Welcome New Readers !

sometime around the end or beginning of the month

i often look at my 'stats', a feature of blogger that tracks your

traffic and shows some of the sources of it ... 

recently i have noticed some surprising trends ...

currently over 2,500,000 page views !

and already on the 13th of this month we have had

more traffic than all of last month, which was likely

my biggest month ever ...

so, thanks for reading, and since there are almost a thousand

posts, below i give you links to some of my favorites  ...

leave a comment or drop me an email if you like .
 

below is a post from January, 2023 

titled a 'few of my favorites'.

 

 conveniently listed on the home page of my blog

are, according to blogger, my 'popular posts' ...

 the one at the top of that list has been viewed 

more than 35,000 times, which does make it 'popular',

at least in my book.

below i list not my 'popular posts', but some of my 'favorite posts'.

ones that feature projects that i enjoyed writing about,

and/or feature projects that i am proud of.

here we go .... lots to read here ...

'all the pretty pool tables'

at the time i was writing this post i was also reading

a cormac mccarthy book titled 'all the pretty horses'.

hence the post title, which explains what that post is about ..

the duck bed

i could go on and on about this one, 

and in the duck bed link above, i do ...

 

'chance to be a hero'

this was a rather miraculous repair if i do say so myself ...

we were able to get all the veneer pieces back to flat 

without disturbing the original finish ..

 

some libraries we have built

at least 6 of them there ... one of them took

nearly a year from cutting the trees to installing it

on the upper east side in new york city ...

some big projects there ...

 

all claro, all the time

about a dozen live edge tables in the blog post at that link

and about 45 more at this link

 

algebra and geometry in the workplace

 
a real, deep, head scratcher here ..

create the supports for a conical ceiling ... 

here are the 'plans' from the architect

Ensure Slope Matches Side Wall Angle for Conical Ceiling'

at 2 and 1/16th x 12

and there is always the onsite variable where

the concrete wall on the right is maybe on 2 and 3/16ths x 12

instead of the required 2 and 1/16th x 12, which in

7' adds up!  crazy stuff !

 
a 1/8th" to the foot scale model ...

and your basic algebra here ...

and in 2010 we collaborated with a 

friend to build two rather large conference tables

at 20' x 8', this is the 'small one'

'small' because this one is 26' x 9'

about 2' of granite hangs out over the base pieces
we cnc'd and joined the knockdown parts, 

we did the steel that supports the granite

 and did the wood borders around the granite pieces ...

our friend steve did the finishing and onsite assembly.

                                                                             the crow bar  ... below

i think this will do it for today ... 

more 'favorites' to come sometime ...

and a few more favorites at this link

 

and there are literally thousands of photos in the 'slide shows' 

some other recent pieces ready to go ...

in an effort to 'clean house' a bit, below are some pieces for sale,

ready to go, for immediate delivery .. 

the 52" round table below has a bit of history ..

it can be characterized as 'very slightly used'.

the top of the table above was once in a law firm in new jersey 

you can see it in the photo below ...

several months after they received the 52" table they asked if 

i could replace the top with a 60" round, which we did ...

they asked for a 'credit' for the existing top, which i sort of

grudgingly granted.  my delivery guys installed the new top

and returned the original to me in 2018, and it has sat, 

wrapped up in my office, ever since ...

last year we made this round expanding table, 

and as we got underway, the client requested

a change in the design of the base that you can see above ...

we had already made the base pieces so they went into the office

with the 'reclaimed' top ... they are now the base for this new table ...

 priced below the cost of new,

email, text or call me at 802-379-1478 to discuss ... 

 

here's another, a claro walnut, cut off, coffee table, 

28 x 46 x 18 high (adjustable), could be lowered ...

in the rough, with a pocket for the butterfly

nice figure!

this coffe table was made from one of thee these two cutoffs that

have been hanging out here for at least a couple of years

i found another nice curly claro cutoff in the cellar from 

which we were just able to get the four legs ...

the cutoff in the back of these two became the table below ..

