding mast, and Sam made a tabernacle, a steel hinge thing like you might see on a flag pole which now allows him to conveniently trailer his sneakbox. It was his first trip out with the tabernacle and new mast in place. .... He was very happy with the whole deal. He lives in Pawlet and was able to trailer up to Lake St. Catherine, sail for a few hours, fold the mast back down, and trailer his boat back home .... He's psyched for a summer of varied location, small boat sailing ... and I'm looking forward to getting out there with him. Click the photos to enlarge them ...

Ready to roll on Saturday afternoon

Halfway down

Close up

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

Progress on the Cockatoo Chairs

The cocatoo chair prototype from my blog post of 6/5

7/1/09 ... Frames welded and arms on ... more tomorrow

Sam is underway on the cockatoo chairs ... It's going well for him. He made a new jig to make the seats all the same and then we had to figure out how to make all the chairs the same. Once he had the main parts made, we took the prototype and built a frame under it, marking the locations of the various parts and correcting the asymmetries of the prototype by averaging distances of parts from vertical and from center. It seems like it worked well as they all look the same to me ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

the main parts

jig from the back

jig from the front ...

And this from our client ... check it out; it's a hoot
http://birdloversonly.blogspot.com/2007/09/may-i-have-this-dance.html

Finished the Walnut Paneled Room (for now)

OK ... We're done here for a while ... The carpenters now have to install the columns, ceiling and ceiling beams and the door and window trim before we can finish the baseboard, the moldings, and the other miscellaneous parts that return into the trim ... Lookin' good ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ... Don't be alarmed by the pink/purple paint .... it's just a primer for a dark rich red trim color ... We still have a desk to finish and a bar cabinet to build, so, ... more later ...

showing the wall opposite the fireplace and the niche where the desk will go

The sliding doors go in the opening to the right which is the entry back to the main house

showing the doors open and ready for the tv

Here I photoshopped tv in place

Banjo Progress

6/27 .. I turned the outside of my banjo pot this afternoon. It only took a little time to get it to this stage ... The apple turns beautifully ... First I turned the ply ring true amd round and then rabbetted the face to make sure that when I glued on the ring, it would run true with the faceplate, and it did ... I want to discuss the interior diameter and the sound ring (the part the head fits against) with Will before I go further but it's starting to feel pretty good .... On to the the neck and fretboard ....

Gotta love that apple ... it's sanded to 32o and it already shines, even with no finish ...

the trued up faceplate and rabbet

gluing the rough pot to the faceplate

6/26/09 ... These 'spare time' projects certainly take a while to get going, but we're creeping along now .... Will's done a lot of research on turning the pots, and I may try mine over the weekend sometime. His is in the foreground, cherry, walnut and bubinga, and mine's in the clamps, apple and walnut ....

6/15/09 Well, Will wants to build a banjo and now I do too ... We got underway today by doing a test glue up of what's known in the business as 'the pot'. It's three bricklaid rings that will be put on the lathe and turned to about 11" in diameter and a half inch thick. Then you put the skin (head) over that with the hardware and attach the neck when you get it finished. I'm absolutely sure there's more to it than that, and it'll take a while, but not likely as long as The Resonator Guitar did last year. We'll shoot for the middle of July for this one ....

Overall shot of the glue up and form for clamping .... still working out the details

Close up ... Click to enlarge ... These rings are mdf .. real wood maybe tomorrow ...
Sample banjo music here ... Goldtown ... at The Barn in Pawlet 2nd and last Fridays of the month ... Will on banjo, AJ Stearns on guitar and vocals, Josh Loun on bass

6/10/09 ... Action on the real thing .... The rings are glued up individually now and we'll glue up the stack tomorrow and attach them to the metal/plywood disc for turning on the lathe tomorrow ,,

all circle parts cut on the cnc...quick and clean ... the pocket jig in the foreground above is for running the parts through the sander to remove the 'skin' that is left after cutting on the cnc ..

Get Your Money's Worth

I've been using Forrest sawblades for a long time ... I always thought they were a good value and now I KNOW for sure they are a good value ... I ordered a new one recently just because I couldn't remember the last time I did. Will unpacked it and said something like "Wow! Look at those teeth." So I pulled a random blade out of the drawer, we probably have 7 or 8 of them, and we compared the old with the new ... The particular one we picked went back to 2001 and has been sharpened 13 times. And, when you buy a new one, they give you money off for the first 3 or 4 sharpenings ... The old one still cuts fine ... Great blade. great company ... Try em, you'll like em ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

Coupons .got a bunch of them with my new blade

Detail shot by my new camera

A Walnut Paneled Room (Update)

Update for 6 /23 ... back tomorrow for more

We put the fireplace/tv surround in place today

Baseboards and moldings tomorrow ...

This is an update from the post of June 14th, entitled the 'Current Big Thing'
6/22/09
Today we delivered and began the installation of a roomful of walnut paneling that we have been working on, off and on, for the last month. We had to wait for the floor to be finished, and it was, last Friday. Picked up a U-Haul today, loaded up and delivered the panels. They fit fine and we were actually able to install all but one of them, for which we needed a router we had left behind in the shop. Back tomorrow, (and probably Wednesday) to finish the fireplace and tv surround, the shelves on the tops of the panels, and the baseboards and moldings. When you're working on a project like this, you always wonder if everything's going to fit the way you planned and today it was nice to find out that it does. It has been an interesting project, both from a design and construction viewpoint. There was an effort to do a really nice job without totally breaking the bank, so we chose walnut veneered mdf for the panel elements and added solid wood edges and moldings to create a look very similar to all solid wood. One benefit of the veneered panels is the match that we were able to create by selecting groups of panels with attractive patterns. We purposely did not order the whole job to be 'sequenced matched' which would have resulted in a similar veneer pattern running completely around the room. We actually used panels from two suppliers to get a variety of veneers though we were able to match the panels on the two long walls, on either side of the fireplace, and on either side of the pocket doors. Click the photos to enlarge them,,,,

Taking the measurements for the shop drawings back in May

Working on the layout and planning the cuts for the panels themselves. The narrow tan strips represent the 4" pieces that create the stiles and rail of the panels when they're assembled. It's sort of a 'preview' feature ....

Gluing up ... It's all preveneered mdf excepot the solid wood moldings. All nicely finished by my neighbor, Steve Holman of Holman Studios ...

On arrival today, we distributed the panels around the room

Cut in for the various boxes and wires

and fastened them in position

Tommorow we'll add the rest of the fireplace surround and mantle shown above, earlier, in my shop ...