Update on the Recycled Chestnut Table

11/30/09 ... We recently went back to visit this table and do some remedial work on a new light fixture that hangs over it now ... Lookin good if I do say so myself ....

home stretch ... delivery Friday ....

hand applying the varnish finish

Update on the new custom dining table coming up here. This post is getting to be a long one, but tomorrow we're ready to start the finishing ... Click the photos to enlarge them ..

Will glued up the base yesterday. First, he put the first coat of water stain on so he could sand the legs on the lathe before gluing them up. The runners went on today and it was kind of interesting. Because of the 30" inside dimension of the aprons we couldn't use our normal 2.5" high extension runners so we ordered some extra section, short, 2" high ones from Moin Hardware. These folks are very knowedgeable and when I described my problem, she suggested I use a set with extra length which is kind of counterintuitive I admit, but she explained that the sections would not then be fully extended and thus more rigid, and, with the extra sections, we could add a center leg if we needed it to one of the non moving sections.

There are no aprons becuase we wanted to be able to push the arm chairs under so we have added thin stiffeners to prevent warping.

Jeremy is putting all the screws in the runners before....

Trevor does the 'dancing (or meditating) on the table' test...impressively, negligible, very slight sag .... it should hold the turkey OK ...

As is usual with recycled wood, we had a crack or two to stablize with butterfly keys

glued up the panels yesterday ... 1/23

Scraped and cut them to shape today (funky late afternoon color above)

Pins and leaf cuts Monday

The legs and the lumber .... 1/22 ... The two on the left are hand turned and sanded and the two on the right are as they come off the Vega duplicator if both the cutter and the operator are nice and sharp.

Will, cleaning up the turnings by hand

1/15 New custom dining table coming up here. We finalized the designs early last week and the wood arrived today from my friends at Appalachian Woods "a premier provider of reclaimed antique lumber" in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, and, I might add, especially speedy on this order ... I have been getting recycled chestnut from them off and on for several years now and this latest load did not disappoint ... We just got it today and haven't milled any of it yet, but it appears bright and clean with just the 'right' amount of worminess. It's stacked in the finish room to acclimate for a while until we finish the projects were working on ... won't be long though before we get started on it ...

The table is a 64" diameter expanding round with leaves and it's loosely based on a rectangular expanding farm style table we made for another client a few years ago ....

Plan view closed

Plan view with leaves

The chestnut including turning stock for the legs ... The inspection dog is checking the lumber for edibles...

Inspiration table ... Half of a 23'6" table we made for another client ... This table 36" wide, hooks onto this table, also " 36 " wide

No Time For Details

Think of this one as a sort of 'mother-of-all-posts' ... For one reason or another this month, I have been too busy to write in any detail. New requests for work are coming in .. Some of them are pretty involved design wise. Plus we're working on two different sets of chairs, a two chair addition to a set of 8 we made in 1991 (luckily we still had some patterns and jigs) .... and one set is a redesign of a chair we also made first in the 90's. Chairs, particualrly new deisgns require a lot of attention.
Last weekend, Will and I went to the Vineyard to set up a pool table and I am headed for NYC this Sunday to drop off the 'Art Deco' 'cabinet. Work has even slightly cut into my paddle tennis time. I am not, however, complaining, but figure myself as being kind of lucky for the moment ..... Here's what were working on ... Click the pictures for better viewing ...


A set of eight chairs based loosely on the green one which is the mockup from the originals

parts

There will by 6 sides and two arms in this set

This is one of the original set of 8 that we're making two more for ..

Carved 'Spanish' feet and a nice turned stretcher

An important original angle drilling jig for the side round stretchers. The bottom piece of poplar is angled on the same angle as the front to back of the chairs ... +/- 7 degrees I think it is .. Glad we saved this one ...

Will is signing the ebony cabinet, which mostly, except for Trevor's inlay work and my small assist hanging the doors, he did all the work on. This photo shows the nice shine ... It's off to the city Sunday ...

DCF 2008

Will and I set up the pool table and light fixture on the Vineyard last weekend. the clients were happy and after some good live music Friday night, we ...

toured around a sort of deserted Edgartown ... unbelievable architecture .

