For those of you that follow this blog, and others who stop by from time to time, I thought I would let folks know that it will be awhile before I post another project. We have sold our home, and shop, in West Tennessee and moving back home to the Greater Cincinnati area after being here for the last 9 years. I moved here for a work transfer and have been retired now for 18 months.
The big draw of course is family, 3 children, 4 grand children, brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews. We were fortunate in this economy to sell this house so quickly (less than 3 weeks) and the home we are purchasing was under construction and we’ll be moving in Christmas week.
So for now, my “projects” involve packing tape, boxes, and filler paper, but as others have said, it is giving me a chance to clean out and see what exactly I have collected over the past 9 years.
As mentioned in previous posts, some of the power tools are gone. The workbench as well, that will be the first project in the new shop, the Benchcrafted Shaker style bench so I will post when that project gets underchoice.
I will be back in the basement again, and have already marked my space. The type of work I do and the increased use of had tools will allow me to set up a nice area to build the things I enjoy, and the best part is I will be able to teach my grandson’s the joy of working with wood.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!
we just finished a project for a local interior design firm that involved making 12 new feet for 2 big couches whose feet were not really in proportion to the rest of them, or to the room where they went ... the new feet are 7" in diameter, 7" high. we glued up some blocks from8/4 and made a sample and a template for the duplicator and had at it. before will could start turning them, i cut them to length and round for him. will had recently tuned up the bandsaw, adjusted the guides, etc. etc., but i didnt realize what a good job he had done until i cut the blanks ... square ... straight ... cut after cut, through 7 " of maple ... click the photos to enlarge them ..
in response to the comment below, i am posting a link to the bandsaw blades we use. THE most important part of the tune up is a new blade from doall. weve tried many brands i wont name, but these are, in our opinion, THE best. i have to go to the shop to find the exact info ... next is to adjust your guides close to the teeth and square your fence to the table and the blade ... fussy stuff but worth the effort. see the last photos below.
this is how they lined up across the top of a stack 3 high ... barely a 32nd difference across the tops.
the chips flew during the rough out stage ...
and made quite a pile ...
first coat of stain ... after distressing we used a second coat of english brown mahogany lockwood water stain. then a coat of oil/poly, then gel stain on the lathe spinning on low speed. the final coat of satin poly was brushed on with the feet on the lathe, and then they were transferred to the finish room to dry where you see them below. 
all in, all done ... they will be installed to the couch frames with 2 - 8" timberlock screws per foot
in the photo above, you can see a stack of 9 - .1" veneers cut sequentially and sanded after from one piece of 8/4 walnut. and 4 - 10.5" wide curly hard maple slices also from one board.
Well, so far, for a refreshing change, its been a pretty busy month ... We finished what I thought at the time was a pretty big claro walnut slab table, 3 x 10, below. Turns out, its not so big. Well be able to put 
Also, today, Will and Ashley are on their choice to New York City for the weekend and, while they are there, they will drop off the 10 walnut chairs in the photo above to the client who got the black Art Deco vanity a couple of weeks ago. They looked really good with the table above, but the client received their Nakashima table yesterday and Im anxious to see how they look with that. Last weekend, I went to Boston to drop off three tables to a designer I sometimes work with, Jennifer Palumbo. You can see two of them in the photo below. And then I spent the weekend visiting my sister in Rockport, just up the coast by Gloucester. While I was there, we made an afternoon of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem with the Ying Yu Tang Chinese house ... Spectacular museum with a great collection of North Boston shore Federal furniture, ship models, and other fascinating stuff.
Classic Rockport, motif #1 Roy Moores Lobsters
One of the Seymours.
Were about a day achoice from finishing the king size bed with the metal inlays we have been working on. That has been an immensely rewarding project on a number of different levels. Love the clients, Will did all the turning and carving and some of the inlay work, Sam did all the metal finishing and coloring, Trevor did a fantastic job with the CNC work on the inlays, we learned a whole lot about waterjetting, (the post just below this one) which was fascinating. As we were working on that, Jim occasionally entertained us all with his new coat.
The duck inlay parts ...
The week before last, we installed one of the two tv cabinets we made back in the fall in the This Old House project. Looks great the big one will go in the week after next.
For a 37" flat screen
Yesterday, a colleague asked me to join Linked In, which I did...any Linked In folks out there? Dont know much about it but it seemed like something I should do ....Comments? If you haveany experience with it. Kind of like Facebook for business people it seems ... Anychoice, its a really rainy Saturday.... no golf or tennis today ... Wheres that Hunter Thompson book Im reading?....More later if it keeps raining ...
Will and I went home for lunch the other day and when we got back, Trevor had us rolling in the aisles with his new Halloween decoration. He was in the middle of a big mdf run and had an extra piece so he whipped this up for the kids in his neighborhood ... He says he has some glossy white spray paint for the full effect ... BOOOOOOOOOO ! ... Loved it
I dont have time to write a long post, but I did promise a potential client I would put up some photos of the table weve been working on ... Also, we picked up the chairs Monday and they are pretty sharp too ... Its our first experience with Danish Cord seats. Nice job by Sandy Sherman Chair Caning of Brookline, Vermont.
This is the second coat of gloss finish .. the final satin coat will go on probably today
The eight side chairs
Close up ... all for now
