road trip pool table installation

 will and i took a nice road trip today to sugarbush ski area in warren, to install the reclaimed post and beam pool table we finished last week.  it was a beautiful, sunny two hour drive, over brandon gap in the national forest, and up route 100 to warren, vermont. 

 the house had an easy, back door access and the installation went off without a hitch.  heres a link to a video of the table in action, with me missing some easy shots so you can see how the cushions work.  ha ha ... im liking the video thing as you can now see a little bit how the table plays and sounds.  i think i will try to do some other videos on a couple of the local tables we have built over the years.

we installed this table on a polished concrete floor that was absolutely, 100 %, perfectly level.  never saw anything like it before.  it was a welcome change from the last table we installed, where the floor was about 1/2" out of level from one end to the other. 

 

 it was a very nice, lower level room with great light, easy access and the tv was already installed.

 

 after truing up the edges of the slates with very thin index card shims, will bondoed the cracks before we stretched the felt.

 a little pocket trimming and some leather liners ...

 and it was time to rack em up.    

we had a couple of job site labs to help us out and keep us company ... good dogs...

the cue rack installation was easy ..

the house was beautiful and almost finished

 there was no snow, but the mountain looked steep and challenging, and they were trying ... all the guns were blowing snow, but it still looked pretty thin.  one of the carpenters said theyre grooming the same four inches for the last two weeks.

 on both legs of the trip, we passed the very scenic moss glen falls, around granville, on route 100.

 

sunset coming down brandon gap the other choice ... home by 5:00 ...

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some carved scrolls for a mantle

we recently carved some butternut scrolls for a mantle that one of our clients was making.  we had sort of an internet fuzzy photo to use as an inspiration, but we did some google image research and came up with the drawing below.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

 

we were pretty happy with it, as was our client, but i did put  it up on the door for an hour or two to make just a few refinements before it went into our cad program.

draw over it ... copy what you need

the reason we decided to do that was that, as you can see from the first photo, the element had to be 13" thick (!!) to complete the design.  after a little thought, we realized wed need a whole bunch of pieces (about 20, not counting a couple of miscuts and practice pieces) and that led us instantly to the cnc.

after we finished the first one, we checked it on site before we did the second one ... good to go.

 this is an onsite photo after the finish was applied

 

i have the actual cad drawing somewhere and ill post that later ... all for now ...
on site 12/14

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the bullseye chestnut mirror

well, yesterday was the opening of our show at the southern vermont arts center ... see the post below ... we had 8 pieces there, plus six of our ladderback chairs ... in the last few years we have participated in shows only on a piece here, piece there basis and this was our first solo show in recent memory ... maybe since the 90s ... since our normal work had to be ongoing to pay the bills, i spent a few recent weekends working on some of the smaller pieces in the show. one of my favorites is this bullseye mirror in reclaimed chestnut. it was partly inspired by the traditional federal round mirror form and i was also influenced by the lines in my roomate, marta johansens drawings. click the photos to enlarge them ... the mirror was an interesting project involving, ( but not necessarily requiring) cnc work, turning large diameter round things, coloring and gold leafing ... and then we had to figure out how to display it free standing so as not to compete with martas drawings on the walls.
i started a couple of weeks ago by cutting two round pieces of 1" mdf on the cnc, gluing them together and then mounting them on my lathes outboard 8" faceplate. i added a hole in the center and made four flat moldings which i applied to the face before i turned it, turning roughly and quickly just to see how it went. we then took it all the choice through the process by adding some latex paint while it was spinning and the goldleaf after that. the result was a lovely contradiction of materials, gold leafed mdf . anychoice after constructing a quick floor stand we stuck it in the office and it was a hit ... then, i had to make the real thing.
i started with two mitered squares of 5/4 reclaimed chestnut, and then, by staggering the joints at 45 degrees, glued them together in the veneer bag.i then mounted the blank on a piece of mdf and took it to the cnc to cut the center hole for the mirror and the 22" diameter outside circle. using the same file, i cut a piece of 1" plywood with a centered 8" recess for my faceplate. you could do all this with a jigsaw and/or a circle cutting jig on your bandsaw, but, when you have a cnc, the tendency is to use it.i then cut rabbeted moldings that were 3/4" thick and created the recess for the mirror, which was a 12" security mirror from uline ... love em ... real glass and relatively inexpensivethe moldings were also cut on the cnc with the rabbets up (photo above this one)and then freed from the block by taping the cut face with packing tape and running the blank through the sander till they separated. on to the outboard end of the lathe. since the 1" ply faceplate piece was cut on the cnc it was a simple matter to make a light face cut on the plywood to true it up and then mount the main blank on it, and have at it. i had expected i would have to change to my really slow speed pulley and belt, but the whole thing was true enough to turn at the regular lowest spindle speed, which truly surprised me.. while it was on the lathe, i added some aniline dye and federal blue milk paint, polishing off the high points to leave the paint only in the recesses.
the next day will very carefully taped off the moldings, we figured out the locust firewood base and supports (if you click the photo here, you can see the steel pipe brackets that sam made to accept the polished 3/4" rebar vertical support. that allow the mirror to spin and also allowed us to take it apart to move it to the show. the locust block was completely green and quite heavy.
here are both corner mirrors on their stands, which looked a little garish with the fresh cut yellow locust wood. more on that below ...
will applied the gold size and the next day, he did the leaf. i was in a hurry when i did the original turning; it was a beautiful day; i had a paddle tennis game ... i skipped the milk paint ground coat we alchoices use under the size and there were some holidays where the size had soaked into the mostly bare wood ...
we reapplied the size to the bare spots and touched up the gold leaf the next day
out to the drivechoice where we toasted and scrubbed both pieces of the raw locust and polished it with a red scotchbrite pad on the dynabrade.it looked pretty cool so we left it
all in, all done ... off to the show ... the room looked great with everything in place and we had a great turnout ...
for closeups of other pieces and more pictures of the work of the other 8 painters (no other furniture makers; im flattered) in the show, visit this link
a little more marketing coming up this week with the arrival of our new postcards tomorrow ...

