The Williams Store Railings

Double click the pictures for better viewing

Well, the HN Williams Store expansion project is now open to the public! Sam has spent quite a bit of time on these railings, starting last fall. The items welded into the tops of each section came from the attic of the store. Williams Store has been in the same family since about 1840 and some of the stuff they found when cleaning the attic is definitely from the early days. Read on their website about the time when the horse bits and the shoe forms in the one section of the railing were part of the main business of the store. They recently redid the foundation of the whole store and created a new lower level for hardware, garden and yard tools, and clothing sales .... and, hence the railings ... Contact Sam at 802 867 0139 for custom metal railings, forged, welded or fabricated metal objects, fireplace tools, metal repairs, or to order a piece of wood and metal furniture from the 'wood and metal' section of our website. In the post below about the Walnut Slab Table you can also see Sam's handiwork on the metal parts of the base.


Manure spreader gears, elevator chain and tractor bucket teeth...

A maple syrup draw off valve....

One of the five horse bits, more manure spreader gears
and some cutter bar teeth...

Rounding Up The Railings

Sam and I have recently had a number of new requests for metal railings, both indoor and outdoor. The pictures that we have on the web are scattered throughout our blog and website and I thought it best to organize at least most of them here for a good quick overview ...
Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Follow the underlkined links for more info ...

A contemporary railing with fabricated tapered posts and floor mounted post flanges.

A typical hand drawing for a railing project proposal

A typical CAD drawing for a stair and balcony railing

Plasma cut 3/8ths" thick tapered spindles

The Williams Store Railings

Railing from the CAD drawing above

One inch twisted balusters, 1 per step, with fabricated metal base collars.

The Rupert, Vermont, Town Hall

I just happened to catch these as Sam was painting over the primer on the back side... I thought it was a cool look ... We don't have a picture of the full railing installation yet ..

The JK Adams gas heater railing/guard

Straight, twist and repeat

This is an antique railing from Boyertwon, PA ...Cast elements similar to these are still readily available ..

While not like the railings above, the photos show some other metalwork Sam has completed in the last year ...

A custom steel and gold leaf window grill

A fabricated and gold leafed bench ... Wood parts by DCF

Some Custom Snowboard Event Trophies

metal shop stuff

 sam is humming in the metal shop ...

we're adding some railings to a tansu cabinet stairway we built in the late 80s, 25 years ago now .. i still have the original drawing!  the clients now have grandchildren and we all know what that means .. safety first! .. chris and i installed the tapered posts and made some full size templates, which we later cut as assembly jigs on the cnc for sam to weld up the actual railings

some pre-job photoshop work

the railings are all welded and finished now, and i'm making the wood handrail tops.  

we hope to get this all installed later this week.  click the photos to enlarge them.

and this is an interesting mockup tapered leg for a possible steel and marble coffee table commission.

the client is concerned about the total weight, and we are still waiting to hear from them, one way or the other.  it's an interesting prototype though, and i'm sure we will use the concept in the future.

easy to do in wood .. a little more work to do it in steel.

marble top .. patinated steel base

and we got a deposit check yesterday for a new version of the 'skinny console' base.  the top on this new one will be 15" wide though, which required some base redesign ..

splayed it out a little at the floor

 almost done!

and sam has finished welding on a steel support for a 560 pound safe that will be installed soon.  the safe will take a few more weeks to get to the client's home as it is being custom fabricated in california.  luckily, the manufacturers will be in charge of the installation ..

we are in the process of adding a storage cabinet with drawers or trays under the safe. 

 another handrail .. the upstairs part is finished

and we'll install the final piece on the main floor also probably later this week

 it just needs a little clear coat and it will be ready to go .. tricky shape .

fits in the space up top there ...

a couple more trout buckles out the door ..

bunch of these lately too.. this one is unfinished here..

and a mockup bar stool that will get some revisions soon.  

and then we'll make at least 8 of them for a local client.

another 'nakashima style' table base for a massachusetts client ..

and last, but not least, a custom free standing fireplace spark screen.  the are a million different mesh you can buy to weld in there.  this is just one of them .. all for now ..

 and it's finally spring and fishing season is open .. sam with a nice 17" brown.

a railing for a tansu stair cabinet

chris and i installed the railings today. all in, all done, as they say.  

i am happy to cross that one off the to do list.  we made some other stuff

 in the room there, like the mantle with burl and abalone detials, and the coffee table.  you can even see some of jim's (aka mr. lucky) carved glass work from the 80's on the coffee table.  nice room.

back in 1989, when we had been at our craft full time for 9 years, we built this sweet 'tansu stair cabinet', based on a postcard my clients had picked up in a hotel in japan or china, i forget which.  anyway, i'd already made them a bunch of stuff, and in this spot, they had one of those slightly treacherous 60's era welded steel spiral stairways, and a desire for a place to hide the stereo.  the stereo went behind the double doors, and originally, i think, the speakers went behind the single doors.  that was fine for, oh, 24 years, until grandchildren came on the scene .. time for a railing ... click the photos to enlarge them.

we did a little photoshop work, talked about different combinations of wood and metal ..

and finally made a plan.

chris and i made some poplar temporary posts and took some cardboard to the house and made some rough templates and notes on fitting the posts to the treads and figured out how to attach them.  luckily, there were all those drawers we could remove and we just screwed into the half lapped posts from inside the casework .. a true no brainer.

