Finished Sack Back Windsor

This is the Sack Back Windsor chair I made during my week long class at the Windsor Institute in late July. You can read about my experience in a previous blog posting. I chose the traditional milk paint finish and the color is a deep Windsor Green. Once the paint was dry, I finished it with danish oil to give it a nice sheen.

chair sanded and ready for the milk paint

Another view

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Finished the Jewelry Cabinet

Will completed the Jewelry Cabinet today ... Finishing takes time, and its alchoices best not to rush it ... He has been building the layers of aniline dye, gel stain,varnish and polish for the last week or so while he helped with the construction of the mahogany table .. Hes also been adding the mirror, stool upholstery, velvet drawer bottoms and compartment dividers ... All done now ... It will be off to its new home on the Vineyard before long ... This was a interesting collaboration with the clients and an inspiring new design ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
Before the color ..
All done ...
With themirror and drawer dividers ... The trays slide easily completely in and out of the case ...
It is really hard to photograph a mirror
Shows what you can do with a little judicious photoshop cutting ... All the photos above were cut from their busy backgrounds as we have too much stuff in the finish room to set up the background paper ... Takes a minute but it is well worth the time ...
The finish sample and fabic choices we sent the client ...

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New Claro Slab Table is FInished

Well OK ... Another big claro walnut slab table. Weve made quite a few of them now and there is more information about them on my blog than a person could likely want to read. (If not, be sure to scroll to older posts). But, we like them. They alchoices seem to have this mysterious sense of substance to them when they are completed. The wood is dark and deep and totally unpredictable in its grain and color. We like the steel bases too. This one looks a little shinier in the picture above than it is in person. There was a little sunlight sneaking in the door when I took the picture and, reflected off the floor, it made the base look pretty impressive. Actually, its clean, but not real reflective and is meant to match the zinc counters in the clients kitchen ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....
A birds eye view of this 48 x 120 x 3" thick slab ... We figure conservatively that the table weighs at least 400 pounds assembled and I am unable to pick one end off the floor without feeling like I might hurt something ... For shipping to Montana, the slab will unbolt from the base and the 5 part base will be disassembled.
This project has been going on for a month or so so I reloaded a few of the relevant pictures of the process. You can see the other posts in the claro slab tables category to the right. Above is the raw slab before we trimmed it to width and length.
First step was to use my trusty 25 year old 3.5" Makita hand held planer to smooth the rough sawn top.
Then since we had other stuff going on in the shop, the preliminary planing and cutting was done at my garage. Easier than loading and unloading, and, with my old truck on its choice to the graveyard, we towed it merrily down the drivechoice with Sams Saab, whistling while we worked.
We laid in a few strategic butterflies
And worked on the chairs that go with it at the same time ... They are a version of our contemporary ladderbacks with a Danish cord seat by Sandy Sherman chair caning. Danish cord seats were popularized by Hans Wegner in the 50s and 60s and are friendly and comfortable, though a bit labor intensive. The chairs are, like Windsors, more about the silhouette than the grain of the wood ...
Our typical base installation
A close up of the finish
The chairs in two views ...
The 160 nails per seat that it takes to organize the weaving. Fortunately for Sandy, Trevor was able to layout and rout the holes on the cnc so all Sandy had to do was hammer them in.
And in contrast, an updated photo of our skinny console for comparison ... You can pick that one up with one hand ...

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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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 sam finished the new manchester, vt chamber of commerce/welcome center railings yesterday by adding the handicap access railings.  they needed to be simple and uncluttered, yet strong and light.  he used 1.25" square tubing with center supports and side braces to the wood posts.  there are little plant hangers on the side supports to hang plants on in the summer.

 nice little detail on the ends of the rails and a tricky connection to the stone and concrete work.  the support sytem will be paved over soon.

one of the modified greek key end elements

a fine job on the building renovations by bill drunsic, the owner, teresa findeisin, architecture, along with dan scarlotta of vermont traditional builders, wells, vermont, who headed up the construction.

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Selasa, 12 Juli 2016

What We Can Do With Metal

Sams been working with metal now for about 5 years, full time for the last two. Hes a great welder and fabricator and his artistic and problem solving sense is evolving everyday. As we get more and more requests for pieces both entirely of metal and as furniture, in combination with wood, often questions of finishes, materials, and capabilities arise ... Rather than answer the same or almost the same questions over and over, this post will serve as a general outline for potential clients who want to know more about what we can and cant do ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....
We have a fairly well equipped metal shop. We could use a little more space, a milling machine and maybe a more professional drill press but mostly, were pretty well set. We also have a company we work with for custom CNC waterjet cutting and custom CNC plasma cutting, as well as chrome plating and powder coating ... Right here in Vermont ....

Sooooo, what are the options as far as materials, finishes, fabrication? For a quick overview, visit the Sam Mosheim category off to the right there or any of the links directly below....

We work in steel, both hot and cold rolled, stainless steel, brass, copper, and punched tin.

