woodworking tools tips

well .. what can i say? its nuts here. almost out of control ... but things are getting done. two coffee tables left for new york city monday, and arrived yesterday. the bookmatched cherry plank and steel table above, and the large (54 x 84) steel frame below.

this one looks right at home

and this is a big one .. probably just under 300 pounds. the stone (another +/- 500 pounds), will be cut and fitted in new york ...

specifications included : " must support dancers" .. sounds like fun.

it had a nice dark bronze patina and some decorative screw details in the top frame ..

and weve got a pair of stools waiting for the final stain color approval. theyll be upholstered by the designers workroom in massachusetts .. tougher than they look ...

and were coming down the home stretch on the kitchen project. its starting to look like the model. were awaiting appliances and counter tops, which should be arriving sometime in the next few weeks.

and there are other parts to that project too, like the +/- 8 x 8 painted vanity below. we turned it over to the painters on site and will be reassembling it as it appears in the shop, as the counter tops and stone backsplashes arrive.

there will be a mirror and some sconces in the big open space. the horizontal shelf over the sink area is just for our convenience as we built it.

and upstairs, theres a quartered oak vanity/shelf unit .. steel pipe supports on the end later.

and downstairs, a barnboard vanity for the half bath.

the curved moldings in barn board are gonna be a trick .. working on that tomorrow.

coming up, some living room shelves involving a barn beam from the renovation and a bunch of 3" thick torsion box shelves ... should be interesting.

and a baby gate !! i havent made one for about 30 years now ...

and i never made one that wasnt a piece of painted plywood with a poster on it ... this one is gonna look official!

and will, for the time being at least, has officially moved on to full time custom banjos and stringed instrument repairs. hes been at it for a while now, and while i miss his input and production in the shop, im wishing him the very best of luck following his heart. why wait .. start now. see where it goes.

and sams busy ... along with the railings he finished recently, above and below, he is coming down the home stretch on a major project at the local church downtown. more on that later ...

jig for building the railings

3 floors on this project ... fussy figuring ...

and the metal shop doors and stairs are here, as is the slate,, below ...more progress soon.

and our friend rachel turned 70 last week. big party last sunday. people we havent seen in a long time. we made her one of our garolite and zebra wood life event coasters. kit said i should have made a dozen of them . were gettin up there.

all for now

Sabtu, 22 Oktober 2016

we have a roof

we have a roof ... thanks to our friends matt conrad, jesse loomis and nat hill, we have a roof .. well, weve got to thank george dunnett, of vermont fancy hardwoods, too for delivering the 15 squares of nice purple slate. click the photos to enlarge them.

and, inside, we have some of our wires, and and were hoping to get more, and a plumber before we can insulate and get the inside show on the road .. sam and i still have some work to do around the doors and windows, but were hoping to get to a little of that over the weekend.

and a little siding too !

Jumat, 03 Juni 2016

just a simple country table

this one snuck into the shop to be fixed during open studio weekend ... i didnt pay much attention to it until i turned it over ...

very cool .. i love the little recurves where the aprons flare out to join the legs. its got some nice caryatid type ormolu thingys holding up the top as well as some flared foot details. its hard to see from these photos, but the flared feet are simply nailed on over curved legs, but you wouldnt know that unless you turned it over. its all good, and a little humbling. it also appears that the veneered apron panels were done while the top veneer was flat, and then the whole stack of 8 or so 1/6th" veneers were laminated on curved forms. very neatly done. a very sophisticated piece.

there is a piece of marble inserted from the bottom, framed by that beveled edge cutout.

just a simple country piece ...

Senin, 30 Mei 2016

NEW BLOG FORMAT !!

5/27 ... hmmm ... im still considering all the things i now have to learn about this new layout. i used it many times yesterday during the first day of open studio. some good things; some bad things; some things i discovered ...
- its somewhat easier to navigate if you use the fly out menus to the right and select blog archive and look at one year or even one month at a time.
- if youre looking for metalwork, banjos, or info on finishing, claro walnut slab furniture, use the categories view.
- i wish it didnt have to cycle back through the home page everytime you close a blown up photo.
- if youre browser supports it, the flyout menu on the top left also has a magazine optiom that gives more information on the individual posts.
- i wish i could figure out if traffic was increasing, or in fact, has dropped to 3 visitors a day, which seems unlikely to me. another place i looked says that my traffic shot up ... who knows?
- the < & > arrows at the top left are handy for scrolling recent posts.
- im gonna leave it for now and hopefully its working ... please add your two cents ... thanks. dan
from 5/25
after all my whining about the new blogger interface, i thought it would be appropriate if i also said something really nice about google too. they do amazing things for me and for dorset custom furniture, like hosting about 1500 of my photos on the internet for free. and this morning, they sent me a friendly email encouraging me to try their new free blogger layout tools ... the coffee kicked in just before i hit the delete button and i checked it out ... though im not alchoices an early adapter, ( i still dont have a smart phone or an ipad ) i thought this was too good to pass up ... so, now when you visit my blog, you see not only a photo from the current post, but you see the highlight photos from ALL of my 500+ posts. click on the image, go to the post. what could be easier? simple, direct and it brings our history to light without the frustrating hunt and peck ... please add a comment or send me an email to let us know what you think about it. love it or hate it, id like to know ... i have pretty slow internet here and its still works ... so, enjoy ... check out the old stuff when you have a minute ... happy memorial day weekend and stop by for open studio if youre in the area ...

