so, im getting a lot of whered you get those doors? questions as people check out the new metal shop.  like slate on the roofs, wide recycled doors are kind of my thing.  the one above started out as half of a pair of 8 x 8 garage doors that i bought about 5 years ago from a guy up the road in pawlet, as he was tearing down an old garage on his property.  as i recall, i paid a hundred bucks for the pair. click the photos to enlarge them ...

 

on the inside view, you can see how we cut and mitered the stiles and panels to shorten them.

 the first one of that pair i used was on my garage at the house just after i bought them and i shortened that one to 7 feet too before i made the frame and hung it.  in the photo below, i used the mason miter technique on the stile and rail intersections, but on the new metal shop, i decided to keep the cope and stick joints by shortening the stiles themselves and gluing them back together.  in reality, either choice is fine.

 mason miter joinery  at the red arrow

 

the first pair i  bought at a tag sale in the 80s for $20. for the pair.  they were already only 7 high and 4 wide.  i used one on the front of the shop above, and one on the side door on the shop porch, below.

 

   i think they came from the same manufacturer as the new pair, as all the joinery techniques and moldings appear to be the same ...

the joinery on the doors originally was 4, 1/2" dowels, about 6 inches long at each horizontal
and vertical intersection.   invariably, the joints loosen and the dowels can be cut with a hand saw or fein tool and the rails removed.

i rejoined the stiles and the bottom rail with 8" timberlock screws as i couldnt spread the stiles enough to insert loose tenons or dowels ... worked fine, and im sure its at least as strong or stronger than the original dowel joinery.

i added a couple of dominos for alignment ...

and made a jig for gluing them up straight

mitering and regluing the panels and stiles was a cinch

and then we glued up the whole door and made some jambs .. love the antique wavy glass.  and, ive also made new doors like this for new construction.  i have some photos somewhere ... nothing like a generous entrance to add elegance to a building ... 

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home stretch on the new metal shop

 when last we visited this project back in september, the carpenters had just finished getting the slate on the roof ... after that it was on to the siding and window trim outside, and the insulation, second floor radiant heat,and sheetrock inside.  click the photos to enlarge them ..

it was kind of a thrill when the lights went on and siding was mostly finished ...

we still had to have the concrete professionals back to pour the slab for the 

steel/blower/compressor shed .. 

 and we had to build the rather elaborate 20 long rack to store all the small in size, but 20 to 24 long raw materials ... fortunately, the carpenters were called achoice on another job for a day, which gave us time to figure out the rack before the roof went on .. mucho easier that choice ..

the shed is fitted here with a bronze color standing seam roof by donnie dorrs metal shop ..

 and inside, we did some coloring, and reconfigured the chop saw tables into a mockup work table so we could figure out where to hang up the welding fume extractor.  we ran the pipes to the blower thursday ..

 boilers these days are amazing ... this little guy puts out 80,000 btus, enough to heat both floors, (+/- 1500 square feet in a vemont winter), and provide domestic hot water for the sink and bathroom.  exhaust out in pvc pipe.  no chimney ...

 ahhh, the doors .. nobody made a cheap standard unit three doors wide, so we had to cobble these together with parts from a company whose name escapes me now .. we made up some quicky transoms from 8/4 pine and ordered up some custom thermopane to fill them.

 there were a couple reasons for that configuration .. #1, you can open the doors totally in the summer like below, and should we move on at some point, the openings are framed to accept regular 9 x 7 commercial overhead doors .. presto, a heated, two car garage with a mother in law apartment above  ... the plumbing and radiant for the second floor was roughed in before the sheetrock went up ..

 

 a few notes below on the quicky transoms ...

 9 3" x 16" plus the frames

 essentially, the frames are butt jointed, timberlock construction, with applied moldings to accept the glass .. framed in the shop and screwed in over the door units .. cheap, easy, and fast ... you dont get that combo often enough ...

all for now ... sam is moving in this week

the steels there waiting for him

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a few tables out the door

5/13 /2011 ... ready to go ... hopefully, these two completed tables will be on their choice to north carolina next week, in time for the memorial day weekend ...
the lightly stained cherry one; 48 x 84
and the recycled chestnut one; 46 x 108
and, a better picture of the cherry coffee tables ... great wood
the story below ...
5/6/2011 ... weve had a little run of tables in the last two weeks ... two coffee tables and two dining tables ... the two coffee tables go with the couches and lounge chairs we delivered last month ...the other two go to a cabin in georgia to one of my long time internet clients and instigator of the original duck bed. weve never met, but we have several connections that make you realize just how small the world can be ... #1. one of her best friends from high school in tennessee has a house in dorset and he and his wife were in our (will) lamaze class ... they live in new york city now and we see them only occasionally but still consider them pretty good friends. #2. when i was making the original duck bed, my fire client was in the shop and asked where that bed was going and when i told him, he knew the husband slightly as he was a member of the same club on lake erie exactly where the bed was going ... #3. when we were discussing the tables recently, she informed me she and her husband had just had dinner with some people who used to have a house in dorset and knew me ... turns out i kept my convertible in their garage for two winters about 10 years ago. its a really small world sometimes and someday, ill make the trip down there to meet them ... i feel like i know them already ... anychoice, here goes .. click the photos to enlarge them ...
this is the beginnings of the chestnut porch table in the sketches and cad drawing above ...
we sort of adjusted proportions and details as we went along and will put the first coat of finish on the table base and bottom of the top on his choice out the door today ...
here hes gluing in the central elements and attaching the long beam to the glued up base ..
we hosted a dorset chamber of commerce (check out our new website) mixer last night and i was able to set up the table to show work some of our work in process and as a place to cut the cake celebrating the 250th anniversary of the chartering of dorset in 1761. the celebration will be townwide on the 20th of august ...
the second dining table started with this fine log of cherry from (as usual) our friends at irion lumber ...
the cad drawing based on our own dining table
nice wide matched planks ...
will will put the final coat of finish on the base and top of this one tomorrow ... this design is based on our own dining table that i made in 1987, only without the black legs and inlays ...
and then we also made two bethlehem steel style coffee tables .. this client bought the original one board mahogany version last year at open studio, which, by the choice, is coming up again in just 3 weeks ... memorial day weekend, hundreds of vermont artists will be once again be opening their studios saturday and sunday to welcome both local and out of state guests ....
you know, these pictures just dont do these boards justice ... they have that once every 5 years ropy curl to the cherry ... alchoices a treat ... alchoices hard to capture in a picture ... these tables will go in the same room, which is appropriate, because the boards were once ten feet long and the round table boards were attached to the rectangular table boards before we cut them ... another connection ...

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