we were able to translate that information into cad drawings from which we made the 'real' cherry posts and rough templates on the cnc.  we took those back to the site and installed the cherry posts, took some more notes, and turned those notes into cad drawings and the templates below that sam could weld the actual railings together on.

we hand shaped the top caps to mimic the original handraill and fitted them to the railings in the shop.  today, it all fit and we bolted them in place to make a surprisingly rigid assembly up to code and ready for kids.

it all fit like a glove, and in the background you can see the end 'volute' of the original hand carved handrail.  this was a satisfying project, and a nice visit with an old friend.  good job sam and chris !!!

odds and ends

time for another 'what's up at dorset custom furniture lately' post.  i notice i haven't been writing much lately ... change of seasons from summer to fall, change of seasons from golf and tennis to paddle tennis, reading some good books, ('gone girl', 'sisters brothers', 'crossing to safety', and others), wash and wax the convertible and store that for the winter, subdivide our property so we can refinance and build a new metal shop, design the metal shop, help a friend build a workbench, get ready to do some pottery, and on top of that there are lots of small projects, repairs, office stuff, and new quotes going out at work.  phew!  is that all really happening?  yeah, it is.  above we have sam's railings for the new manchester-and- the- mountains chamber of commerce building on main street.  he and jim installed the railings for the handicap ramps today and i know he has a couple other things to do there too.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

 he also recently made us a nice welded base for a claro walnut table that is leaving for florida on tuesday.  the one piece claro walnut table top is 52" wide by 102" long and about 2.75" thick.

i've lost count of these, but now we have another slab in the shop, below, that will soon be a table, and will head out for houston when it is finished in a couple of weeks.

that one will have one of our steel 'shaker' bases.

and our friend, joe hart, a local antiques dealer, brought this Grand Army of the Republic sign by sam's metal shop for a tune up.  the star 'arms' are flapping.

after a quick cardboard test template, Will made Sam a jig and some patterns and he welded up this reinforcing 'star' that we will screw to the back side of the sign frame ... good as new, and ready for another 100 years  or so.

a little paint and some screws, we're good to go ...

 joe and sue find the coolest stuff.  this snake weathervane needs a wall mount.

and then there's the other stuff that is happening in the wood shop.

trevor just finished 4 of our 'transitional' chairs to go with the cherry tables we finished recently

and now he's well on his way to 8 more, only in bubinga.  hard heavy stuff, but no match for trevor and his cnc work

16 legs ... couple three hours, max.  we're all going to help him sand these ones.  he says 'thank you'.
they will be heading to england shortly with this table and a few other pieces we made a few years ago for some english clients in Connecticut, who are moving back home after many years in the states.

one of our favorite forms.  we've made about a dozen of these in various sizes, detailing and wood combinations.  this one opens to about 10' as i remember.

and will finished a long, skinny cherry console in the 'studio style' that will be leaving for houston, as soon as our long island based shipper ply con, recovers from hurricane sandy.  they are scheduled to be here next tuesday for the pool table, the table to florida, and this one.  will had his plane sharp in this photo.  that's an ebony and maple end grain inlay he's planing off there, with his block plane no less.  sharp, i guess.

nice figured cherry.

and he's also in the finishing stage of this 18-36 x 60" double gate leg console/'dining table for overflow dinner parties'.  that one is off to vail, colorado, next week.seats four with the legs opened a little, it could seat six i you open the legs until they touch in the center. 

what else? aahhhh, the friend's workbench ...

mike has been a contractor for 30 years, and now has a serious interest in upgrading his woodworking/furniture building skills.  i like doing stuff like this.  passin it on, and give me a chance to feel like i've learned something over the last 40 years.   i've talked him through roughing out, mortising and tenoning the legs, and we roughed out the 2.5" thick cherry top last weekend ... he'll be back when he's got that all fitted up and ready to glue. vises and dogs next.

here's the new metal shop/photoshop mockup, hopefully to be built in the parking lot at the woodshop in the spring.  30 x 28.

floor plans

oh yeah, repairs.  we've had a run of them.
let's start with randall's little plant stand.  it is a family piece she's passing on to another family member,  but first, it needed a tune up.  polish the marble, replace the missing moldings, polish the finish ... love the legs with their elegant shape and corner carvings.  the sliding top/drawer was neat too.  cool object.

i think it's called a 'dutch' foot, and the bottom of it is turned on the lathe on two different centers.  i made some myself for a client about 20 years ago.  good luck finding that picture.  hmmm, i do go on ... and on ... it is a busy time though.

in the top photo, we had to carefully rout out the damaged wood and fill it in with new pieces.  than we routed that again and added another new piece on top.  then, below, since the tenon was sheardce off at the leg face, i carefully add two trim head stainless steel screws in place of the tenon and then inlaid a square flush patch over them ...

this chair was fixed a million times before we got it, but this time, it was fixed more correctly, sort of.  not a museum job, but i'll guarantee it for my and my client's lifeitme.   a little paint and it was out the door ...

and then there was that custom brass strike plate on the cnc for another friend ...

and now yesterday and today, will and i are on to the next pool table, in reclaimed hemlock to match the post and beam frame of the client's home in stowe ... forward ...

the beginnings of the rails, cushions, and the slate support frame ... if you can believe it, that's all for now.