a walnut trestle table

jim and i took a road trip to stowe, vt, yesterday to deliver the walnut trestle table we've been working on . we also dropped off the 'x' table while we were there. whatta place! ..right at the base of the mountain with a shuttle chair to the main base of the mountain literally right outside the sliding glass door. the dining table went in the great room, which was pretty great. the 10' table seemed a little lost for now without the rest of the furniture, but once the house is complete, i'm sure it will be right at home ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
they were installing the pavers in the driveway, which at first we thought would be a problem but they let us back right in over their completed work and we went in through the garage door.
it was too heavy to carry in one piece, so we assembled it on site.
there are 9" flip up leaves on each end which add 2 more people to the mix. the supports we designed for them worked pretty well. sam milled up some metal supports on his new milling machine and the way they work is they have a notch on the face side. you push the support in until it hits wht stiffeners, fold up the leaf, then pull out the support so the notch supports the leaf. total view of the underside below.
sam made the twisted metal bracing which added a really nice handmade dimension to the design.
in place, more or less. i think it will actually be turned 90 degrees when the room is finally finished.
the 'x' table downstairs ...
and the process is below ...
rough lumber from irion lumber
glued up
routed on the ends for the leaves with sam's steel bracing in place.
early stage of the leaf installation and figuring out.
routing for the breadboard ends ... the taped together file folders on the table top raise the breadboard ever so slightly without changing the router setting ...
the breadboard is clamped to the bench to rout, and the clamps are leapfrogged until the groove is complete ... we then fill the slot with short, long grain loose tenons and the breadboard is secured with square peg covering long screws in ovalized holes ...
and we had a nice, tbough gray, ride home down the champlain valley with the adirondacks in the distance ...

banjo #6 ... a remake

will shipped his latest banjo project yesterday afternoon. it was a 're-necking' of an antique instrument made by W.A.Cole, of boston mass. the client had the original nickled brass pot, head, and tension hardware, but the original 8 string banjo mandolin neck was missing. click the photos to enlarge them...
6/22/2014 .. for photos of 20 more banjos visit will's website at seedersinstruments.com
the client is a banjo collector and w a cole was mostly known for his banjos so she wanted a five string, short neck to go with the diminutive 8.75" pot. will was able to find pictures of w a cole's original inlays online and was able to replicate some of them in the new neck ...
here's a close up of the original maker's mark on the dowel stick which is now back home in the original pot, which, as you can see below, polished up nicely.
it has a surprisingly loud and robust sound and i'm sure at some point soon there will be a video online on will's website, seeders instruments, so you can hear it ... great sound ! 12/18/2011 ... the video is up now ... here's a link to it.
this photo shows the 8 string end from its original banjo mandolin configuration which will was able to adapt to the new five string mode.
he had to fabricate a missing, tricky, dovetailed brass piece that tightens the neck to the pot. he had it chromed to match the original by a local electroplating service, vermont plating, in rutland.
in the new case, and ready to ship ... should arrive at its destination tomorrow ...

cute little thing

yesterday i fixed a really cute mini bureau for a friend and client ... she's had it for a while and has always wondered if it was a sample or a kid's piece ... who knows ... whatever it is, (i suspect it could possibly be a journeyman project) (scroll down) it's a cool and friendly object ...
closed.. 18.5 high x 21.5 long x 11" deep ... 10 drawers on the top behind the fall flap and 3 regulars in the lower case.
aside from refinishing the top and fall flap, and replacing the bras around the keyhole, the lock was the most troublesome thing .. it was in one of the drawers and had been for 'quite a while' ... mainly, because there was no wood left to attach it to ...
first i routed the recess level, then added some 'prefitted' new mahogany support pieces glued to the freshly routed surfaces ...
after and overnight dry, i remounted the lock to the new blocks with really small (1/2 x 3) brass screws ... can't wait to get my good camera back from the repair place ...
all in, all done ... good to go ... all the scalloped pieces on the top row have drawers attached

a little custom cnc work

we did a little custom cnc work for our friend bill laberge recently. he designed a table with a 2.75" thick edge, cut on a 60 degree angle ... we had a bit that would work, but it was too small to do the work efficiently, so for a moment, we considered alternate methods ... bandsaw it with circle jig? different angle like 45 degrees? in the end, trevor found a larger 60 degree bit and the cuts were faster, very smooth and exact. bill glued up the apron blanks with the grain running parallel to the table top to minimize the effects of seasonal movement. the table has four 22" leaves. (wow...big one), trevor cut and beveled the leaves to length and bill cut the leaf apron edges on his tablesaw ... i'll try to wrangle a finished photo when it's finished ... i saw it mostly assembled last week and it looked pretty cool. cilck the photos to enlarge them ...
stepping cuts had to be made ahead of time to allow room for the collett that holds the bit
in the middle is the top mated with the apron piece .. very smooth and precise ...