+/- 38 wide x 40 long x 16 high claro walnut 'corner' table

we were going to cut a 30" round from it, but we decided

it might be a cool accent for the right situation.

the steel trapezoid base pieces came from a gallery table that 

a client purchased, but requested that we make that table 'taller' ..

a 'corner' application below ... the straight sides are +/- 22"

the lounge chairs are about 36" deep ...

and below, i updated my 'paintings for sale'

at The Coffee Bar, junction of routes 7 and 9

in downtown Bennington ... lots of art for sale there!

'my corner'

some of the other art, and the live music stage

great place! loads to see there!

 

and lastly, we still have this claro walnut desk that is looking for

a good home .. it is in a gallery in manchester now, but i have informed

the owner that i am trying to sell it on my own ......

 

 a claro walnut desk, with a drawer and a 

secret compartment .. steel base by sam .. +/- 44 x 70.

 

beautiful color and figure in the desk top

call or text for a price ... 

 

all for now ...

a custom round dining table with 3 leaves

 

 we delivered this one recently

here it is on site

it is a 60" round with three 15" leaves, in cherry,

with an ebony and maple burl edge inlay ..

this photo shows the layout on the bottom of the table,

runners, stiffeners, and apron attachments.

the leaves, in the end, had center stiffeners not attached yet here

with the base and sub top attached

an ancestor of this table that we first made back

in about 2015 ,,,

cad and cut list

seating layout

a round expanding walnut dining table

all done ... 1/23/12 .. off to new york city in the morning ... great project with local designer amy thebault ... a little hard to photograph, but you get the idea ... nice walnut; crotch figure inlay in the center of the top, continuing on to the leaves ... pretty wild, and we love it ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
with the 2-22" leaves ... 64 x 108 when fully extended ...
with the leaves in ..
center inlay ... photos below are 'in process' ... all for now ...

i see i have been a little lazy here with my writing at the start of the new year ... all those holidays i guess and getting organized again now that they are over ... had some people out sick ... on and on, you know ... anyway, we did start an interesting table this week. it's american black walnut; it's round; 64" in diameter, with two 22" leaves and some fancy crotch walnut inlay in the center. it looks like it's going to be a nice one. click the photos to enlarge them ...
the general idea came from one of my designer clients, amy thebault, of thebault design, inc. down the road a piece in manchester depot. we added or touches and changed a few things and now it's starting to take shape. we started, as usual, with some irion lumber walnut. nice big wide boards makes our life easy. after we glued up the halves, trevor cut them to shape and routed for the inlays. i have some video footage somewhere of that and i'll try to get it up here soon.
he also cut the slightly darker peruvian walnut borders and set them in before fitting up the shop made veneer inlays.
again with the nails for the first step. if you've been reading for a while, you've seen all this before ...
below though is the after cuts from trevors cutting of the main blanks that we then resawed into the .1" thick veneers.
he thought he had it all planned out so that all the triangles would be the same or half of that same triangle but ...
he didn't ... design aliens invaded his programming and caused a malfunction. luckily he discovered it before he cut all of the leaf inlays and there was no harm done, except to his pride.
we glued them all into the table pieces in the veneer bag, and then, for a special treat we took them a mile down the road to our neighbor steve holman's shop and ran them through his brandy newly refurbished sandingmaster 37" wide, wide belt sander ... a wonderful experience ...
that saved some planing and scraping time ... it's nice to have a new machine on the block.
here it is, on the base with the runners, but without the aprons, which are finished but for some reason, didn't make the photo ..
interesting design, but not a lot of structure for when the leaves are in so we're planning to add either some 'aprons' which will run from 'leg' to 'leg' and stiffen the structure somewhat, or add some drop down legs for when the table is fully expended.
we'll know more what we have to do once the base is final sanded and glued up and everything is firmly attached. 108" is a big table on a +/- 40" x 40" base ... stay tuned ... more later this week ...