Pictures of the Big Tables

I got these photos from Steve a while ago but havent taken the time to post them until now. Its summer. The weather has been pretty near perfect. I have been playing golf and tennis .... I have requests for new work that I have to address and new projects starting up. We had friends in from Taos ... Anychoice .. Here they are now ... Click the photos to enlarge them ... I didnt take them and I know they were not easy tables to photograph, but here they are .. There is a list of all the relevant blog post links at the bottom ... See the whole story; start to finish by following the links in order ...
The 26 x 9 table
From the endThe small table ... 20 x 8
From the beginning ....
post #1
post #2
post #3
post #4
post #5

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A Short Video Tour of Dorset Custom Furniture

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Dorset Custom Furniture from Junction 133 on Vimeo >.

">A Video Tour of Dorset Custom Furniture
Heres a very brief visual and oral history of Dorset Custom Furniture. Weve been working on it for a while now and it was harder than I thought. What to include? What to cut? .. a whole new process ... Duncan Lake of Junction 133 Productions got it all together for us. Hes been a friend of Sam and Wills for a long time and did a great job ... Hes back at his day job for the season now, videoing snowboarders out west ... Looks like fun ...
ps ... this video shows best if you click it to full screen

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Claro Walnut Table Progress

Were on the home stretch on the big claro walnut table now and I think the next time you see it, it will be completely finished... Below you can see we have gone over the surface with a sidelight and a curved scraper to get the biggest rough spots all smoothed out ... The grain in the area of the photo below was incredibly tough to smooth without chipping it out and we didnt/couldnt get every chipout. It still had a nice shine, even before the first seal coat of shellac ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Unbelievable figure and color
Looking from the end after the shellac ..
We used a sidelight to find any big chipouts that needed final scraping and sanding
Even without the finish, sanded to 320, it had a good shine
Heres Sam polishing the 1.5" thick steel legs... Tough stuff ...
All done ...
A close up in process, before the final, final polish ... We went for a shiny but not mirror finish and the sealing oil in the photo above really brought it up nicely.

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Libraries We Have Built Over The Years

I ran into some long time clients yesterday at the local hardware/general store. We were talking and they mentioned they were considering building a library next year and could I send them some pictures ... I rounded up a few and realized that rather then send them in an email, I would post them here with some comments and explanations. Most of the these projects were before I started writing this blog so there is not much in the choice of construction photos .... They are not all libraries, but exhibit some of the various book storage design possibilities ... Click the photos to enlarge them ... More pics later ....
This stained cherry library had some beautiful details...The soft lighting for the miniature decoys over the windows, a fly tying desk., a secret gun cabinet with lighted storage and opposite the wall shown above, a complete home office ... I have that picture somewhere ...
A classic natural cherry home office and bookcase circa 2004 I think. The clients and I got a couple design awards for this one, a portfolio award from Custom Woodworking Business magazine and one from the VWMA.
The opposite wall with a custom, built in fly tying desk ...
A mini library. This room was about 8 x 10 but we squeezed in two walls of floor to ceiling bookcases, a desk and a beautiful door with stained glass ... This wall is adjacent to the one above with the door in between them.
Not a library per se, but a really fine cabinet full of stuff. Down lighting on each shelf, uplighting on the top of the case ... An incredible collection of objects and only a very small portion of the clients extraordinary all original decoy collection.
My largest project ever and my favorite drawings ever ... This was choice before CAD for me and I recently stuck these to the ceiling of the closet in my office ... If you enlarge this one, you can see the whole room. The photos below really dont do the room justice. For this project I had to take on a partner, Andrew Pate of Andrew Pate Designs in Cambridge New York for this one ... He had a much larger shop than I did at the time and more experience in long distance built ins than I ever want to have ... Yikes! What anxiety. Will this thing fit? Its four walls, floor to ceiling in a Upper East Side Pre War ... I mean, really ...
A. from drawings above ... Well it all fit ... It was a huge installation and four of us had to spend more than a couple nights in the city ...
B. from drawing above ... Lots of details ... The wood was cut from the clients Vermont land; dried in New York State; fabricated and assembled in Arlington and Cambridge; finished before delivery; and delivered to NYC and installed there ... It was also the year we moved from Arlington to Dorset .... Did I really do this? I guess.
C. Lots of details ... The stereo all pulls out; the vertical drawers on either side of the tv pull out and hold boxes of flies ... Not shown, wall d. above, and the fly tying desk and custom rod and reel storage. The arrow in the sketches above points to a view of the room ceiling if youre lying on the floor. There was a challenge there to make that all make sense too ... Wonderful clients, wonderful project ...
And, you can alchoices paint them ... This project we finished this summer and it actually has a blog link ... The Wall
The installation day
In the shop ... See the blog link for more info on this one
And here we have a totally minimalist approach ... live edge curly maple and fir supports ... All for now ...

