OK.... We finally finished it ... In the end, it turns out we cant deliver it until the carpenters will be finished in another month, so there was no rush to complete it, except, the client was going to be in town this weekend, and, #2, I need the money. So ... all together now and looking good. It is somewhat surprising, #1, how heavy it is now that its all together, and #2, how completely rigid the steel support structure ended up being ... Grab the end with both hands and try to shake it; you almost cant even wiggle it a little. Im very pleased with our engineering department. Click these pictures to enlarge them and visit these other posts for the full story ...
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This was a challenging photograph. My camera is not quite good enough to keep the whole 10 feet of it in focus and also the reflections from windows and lights in the somewhat shiny finish were really tough to eliminate .. Best I can do I think ...
A view from below ... The base is bolted together and will completely disassemble for delivery to CT
The picture below is a close up of this section of the table
Close up of the crotch end of the slab ... Amazing variety of figure and color
With (coincidentally) ten almost finished ladder back chairs for another client. I first wrote about these chairs in a post last November.
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This was a challenging photograph. My camera is not quite good enough to keep the whole 10 feet of it in focus and also the reflections from windows and lights in the somewhat shiny finish were really tough to eliminate .. Best I can do I think ...A view from below ... The base is bolted together and will completely disassemble for delivery to CTThe picture below is a close up of this section of the tableClose up of the crotch end of the slab ... Amazing variety of figure and colorWith (coincidentally) ten almost finished ladder back chairs for another client. I first wrote about these chairs in a post last November.
Im cleaning up my back list of unfinished blog posts tonight. Heres another one I started back in March and never quite completed ... Its about a railing Sam made for a house in Peru. I never saw the house, but he said it was a very tasteful modern house with nice architecture. The stair rise and runs were all a little different, and, because of the design, the execution required some extra care to be sure things were centered and spaced correctly before welding welding commenced. It was a big one and it came out well, but I know he was glad when it was over .... On to something a little looser like the doors below ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Rough layout to check angles, rise and run
Assembly jig by Sam and Trevor on the CNC
Various modifications were required as each of the three flights of stairs were different ..
A welded and ground corner ... The railing was finished with a clear coat of penetrol.
The builder finished it off with a wood top cap .... Looks great !
well, you probably know what this is ... another banjo by will ... #4. curly maple, ebony, and brass this time ... half fretless. kind of a neat concept that allows the player to slide notes on the upper part of the fretboard where the frets are further apart, but yet play accurately up high on the neck. click the photos to enlarge them ...
heres a link to a 40 second you tube concert here ... a short improv of mole in the ground ...im told #4 has a nice sustain compared to the others. ok ... i can hear that.
being the fourth banjo, it required new new techniques and new and more accurate jigs and processes like the ebony backstrap and the adjustable 3 degree compound angle drilling jig for the dowel stick hole that was based on this jig we made for drilling long turnings on the lathe .... slick
next time, he says hell add a push block to the back of the jig so he can drill the hole using the tail stock crank, but this time he just pushed it slowly against the bit.
will cut the stopped fretboard slots (a nice clean feeling edge, but without the fussy banding on banjo #2 )(scroll down) on the cnc using a mini mini .026 diameter router bit. for the decimally challenged out there, that is 2/3rds of a 32nd of an inch. a pretty small router bit ... get em from mcmaster carr or stew mac i think. ...
the fretboard binding on banjo 2 .. getting that fifth string tuner curve was a trial as i recall
and then, to secure the brass, he used a variation of a nifty trick we read about on a greene and greene details forum where the hall brothers applied ebony edge details with slotted brass screws and then filed off the slotted parts, leaving tapered smooth tipped pins ... i think he also used a little epoxy or something for insurance .. its a very cool detail in person ..
the whole deal
close up of the fretless part with the stainless steel pins
pot shot ... ha ha
and the back view with the ebony details
nice curly cherry and nice detail on the hardware and dowel stick ... i particularly like the brass wire armrest ... the ebony split line is a cool detail ... and i think the finish is 6 or 7 coats of tru-oil, a gun stock finish ... seeders instruments, wills new website has recently received two orders for complete banjos and one for a reproduction neck for an existing older pot ... the boy is off and running ...
this was fun ..
usually i paint my woodburnings, but it takes a long time, and then i might have had to bid on my own ...
tools of the trade
one of my painted efforts. ive alchoices meant to incorporate this technique into my furniture .. maybe soon ...
will took this picture at frog hollow yesterday when he dropped off the bench ... they decided to display it with the frame that will be buried in the ground under the installed bench ... i guarantee, no one will be walking off with it once its installed ... other entries are in the frames above ...
