Thursday, February 5, 2015

yes, we do repairs

i've always felt that a craftsman should fix stuff.  particularly stuff that is important to people who really like the stuff that is broken.  it might be a family piece, like this one, and have sentimental value, or it could be just a nice piece of furniture with a problem here or there, looking for the good life.  also, as a 
craftsperson, where else are you going to get to work on pieces like this one if you automatically just say
"i don't do repairs"  .. i mean, check this out .. fantastic unrestrained inlay work .. probably 18th century?  definitely english, as its owner is.  anyway, this was an onsite job, particularly enjoyable because we have been discussing fixing it off and on for, literally, years. click the photo to enlarge it.
all done today ... check that one out.  ready for the next hundred years.
we've had a run of repairs lately .. here's a shaker like cabinet that had no pulls, a funky fastener on the latch, a big water streak down the front of it and some shelves inside which we removed and replaced with a rod for hanging clothes.  it's got some charm now.
and how often do you see a paper mache tilt top table?  never knew there was such a  thing.
love the scrap abalone oval, what would you call it?,  an applique?
this one had a painting fall on it .. that broke the paper base where the column screwed in. we also added a new catch where before the hinged block was screwed together so it couldn't flip up
technically, this wasn't a repair.  we just made a new base for the top.  the center of the table is a square of reclaimed french parquet floor.  the real thing!  hand hewn from solid wood, with a clever, rustic, mechanism that changes it from a 44 " square to a 62" round
here you can see the mechanism and the 'hand hewn' nature of the original floor
tah dah!  the top is darker, and the base is lighter, in real life ... overhead florescent lights ..
another nostalgic funky family piece .. had a big crack in the side and back, and the two front feet and one of the back feet were loose and had to be removed and reset.
haven't seen it yet with all the drawers.  only one drawer needed work
and this piece ... holy moly !  braziliab rosewood danish modern, damaged in shipping.  another onsite repair
cool piece ..
loved the interior bar detail and and way they cut the doors with the angles on them..
only the left one is open enough to see that.
better now, not perfect, but better
and we recently did six of these .. removing worn out brass casters on the front legs,
and turning new balled feet for the front legs
this is the connector from the trestle table below

as you can see in the photo below, the wedge grounded out on the edge of the hole before the table tightened up.  we squared up the inside edge and made new wedges.  it's solid as a rock now.
we also added a foot to each end to make it a 12' table
and we're working slowly on the doors below ... engineering a frame to hang them .. interesting challenge. they are too short, and too wide for the hole.  i have a plan ...
and we've got a very cool 12 foot walnut table going too .. more on that later

almost forgot this one ... it had a very clever sliding dovetail joint between the back leg and the 1/2" thick top rail.  had to trim off one side and reglue .. should be fine .. it's part of a daily use kitchen set ..


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