phew ! .. the dome left today at around 5:00 ... a challenging project if ever there was one, and we plan to help set it up for the new oven on site tomorrow or friday. watta project !! heres a link to the previous post on the early stages of construction ... ignorance breeds confidence ...we had no idea what we were getting into.
in this photo, you can see pete, the mason brother in law, of vermont brick ovens, on the left, and trevor, admiring the collapsing mechanism. if you enlarge the photo, (click it), theres a handwheel on the vertical stem, and when you turn it, the hub drops and the ribs can be removed one at a time through the oven door, or more likely from the collapsed pile of parts.
when hes ready, well be helping pete set it up for his current project. hes currently working on the soldier course that stands vertically around the 72" diameter .. heres a photo of that in the works.
in case you missed the first post, itll look like this when its done.
well, it was quite a trip getting this project together .. lots of head scratching, lots of glue, (over a gallon) and some sanding and bondoing ... here are some more photos of the process ...
early on, with the glue up form still in use .. see this link for other early photos
here were getting the shim blocks (later knocked out to collapse the form) figured out ...
in the end, we made two different versions ..
sanding and fitting the rough glued pieces .. it aint perfect, but there arent any
cracks that a half a brick can fall through ...
tah dah .. on to bondo and paint
the holes were from the ten thousand screws we used to make the five layers of bending plywood do what they had absolutely no interest in doing, which is form part of a sphere.
a previous vermont brick oven project in manchester, for which we made a different form
that was a lot more complex and time consuming to set up than this one ..
we realized as we were packing it up .. damn! we missed our chance. we shoulda painted
the north pole, hudson bay, and sweden to alaska on it ...
i will NOT be going into the wood globe business ..... all for now.
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Jumat, 14 Oktober 2016
x based tables
we seem to have a theme going here ... lets call it the x based table . we finished the one above last week and delivered it to the house where we have been working on some other projects since early may.
a little diamond of steel washer by sam
it continues the barn board theme from the vanity we made back in august .. the table is actually made from the same collection of boards that were salvaged from that house.
we started with a pattern we made from our cad drawing, and slowly proceeded .. 
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added some chamfers
and a center post, also with chamfers ... this recent barnboard table appears to be the
eighth in the series, all distinctly different, but with x as the common denominator.
cherry and steel .. more photos here
claro walnut and steel
lots of rebar xs on these ... blog post here
a copper top x table ... more info here
steel and white lacquer .. more photos here
reclaimed chestnut and twisted 1.25" steel .. link here
more rebar xs ... this table is still available for immediate delivery ...
Rabu, 28 September 2016
the kitchen island over and out
5/1 12 ... ok, the curly maple island is ready to go ... were going to move it in one piece to the site tomorrow, weather permitting. it was an interesting project, more complicated than it looks, and were looking forward to seeing it later this week with its granite top and sink installed in its new home. we finished it at the clients request with a wash coat of shellac and two wipe on coats of waterlox. very smooth feeling and easy to apply. fast drying too ... good job trevor ...
end view with the open shelves for large pots
other end
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stool side ... still cant figure out this new blogger interface ... i may have to actually watch the video ..
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........................................................ 4/12/2012 above ...........
island update 4/11 ..... ok, were coming along now ... after working out the construction details with the full size corner mockup in the two photos at the bottom of this post, we started actual construction by building the kick space directly on top of our full size cardboard layout drawing. on this drawing seen below, (a bad image, poorly photoshopped to compensate for low contrast and glare) we laid out our cabinet and corner post lines, the sink, and inverted between the orange lines, our vertical section which shows panel and face frame details .. click the photos to enlarge them ....
from that drawing and the original mockup, we turned our round column bases that the octagon columns sit on. we then drilled the rounds for timberlock lag screws which we used to attach the round bases to the tablesawn octagons. the orange arrows on those indicate the sawn faces which came out ever so slightly smaller than the planed faces ... it seems impossible to get them all perfectly the same size but we wanted the face that our face frames attached to to be all the same size. follow that? good for you. we notched the octagons for the face frames and routed L shaped recesses in the round bases for the little bead moldings that allowed us to transition the beveled tops of the turnings to the panels. got that? really good ... i think you can see that detail in the mockup too.
i forgot to mention we also had to cut a freehand corner out of each round where it intersected the toe space on the bandsaw before attaching the whole deal to the kick with more timberlocks ... got that?... im trying not to bore you with all the details; but there were certainly a lot of things to think about on this project before we could even begin ...
now were on to the more straightforward part of the construction where we build the boxes and add the face frames and panels ...
one more shot of the base with its curly maple kick faces and all the columns in place.
and we had a moment where we stopped to appreciate mother natures veneer work with the naked lady doing a handstand ... fun!
part of the project was that the owner would supply the wood, but after struggling mightily to make silk purses from not so great material, the owner graciously allowed us to get a bunch of matched curly maple lumber from our friends at irion, and you just cant believe how much happier we all are ... piece after consistent piece .... beautiful panel after beautiful panel, matched drawer face with matched drawer face ... its a true pleasure to work with their stuff ....
tomorrow we will finish the frame joinery and assemble it all for a test fit before gluing all the panels up .... more as we move it along ... were liking it ...3/27/12
we have a new kitchen island project getting underchoice in the shop ... all natural curly maple with a stone top. open shelves,drawers, a recess for seating, pretty straightforward except for the octagonal columns on the corners .... finished my full size mockup today and once that is approved, well have at it ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
here are the cad drawings that we made from the owners graph paper layouts ... the plan view shows some of the complications where the octagonal columns meat the panels and cabinetry and open shelves but conceptually at least, i think we have it worked out .... were currently working from a full size 4 x 8 cardboard plan view which is a great tool for making cut lists and box sizes. we find the full size things can minimize errors and they dont take too long to create ...
since i sent these photos to the client, i thought i might add these examples of other islands we have built in case you are thinking about designing one yourself. the island above is in my home ... cherry counters with tile around the stove; the seating on the end is where we live, lunch and dinner, good for up to 5 people seated ...
and we built this one in 2007 i think ... it even made it into house beautiful ... actually, it was one of my very first blog posts in october of 2007
another view of it ... the rest of the kitchen and the reclaimed chestnut stools are ours too ...
and heres a nice walnut island for the same client who got the walnut paneled room in 2009...
another wash painted island, very similar in detailing to my own kitchen ... we did some tin punching on that project ... 
and then theres the big island ... almost a continent by some reports ... quartered white oak
and here we arrive at the mockups for our new project ... the octagons seemed simple until i actually had to add the kick spaces and the turned round pedestals ...
the base will be the first piece and it will have a 3/4" top that the cabinetry will be attached to from above ... like a really big puzzle ... more photos as we progress ....on site but the house isnt quite finished
