11/19/2012 ...  will is coming along now on the next pool table, our third this year.  so far, except for a little input from me on sorting and selecting the wood, hes pretty much done the whole thing himself.  this afternoon, after finishing the blinds, he started taking it apart to begin the finishing process.  click the photos to enlarge them.

this new table is roughly based on this one from about 2005  ... website link here

and this one from 2009 ... blog post link to that table here
we started the process with a pile of kiln dried, reclaimed hemlock timbers from  our friend jef harris at vintage log and lumber in alderson, west virginia.  weve been buying timbers and planks from jef for, i dont know, 6 or 7 years now?  he usually has what we need at a fair price, kiln dried and hardware free.  weve bought mostly chestnut, but also some reclaimed oak and miscellaneous other stuff, like this hemlock.

reclaimed lumber alchoices has its particular challenges, but this batch gave us what we needed without much of a fight.

we emailed jef our cad drawing and cut list, and he got the wood together and sent it on a truck, right to our door.

after two sets of broken slate for the previous table, we went with a new suppler, kurt schmidt, of a. e. schmidt company in st. louis, a long time manufacturer and supplier of quality pool room products.

here will secures the steel that holds the legs and rails together and assures that any seasonal shrinkage in the lumber takes place below the leveled surface of the slate support.

when the rough frame is assembled, the slate support frame is screwed to the base and the slate added to mark out the pocket cuts on the slate support.

about this time, we finalized the finish treatment with the client, and confirmed that the sights (decorative and functional inlays in the rails that divide the playing surface into 4 and 8 parts) would be green abalone diamonds.  in this case, the table is a standard 8 footer and the playing surface is 44 x 88, making the sights 11" on center from the centers of the long and short sides.  the clients house is a new post and beam structure, so he chose the lighter of the finishes on the left.

will cut the diamond shaped green abalone inlays on the cnc.  they are available commercially, but usually only in laminated abalone, so we prefer to cut our own from hand selected, solid green abalone blanks from stewart-macdonald, a luthier supply house.

 the rubber cushions are glued to the poplar subrails, and the rails themselves, in this case, natural cherry, are then ready to cut to length and drilled for the pocket ears.

we covered drilling for the pockets in several of our other pool table posts, including the most recent one here.   will is coming down the home stretch now.  the first coat of finish is on the bottoms of the cherry rails, and tomorrow he will take the table completely apart and sand and finish the rough beams ... felt the rails and rack em up ... more later ...
other pool table posts are here ...
august, 2012
november, 2012
december, 2008
pool tables and card tables on our website
12/6/2012 ... ready to go ... well be installing this one in stowe, vt next week ... onsite pictures then ...

 natural cherry rails with green abalone sights (diamonds)

camel simonis felt ...

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merry christmas

happy first day of winter ..
merry christmas .. happy holidays .. happy new year .. whatever .. have a good one .. dan

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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...
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 coles original inlays online and was able to replicate some of them in the new neck ...
heres a close up of the original makers 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 im sure at some point soon there will be a video online on wills website, seeders instruments, so you can hear it ... great sound ! 12/18/2011 ... the video is up now ... heres 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 ...

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banjo 4 10 pot half fretless

well, you probably know what this is ... another banjo by will ... #4. curly maple, ebony, and brass this time ... half fretless. kind of a neat concept that allows the player to slide notes on the upper part of the fretboard where the frets are further apart, but yet play accurately up high on the neck. click the photos to enlarge them ...
heres a link to a 40 second you tube concert here ... a short improv of mole in the ground ...im told #4 has a nice sustain compared to the others. ok ... i can hear that.
being the fourth banjo, it required new new techniques and new and more accurate jigs and processes like the ebony backstrap and the adjustable 3 degree compound angle drilling jig for the dowel stick hole that was based on this jig we made for drilling long turnings on the lathe .... slick
next time, he says hell add a push block to the back of the jig so he can drill the hole using the tail stock crank, but this time he just pushed it slowly against the bit.
will cut the stopped fretboard slots (a nice clean feeling edge, but without the fussy banding on banjo #2 )(scroll down) on the cnc using a mini mini .026 diameter router bit. for the decimally challenged out there, that is 2/3rds of a 32nd of an inch. a pretty small router bit ... get em from mcmaster carr or stew mac i think. ...
the fretboard binding on banjo 2 .. getting that fifth string tuner curve was a trial as i recall
and then, to secure the brass, he used a variation of a nifty trick we read about on a greene and greene details forum where the hall brothers applied ebony edge details with slotted brass screws and then filed off the slotted parts, leaving tapered smooth tipped pins ... i think he also used a little epoxy or something for insurance .. its a very cool detail in person ..
the whole deal
close up of the fretless part with the stainless steel pins
pot shot ... ha ha
and the back view with the ebony details
nice curly cherry and nice detail on the hardware and dowel stick ... i particularly like the brass wire armrest ... the ebony split line is a cool detail ... and i think the finish is 6 or 7 coats of tru-oil, a gun stock finish ... seeders instruments, wills new website has recently received two orders for complete banjos and one for a reproduction neck for an existing older pot ... the boy is off and running ...
in case you missed them
banjo #1 is here
banjo #3 is here

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seeders instruments banjo 8

well, seeders instruments banjo #8 arrived in northern ireland on friday ... it was wills first international website order. the shipping was a concern at first, but the US Postal Service handled it flawlessly. it left tuesday afternoon ... 3, or 2? days ... reasonable cost considering ...
it sounds great, as you can hear on this one minute clip of will playing and singing. link to the video here ...
i didnt get a lot of progress pictures. it got itself together and out the door mostly on evenings and weekends and went without a hitch, so i only occasionally glimpsed the progress as it went along.
great saturn peg head inlay. that pot and drawing on the right is his next project
regular old hard oil finish ... 6 or seven coats i think ...
the whole deal
and the label
great combo of woods and restrained design collaboration. i liked the no fretboard inlays much more than i expected to ...
back viewstay tuned for more ... ha ha ...

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A Bethlehem Steel Bureau

Im sort of fascinated by the wood and steel elements of our newish Bethlehem Steel line. We have been working on it for about a year now and this is the first case piece ... There just seem to be endless possibilities here ... This one started with the drawing above, but as we were building it, even though all the other tables in this style so far have had the legs pointing down, this piece definitely seemed to want its legs inverted, pointing up. OK, well listen. We turned them over and the results are below. More anchored to the ground, but yet lighter feeling at the same time .... Sometimes you can figure things out in the drawings, but sometimes you have to let your instincts take over .... The piece, to us at least, seems to be stronger and more solid in this configuration ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
The case with side shims and full extension undermount runners ... Its the first time we tried the Grass runners ... So far so good ... They seem to wobble a bit less when you open and close them , and close a little faster than the Blums ... Cheaper too from our supplier ... The high dolly was a brainstorm too ... Hate, hate, hate crawling around on the floor ...
Mocking up the bolts with masking tape .. three holes or four ?? Three it is ...
More bolts in the front center leg ... This is some of Irions finest figured cherry .. Ive had this log for several years waiting for the right project ... We had Just enough to make it ...

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