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 ....

7 28 2012 ... action!

well, what's happening here this past week you ask? where to even start? it's a busy time and there is a lot going on. click the photos to enlarge them ...

our main project for the past two weeks has been the pool table above, in walnut and blistered maple, with some burl and mother of pearl accents. it's a standard 8 footer, and the drawing below is a modified version of a table we built about 10 years ago for a local client.
that one had tapered legs but this client requested straight onesthere are a lot of parts and steps and assembling and disassembling that go into making a pool table and the selection above shows most of them in the rough. the 3 piece slate, the 16 pieces for the legs, the rails, the panels, on and on ..
we started with a plywood leg mockup for size and colors and moved on, a step at a time to the photo at the top of the page ... even after 14 other tables, we still follow the steps outlined in a very excellent fine woodworking article by paul bowman from fine woodworking issue #75.we're on the home stretch. will will finish the mother of pearl inlays tomorrow and start on the blinds, and trevor will glue the inlays into the legs once the frame is disassembled. actually, trevor will do that after he returns from delivering the 10' claro walnut table above to stowe with jim tomorrow.classic design, with our shaker inspired blackened 1.5" thick steel legs ...
and terrific grain and figure in the top ... this slab is from the same log as the expresso finish table we recently shipped to chicago.
and will finished up banjo #11.

it was a surprise birthday present to sarah from her husband john and it was REALLY a surprise.

they are nusician friends of will's and john said they were going to 'stop by' to see will and tour the shop. at the end of the tour, will showed them the new banjo he had just finished. when she asked who it was for and told him how 'perfect' the inlays were, john told her it was for her and she said 'yeah, right'. perfect. she was surprised.
and next saturday, the 2nd annual 'vermont artists show' opens in town. last year it was a great show and this year i'm sure will be equal to it or even better. we've got a small claro coffee table
with a rainbow finish steel base that we will wrap up in time for the delivery later this week coming up.
and we've got a kitchen commission in the design stage. next up are the full size cardboard plan views to be checked on site before we begin. the wood arrived this week and we will start cutting it up as soon as the pool table goes to the finish room ... we've got about 6 weeks to finish it and install it with its friend the kitchen island we wrapped up back in may.
and will finished the reclaimed oak bench/settle that's been in the works for a couple weeks. looks great and it will be off to the upholsterer's shop to be measured for cushions shortly. and this past week, a first, the 'owner built table'. paul kelly, a teacher at our local high school, commissioned a table with wood that he had bought locally and then asked if 'he could help' with its construction. well, i knew he was a clever guy and a friend, and thought, why not ... it turned out to be a pleasure for everyone in the shop and we especially enjoyed having connor and ryan around to help with the heavy lifting. great kids, and it took me back to my early days in the shop with sam and will occasionally 'helping out'. paul dubbed it the 'father and son' table and even caught a shot of me and will doing the final inspection before it left for the finish room.
it's a classic 'bethlehem steel' design with two book matched planks that we swapped end for end to make a less tapered top. we put a small bevel on the planks before we glued them up and the sap wood made a pleasing design in the center.
and trevor figured out how to make a 5" thick slice of white oak 4" thick for an upcoming boston project that sam will make a metal base for ...
as soon as he adds the arms to these metal porch chairs for a client in peru.  not that peru, peru, vermont. i liked the design so much, i commissioned sam to make a one armed version for our own porch. the cushions will be finished this week ...
i was thinking of adding a wood arm over the steel, but i kind of like the negative space and the fact that it isn't connected to the back structure. maybe just a small wood arm with room for a beer holder .. we'll see ....
and we had some rain and the local (end of the driveway) chanterelle patch is producing again ... these wild mushrooms go great with most anything, from salmon, to eggs, to meat loaf ... can't beat 'em.
summer's great in vermont ... all for now ...