Spire on the Methodist Church ... columns are about 48" in diameter at the base

The doors are at least 10' high ... IMHO a 'perfect' piece of Federal architecture

We had a request for a coffee table with a base like the card table posted in December ...

We designed it, but the order is not confirmed

This is a new design project for a client in Weston ... we're still working on the designs for this wall and two others in the same room ... good project for a good client ..

Considered all closed doors

We're also reworking the mantle detail and considering stone for the fireplace

Still lots to do on the edesign for this one before we can start ... The carpenters are framing now though so hopefully it won't be long ..

We designed a coffee table with 'hidden' compartments ... a website request ... unconfirmed as yet

We did a field test for safety equipment to protect us from tablesaw kickback

A new railing project design for Sam .. a complex one to figure out with all the levels and corners.

Got it figured now and it will get underway next week sometime

Designed some simple mirrors for over the tapered cabinets ... unconfirmed as yet

Another web request for a custom cofee table based on one we built several years ago ..

Getting close but as yet unconfirmed

Got an order for two coffee tables like this one ...

http://www.dorsetcustomfurniture.com/ItemDetails.aspx?iId=181&mId=-7&pcId=

Blog Table of Contents

I've been writing this blog now for about six months and some of the early stuff is buried so deep you'll never go back there to see it ... Soooooo, to give it some second life, I've decided to create this "map" of the blog with some photos and archive locations. Click on the pictures and see if there's something there for you ....

New custom metal project,Lotus bed,Fix the pics, (a photoshop tip), Custom cnc projects

February and March .. Bubinga Art Deco pieces .. A crotch mahogany console.. An expanding table with inlay start to finish, A mango wood desk with inlays, A fancy Art Deco bench with a CNC video

April And May ...Some Arts and Crafts stuff, A Greene and Greene Sideboard, A Resonator Guitar (Open Studio) and How to make Greene and Greene Hardware

November and December 2007 More Art Deco Pieces, Foam core mockups and other visualization tools

May ... Arts and Crafts mantle and hinge fabrication, December more Art Deco

Custom Metalwork ... Custom snowboard contest trophies, Custom stairway railings, A giant single slab of walnut table, Wood and metal potrack ... Old metal A 1970 Cutlass Supreme

Scroll down for newer unindexed posts .... More to come .... Enjoy

High Chest Repair

We fixed the loose molding and big corner chips on this worthy high chest this week. We were able to remove the end moldings and reglue them with hide glued. It appeared that it was the first time the original end moldings were off the chest since it was built. The front molding, however, was more stubborn and had some serious big nails in the face of it. We had to settle for prying, cleaning and regluing with hide glue while the molding remained in place. Seems to have worked fine and the chest is headed back to its home tomorrow .... Click the pictures to enlarge..

We attempt to remove the loose front molding

Regluing the front molding without getting it off the case

Gluing a new piece on the miter of the short molding

Routing the broken section of the long front molding for the repair piece

The completed repair

Back to storage

Fix the Pix

I had two friends who are professional photographers here today interrupting my lunch, checking out the shop, looking at my work, my photos, etc. We got to talking about photography and discussing Photoshop and to my surprise neither one of them were very familiar with the 'warp' or 'distort' feature found in Photoshop. Well, actually, they'd heard of them but had never used them much. We use them ALL THE TIME to correct our digital photos both for printing and for email. I send a LOT of email pictures, mostly via this blog, to keep my clients posted on the progress of their pieces. These simple fixes can change your photos from looking like this

With everything pointing toward the floor.

To eventually looking like this

Better, but the drwers are still sagging in the middle

To finally this edition .... straightened right up.

Here's how it goes in basic photoshop, including the relatively inexpensive version, Elements.

Start with your picture ... First hit the maximize box and "View .. Fit on screen" ....

Select All

Edit .. Transform .. Distort ... Little boxes/handles appear at the corners of your photo

Drag the boxes around until you get it the way you want it and hit enter. You may have to crop and fill various parts of the results after you do this, but eventually you'll be able to use this feature in almost no time, and you'll never email a crooked picture again. "Practice makes perfect. " I'm sure other photo editing programs have this feature though I have not had experience with them .....I'll cover the cutting out of photos and the 'Warp' feature (to correct spherical distortion) found in more advanced versions of Photoshop later .... Click the photos to enlarge .... leave a comment if you want ....