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dorset custom furniture goes to facebook

people tell me over and over that they are getting good results from their facebook business page ... i believe them, i do .. and now, ill actually see ... i now have a facebook page for dorset custom furniture. like it if you like it ... thanks
ive had a personal page there for a while where i have posted family, friend and nature shots along with the occasional event, and communed with long lost people from my distant past, (which has actually been pretty amazing fun). now, lucky you, if you so desire, you can be my personal friend on facebook (just ask) or you can like dorset custom furniture. the facebook thing is pretty easy now that ive got my pictures up ... i can post links to my blog posts and presto, there they are. and, who knows ... 550 million people can now easily find dorset custom furniture out there in the facebookosphere ... what a concept ... well see how it goes ...
i have just determined i will need help with adding the like box to my blog ... later ... dan

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Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers Summer Show

The Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers invites you to attend a special exhibition titled “A Step Beyond: Collaboration and Innovation, New Work from the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers”, to be held at the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts, at 135 Church St. in Burlington, Vermont, from July 9th - 18th. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 9th, from 5:00 - 8:30 p.m.

This show will feature collaborative work by some of the guild members who have
collaborated with other Vermont craft artists, incorporating materials like forged steel,mica, stained glass, carved slate, and LED lighting. It will also include pieces with newprocesses, approaches and techniques that are innovative to the individual makers. This show is part of the statewide "State of Craft" exhibits throughout the year, sponsored by the Vermont Crafts Council to mark their 20th Anniversary. The show will bring to Burlington the work of professional level fine furniture makers from every region of the state, and is the first time the Guild has held a major gallery show like this in Burlington.

For more information about the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers visit VermontFurnitureMakers.com

The above info is from a Guild Press release regarding a furniture show that opened in Burlington last night. The space is on Church Street in the Firehouse Gallery next to City Hall. Its a wonderful venue and it looks like the members who are exhibiting stepped up to the plate for this one .... Check it out if you find yourself in Burlington ... It runs through next Sunday ...While youre here, also check out the New Guild Website at the link above. Click the photos below to enlarge them ....
Set up was yesterday and the organizers Johns Congdon, Lars Larrson and Dave Hurwitz really had their act together ... The show, just before the first visitor ... The turnout was amazing and went on until I left at 8:00 ...
Were exhibiting "Bethlehem Steel #3" and a set of six contemporary ladderback chairs. Thats Bob Gasperettis tapered piece in the background ....A detail of Johns Congdons sideboard, which he designed in collaboration with his wife. This is the back side of the piece ... On the other side there are 5 drawers with handmade silver hardware ...A detail of Erin Handleys pear woodside table A detail shot of Mario Messinas hanging lamp
The gallery on Church Street ...

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The Ducks Are Back

(Almost) Like the swallows returning to Capistrano, the ducks are back ... They arrived last Friday, as usual, almost to the day that the stream first cuts a channel across the ice. They were tired from their trip and were napping when we got to work on Friday, but Monday, whoa, below, we had an intruder ... a single female and they did not like here. We watched off and on for the morning while they chased her back and forth across the pond, and finally, she left ... Things were back to normal today but it was fun while it lasted ... Kits got the redwing blackbirds at the feeder too ... Big Tom turkey yesterday morning and the she also saw the bobcat briefly one morning last week, probably stalking the squirrels. Spring is coming ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
Back and forth ... when she got to the edge, she would fly back over their heads and the chase would continue, til finally she left ... havent seen her since ...
A little earlier than usual ... but Sam said this afternoon the leeks are up ... global warming I guess ...

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Shop Furniture Sliding Storage Cabinet

I like shop cabinets. After having a few in my old shop and seeing how clean and organized they kept everything, I fell in love. The old shop had a series of three custom built rolling cabinets that stored under my old, massive miter saw bench. Each was built of MDF. They were open on one side and had a single shelf. Three 19” toolboxes fit beneath the shelf and four 16” toolboxes above the shelf. The tops had a 1” overhand to assist with clamping . . . but I digress. This post is about the new sliding storage cabinet.

The new cabinet is inspired by the Grizzly H5654 cabinet. The Grizzly has a pair of doors on the front and two slide out drawers on each side. It houses a total of 7 pegboard panels. When I first saw it I was enamored with it’s ability to store so much in such a small area. And it was all stored in a closed cabinet to keep the contents dust free.
The more I thought about the Grizzly, the more hung up I became on its biggest design flaw - the drawers which slide out to the side. They meant that the H5654 would take up twice as much wall space as the width of the cabinet. As I plan to fit in as many cabinets as I can along my walls, this was a deal killer for me.

