Jewelry Box Curly Maple and Wenge

Just completed this commission piece for a client who had made a previous purchase. The box measures 14"w x 9"d x 6 1/2" h and is constructed from soft curly maple, also known as ambrosia maple, and wenge (wen-gay). The drawer liners are craft foam and worked out surprisingly well. I wanted something different than the traditional felt.

Shown with the lid and drawers closed, note the shape of the front and rear legs.

The curve of the drawer pulls match the curve of the lid handle giving the viewer the impression that there are 3 drawers.

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My son and daughter in law asked that I build a chair and table set for our grandson for his play room. The table is 24" square and is made of  white limba, a wood I havent used before and chose based on the recommendation of my lumber dealer. It works very much like poplar or soft maple. It is also only $1.80 bd. ft. There is also black limba, a beautiful wood, and is a little more.

I built two chairs and added a walnut strip for a little detail in the seat. I will deliver the set this weekend on our next visit north this weekend. I enjoyed building this set. I had built an identical set for our grand daughter about 7 or 8 years ago.

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Retinal Cryoplexy

Click the above to read the gory details ... irritated tissue, I guess ...
Last Thursday, for the second time in 7 years, I was diagnosed with a detached retina. I had two episodes back in 2003, and it was, again, in the same eye. I had eye surgery yesterday, (Retinal Cryoplexy, FYI), and it went well. Its an astonishing technology .. The surgeon first examined every corner of my eye with a lens thing and a million watt light, which was no picnic in itself. Then he took a little (+/- 1/8th” diameter) probe with a tube that he snaked in behind my eyeball, pushed a pedal, circulated some liquid nitrous oxide through the probe, and froze the s*** out of the back of my eyeball, creating an instant excruciating ice cream headache ... Then he did it again ... Today, right now, 28 hours later, I feel and see normally again. No pain.... This technique could easily eliminate any need for waterboarding, ever. I would have told him ANYTHING if he had threatened to do it a third time. Appropriately, Kit made some sockeye salmon for dinner when we got back home ... All’s well that ends well, but dont try this at home ...

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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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A Christmas Jewelry Box

Will recently completed this nice jewelry box for a client to give to his wife for Christmas ... It was a surprise, but the cats out of the bag by now Im sure ... It was a nice little project ....Click the photos to enlarge them ... Above is the back side ...
From the front .... We used a piece of figured cherry left from the new trestle table we delivered the weekend before Christmas ... The square trays are about an inch tall and slide side to side or lift out easily ... The mirror was a last minute addition ...
Will did the walnut inlay with the initials on the cnc ...
When he glued up the box, we werent sure whether the outside was to be stained or not. Since the bottom of the drawer and the top compartment are covered with a suede like fabric, we shellacked the interior before the glue up and taped it off for staining and finishing the outside ...
Will fitted up the drawer and installed the hinges before disassembling the box for finishing ...
The dividers, taped off
From the front before finishing ... Weve got a CAD drawing somewhere ... I think its about 10 x 14 x 7 high

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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

Jewelry Boxes

Travel has kept me out of the shop and off the blog for the past couple of months, but I was able to finish two jewelry boxes for a friend at work who wanted these for his daughter. The one shown is Walnut and I used Cherry for the other. The lighter wood is Ash. There are 2 mirrors on the left side, one in the back and one in the center divider. The plans came from Wood Magazine. Most of the material was either 1/4" or 3/8" so I spent a lot of time re-sawing thicker pieces. Overall size is 12" H by 11" W by 6" D. These were a pleasure to build and I understand his daughters really liked the gift from their father. 

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Adirondack Chair Part One

A good friend and previous customer ordered her second Adirondack chair and I thought I would take some step-by-step photos as I started the project. Maybe this will be helpful for those who haven’t tried to build one of these great chairs, or is curious about how they go together. My design is a modified version of Tom Begnal’s chair from Fine Woodworking. I have made some subtle changes with each one I build, mostly with the seat slates and the arm shape/width.

 Chair parts cut and ready to assemble

First I cut the parts required for the chair. Having built a number of these, I have a set of templates made of hardboard to speed up the layout of most of the curved parts.

Chair base complete

Take the two sides and attach the front seat slat, drill and counter sink the holes. I use waterproof glue and stainless steel screws and bolts in my chairs.  Once the front seat slat is installed, and the lower cradle and attach the same choice you did the front slat.

Glue the leg assemblies now, I find this easier than bolting the chair to the body and then trying to add the arm support parts. Again, SS screws and waterproof glue. I drilled the holes for the arm attachment later in the process.

Clamp the front leg assemblies to the base. Mark and drill the bolt holes to attach the front legs. The angle of the chair is determined by the cut on the bottom of the sides so when you lift the front, it will be clear where to drill the holes to attach the legs. Quick clamps help out here.

Front legs bolted to the chair frame with 3/8” SS bolts, washers and nuts. Next step is to prepare the back risers.

Determine the angle to cut the back risers. This is where the upper cradle attaches and determines the slant of the chair back. In this case the angle is 25*. Anything less and the back may be more upright, more and the back will lay back. A personal preference, but this angle seems to be most comfortable.

Attach back risers in the same manners as the front legs. Glue prior to bolting the risers, unlike I did the first time I bolted these to the sides :)