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 inexpensive
the 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 ...
we did a little custom cnc work for our friend bill laberge recently. he designed a table with a 2.75" thick edge, cut on a 60 degree angle ... we had a bit that would work, but it was too small to do the work efficiently, so for a moment, we considered alternate methods ... bandsaw it with circle jig? different angle like 45 degrees? in the end, trevor found a larger 60 degree bit and the cuts were faster, very smooth and exact. bill glued up the apron blanks with the grain running parallel to the table top to minimize the effects of seasonal movement. the table has four 22" leaves. (wow...big one), trevor cut and beveled the leaves to length and bill cut the leaf apron edges on his tablesaw ... ill try to wrangle a finished photo when its finished ... i saw it mostly assembled last week and it looked pretty cool. cilck the photos to enlarge them ...
stepping cuts had to be made ahead of time to allow room for the collett that holds the bit
in the middle is the top mated with the apron piece .. very smooth and precise ...
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.
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 program
from 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 
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.
