A Quick CNC Project (Yet Another)

Lately, as you can see from some other entries on this blog, (More Custom CNC Work, Greene and Greene Style Inlay) we've been doing custom CNC work for other furnituremakers. The more we do, the more we do. Once people understand the machine's capabilities and how the process works, and how good my man Trevor is at taking care of their business, it seems like a pretty easy thing. Here's a project we did for local custom furnituremaker Bob Gasperetti. It involved 'crowning' headboard and footboard panels to give them curved faces. I'm not sure what would be a good way to do this operation without the cnc except maybe free hand with a hand or power plane .... We also cut curved 5/8" deep mortises in the footboard posts so the curved plank itself could disappear into them expand and contract. The headboard panel was 'floating' free of the posts and top rail ... It should look cool when it's done ...

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More Custom CNC Work

We're working on a project for my friend and neighbor down the road, Steve Holman of Holman Studios. He has a commission to design and fabricate a run of chairs for a company called Porta Brace, a Vermont based manufacturer of professional level camera and camcorder bags. It's been an interesting and challenging project, to develop a working concept and finished prototype for production on the CNC. We are not making all the parts, but we are doing the parts that are involved in the actually joinery of the chairs like mortises and tenons, hinge insertion spots, removeable arms, the folding footrests, and the shape of and decorative logo detail on the front of the arm stumps. The project has led me to think about my router more, like other woodworking companies, as a tool for mass production , than as a means to fabricate complicated one of a kind custom projects, which is mainly how we have been using it. As a result of this commission, we recently used it to do the joinery for a group of three custom double bureaus for one of our clients. It certainly speeded up that process, and now that we have a basic understanding, we can apply what we learned to other case construction opportunities and hopefully help other woodworkers with short run production challenges. Click the pictures too enlarge them for better viewinig ...

40 legs cut from blanks with hinge holes and mortises (on the other side)

setting up for the tenons

40 tenons ... 40 good fits

mortise and tenon

Click the picture for better viewing ... more photos to come...