Possible finishes are:
Natural oiled mill finish .... The Williams Store RailingsBlackened steel, done with a cold patina chemical called ready brown ... works great on brass and copper too .... It can be nicely highlighted with steel wool, then oiled ....
Polished natural steel finish. Essentially a process of grinding off the mill scale and polishing with finer and finer grades of abrasives ... While we have not as yet done any pieces in polished stainless, our satin finish stainless is typically looking a lot like the project above .... Perhaps just a bit brighter .... A Custom Contemporary Railing
For antique or Art Deco style pieces, golf leafed, natural or antiqued, might be a good choice ...
For outdoors, we recommend two coats of primer, two of paint with refreshing when necessary ... any color ... A Fine Outdoor Railing
For indoors, primed and painted, any color also; here with a nice gold paint from Fine Paints of Europe which will be glazed and antiqued later ...
A mix of finishes and materials .. blackened, natural,polished, brass and copper ... Were currently working on designs for a bed with inlays in a variety of metals and finishes ...
A Door For a Pizza Oven Thermometer
Products and Services .....
Custom Outdoor Chairs and Table Parts
Lighting, railings, sculpture, belt buckles, custom tools, fireplace accessories, furniture parts, metal repairs and custom welding ....
Whatever else you can dream up that you think we might be able to do ....
dan@com
sam@com

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Niche Market

Sam and Will took a truckload of our latest niche product, the Wagatha dog treat rack, to town today. There were 75 of the bag racks, 25 more to go, and Trevor made 10 of the bulk biscuit racks below. The client thinks he can get us more work like this if were interested and he actually has a third compact counter top display design in mind. Were working on that ... Its interesting work from a design and engineering standpoint but I would hate to burn Trevor out with the mass production thing ... Once you figure it out, its time for a new challenge ... The racks assemble with hooks and by sliding, the tolerances being crucial to the process. but, once theyre together, they are amazingly strong and rigid ... I dont have a picture of a rack fully loaded with bags and graphics yet, but I think it will look sharp ... Lots of pieces ...click the photos to enlarge them ...
75 rack times 4 = 300 shelves right off the cnc
Only half the backs
Ten of the bulk racks, ready to go ... well be posting an assembly video online shortly ... Trevor really got the intricate joinery worked out perfectly ... He gets a gold star ...
The original prototype.

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Finished Tables Delivered

The craft table order is now complete and the tables have been delivered to the clients home to her sewing area. The lower table is 60"x30"x30" with one drawer in the center. The other two are 42"x30"x36" and have two drawers each. 

Three craft tables in sewing room

Since she wanted them painted I used poplar. Tops are glued-up panels. These tables are my design and it is really one of the few times Ive built a project of this size without a preprinted plan. A skill builder for sure and I did enjoy doing this project. She really liked the finished product and that makes it all the better.

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the new pool table is finished

12/31/12 we received this onsite photo of the pool table yesterday ... looks like a good spot ..

  well, after some serious setbacks along the choice, all of them inconvenient, but none of them fatal, we finally wrapped up this pool table earlier in the week.  but, due to the hurricane, and the fact that my shipper is based on long island, it is still set up in  my shop, waiting to get on its choice to chicago.  hopefully early next week.  click the photos to enlarge them.

 it features curly claro walnut rails with figured mother of pearl inlays and black leather pockets, a welded steel frame base, (about 450 pounds of it), with a rainbow finish and low shine lacquer. 

 

 it started out as a cad drawing with two different designs.  there was some indecision, which offered us a perfect chance to make a scale model to study the two choices.

one design on one side, one on the other.

not one, but the first TWO sets of slates from our supplier in florida arrived broken due to poor packing and poor trucking.  in the end we were able to secure a high quality (and more expensive) italian slate set from a supplier in (sort of nearby) albany, a short hour and a half achoice.  setbacks numbers 1 and 2.

we made some jigs on the cnc and sam cut, fit and welded the frame pieces.

Will made the curly claro rails and did the inlay, cushions and felting

here Will drill the rail ends to receive the pocket ears.

 

we made some support jigs so we could move the sides, with the legs attached, into place to bolt things together.

 

 and then we set it up in the shop to test everything before finishing the base, and covering the blinds and the slate frame edges in 1/8th" steel too.  it was at this point that we discovered the long side angle iron, that we thought would be stiff enough, wasnt so we had to seek approval to add the center supports to the long sides.  (small) setback #3.

due partly to the jigs we made on the cnc and mostly to sams care and fitting and welding ability, it was level pretty much wherever we looked.  lets hope the clients floor is as good as ours.

then it was back to the metal shop for finishing.  we ran out of the patina chemical on the last side section and had to wait 5 days for it to ship cross country, hazardous, ground.  setback #4.

and, while sam and jim were doing the patina on the last long side assembly, it fell and smashed jims finger to the tune of five stitches when he tried to catch it ... too heavy ... setback#5.

while we were waiting, another part of the commission was to make this custom cue rack, also in steel and claro walnut.

 

and a jig to locate the hidden screws to hang it. 

and now were tapping our foot for hurricane sandy and setback #6.  fortunately, our clients have been ENORMOUSLY patient and understanding as we navigated the process.  i am most certainly looking forward to seeing some photos of the room once our chicago mechanic does the final onsite set up.  it will be in the same room as this 12 claro walnut table we shipped back in july.  must be some room .. all for  now.

other pool table posts are linked below:
other pool tables we have built
build your own pool table
a custom pool table
felting the rails; rack em up!

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