5/1/11 ready for the show that opens at frog hollow in burlington next week ... it will be there for a month and then installed at the museum ... the openings next friday evening ... come by if you are in the area ... it should be fun ...
were coming down the home stretch on the montshire museum bench. the top half of this post i wrote back in early february and now were wrapping up the actual construction .. if you missed the post back then, its a really nice project and a nice collaboration with the museum and frog hollow to get artists work in the public domain. we are flattered to be included ... scroll down to see the bench in process ... well be finishing it up later this week .. 
2/1/11 We were flattered to get a letter in the mail Saturday from The Montshire Museum of Science. They announced a competition last fall for the purchase of 5 benches, made by Vermont artists and furniture makers, for their outdoor garden walk project. Thank you Dave Hurwitz for reminding me (several times) to enter. they selected a new version of our Bridges bench that we made for the State of Craft ... 50 Years of Craft in Vermont show at the Bennington Museum last spring ... Were flattered and honored and I located the chestnut planks well use for the wood part earlier today .... ready to go ... All five benches will be displayed at Frog Hollow in Burlington for a brief time before being installed in their permanent location at the museum in May ... Looking forward to it ... Click the photos and specs to enlarge them ...
step one ... roll the 3/8ths by 2 steel into two identical arcs and weld on the top rails and the bridge struts ...
prime and paint the steel
make the wood base and lay it out for the bolt holes ...
here will is drilling for the rivets that will go in the edge of the seat ... he made a jig with the layout holes on the drill press and then drilled the holes in the seat edge freehand using the jig as a guide
we collaborated on the installation base design with the museum installation experts and we will install this base on the bottom of the base after the show ... all stainless and pressure treated ..
well be finishing the chestnut using a penofin verde color .. weve used penofin products in the past and they are excellent, except for the smell when you first apply it ... it dissipates pretty quickly though and leaves a nice water resistant finish ..
and we got a nice photo of our original bench in the recent montshire news letter ... thanks ! ill post more photos when were finished ...
Ahhh ... where to start? This is going to be a long one ... But a satisfying one for us ... It involves an interpretation of a bed we made 3 or 4 years ago, some old friends I have been working with for a really long time, and an exciting new concept ...metal bird inlays, specifically, ducks .... We started with a rough, quick Cad drawing ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
From the drawing we made a full size mockup up using new post templates we made up for this design.They are based on other beds we have made in the past, but had to be resized for this king version.
I then took the mockup to their house to compare with their present bed. I made the original queen size bed (this will be a king) as a wedding present in the mid 80s ... At that point, we considered varying the duck profiles but returned to the simpler more symmetrical layout ...
From that mockup, we worked up a new rough design which I am in the process of refining right now ... The duck inlays on this bed will be made of copper, steel and brass, instead of the abalone inlays on the original...
This is a fuller picture of the original bed, made for a member at the Winous Point Shooting Club outside of Cleveland, one of the oldest in the country.
Will turned the posts, roughing them out on the duplicator and refining/finishing them freehand.
The Vega makes incredibly quick work of getting the main blanks all exactly the same. Its the handturning and in this case, the hand carving that give them their handmade quality in the end.
Off the duplicator and ready for hand turning ... you you figure out how to sharpen the cutter properly, it is unbelievable how quickly and cleanly these can be turned ...
This process is a refined version identical to one I detailed earlier for a recycled chestnut table we made last summer. These clients have a table we made with similarly carved legs , which are actually the first spiral carvings we did. You can see the mahogany mockup leg we did for that table a couple shots above.
Close up of the layout process which is detailed here for a 6 part spiral. This one is an 8 part spiral
This bed will have four carved walnut pine cones topping each of the posts ...
Where we were yesterday ... Will completed the bed bolt joinery today and we will assemble the frame next to check the final headboard size ... Updates later ...
