update on the 60" claro slab

all in, all done ... i had to take pictures of this one three different times before i finally got it right, but it was worth it ... this is a really wide piece of walnut and it's kind of unlikely i'll get one like it again. click the photos to enlarge them ...
you can see a little more of the base here ...
and in this shot, some of the natural defects (ant trails) that we left in the finished piece ...
and here's the photo from my supplier, good hope hardwoods, that i sent to the potential client to seal the deal.
and here is sam's fabricating/welding jig that he used when building the trapezoidal shapes for the base verticals ... those he connected with 2.5" angle iron which gave us a rigid, independent base structure which we will remove for shipping ...
this table top had some miles on it before we finished, and it was no picnic to move it .. it started in california somewhere, went to pennsylvania, to dorset and the woodshed at my house, moved to the garage, from there to the shop for final smoothing and sanding, and then to the finish room on a special cart we built to get it out the door .. going down the 2' high 8' long ramp from the front steps of the shop was 'thrilling'.
across the driveway was a piece of cake comparatively ... jim is actually on tiptoes here ...
and here you can see the cart and the more relaxing ramp into the finish room ...
where it went through it's usual paces ... off to aspen this week, or maybe el paso first.

amaryllises

on my way to the cookie jar last night, i was struck by a stunning plant that kit had placed on the kitchen counter yesterday ... i marveled at it during dinner though the full drama didn't hit me until the house was darker and the lighting was more dramatic ... it's one of 3 or 4 amarllyis bulbs that a friend gave her a few years back ... she dutifully puts them 'in the dark' once a year and they dutifully respond by doing what you see here in the photo above ... occasionally we will even get one with four large blooms at the same time ... click the photos to enlarge them

8 24 .. ok ... now we have three of the four blooms open

a dozen big ones

in case you are not familiar with it, the guild of vermont furnituremakers has a blog going also. i hadn't posted anything on the guild blog for a long time as i have been too busy with my own and it's summer. i recently wrote the post below there to 'sum up' the run of big tables we have been making in the last few months. i have included the appropriate links to each of our posts with the photos below. at those links, you can see more photos and process comments on each piece.

in the last three months,we've had the opportunity to build a somewhat amazing series of large tables, and, since i have all the photos organized, i thought it might be nice to collect them in one place so here they are ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

this is a 10 footer we delivered to stowe last week. (7/30) it has our standard 'shaker style' steel base that we offer in 'natural' steel, the 'blackened finish' above, and a 'rainbow' finish, which is kind of unpredictable, but generally 'bronzy' in color.

this is a view of the base routed into and bolted to the bottom of the slab top ... we have the steel pieces waterjet cut from 1.5" plate steel and then we drill, tap, grind, polish and finish them ...

and here is a desk with a 'secret' compartment and our new 'trapezoid' steel base with a 'natural' finish in 1.5 x 3" tubing ... 44 x 66 x 29 high.

cool view from the end ..

and a secret compartment, accessed using this folding brass, sam made, tool in it's own 'secret' compartment.  currently it's on view and for sale at the art and industries show in housatonic, mass.

this 40" x 12' table went to the chicago area about 3 weeks ago (4 or 5 weeks by now) and also arrived at its destination last week.

it had a new for us, 'expresso finish', which was expertly top coated with magnamax lacquer by steve holman of holman studios, another guild of vermont furniture makers member.
here's one that went to london this past spring ... we crated it up with the legs disassembled and arranged flat on the bottom of the crate and shipped it via truck to an international agent in new york city. it arrived about 20 days later and costs only a little more than it would cost to have shipped it to say, seattle. pretty amazing ...

and this one we made for our show at the southern vermont art center back in february. it sold
at the show and is now happy in its new home in guildford, connecticut.

this was an unusal one that we made back in may. the slab was split completely into two pieces when we bought it with the slab for our show, above, so we got a deal on it ... will and trevor stitched it back together with about 20 butterflies, most on the top, some on the bottom ... good as new .. this table has a base with polished 5/8ths" rebar, a funky new thing we have been fooling with. it's currently with six chairs trolling for clients at the vermont visitors center in guilford on route 91. no takers yet.