It's A Wrap

the big island is in its new home ... after a month or so of awaiting finish sample approvals and then actually doing the finishing, delivery and assembly, we're done ... it was nip and tuck getting it out the front door, but we got it, and, it looks great on site, perfectly proportioned to it's new room, which is, actually, quite a bit larger and at present, emptier than our shop ... it was a challenging and engaging project on a lot of levels and i look forward to seeing it with the appliances, sink and granite as well as the rest of the furnishings for the room in place ... onward ...

click the photos to enlarge them ...
from the dining room side ...
the piece is lightly distressed at the early stages of the finishing and we sanded the broken edges a little more aggressively than usual as the finishing progressed, creating highlights on the corners and a 'softness' than is often found on well used antiques.
carry it in ... set it down ... perfectly level over the entire 16', both ways ... we jacked the shop floor up to all level before we started because, having worked with this builder for almost ever, we knew it would be this way ... with the design as it was, there was no place for shimming anyway ... all good ....
here trevor is installing the steel granite overhang support. it's 1 x 3 x 1/4" rectangular tubing stiffened with the box beam cross pieces visible in the photo below.
the finish schedule was a variation of our typical finish process using lockwood dyes, minwax fast dry polys, gel stains and wiping polys. see more finishing posts here ...
we made a couple different sample boards before we got what we wanted ... i can't remember the last time we used stained quartered white oak for a piece and i'm pretty sure we haven't ever done a distressed, stained version of it before ... i'm happy with the results. on the sample we gel stained before the seal coat which, in my opinion, requires a longer dry time before the top coats and is slightly harder to manipulate on the unsealed wood ... next time i would do as we regularly do and seal the second coat of stain in before applying the gel layer. it was a big finishing project and took a long time but as in cooking, what step/ingredient would you leave out? in my 30+ years of experience and research, there are no shortcuts to a deep rich finish, only many, many steps ... ask the experts ...

there are a few earlier related posts for this project at the links below ...
turning the columns
getting it all together, attaching the columns and cornice support structure
finish process and delivery photos

The Big Island

12/23/10 ... We worked for half a day today, assembling the big panel and final fitting the steel, box beam parts and the 16' face board ... except for completing the half round moldings and the shadow piece below it on the long board, the island is ready to final sand, disassemble and finish ... just in time for party time .... Long weekend coming up ...
In this picture, you can see that we've installed a few of the oak crosspieces (more to go but we ran out of time and long lags) that make up the box beam, (see note below) that stiffens the steel, that straightens the 16' oak piece, that supports the overhanging granite ... It's all connected and rigid as can be ...
Panel glue up ... we didn't have any 15' clamps but this system worked just fine ...

Update 12 21 2010 .... We worked out straightening and supporting the 16' oak face board on Friday afternoon and today we disassembled the cabinet and jointed, planed and sanded the long stock for the big back panel. We had made some matching dollies last week that will allow us to reassemble the cabinet on wheels to check the length and the fit of the miters on the long pieces before we begin the finishing process. The plan originally was to finish it on site after delivery, but now after we make some finish samples later this week, it's likely that we will do the finish here before delivery ... The concept is 'slightly distressed, warm, red-brown, darker than the medium red brown reclaimed oak flooring'. It's going to look sharp ... click the photos to enlarge them ..
We've got a 1/8" wall, 1 x 3, piece of rectangular steel tubing screwed to the column tops to support the granite counter where it overhangs the cabinet back by 13". There will be 6 connecting pieces of 2" oak that will be bolted through the cabinet backs and the big panel, into the steel that will create a sort of 'box beam' to stiffen and straighten the whole structure ... I love rectangular tubing for it's inherent strength and straightness ... I could stand in the middle of that 15' span now and the tubing would only deflect a little. With the bolted cross blocks and support of the oak face board, it will be more rigid than necessary .. Simple, quick, strong, efficient ... All good ...
Here's the set up for straightening the boards .. you can see on the left how 16' pieces of quartered oak go through the drying process. They don't like to stay all that straight. Rather than try to straighten the long boards on the shorter jointer, we set up a 16' mdf straight edge and screwed it to a chalk line on the back sides of the boards. Then we cut the straight line using a skilsaw ... Slick ... one pass ...
The center piece sliding out for dis assembly this morning ...
Trevor and Jim surfacing the 16' lumber ...
The cabinets nested by the bandsaw ... It turned out the only thing we had to open the door for was to run the boards through the wide belt sander ... Good to go ...

