another restored display case

as the work on the jj hapgood store in peru is wrapping up, i felt it was time to finish up the cases that were rescued from the original store that have been 'resting' in the finish room since july.  i must admit i was ignoring them a bit cause i wasn't sure what would be involved in getting them to look good enough to go in the new store, which is going to be spectacular.  the photo above is the closest thing to a 'before' shot i have, but when i say it was an awful looking thing, you'll have to believe me.  under the sliding shelf was a half inch of some white powder that might have been baking soda, and under that was some interesting mold.  the rotating shelf had a 1/2" hump in it and, well you can see the case door in the photo above.  click the photos to enlarge them ..

 

 the top of the case had a large, sort of scummy spot, that required us to strip it and restain and refinish it.  in fact, quite a bit of scrubbing and restaining on all the parts was involved.

 

 the wavy glass, however was all there and is unbelievably spectacular. 

 both cases in fact, have fantastic glass.

 this photo shows the hardware that pulls the shelf out as the door is opened .. 

simple, and extremely clever.

 the shelf rides on v grooves and is trapped by the runners (b) below, and drops into an opening in the tracks (a) and there is a stop on the front of the shelf at (c) that stops the door and keeps i level.  although we didn't have to disassemble this one, the whole design is screwed together, i assume for ease of both original construction and later repairs. 

    nice piece!!

and for pete's pizza oven at the store, sam made the door below, using a graphic from the website.

all good ... 

one way to shorten an antique 'model t' door

 so, i'm getting a lot of 'where'd you get those doors?' questions as people check out the new metal shop.  like slate on the roofs, wide recycled doors are kind of 'my thing'.  the one above started out as half of a pair of 8' x 8' garage doors that i bought about 5 years ago from a guy up the road in pawlet, as he was tearing down an old garage on his property.  as i recall, i paid a hundred bucks for the pair. click the photos to enlarge them ...

 

on the inside view, you can see how we cut and mitered the stiles and panels to shorten them.

 the first one of that pair i used was on my garage at the house just after i bought them and i shortened that one to 7 feet too before i made the frame and hung it.  in the photo below, i used the 'mason miter' technique on the stile and rail intersections, but on the new metal shop, i decided to keep the cope and stick joints by shortening the stiles themselves and gluing them back together.  in reality, either way is fine.

 mason miter joinery  at the red arrow

 

the first pair i  bought at a tag sale in the 80's for $20. for the pair.  they were already only 7' high and 4' wide.  i used one on the front of the shop above, and one on the side door on the shop porch, below.

 

   i think they came from the same manufacturer as the new pair, as all the joinery techniques and moldings appear to be the same ...

the joinery on the doors originally was 4, 1/2" dowels, about 6 inches long at each horizontal
and vertical intersection.   invariably, the joints loosen and the dowels can be cut with a hand saw or fein tool and the rails removed.

i rejoined the stiles and the bottom rail with 8" timberlock screws as i couldn't spread the stiles enough to insert loose tenons or dowels ... worked fine, and i'm sure it's at least as strong or stronger than the original dowel joinery.

i added a couple of dominos for alignment ...

and made a jig for gluing them up straight

mitering and regluing the panels and stiles was a cinch

and then we glued up the whole door and made some jambs .. love the antique wavy glass.  and, i've also made new doors like this for new construction.  i have some photos somewhere ... nothing like a generous entrance to add elegance to a building ... 

Another Interesting Repair

We fixed a desk for the niece of one of our longtime customers recently. It was her grandmother's desk, and one of it's legs had been broken (and repaired) several times. She had moved to a new house and could no longer prop it in the corner as she had in the past. It was a cool piece with nice carvings, some slick hardware that pushed out the flap supports when you pulled open the desk front, and onyx drawer faces and gallery details inside. It took some creative gluing and clamping to reattach the carved foot but it looked pretty good when it was done, if I do say so myself ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

Badly repaired break

planed the ends smooth

Figured out how much was missing

We screwed a piece of plywood to the other three legs to locate the broken foot contact and put a temporary leg the right length in place so that when the leg was fixed, the desk would sit level.