mysteries revealed

a friend/client stopped by to look at the walnut coffee table he had commissioned (in the post below), and we were looking at the 'x' table. i didn't see the model at first, and so i showed him the blog post and realized that the joinery was still not clear from the photos ... after he left, i found the model, (right next to the table base, behind some cardboard), set it up, and took some more helpful pictures ... it should all be clear now ... in the end, you are gluing up two identical (except for the angles) 'ts', both with lag bolt reinforced joinery and large (2.75" x 2.75") long grain glue surfaces ... totally rigid. click the photos to enlarge them.
two 'ts' are assembled individually ...
the tennons are glued and on the real base we used countersunk 4" timberlock screws to connect and reinforce the joinery for the 'half' pieces. you can see at the top how the two ts intersect when they are assembled to create the full 'x'.
glue up and level check ... perfect !! gold star for lorne ...
and here is the jig lorne used to cut the exact angles on the chop saw (55 degrees). the timberstrand was screwed to the wood fence to orient the 3" stock on the proper vertical for cutting the 55 degree angle where the oak meets the glass and the floor....
and, i noticed will had been by the shop yesterday to take the rubberbands off his fretboard glue up and install some frets in it.
and, this morning, i got an email from another client who will be stopping by shortly to check out this expanding table which we'll be delivering to them shortly ...

odds and ends

ok ... thanksgiving weekend's almost over ... back to work tomorrow. and i'm sorting it all out (hopefully) today. from the looks of it, i've got a lot of balls in the air, but some of them are either out the door or are in their final throes of being figured out. in the background, not pictured in this post is another custom dining room that will later get its own post. in the meantime, here's what we'll be working on monday ... click the photos to enlarge them.

above, a 'practice' carving that will did recently for the corner of an upcoming dining table project. he'll be doing more of those samples this week as he finishes up the corner cupboard you can see below.

lorne and i have been wrestling with this, what we are calling the 'x table'. the concept came from one of our designer clients, and seemed pretty easy until i tried it .. i kind of had it, but lorne took the ball and ran with it and got it all figured out in the end. he got the angles figured out so they came off the saw perfect and precise and came up with the idea of assembling the two halves, one solid piece and one leg, and then gluing the half laps together last.

here you see the 1/4 scale, half scale and full size mdf mockup .. it was alm ost impossible to find the 12/4 white oak for the real thing, and we didn't have much extra so we were extra careful.

this is one of the halves. with the final concept we were able to reinforce the third leg tenonss with 4" timberlocks and glue, making the entire structure very rigid when it was glued up.

with the 3/4" glass with the 1" bevel. there will be a white pickled finish on the white oak.

and i stopped to see steve holman and he's coming along on the fancy reception desk that trevor helped him with ... that's going to be something ...

a walnut and steel coffee table is headed for the big city this week.

and will is finishing up another banjo project. this is an antique, complete pot and dowel stick, but the original mandolin style neck (banjolin) was missing. there were pictures available online so he could copy the original inlay style and once he adds the tuners, it will be headed for england i think.

the inlays with the original mandolin style, 8 string tailpiece in the jar.

and next up, a 'vermont' banjo. all vermont wood including a dramatic hornbeam fretboard that is covered by the rubber bands here ...
this table will be leaving next week with the x table ... distressed walnut with flip up leaves on the ends and twisted steel supports by sam ... the schedule's tight, but doable with a little luck and extra effort.

and in the background, we've got another custom dining room happening. a table, 8 chairs and a corner cupboard ... more on that project later in a separate post.

and we got the crazy little bobbin leg tables out the door last week. i missed that estimate by about 120% ... win some, lose some. can't say i wasn't warned ..
and lastly, below, i'm working with my chestnut cabinet client on a console table concept.
they like the 'bridges' bench and we're trying to see if it will adapt to console table shape.
looks promising to me. we'll see ... it looks like the last sunny and 50 degree day of this beautiful unusually warm vermont fall. wash the convertible and put it at the neighbor's for the winter .. take the pump out of the pond ... winter's coming ...