a mahogany slab conference table

this slab has been 'around the shop', looking for a home for a while now and it finally found one recently.  it will be going to a local financial firm, and will be a conference/meeting table 

in their about to be remodeled offices.

as you might imagine, any conference table in 2015 will require lots of wires and power outlets, in fact there will be four cat 5 cables, an hdmi cable, and 3 duplex outlets, all recessed into the bottom of the slab so that there are no holes poking up through it.  we will likely add some small simple wire retainers to support the cords where they loop up and over from below.

some early drawings and revisions of the plan above.

and we made a couple small scale models.  this one is 1" = 1'.

lots of hand routing by trevor as the slab was too big and heavy to go upstairs to the cnc.

the electrical layout

while you can't see it here, there are holes in the bottoms of the hollow legs and the wires will exit through the top of the leg and into the channels to the boxes.  in the end, the table will be bolted to the floor as it is installed and the wires will come in from the cellar below.  we had it 'on its feet' earlier in the week, but i somehow missed that photo opportunity .., we'll try that again later ...

the beautiful music all around us .. stephen wade stops by ....

we had a great event in manchester last wednesday evening.  the verrmont council of the humanities 'first wednesdays' program featured stephen wade, a grammy winning banjo player and music historian.  he is a stunning performer and great story teller.  he spent an hour or so describing his travels through the south, meeting and playing with the old time musicians in the 60s and 70s interspersing the story with song on about 7 or 8 historic banjos from his collection.  naturally, at the end of the show, will needed to buy his book, 'the beautiful music all around us ... field recordings and the american experience'.  more about that book at this link.  while doing that, he struck up a conversation with stephen and his friend sandy, a banjo collector.  next day, wouldn't you know, they showed up at the shop for a visit and to test out a few of will's banjos.  great music, great banjos, and a great time was had by all ...

sandy, with a new one, hot off the press

 

and will plays a tune for stephen ..

see more photos of will's banjos and their construction on his seeders instruments instagram feed.

and speaking of fall in vermont ...

i seem to take the same photos every year .. same but different though. this year it was warm and really dry, and for a while we thought foliage season was going to be actually, a bust.  little did we know that mother nature was just waiting for the tourists to leave after columbus day to hit us with the good stuff.  well, that was tuesday, and every day seems to come on better than the one before.  

below are a few highlights.  

if you are at your desk and not on your phone, click the photos to enlarge them

standard 'backyard pond with japanese maple' photo

a longer range zoom with a little interesting sunlight

 some golf, with occasional rainbows ... it don't get much better than this

 

it's zinnia season

 and tomato season ...

  more to see through the weekend ...

and paddle tennis season starts sunday ... all good ... 

a built in cherry desk

well, long time no blog ... 3 weeks at least ... lots going on here at the end of summer, or should i say the beginning of fall.  i turned the heat on in the shop when i left today.  some in the area had a frost on their windshield this morning.  the light is changing, and the foliage is beautiful.  life is good. particularly since we installed this built in cherry desk this afternoon.  chris has been working on it for a few weeks now, and i'm glad to see it in place in its new home.

click the photos to enlarge them ... 

we started with a drawing and then moved on to the full size mockup below

it is in a bedroom, and the space, while not exactly tight, wanted to not be confining.  hard to tell that on paper so we built the mdf and notched luan mockup, which the clients actually used while we worked on the desk. 

great sun .. great view out the windows ...

the construction was a mix of table joinery and case joinery ...

drawers everywhere .. 10 in total, and chris got a real dovetail workout. 

      

ash boxes with cherry ply bottoms ...

more photos tomorrow when the installation is complete ...

it's a short drive, but a beauty of a drive ..