Finished the joinery , doweled it as it was and glued it up with the broken foot

Rough shaped it

Did some minimal suggestive carving

Opened it up and found we needed to get rid of the blotter paper that was taped in there and get some leather down.

Stretched a piece of leather over some scrap plywood, made a luan ply pattern and cut the leather to exact size. masked off the desk and sprayed 3M Spray 90 adhesive on the leather and the desk insert. We put a piece of wax paper under most of the leather and slowly pressed the leather down and tugged the wax paper along, stretching the leather as we pushed it ( glued it ) into place. In the end, the width was good but we had to trim about 1'4" off the length in place.

There were some sweet onyx drawer faces that needed some refitting and handle reattachment and the two columns in the center were 'secret' compartments ... Loved the whole thing when it was done and so did the client when we dropped it off last week.

restoring a schwanbeck brothers display case

 i always enjoy a nice restoration project where you make something nice out of something not so nice.  this is an excellent case in point.  i didn't take a 'before' picture, but you can see from the one below that there was some pretty serious mouse damage on some of the rails of the case.  someone must have left a few pies in there when the store closed.  click the photos to enlarge them ..

 the case appears to be from the late 1800's and i give the schwanbeck brothers credit for some good design sense.  the case is entirely held together with screws, no glue, and so, was easy to completely disassemble.

 there was a little groove on the bottom of all four panels that engaged the top lip of the base.  once the panels were assembled on the base and screwed together on the corners, the top was put on like a hat.  screws were added from the top and bottom that went into the edges of the vertical panels and the case was then completely rigid. 

  pattented 1897 ...

the new guy, chris, did most of the work on this one .  sweet little case .. it's headed for the store with the new pizza oven ..

odds and ends

where do i start?  sometimes stuff blows through here so quickly, if you blink, it's gone ... lots going on.  lots of people shopping, (read lots of designs and proposals, not necessaryily new jobs.  but, better than total quiet, which was what it was like back in january ... more action at least now.  we are cautiously optimistic here ... so, what are we up to ... see some of the highlights below.  click the pictures to enlarge them ..

i'm doing a little pottery,  focusing on 'how to make plates'.... i never figured out how to throw them, but i'm working on a hybrid woodworking/handbuilt concept that involves mdf batts and finishing on the wheel.  more on that later .

first round ... a little warpy ... i took them off the forms to soon.

some of my previous stuff

me and sam and jim are working on a new version of the 'bridges' bench for an upcoming gallery opening, and also doing a little concept work using the curved planks i've had around for a couple of years.  we're not there yet ...

trevor and i worked up some 'trout cutting boards' that i will be using for some gifts i owe.  abalone and quartersawn cherry ... hmmm ... maybe we need a line of gift cutting boards ... ha ha

here the trout is in the shade, under cover. waiting for spring no doubt.

 

a little custom inlay work for our friend and neighbor bill laberge

arts and crafts inspired ... lots of pieces ...

looked good when it was finished ...

and now we're helping him with 16 chairs ... ugh.  that is one big lot of pieces of  wood to organize.

stuff happening in the metal shop too ... above is a custom 'owl' belt buckle

and we shipped this fire pit spark screen to stowe last week ... just in time for the spring skiing/hot tub season

seeders instruments, will's banjo website, has several new banjos and audio/videos up ... lots of pearl engraving and other custom stuff ... he is BUSY with the banjo stuff.  he's got to keep his day job though or i will be in trouble ...

and i have a friend i'm coaching through a wedding present for his son.  it's a six board blanket chest with a wood burned clump of morels on the front and some inlays on the top ... fortunately, he is a handy guy and just needs a few tips and some encouragement and off he goes.  and, he's got until may, so i think we'll get it ...

 funky repair yesterday .. english cabinet door with a wedgewood medallion

 

 the glass and the grid had been broken in a move and we had to make up a splint and graft it on.

all done ... good to go

 a nice testimonial from the ladderback chairs and table base client

 some 'black and white "color" ' photography ... it's been a gray february and march here ... the only thing with color in this photo is the stop sign

steve earle in april will cheer us up though

and then there is the powderjet maccassar ebony snowboard ... that should be a hot one ...

plenty of sunrise/sunset pictures on my blog ... i think this is my first 'moonset' photo ... all for now.