Updated images 12/12/2010 ...
If you've been following this post, I'll write more later ... This post has been removed from typical chronological order by request of the client .... I'll continue to update it though as we progress .... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Friday we put the pieces all back together and brought in the 16' lumber for the back side ... We had to sort of use our imagination as to how things worked themselves out between the turned columns there... There's a dishwasher on this side and cabinets with regular toes paces on the other side ... How to make it all work ... I think we've got it here ... Tomorrow we'll start the long panels and the long undercounter face board on the other side.. We're planning to put all the cabinets on dollies until we deliver so we can get the 16' stuff through the table saw, jointer and planer ...
12/8/2010
Well, I wish I was on the big island in Hawaii, particularly after last night's snow, but I'm not ... I'm here in my shop and we're building a big island in quartersawn oak ... 16' x 4' ... 8 turned, 6" diameter, 3/4 columns , with a granite top. It's a big one, but fairly straightforward once you understand what's happening and get it all laid out. We do have to move it when it's finished however, so there has been some thought that has gone into that. This will be a longish post as some of us have been working on this off and on for a couple of weeks, but, except for a brief moment when we put the three main cases together to check the final dimensions two weeks ago, it's been just a bunch of pieces stacked here and there throughout the shop. We got it all together again today and you can click the photos to enlarge them as I work my way through it .... The photos at the top shows the working side of the island. Above is a view of the end panel without its cornice. The cornice has a bead molding about 2" up from the bottom and we will use the dado for that to attach the cornice by screwing through under the molding to the supporting framework you see in this photo ...
The plans were excellent and we started by coloring the various elements on the main drawing (above) ... the cornice, the face frames and paneling, the ply boxes, the applied stuff, etc., so that we could more easily digest what went where ...
These excellent cad drawings show the front and back elevations, the plan view and areas where individual sections are shown in detail ...nice !
From those drawings, we took the measurements for our boxes and assembled them one time to check the final dimensions. We couldn't leave them set up and easily still work so once we figured it out, we disassembled and stacked the 3 sections to work on the parts. We also discovered when we did this that we had to make a perfectly flat and level 17' area to mimic the (I'm certain) perfectly level and flat new floor where it will be installed ... Fortunately, it required only about a half hour and two hydraulic jacks in the cellar below to take the sag out of the joists on either side of the main girder of the shop ... All set ...
Trevor then made up the face frames and applied them, and then went on to the drawer and appliance faces and doors ....
Will made the drawers and got them all in place.
In the meantime, Jim and I glued up the six inch +, x 32" long squares for Will to turn .. There was no quartersawn oak thicker than 8/4 available that I could find so we had to glue them up in two layers ...
Interesting project ... they took longer to glue up than to turn in finish ...AND they weighed on average 32 lbs each when they went on the lathe .. Hang on ... The first couple created just a little anxiety for Dad...80 pounds of sawdust when we were done ...
Will quickly roughed them out with the duplicator (See this previous post) and then hand turned them to finish them ....
And Jim and I cut the quarters out and made the square tenons on the ends on the bandsaw ...
With this jig, the column is aligned with the section that you want to remove showing. The first cut is made and then the thin screw on element is removed, the jig is rotated 180 degrees and the thin element reattached for the second pass over the saw that removes exactly 1/4 of the column ... We all get gold stars for figuring this one out ... The tenoning on the bandsaw was quick too and I'll post some photos of that at some point ...
Ta Dah ! Looks easy now that it's done ... and actually, it wasn't too bad considering. A brand new 'heavy duty Freud industrial 28 tooth specialty rip blade' was the key to success.
And today we reassembled everything. We have had some trouble locating 16' quartered oak for the paneling and long face board but it will be arriving just in time this Thursday ...
We set up a couple strings, one for straightness in the horizontal plane in this photo and one in the photo above that runs along the back to straighten the back of the cabinets to get ready for the long panels ... Now that we are Level, Straight, and True, we can now fit and attach the cornice pieces, hang the doors and apply the drawer faces and know that when we get on site things will be good to go. This cabinet sits right on the floor with (probably) an 1/8" shadow below it so as long as everyone's level is the same we'll be all set ... I'm confident ... The builder is very good ...