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Jumat, 08 April 2016

inspirations where you find it

i was in my outdoor shower the other morning, and was struck by the pattern the sun made coming through the canvas surround ... great inlay pattern, or great veneer patten for a pair of doors (above) on a cabinet, or as you can see below, it might make a great fabric or wall covering. inspirations where you find it ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
fabric
stratton mountain in the far distance, from inside the shower ...
where the pattern originated ...
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here we go

 
 well, here we go ... new metal shop.  it started about a year ago.  we thought we were all set to go last summer, but the appraisal underwriters declared our property mixed use commercial because our shop was more than a certain percentage of the square footage of our house and that threw us out of the fannie mae/freddie mac underwriting guidelines.  so, 8 months later, we have subdivided our 10 acres, and refinanced and now were underchoice on a new metal shop for sam.  the photo above was yesterday around 8:00 am.  the digging and site work will be done by dydo and company.  noel dydo helped us dig our first house foundation in 1974 and weve been friends since 1971, over 40 years. 
 some scraping and digging and were ready to extend the culvert which will allow us to expand the parking area.
 end of the day yesterday ... a little deeper than we thought we would get.  a little ledge on the back side.  about a four foot wall on the front.  good to go ...
 today, tony genier, of concrete professionals, arrived to form up the footings. 
 
 and they really are professionals.  they showed up around 1:30 and were out the door around 4:00.  finish it up and pour the concrete in the morning ...
lots of steps, due to the ledge
were hoping that sam will be welding in the new shop by labor day ... the old one is about 12 x 24 and cramped, cramped, cramped.  it consistently spills into my garage and moving it to a new spacious building in the same area as the wood shop will be a huge benefit to us all.  progress updates as they happen ...
heres the concept via photoshop ...
update 6 7 ... concrete professionals ,i guess.  tony and his crew showed up yesterday morning to  pour the footings they formed up wednesday afternoon.  then they came back after lunch, stripped the forms and poured the walls at 4:00 in the afternoon.  gone by 5:00.  today they stripped the forms off the walls and were gone by lunchtime.  total elapsed time, footings and walls, and gone ...44 hrs?  rain was predicted today, so he had the concrete folks add some accelerator to the footing mix.
VERY professional
 
 waiting for a couple days with new rain in the forecast to pour the slab
from up on the hill, looking back to the shop
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Rabu, 06 April 2016

helen day arts center show

well be showing, along with other members of the guild of vermont furniture makers, at the helen day art center in a show that opens on the 18th of january, and runs through the 14th of april.  well have 6 of our ladderback chairs  below, with the table above.  stowe is a powerful tourist/ski area in northern vermont, and we already have some new, and old, customers in that area.  it should be a good show. click the photos to enlarge them ...
the chairs are ready to go ... 
 update 1/13
 
i dropped off our table and chairs at helen day yesterday and went to meet with one of my new stowe clients to make a template for a spark screen that sam will be making for an outdoor firepit at their home there.
i had to dig for a little bit to uncover it, but i think i got it ...
and i also got to see the house in its finished form, including the cushion on the curved, fitted bench we made at the top of the three story circular stairchoice..we also previously made a hanging swing, which was fun, and a couple of other tables, including the main dining table  and in other news, (back to thhe january 4, post) the table below, another in our niche of big claro walnut slab tables, will be leaving for dallas, texas next week sometime.  its a great looking slab with nice grain and a powerful presence.
 
 
it had an interesting flaw that went completely through the slab and was about 3/4 of an inch wide at its widest point once the loose bark inclusion fell out. 
 
we filled it with our usual stuff and added a little color with some oil soluble aniline dyes from lockwood.
all good ... ready for the legs and the finish
maybelle approves !
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Selasa, 05 April 2016

a double pedestal oval table

 this table is heading to california tomorrow.  its been in the works for a while and we had a small glitch when it came to the final finish color .  its a totally new color and today, will said weve got to get more of this stain  ... it was hard to photograph, and how it reads is sensitive to how your monitor is set.  its a really warm orange brown color .. click the photos to enlarge them.
close up
earthquake handles  .. i did mention california, didn;t i?
the clients original photoshopped image
this project started with an inquiry from a prospective client who had taken a image from my blog or website and photoshopped it himself to make it into something that better fitted the dimensions of his dining room.  basically, he stretched out the table below and added another pedestal.  brilliant, imho.
even though it was early in the corresponding stage and no money or commitments had changed hands, i was intrigued by the concept.  since we still had the drawings for the original table, and its model, it was a simple matter to create the new model. 
birds eye view
 
there was some talk about earthquakes, (the client lives north of san francisco), and earthquake handles, which turn out to be something to hold onto if you have to get under the table in the event of the earthquake, the design work proceeded and eventually we struck a deal.
 
above is the cad drawing showing the origin of the curves for the base elements and the seating and plate layout.  room for 12 good friends at least.
handle and base layout
even though the table is over 50" wide and about 10.5 long, trevor managed to create a clever pair of interlocking 1/4 oval templates that allowed him to lay out the wood for the glue up below.
one of the boards was just about, but not quite, long enough and we lost about an inch in width and length creating the revised oval.  not bad.  11 walnut matched sets are hard to come by, even from irion lumber.
after a rough cut with the jigsaw, trevor used the template and a top bearing flush cut bit to rout the table to final shape and add the aprons and stiffeners                                  
then, using the cnc, he cut the patterns for the base pieces.  on the original table, the pieces that ran the length of the table were longer than the ones that ran across the table.  after some study though, we decided that with two pedestals, the bases should be all the same.
bandsaw, sand, bandsaw, sand ... repeat as necessary.
then the pieces have to be mitered and dowels inserted to give the end grain of the curves some cross grain material for the lag bolts that attach the horizontals at the floor.  i missed it this table, but you can see photos of how that works in the post about the previous table, back in august 2010.  there is also a discussion there about strengthening the short grain where the top is attached also ...
fit it up ...
interesting shapes upside down too ..
sams sample earthquake handle  approved and good to go ... 9 more in the works ...
 
 reinforcing the short grain with long grain inserts to accept screws
 base only
with chairs
early on, we tried oval vs. racetrack ... oval won ...
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