youll note that in the last three weeks, i have written exactly ONE blog post, and that one i had been writing as we worked along on the project ... a record of blog inattention, even compared to my bloggavacation i took a year or so ago ... mr. dylan asks: what is going on here? i dont know, but, well, let me tell you, its all good. as you can see from the list above, we have (now) 12 committed projects, (13; one just came in by email) including two 54 x 85 x 26" deep recycled chestnut cabinets, a ten foot table, a 17 table, another dining table, six chairs and a coffee table ... lots of stuff. but, on the right, youll notice in the in process column 21 other proposals were working on, most of which, as of right now, are out in the ether, awaiting replies or commitments. the photo below was taken around 11:00 this morning, just before i started scanning and emailing ... just finished it all up a minute ago ... im going to write this and then go have a couple of tall cold ones ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
a few new models ... a 30 x 60 dining table with a steel base; a 60" dining table with two leaves and a stainless base; and a little mockup for a 98" table with a rebar and steel base ... with that project there is also a 42" x 17 table ....
an assortment of proposals, ready to go ...
next up, the two recycled chestnut cabinets mocked up with photoshop
along with those cabinets goes this 48 x 72" recycled chestnut pedestal dining table we finished last week ...
with 3 15" leaves ... better top color in this photo ... love, love, love my red walls, but they can really change the color of things ...
this 38 x 62 mahogany table with a steel shaker base left last week for california ...
bottom view with the actual mahogany color
and now were working on a version of this table we made in 2002,
the main difference in the new design is the shape of the pedestal, which the client took from our walnut and leather poker table ....
and will had to refigure out how to make the edge inlay blanks ... burl, bubinga and end grain peruvian walnut .. he wasnt here yet for the last time around and i couldnt exactly remember how to do it ...
heres how it looked at the end of the day today ... the edge inlay is all in and trevor will glue the burl center inlays in tomorrow in the vacuum bag ... a little clean up, some aprons and the runners and well wrap this one up ... i am planning a post on the whole table process, but certainly, not now ...
close up of the center inlay fitting
next ... this is the model for the 30" x 9 8" elm table with the rebar base, made from an architects sketch ...
the client was concerned that the welded rebar base might need some other support, but sam convinced me that that would be totally unnecessary ... just as a fun test, we took the unglued rubber wood 1/8th " dowel model and loaded it, and put a little side schoice weight on it ... no problem ... i imagine the welded steel base will be fine ...
to select the elm slabs for the table tops, i took a little trip to berkshire products in sheffield, mass last week ... if you havent been there or checked their website, its a fantastic wood resource with a great photo website.
bought this one for the single table,
these two for the 17 table ... they will join in the center around an existing brick 30 x 30 column ...
bought a little burl for the cherry table were working on too .. lots to choose from
big leaf maple from the west coast ...
the black and steel 60" table with the stainless base and two leaves ...
and we have a couple serious nibbles on the big claro walnut slab on the wall in the finish room. in this drawing, it will become a 9 x 50" coffee table in aspen.
and lastly in the new model department, we have this maple and steel dining table with a clever adaptation by the clients of our shaker steel base ...
and finally will got his banjo pot turning aparatus for seeders instruments rigged up and it works really slick. it a combination of wood and metalworking tools that, with a little help from some online googling and some parts from grizzly and mcmaster carr, he adapted the whole works to suit his process. this is the inside of the pot turning set up ...
and, to turn the outside, you flip over the tool holder and angle the base plate. hes got two more parts to turn for some banjo orders, so he is really happy that it worked as well as it did.all for now ... thanks for sticking with me. gold star for you if you made it all the choice through. turns out i had to have the tall cold ones before i finished ... have a great weekend.
the finished stools
were working on some tables this week that go with the cherry stools that we finished last week. they were designed by my friend and weekend neighbor, anna, for whom we made them .. anna has been designing and buying custom jewelry from kit for the past few years, so i knew she had a good eye and an excellent design sense. anna gave me the sketch above on her daughters construction paper and after a brief discussion, we made the cad drawing above and the first prototype below.... click the photos to enlarge them.
i started our first prototype with some sort of out of the air dimensions and we found the mockup to be too big for the space, and as a stool in general ...
but, with the prototype we were still able to work out the construction concepts, like the housed tenons shown below .. the housed tenons and the alternate height stretchers are key concepts that allow good noncolliding joinery that allows for slender legs with no loss of strength at the stretcher points. the housed tenons allowed us to not worry about the fit of the horizontal stretcher to the sanded curves of the sculptural legs. otherwise, i dont think we could fit the 8 curved ends of the stretchers efficiently enough for someone to want to buy the stools. we cut those mortises while the leg stock was still square, cutting the curves after.
the stretchers had to have an 1/8th" radius on all their edges to fit the routed mortises, but that was a small price to pay for the quickness of the solution ...
the final prototype, in oak below, was comfortable, particularly sitting across the diagonal of the seat, and fit the space well. anna accepted it and she and her husband selected some beautiful red leather for the seats. this week were working on a pair of matching tables, 19 x 26 x 20 high that will be used mainly as side tables, but can be pulled together as a serving/coffee table for their nearby seating area.
the sketch for the small tables ... more to follow as we work on them ...