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some claro walnut slab tables

well, we shipped out a couple more fine slabs of claro walnut from goodhope hardwoods today. ive been buying slabs from them for about 10 years now and ive never been disappointed. these two were no exception ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
a crotch slab my client found for me in the specials section on their website, a category that comes and goes as needed apparently. this client chose the same simple block base we have used on tables like this before ...
the table above is part of our shaker series with 1.5" thick solid steel bases. this client wanted to have his base blackened, a patina process we do with a chemical called redi brown from, i think, triple s chemicals ? in LA. ill have to look it up.
sam did a beautiful job applying the patina and neutralizing it, and we then sprayed on a couple coats of clear satin metal finish.
we started with two of these slabs ... the one on the wall we previously made into a coffee table and shipped it to aspen; the horizontal one is now the coffee table above, and the one on top of the stack standing vertically became the dining table.
here trevors chiseling in the butterfly keys to restrain the natural drying cracks.
ready to plane flush ...
off to the finish room for its first coat of gloss ...
and today, jim took off in the town and country for north east hampton, long island. i cant feel too sorry for anyone who gets paid to take six ferry rides over two days, even if it is a long drive ... he was ready to go when he left. youve got to be at least a little amazed that we can get two 7 plus tables and 8 chairs in here and still have room for more, even if there will be some assembly required on delivery ... and, its a smooth ride to boot ... almost wish i were going myself ... next time for sure ...

other claro walnut tables
50 x 120 x 3" thick
36 x 120 x 2.25" thick
a 5/4 coffee table
36 x 94 x 1/25"

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some fancy cnc work

a while back, we worked with our neighbor, steve holman, on two large conference tables, one 9 x 26 and one 8 x 20. we had to set them up in my garage as neither of our shops was large enough to hold them ... this fall he got a commissions to build two more smaller tables, a 16 footer and a 14 footer. those both fit in his shop and were simpler in design, but we still helped by cutting the table and base pieces on our cnc.
one of the other parts of this project was a fantastic reception desk, designed by steve and paul molinelli, that was full of curves and different levels and was pretty complex as you can see from the photo above. click the pictures to enlarge them ...
so, how did we get from there to here ... it was easy for us. all we had to do was the full size templates, curved plates, and bending forms ... steve and his crew did the rest. im sure it could have been done without the cnc, but you would have needed some pretty big french curves to lay out the full size pieces. and then, the small adjustments ... it would have taken some time and some really intense bandsaw work ...
we started by scanning the scale drawing actual size and then drawing over it in our cad programfrom there, trevor imported that into the cnc router program and he added the elevation sections shown above ... next step was the 1/4 scale model you saw in the photo at the top. trevor constructed it by stacking layers of mdf of the proper thickness to correspond with the section drawings at each slice.from there it was a simple matter for him scale it up to full size ... (increase; proportional) and then cut the full size patterns, counters to be veneered and their curved solid wood edges, and the plates from which steve and his crew created the curved walls and curved laminating forms.here are the walls, unskinned ...
in some cases they were covered in wacky wood and veneer panels made with the curved forms, and in some cases, vertical siding of 5/8th" thick solid lumber
next paul carved the car element (this project went to an automotive company) and added the hood element from, i think, a 1937 ford or chevy ... cool ...
and then there was the other part to the project; the two conference tables. one 14 long, and one 16 long ...
this one is makore veneer and cherry. after i did the cad drawings, trevor programmed and cut the vertical elements of the base and the outriggers, the horizontal elements that receive the cross bars that support the top. he also cut the top sections to shape and the matching solid wood borders, as well as the holes for the power/data fixtures.
this is a section of the walnut and walnut burl table. ditto for this one except for a little adjustment to the thickness of the inlay panels. for whatever reason, the pockets trevor cut in the top sections were a little too shallow (there were two sets of burl panels made as the first one was too dark and burly, so, i suspect that was part of the problem. anychoice, it was a quick, though somewhat nerve racking fix. after milling pockets in the spoil board he took a few thousandths off the backs of the panels so that the 1/40th inch veneer panels were just a shade below the surface of the 16th" veneered main table panels ... im glad i wasnt the one to level them up ...
but level them up they did ... and below, the solid wood edges are added to the top panels ...
the tables are probably finished by now, and maybe well see them before they go, or maybe we wont. anychoice, we alchoices enjoy working with steve and his crew. their projects are inevitably a rewarding challenge.

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