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 ...
Minggu, 09 Oktober 2016
under the dome
well, were working with peter moore, of vermont brick ovens again. we made the forms for the one above and a couple of others, and now were attempting to simplify the on site set up process.
basically, we have to create a structure that supports the bricks until the mortar sets. once that happens, the forms all have to come out the oven door so they can be reused on the next oven ...
in the past, we made about 24 half domes, which then had to be connected with thin strips of wood to support the bricks .. more or less, not much fun. this time we plan to make 8 ribs and 24 pieces that lay on top of them, like parts of a turtle shell. click the photos to enlarge them.
we started with this drawing, and decided we could make the shell pieces an eighth of the dome at a time. we had to add more ribs for the two lower sections
the plywood doesnt really want to conform to the dome shape, and each layer is made from 4 pieces of 1/8th inch bending poplar and one layer of 3/8ths wacky wood. some kerfs were cut in some of the pieces to facilitate the bends and as you can see in the photo below, the dome shape is not bad.
we plan to sand the whole thing once al 24 sections are laid up, cut to size and fitted.
to get the wood to conform, we had to use many screws, which can all be removed once the glue sets. we may or may not have to fair the curves with bondo, though i think we will get better with the laminates as we do more of them ...
in the end, the finished oven will look something like this one ...40 years of wood working, and ive never made a dome before .. kind of exciting and challenging for sure ... more pics coming as we progress.
Senin, 18 Juli 2016
restoring a schwanbeck brothers display case
i alchoices enjoy a nice restoration project where you make something nice out of something not so nice. this is an excellent case in point. i didnt take a before picture, but you can see from the one below that there was some pretty serious mouse damage on some of the rails of the case. someone must have left a few pies in there when the store closed. click the photos to enlarge them ..
the case appears to be from the late 1800s and i give the schwanbeck brothers credit for some good design sense. the case is entirely held together with screws, no glue, and so, was easy to completely disassemble.
there was a little groove on the bottom of all four panels that engaged the top lip of the base. once the panels were assembled on the base and screwed together on the corners, the top was put on like a hat. screws were added from the top and bottom that went into the edges of the vertical panels and the case was then completely rigid.
pattented 1897 ...
the new guy, chris, did most of the work on this one . sweet little case .. its headed for the store with the new pizza oven ..
Selasa, 21 Juni 2016
more dome photos
ok .. i really enjoyed this project so im going to follow it through to its completion .. now were on site, at the new jj hapgood store, established (i think) in 1827, in peru, vermont. the entire store is currently being totally rebuilt by new owners. above is the domed form from my previous post, set up and ready to go for pete to build their new 72" diameter wood fired pizza oven. click the photos to enlarge them..
heres a view from above, showing the circular buttress wall with the angled top that the firebricks that make up the roof of the dome will rest against, and be supported by. from an engineering standpoint, the forces of the weight of the dome are transferred to the side walls, which have to have enough mass to support that weight. see flying buttress ...
anychoice, its a soldier course of vertical firebricks and a 6" thick curved concrete wall loaded with 3/4" rebar.
the front arched door, through which the form will be removed is complete and ready for the flue for the smoke to escape to be built just behind it. you can see that arrangement in the photo above this one, and the smoke will wend its choice over to the hole in the flue in the back corner, and on its choice, possibly heat some hot water .. in the end, all this stuff, including the 2.5" thick soapstone hearth will be pretty much invisible, so im glad to know what kind of effort goes into one of these ovens. for more info, see the previous post. and, to contact pete to order your own brick oven, heres a link to his website, vermont brick ovens.
Minggu, 24 April 2016
perfect
well, building a new building, or for that matter, a new piece of furniture, or, in fact, building anything requires that we have a vision in our mind when we start. usually, that vision assumes that we can execute our concepts perfectly, there will be no flaws, and that we will be 100% happy with our progress as we work. not often the case. throughout the building process, and particularly, as we approach the final few weeks before sam moves into his new metal shop, we have been "encouraged" by a number of realities that often rear their ugly heads to make some compromises. dont get me wrong, i am THRILLED with everyones efforts on this building from the first shovel full of earth to the last board nailed up on friday, but i have often worked on projects with more substantial budgets of $ and time, and therefore know this one could have been better. maybe. we could have used the new, more efficient spray foam insulation ... +$2000 at least. we could have gone for the fancier door units that i saw when i first entered the window and door showrom at miles ... +$8000., the next level up of windows ... $2500., and we could have finished the upstairs this year and been done with it ... + who knows? $15,000.? more? as mr. cheeks article from the times above mentions, we have arrived in the land of mr. withers all right, and, as alchoices, were happy to be there. hers a link to the times article online if you cant read the one above.
land of all right .. fits into the existing landscape ok ... one of my builder friends commented that it will look like its alchoices been there. good enough for me ..
so, in the end, we did pretty good .. the doors can open wide for work in the summer, check. radiant heat in the concrete floor, check ... slate roof to match the other buildings, check, no posts in the main work area, check ... up to code wiring and welding fume exhaust .. check, soon ... weve definitely arrived in mr. withers land of all right.
for more of mr.cheeks thoughts on boat building, see this link
his writing is full of little gems of observation, like the one below... food for thought.
"Mr. Greenley was never perturbed about a mistake; he simply set about finding the most efficient fix. He understood intuitively that surges of negative emotion not only interfere with problem-solving; they also get built into the object you’re working on."and for a few interesting thoughts on moving your thninking skills forward, try this article in the new yorker from atul gawande ...
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