this is what the slabs look like when we buy them on the internet ... the client gets to see them (sort of) before we buy them ... #3 here is currently in the shop being turned into a 9' table, headed to the boston area next week now that it too is finished.

so far, so good

ok .. all finished now ... we had to move it to the garage so we could finish and photograph the 60" wide slab detailed below. i was pleasantly surprised by what a good photo studio the garage can be ...

i was able to sit on almost the top step of the stairs to the upstairs of the garage and shoot down on the table top. something i've not been able to do anywhere else. it's a nice perspective that also minimizes the reflections ...

and now, the widest one yet ... +/- 63" wide in the rough, cut to 60 x 96 ...

the boys are at it here with the 3.5" makita power planers ... it's a noisy, tedious job ..

and here it is, in my garage ( the shop is kind of crowded right now) on the mocked up 'trapezoid' base ... it has to be all finished and on its way to aspen at the end of next week (8/14) ... it's gonna be tight ...

finished now (8/20)... time for the formal picture later today ...

 probably we should have brought in the professionals to shoot this one.

tough photo ... big table ... little background paper .... hard to get everything in focus ... GREAT piece of wood though ... 60" wide ... amazing

and we've done three coffee tables too with 'smaller' slabs .. i think this one was 38 x 54" ... you can see the other two at this blog post ... and this one

and then, for one of our original claro table customers who came to us back in 2010, we made this unusual (for us) 3' x 11' copper clad table ... the copper is glued to a thick wood base and then nailed on with 1'5" copper slate nails whose heads jim gently beveled with a drill on the edge sander ... we have a 40 x 60 coffee table version in the shop, awaiting the liver of sulphur patina ...

the base is reclaimed, distressed oak with a gray paint finish

if, after all this, you'd like to see more of our claro walnut pieces, here's a final link that will give you access to the whole 'category' and some of the other tables we have made in the past three or four years..

whew! long post ... time for a guinness ...
8/12/2012 .. ahhh, forgot the one below definitely another 'large table' ... 4' x 8'

our blog post link here

 set up temporarily in the shop yesterday for a final 'test run' ...

 for the test run, we used a piece of blue felt left over from another project so we can stretch the real camel color felt only once when we install it next week ... and, we've got another pool table coming up next month ... lots of stuff here ... thanks for sticking with me if you made it to the end ...

sheldon slate, granville, new york

while working on the designs for the custom kitchen we started this week, our client and i went to visit a local slate fabricator, sheldon slate, in middle granville, new york. it's about 15 miles up the metawee valley through the corn and over the border ... who knew?

what a place !!! that's a 90" diamond saw blade spinning at about, oh, i don't know, 2000 rpm?, slicing through about a 3' x 4' block of slate, 3/4 of an inch at a time, cutting both ways .... click the photos to enlarge them ..

a view from the side ... we're sawing very unusual red slate today ... twice as hard, twice as much breakage, twice as much waste, twice as expensive ...

but oh my, maybe twice as beautiful ... these are pretty big pieces, like 66" x 57", and the rain made them just glow ...

you gotta love the scale of these tools. i think it was about 10' between the uprights on this bandsaw.  our tour guide, gary, told us sometimes the blocks are so heavy they can't pick them up off the huge dump trucks they come in on from the quarry and they just back the truck into the mill, cut em in half right on the truck, then drive it back out and unload ...

the view out the back door there looks over part of the quarry and south to haystack and home ...

and out the other door, the acres of inventory

including a little roof slate, like maybe 500 square or so ..

loved it, and i didn't have my camera for the first half of the tour where we visited the honing/planing/milling section ... more big tools ...
we were there to look at the available colors and give them a heads up that we would need some pretty big counters ... the one on the right will require a piece about 6' wide and 7' long with some angles, sink and faucet holes and a custom made 42 x 21 x 12" deep matching slate sink. the one on the left, about 50" x 100" ... no problem ... just bring your checkbook ... more on the kitchen soon ...
we're underway, site check today ....