Progress on the Half Rounds

Will and I are making some progress on the half round tables. Hes not yet made any of these from start to finish and I havent made one personally for quite a long time so were both kind of feeling our choice here through whats next and how to go about it. Click the pictures to enlarge them...These posts will be helpful next time ...
Trevor routed a full size template in mdf from our cad drawing and we placed the male section of our glue up forms on the template on the inside of the apron curves. We than struck our angles on the form in pencil and moved the forms to the chop saw where we cut the angles on the bordered aprons.
Next we used parts of the female glue up forms to set up the multirouter to cut the mortises for the loose tenons we use for the joinery. The loose tenons allow us to adjust our angles slightly if necessary for the final fit up.
We clamped the back legs and then checked the fits. next step was to stain and paint and move those parts to the finish room before the final glue up. You can see the haunched loose tenons in the photo below.
While those parts were being finished, Will cut and glued up the pieces to make the inlay blocks (the very last photo in that post) in the drawing above. They were ripped on the tablesaw on an 8 degree angle, cut to length and glued up in the simple jig below.
After the center block was sanding to 3/8ths, Will added the 1/1th" plus shop made walnut veneers for the top and bottom and glued them on in the veneer bag.
The finished inlay blanks are below. theyl be sliced into 1/16th inch strips and inset in to a routed groove sometime in the next post.
We got a nice wide plank from Irion Lumber to make the 20" wide one piece tops and Trevor cut them to shape on the cnc. Hopefully our nex inlay bit will come tomorrow and we can inlay the tops, but in the meantime, will will dovetail the drawers and fit up the drawer fronts .. All for now .. Thanks for sticking with me ...

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under the dome

well, were working with peter moore, of vermont brick ovens again.  we made the forms for the one above and a couple of others, and now were attempting to simplify the on site set up process. 

basically, we have to create a structure that supports the bricks until the mortar sets.  once that happens, the forms all have to come out the oven door so they can be reused on the next oven ... 

in the past, we made about 24 half domes, which then had to be connected with thin strips of wood to support the bricks .. more or less, not much fun.  this time we plan to make 8 ribs and 24 pieces that lay on top of them, like parts of a turtle shell.  click the photos to enlarge them.

we started with this drawing, and decided we could make the shell pieces an eighth of the dome at a time. we had to add more ribs for the two lower sections

the plywood doesnt really want to conform to the dome shape, and each layer is made from 4 pieces of 1/8th inch bending poplar and one layer of 3/8ths wacky wood.  some kerfs were cut in some of the pieces to facilitate the bends and as you can see in the photo below, the dome shape is not bad.

we plan to sand the whole thing once al 24 sections are laid up, cut to size and fitted.

to get the wood to conform, we had to use many screws, which can all be removed once the glue sets.  we may or may not have to fair the curves with bondo, though i think we will get better with the laminates as we do more of them ...

in the end, the finished oven will look something like this one ...40 years of wood working, and ive never made a dome before .. kind of exciting and challenging for sure ... more pics coming as we progress.

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Rabu, 07 September 2016

Upcoming Shows Under Control

Well, we got er done ... Three new pieces this week, in time for the show tomorrow. This Skinny Console started out as a shop joke. The top is made from two bookmatched edge scraps from the English Elm oval table that we made earlier in the summer. They were too nice to cut up for kindling and I waved them around for a while until I finally glued them up ... I mocked up a plywood prototype base and the rest, as they say, was history ...
We can see many places where a table similar to this could be just the right accent piece ... use your imagination ...
Ahhhh ... Dancer #1 ... welded steel by Sam ... locust by Dan and Trevor ... Artfully arranged pieces that were also too good to throw achoice. the concept on the board ...
the critical eye ... the base is a rough cut locust slab and the steel is unfinished so this sculpture is good to go, inside or out ..
The finished bench ... I kept trying to add stuff to the base, but, in the end, less is more as Meis, I think said. Hand hewn chestnut from a sleeper log, also good to go inside or out ...
red was the wrong color for this one
nixed the bridge like elements
too fussy for a rough thing ... all for now ... fun stuff in person, all of it ....

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Selasa, 21 Juni 2016

more dome photos

ok .. i really enjoyed this project so im going to follow it through to its completion .. now were on site, at the new jj hapgood store, established (i think) in 1827, in peru, vermont.  the entire store is currently being totally rebuilt by new owners.  above is the domed form from my previous post, set up and ready to go for pete to build their new 72" diameter wood fired pizza oven. click the photos to enlarge them..

 heres a view from above, showing the circular buttress wall with the angled top that the firebricks that make up the roof of the dome will rest against, and be supported by.  from an engineering standpoint, the forces of the weight of the dome are transferred to the side walls, which have to have enough mass to support that weight. see flying buttress ...

 anychoice, its a soldier course of vertical firebricks and a 6" thick curved concrete wall loaded with 3/4" rebar.

the front arched door, through which the form will be removed is complete and ready for the flue for the smoke to escape to be built just behind it.  you can see that arrangement in the photo above this one, and the smoke will wend its choice over to the hole in the flue in the back corner, and on its choice, possibly heat some hot water .. in the end, all this stuff, including the 2.5" thick soapstone hearth will be pretty much invisible, so im glad to know what kind of effort goes into one of these ovens.  for more info, see the previous post.  and, to contact pete to order your own brick oven, heres a link to his website, vermont brick ovens.

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