Knowing that the solution was to have all of the drawers slide out from the front, I began to hatch my own idea for a slide out cabinet. I bough some 2’ x 4’ pegboard and a sheet of 3/4” OSB from Lowe’s. I let efficient use of the pegboard determine the size of my slide out storage drawers and then I designed the rest of the cabinet around them. The drawers ended up being 16” deep by 24” high.
The cabinet is 28” wide by 28” high. It’s made of the 3/4” OSB assembled with pocket screws. It’s attached to the wall via a French cleat so I can easily move it around as I continue to work on the shop. As it is currently my only wall cabinet I have extension cords hanging on one side and air and vacuum hoses on the other. The cords and hoses hang on cheap metal garden hose racks.

I finished it off with some satin finished drawer pulls which don’t really match anything, but I like the look of them anychoice. I was too lazy to sand or finish the cabinet. Even in it’s naked form I’m loving it. The sliding storage cabinet now houses my tape, most of my hand saws, all my headphones and some cordless drills. While I’m sure the contents will change over time, the cabinet itself will certainly serve many years of faithful services in my penultimate woodshop.
What kind of cabinets have you made for you shop?

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the scott lenhardt show

well, you just never know whats next around here .... a couple years ago, at the last minute, we helped wills friend, scott lenhardt, get some stuff together for his first new york show .... scott is a graphic and fine artist and sculptor, most famous for his burton snowboard graphics. as you can see in the flyer above, hes got a show opening at the firehouse gallery in burlington this coming friday. below is a description of the part of the show will helped him with this time ... click the photos to enlarge them ....
scott had a rough prototype with him and some ideas for changes on his first visit a couple of weeks ago ... hes got 6 colorings and 6 birds so he needed 6 painted houses. we brainstormed it a bit and after some adjustments, arrived at the final prototype and the six houses.
naturally, the cnc was involved, as was mdf since they had to be simple, fast to construct, and easy to paint. they left thursday to be wired and painted and i imagine scott is installing the colorings and birds this morning as hes off to burlington later today and the show set up starts tomorrow ...
lots of details for a smallish object ... lights, cords, (groove down the back), discreet hanging on the wall, (french hook), ventilation (slot in the tops at the wall intersection), wiring accessibility, (rare earth magnets and 26 guage galvanized spray 90ed into place), frosted glass, hold the coloring (velcro), etc ... will got them all i think ... interesting project and were considering making the run to attend the opening ...
we also made two sort of big mitered frames (3 x 5) that led to the creation of one of our best ever construction jigs ... next post ...

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chair challenge

5/13 ... we delivered this challenging rosewood chair last weekend ... this project was a real wrestling match for everyone involved. the upholsterer had a long backlog and then, a long struggle with the edelman rattlesnake leather ... i have to agree, it was an unusual material, and, for him, a real bear to work with. looks great though; sits great; glad its done ... cool object ...
the challenge ... make a chair from a photo .... if youve never tried it, its not easy ... we had a photo that the client took from a french website of a "Lady Vanity Chair by Christian Krass (Design of JE Ruhlmann) france, 1930, very elegant and slender vanity chair by Christian Krass after design of J.E. Ruhlmann ". .. since my client didnt want to order the chair from france and also wanted it to match the other furniture we made for her dressing room a few years ago, she called on us to do the job ... we had no measurements or details but we went at it in the only choice we know how ... make a full size mock up; sit in it; walk around it and make changes mentally before building the real thing ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
mock up on the left ... the real thing, (in morado), on the right ... in this photo, we have made a cardboard template for fitting the real back piece, which is actually a section of a cone and tough to fit. we glued it up on a curved form already on hand from a previous project ...
at this point, we realized that the back seat rail also had to curve out to match so we had to make a new one of those ... details, details ...
next we fitted the real backsplat (two wacky wood layers and two and 2 1/8" birch ply layers) and made up the bookmatched/slip matched veneered piece that would finish it off. next we glued that to the fitted backsplat and flushed it up ...
viola ...
one thing i kick myself for not noticing was that the back legs of the original chair are vertical and parallell, and i did mine in my typical, turned out fashion that gives the chair a little more style. but, it also makes the legs flare out at the top which made making the back piece removable for upholstering a real challenge ... i fooled around with it for a long time, moving the tapered connectors, filling bad screw holes etc, but i finally got it. it will take two people and a clamp to install the upholstered back splat, but hey, what are friends for?
you can see the connectors here ... photo of the matching splat hardware later ...
its in the finishing process now .... it will be dark and shiny and luscious and will be upholstered in edelman rattle snake skin leather (be sure to check out that link for some serious style) ... it should be a knockout ... cant wait ...

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