all done ... 1/23/12 .. off to new york city in the morning ... great project with local designer amy thebault ... a little hard to photograph, but you get the idea ... nice walnut; crotch figure inlay in the center of the top, continuing on to the leaves ... pretty wild, and we love it ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
with the 2-22" leaves ... 64 x 108 when fully extended ...
with the leaves in ..
center inlay ... photos below are in process ... all for now ...
i see i have been a little lazy here with my writing at the start of the new year ... all those holidays i guess and getting organized again now that they are over ... had some people out sick ... on and on, you know ... anychoice, we did start an interesting table this week. its american black walnut; its round; 64" in diameter, with two 22" leaves and some fancy crotch walnut inlay in the center. it looks like its going to be a nice one. click the photos to enlarge them ...
the general idea came from one of my designer clients, amy thebault, of thebault design, inc. down the road a piece in manchester depot. we added or touches and changed a few things and now its starting to take shape. we started, as usual, with some irion lumber walnut. nice big wide boards makes our life easy. after we glued up the halves, trevor cut them to shape and routed for the inlays. i have some video footage somewhere of that and ill try to get it up here soon.
he also cut the slightly darker peruvian walnut borders and set them in before fitting up the shop made veneer inlays.
again with the nails for the first step. if youve been reading for a while, youve seen all this before ...
below though is the after cuts from trevors cutting of the main blanks that we then resawed into the .1" thick veneers.
he thought he had it all planned out so that all the triangles would be the same or half of that same triangle but ...
he didnt ... design aliens invaded his programming and caused a malfunction. luckily he discovered it before he cut all of the leaf inlays and there was no harm done, except to his pride.
we glued them all into the table pieces in the veneer bag, and then, for a special treat we took them a mile down the road to our neighbor steve holmans shop and ran them through his brandy newly refurbished sandingmaster 37" wide, wide belt sander ... a wonderful experience ...
that saved some planing and scraping time ... its nice to have a new machine on the block.
here it is, on the base with the runners, but without the aprons, which are finished but for some reason, didnt make the photo ..
interesting design, but not a lot of structure for when the leaves are in so were planning to add either some aprons which will run from leg to leg and stiffen the structure somewhat, or add some drop down legs for when the table is fully expended.
well know more what we have to do once the base is final sanded and glued up and everything is firmly attached. 108" is a big table on a +/- 40" x 40" base ... stay tuned ... more later this week ...
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 ...
its nice to no longer have a 16 object running across the width of our shop .... we can walk to the bandaw unobstucted, and trevor and will can move their benches back out achoice from the walls ... we even delivered the 2 couches and the chairs today so the finish room is unclogged too. it seems like we should be having a barn dance ... were not though .... were filling the shop back up again with three tables, a 46" round, (top of the table only), a ten foot race track and a 56 x 108 big ash table .... click the photos to enlarge them ...
at the top, the aprons and bead moldings are on and the table top is in the finishing process ... the client has purchased an inexpensive metal base from an internet supplier ... he mortised them for loose tenons on the multirouter using the arc jig in the foreground ...
the racetrack table is 42" x 120" with the leaves in it and it has a pedestal base. it is one of our somewhat standard designs ... we have made at least ten of these in different woods and sizes with various levels of decorative inlays ...
here trevor installs the aprons, runners and center stiffeners ...
with all the leaves in ... the pedestal is in the works ...
here, will is veneering the apron sections with walnut burl veneer from certainly wood before joining them into two half rings .. the straight sections are in the small veneer bag.
lastly, were building a 56 x 108 ash table with a steel base by sam ... we have made others using this format, but this is definitely the biggest, and heaviest of the lot ... with the gray silicone smooth moves on the bottoms of the legs though we can easily slide it around the shop. those things are pretty slick.
jointed and planed flat at 2.44" thick, but not straightened and joined yet ... shuffle shuffle to get the right grain pattern ...
here trevor and i cut the ends of the glued up table using my 1974 rockwell skilsaw and an aluminum straightedge.
the breadboards are joined with loose tenons and timberlock screws ...
big top ...
Merry Christmas Everyone ..... I was sort of stumped as to what to say and put up here until I noticed the framed card above hanging in our bedroom ... Its a card Sam drew when he was (we cant remember exactly), 3 or 4 years old ... We remember watching him do it though ... He started with the four red foot dots, then drew the reindeer, and then switched back to the red for the nose ... Rudolph ...
And Mr. Barred Owl came by the shop yesterday and today to say Merry, Merry too ....
