Efficiency Vermont

Whether you know it or not, those big fat florescent tubes you have in your workshop now will no longer be available in 2012. Here in Vermont, we have quite a progressive program called Efficiency Vermont that helps industry and other smaller users of florescent lighting to replace old fixtures with new updated 4 bulbs. The new ballasts are TINY. According too their calculations, Ill save a ton of electricity and the fixtures will pay for themselves over the next couple of years. A friend with a car repair shop told one of my guys today that his electric bill went down about $100.00 to $125.00 a month after participating in this program ... Not only that, the light is fantastic. Its warmer, brighter, and more even than any florescent lights I have ever experienced. Working with Efficiency Vermont, I will receive a substantial rebate check to help with the installation cost after they come to check on my 53 new fixtures .... This is a great deal and they also have programs for public buildings and homes ... Our firehouse just got all new LED flood lights and will be upgrading their florescent s soon at pretty much zero cost to the taxpayers ...
Out with the old, in with the new ...
upstairs, downstairs, finish building, metalshop ...

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An Art Deco Vanity

Were doing an Art Deco style vanity based on the bar we built and delivered just before Christmas. Its for a different client but they were intrigued by the look and we adapted it to their vanity project. Its coming along now and I think its going to be a very cool item. Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
The CAD drawing showing the overall layout and dimensions ...
The original bar cabinet with an blackened finish on the walnut ...
We started with the legs. Will made the notches for the moldings on the tablesaw.
Next we ran some panel details on the cnc which defined the centers of the stepped panels, defined the center molding location and gave him a place to start with his frame pieces.
The end panel and front apron are completed ... doors and moldings next ...

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A Good Days Work

Prior to leaving for a trip back home to visit family, I glued up 2 chairs and  finished getting the remaining parts cut, edged, tenoned, and mortises cut, to assemble the remaining 4 of 6 chairs for my sons eat in kitchen table. These chairs are being built using poplar and I am going to try General Finishes Milk Paint (Black) with coats of their High Performance top coat. I had the opportunity to meet a factory rep at a recent woodworking shop open house and he recommended milk paint over the GF Black stain I had been using for my sons furniture. These chairs will replace the ones that came with the set produced in some overseas country of wood that I cant figure out what it is. I have repaired two chairs for them on recent trips, I believe these will last a while. Intended to be a Christmas present, I think I will have them done in time. I will of course post the finished product.

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an astonishing house frame

my friend malcolm cooper and i took a little 20 mile ride up the valley to middletown springs a couple of weeks ago. we were on a mission to get some barnboards from our friend dan mckeen for a project in malcolms store, at j.k.adams in dorset. well, we got the barnboards and a tour of a truly amazing piece of woodworking ... dan is a timber frame specialist, known for salvaging and restoring hand hewn frames ... after 35 years or so of it, even he was a little amazed by this one ... im sure i dont remember the whole conversation, so my facts may be a little off, but i think i got the gist of it ... click the photos to enlarge them ... cool story ..
a friend of dans contacted him to offer him a house that he had purchased. he was going to tear it down and build something new and modern on the site and thought dan might be interested.
it was billed as the oldest standing house in danby, and, under the siding, it was a beauty ... in the top photo, you can see the 1795 date scribed onto one of the timbers and i believe it ... dan, i think, referred to it as dutch style with full length, dovetailed logs on the first floor and a chestnut post and beam upper floor and roof structure ...
from the spacing of the rafters, dan has speculated that it was to be a fine residence, with the roof framed on 24" centers, much closer than normal at that time, probably to support the weight of a locally fabricated slate roof.
interesting rafter to plate joint that i have never seen before ... on the lower floor, it appears that the logs were full length when dovetailed and scribed together and then the windows and doors were cut out after the fact ... dan says there are substantial wood pegs every so often on each log that were inserted as the logs were stacked and he just put them back in there as he went ...
beautiful!
heres an inside shot of the angled window cuts and little bit of the accordion lathe and plaster tracks.
also on the same site was an angled wall corn crib with heavy angled framing that was disassembled and attached, in the end, to the main house when dan reerected below, for storage and display at his shop ...
i dont remember the reason for the angles of the walls on corncribs, but i know there is one ... actually heres something from wikipedia about it ...
lookin good once it was cleaned up ..
the angled dovetailed cross beams ...
and now the reassembly ... as dan tells it, there was some rot at the ground level so he started by laying a level 286" x 36 hemlock frame and thenstacked the frame up a log at a time
lincoln logs for sure
then the purlins and roof framing
and the roof boards ...
and the corn crib ...
its ready to be taken down and reassembled on your site, which i think should be a museum or public space of some kind, as an unbelievable example of extremely uncommon and fantastic hand hewn carpentry ...
contact dan for more info .... get yourself a piece of history ...

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the new pool table is finished

12/31/12 we received this onsite photo of the pool table yesterday ... looks like a good spot ..

  well, after some serious setbacks along the choice, all of them inconvenient, but none of them fatal, we finally wrapped up this pool table earlier in the week.  but, due to the hurricane, and the fact that my shipper is based on long island, it is still set up in  my shop, waiting to get on its choice to chicago.  hopefully early next week.  click the photos to enlarge them.

 it features curly claro walnut rails with figured mother of pearl inlays and black leather pockets, a welded steel frame base, (about 450 pounds of it), with a rainbow finish and low shine lacquer. 

 

 it started out as a cad drawing with two different designs.  there was some indecision, which offered us a perfect chance to make a scale model to study the two choices.

one design on one side, one on the other.

not one, but the first TWO sets of slates from our supplier in florida arrived broken due to poor packing and poor trucking.  in the end we were able to secure a high quality (and more expensive) italian slate set from a supplier in (sort of nearby) albany, a short hour and a half achoice.  setbacks numbers 1 and 2.

we made some jigs on the cnc and sam cut, fit and welded the frame pieces.

Will made the curly claro rails and did the inlay, cushions and felting

here Will drill the rail ends to receive the pocket ears.

 

we made some support jigs so we could move the sides, with the legs attached, into place to bolt things together.

 

 and then we set it up in the shop to test everything before finishing the base, and covering the blinds and the slate frame edges in 1/8th" steel too.  it was at this point that we discovered the long side angle iron, that we thought would be stiff enough, wasnt so we had to seek approval to add the center supports to the long sides.  (small) setback #3.

due partly to the jigs we made on the cnc and mostly to sams care and fitting and welding ability, it was level pretty much wherever we looked.  lets hope the clients floor is as good as ours.

then it was back to the metal shop for finishing.  we ran out of the patina chemical on the last side section and had to wait 5 days for it to ship cross country, hazardous, ground.  setback #4.

and, while sam and jim were doing the patina on the last long side assembly, it fell and smashed jims finger to the tune of five stitches when he tried to catch it ... too heavy ... setback#5.

while we were waiting, another part of the commission was to make this custom cue rack, also in steel and claro walnut.

 

and a jig to locate the hidden screws to hang it. 

and now were tapping our foot for hurricane sandy and setback #6.  fortunately, our clients have been ENORMOUSLY patient and understanding as we navigated the process.  i am most certainly looking forward to seeing some photos of the room once our chicago mechanic does the final onsite set up.  it will be in the same room as this 12 claro walnut table we shipped back in july.  must be some room .. all for  now.

other pool table posts are linked below:
other pool tables we have built
build your own pool table
a custom pool table
felting the rails; rack em up!

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