Rabu, 13 April 2016

just this past week

well, i think im going to be writing on this one for a minute or two. i have not posted much new stuff lately, and today, in looking at my pictures, i realize why. the last two weeks have been pretty intense, all in a good choice. exactly one week ago today, i took a solo road trip to stowe to drop off the hanging swing and check our templates for our next project there, a curved, sort of built in bench. click the photos to enlarge them ...

when i say sort of, i mean sort of built in, definitely curved. it goes at the top of a three story spiral staircase, in a cupola, looking down the valley, over the top of stowe village ... great view !

our template, which we made from a paper template made by the contractor .. a 72" radius.

on the choice up, i traveled over the recently reopened vermont route 107, devastated last summer by hurricane irene. they are still working on it and in several places, i had to stop for one choice traffic, and i have to say, the devastation that has been repaired in the last 8 months is hard to comprehend. there were miles of this ...

on the choice back, i took the scenic route over lincoln gap, to visit a client i made a table for in 1991. i had seen her recently at an art opening and she mentioned her table could use a little sprucing up. i could see that it had been used a lot, but after an hour or so of sanding and a new coat of oil/poly mix and it looked like a 20 year old table that was in great shape. i plan to stop on my choice back from dropping off the curved bench and give it another coat ... after that, it should be good for another 20.

i remember her sending me photos of the dining room details that she wanted included in the table inlays and though i remembered her photos, it was cool to see them in person.

and in the metal shop ...

sams got a number of projects winding down. he rebuilt one of these forms he made a few months ago, and made two new ones. its and interesting project in that he made the cad drawing in 2d, printed it at 1/8" to the inch, cut it out, folded it up and sent it to melansons, where they cut the pieces on their waterjet and folded them on their computerized brake. very slick ...

heres the paper mockup ..

and the finished form with the sliding bolts for opening, and the lifting handles added. its a two piece form that is split after the concrete sets up.

hes also wrapping up three fireplace screens. the grid/screen material he got from mcnichols is really cool and ill post a photo when they are finished.

its a challenging concept as they have to fit and look good in some pretty rough stone openings. we made some mdf mockups and fitted the trim pieces in place before getting underchoice ... worked slick ...

and trevors working on a figured mahogany coffee table that will be going to california

stage 1

tah dah ... it will be in a room with a bubinga steinchoice ... hence the reddish finish you can see on the top in its early phase.

and heres a new one for us .. a copper topped porch table. we built this half size mockup just to see how the concept and processes would work and we plan to make it into a console for sale at our upcoming open studio weekend on memorial day.

the individual copper pieces laid in place

a view of the painted bottom planks ... shes a big one ..36 x 132. it will have the x base like in the mockup photo.

we glued and nailed the copper on using jacks to the ceiling to press it into place.

were also exploring new bases for our claro walnut slab tables. this one is in the works and we like it so far. on monday, well put finish on the walnut and the steel and get sam to connect the two base pieces with another x of polished 5/8ths rebar .. we angled the bases to follow the angled ends of the slab. so far so good. were liking it ...

we also had a small antique restoration ... i wish i had a before picture as it was really not pretty. lots of drawer borders and edge pieces missing and a lot of white scum like stuff on the shellac. missing pulls, etc. looks pretty good now ...

and it had the coolest english style dovetails i think i have ever seen ...

and we helped install the 4 x 8 piece of granite on the kitchen island

beautiful! and im glad to cross that one off my list. it was a great project ...

all in all it was quite a week. in addition to being very busy in the shop, we also sent out a bunch of new quotes on new projects. hopefully, the economy is gaining steam in the world of custom furniture .. all for now. have a great weekend ...

woodworking tools tips

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Jumat, 18 November 2016

its just nuts here but really im not complaining

Sabtu, 22 Oktober 2016

we have a roof

Jumat, 03 Juni 2016

just a simple country table

Senin, 30 Mei 2016

NEW BLOG FORMAT !!

Rabu, 13 April 2016

just this past week

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