a dozen big ones

in case you are not familiar with it, the guild of vermont furnituremakers has a blog going also. i hadn't posted anything on the guild blog for a long time as i have been too busy with my own and it's summer. i recently wrote the post below there to 'sum up' the run of big tables we have been making in the last few months. i have included the appropriate links to each of our posts with the photos below. at those links, you can see more photos and process comments on each piece.

in the last three months,we've had the opportunity to build a somewhat amazing series of large tables, and, since i have all the photos organized, i thought it might be nice to collect them in one place so here they are ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

this is a 10 footer we delivered to stowe last week. (7/30) it has our standard 'shaker style' steel base that we offer in 'natural' steel, the 'blackened finish' above, and a 'rainbow' finish, which is kind of unpredictable, but generally 'bronzy' in color.

this is a view of the base routed into and bolted to the bottom of the slab top ... we have the steel pieces waterjet cut from 1.5" plate steel and then we drill, tap, grind, polish and finish them ...

and here is a desk with a 'secret' compartment and our new 'trapezoid' steel base with a 'natural' finish in 1.5 x 3" tubing ... 44 x 66 x 29 high.

cool view from the end ..

and a secret compartment, accessed using this folding brass, sam made, tool in it's own 'secret' compartment.  currently it's on view and for sale at the art and industries show in housatonic, mass.

this 40" x 12' table went to the chicago area about 3 weeks ago (4 or 5 weeks by now) and also arrived at its destination last week.

it had a new for us, 'expresso finish', which was expertly top coated with magnamax lacquer by steve holman of holman studios, another guild of vermont furniture makers member.
here's one that went to london this past spring ... we crated it up with the legs disassembled and arranged flat on the bottom of the crate and shipped it via truck to an international agent in new york city. it arrived about 20 days later and costs only a little more than it would cost to have shipped it to say, seattle. pretty amazing ...

and this one we made for our show at the southern vermont art center back in february. it sold
at the show and is now happy in its new home in guildford, connecticut.

this was an unusal one that we made back in may. the slab was split completely into two pieces when we bought it with the slab for our show, above, so we got a deal on it ... will and trevor stitched it back together with about 20 butterflies, most on the top, some on the bottom ... good as new .. this table has a base with polished 5/8ths" rebar, a funky new thing we have been fooling with. it's currently with six chairs trolling for clients at the vermont visitors center in guilford on route 91. no takers yet.

this is what the slabs look like when we buy them on the internet ... the client gets to see them (sort of) before we buy them ... #3 here is currently in the shop being turned into a 9' table, headed to the boston area next week now that it too is finished.

so far, so good

ok .. all finished now ... we had to move it to the garage so we could finish and photograph the 60" wide slab detailed below. i was pleasantly surprised by what a good photo studio the garage can be ...

i was able to sit on almost the top step of the stairs to the upstairs of the garage and shoot down on the table top. something i've not been able to do anywhere else. it's a nice perspective that also minimizes the reflections ...

and now, the widest one yet ... +/- 63" wide in the rough, cut to 60 x 96 ...

the boys are at it here with the 3.5" makita power planers ... it's a noisy, tedious job ..

and here it is, in my garage ( the shop is kind of crowded right now) on the mocked up 'trapezoid' base ... it has to be all finished and on its way to aspen at the end of next week (8/14) ... it's gonna be tight ...

finished now (8/20)... time for the formal picture later today ...

 probably we should have brought in the professionals to shoot this one.

tough photo ... big table ... little background paper .... hard to get everything in focus ... GREAT piece of wood though ... 60" wide ... amazing

and we've done three coffee tables too with 'smaller' slabs .. i think this one was 38 x 54" ... you can see the other two at this blog post ... and this one

and then, for one of our original claro table customers who came to us back in 2010, we made this unusual (for us) 3' x 11' copper clad table ... the copper is glued to a thick wood base and then nailed on with 1'5" copper slate nails whose heads jim gently beveled with a drill on the edge sander ... we have a 40 x 60 coffee table version in the shop, awaiting the liver of sulphur patina ...

the base is reclaimed, distressed oak with a gray paint finish

if, after all this, you'd like to see more of our claro walnut pieces, here's a final link that will give you access to the whole 'category' and some of the other tables we have made in the past three or four years..

whew! long post ... time for a guinness ...
8/12/2012 .. ahhh, forgot the one below definitely another 'large table' ... 4' x 8'

our blog post link here

 set up temporarily in the shop yesterday for a final 'test run' ...

 for the test run, we used a piece of blue felt left over from another project so we can stretch the real camel color felt only once when we install it next week ... and, we've got another pool table coming up next month ... lots of stuff here ... thanks for sticking with me if you made it to the end ...

a copper top coffee table

update 8/16/2012 ... we delivered the copper topped coffee table today ... these things are tough to photograph ... after the patina, there are just so many subtle colors, and the metal is sort of shiny underneath, so you pick up reflections from just about everywhere ... but, it's in its new home now, and it looks great there ... everyone's happy ...
the copper turns into kind of an abstract expresionist painting ... the chemical is somewhat unpredictable in consistency ... we're thinking it is that so much copper is recycled today that there are just all kind of things running through it ...

original post from 8/14 below here.

we're doing another copper topped table. we made the first one back in may for one of our clients who had a big empty covered porch ...

same process ... because of the way the corners are done, folded straight down, we put little copper corners routed into the subbase flush in place before we start. it's important to think about where your later nails are going at this point so you don't have one in the wrong place when you go to apply the top sheets later. click the photos to enlarge them.

starting in one corner, the sheets go around the table with each sheet having a 1" 'tab' that goes past the joint and under the next sheet. the table and the copper are first sprayed with 3m 'spray 90' contact cement and then CAREFULLY pressed into place ... that stuff is sticky and a sheet stuck down wrong can be tough to relocate.

the sheets are laid out for the nail holes and drilled for the nail shank to pass through the copper and then piloted with a bit slightly smaller than the 1.5" copper slate nails that we use. jim bevels the edges of the heads of the nails by chucking them in a cordless drill and carefully spinning them on the running edge sander . we're looking for a beveled head, that's not too small or sanded too thin.

this is the pattern we use. down the center of the joints and 1" to either side. the edges are nailed on center of the 2.25" thick edge, which was bent on a brake in a local tin shop. we also use small cut copper nails treated on the sander toward the bottoms of the corners and joints to keep them down if someone's clothes catch on them as they are passing by ...

on to the 'liver of sulphur' and steel wool process, which i described pretty fully in the post for the previous table. a little oil and varnish mix over the patina and some varnish on the legs tomorrow and we'll be all set. i've got a cad drawing somewhere that i will post with the picture of the table when it's finished ... the dimensions are 40 x 60 x 17 high ... the copper around the outside is 13" wide plus the bend, an inch of that is covered by the center sheet, leaving a 12" exposed band around the outside of the table ...

a little more detail ... copper top table .. claro walnut table

 

as i was a little rushed setting up for open studio, i feel a couple of our pieces that we finished last week deserved a few more comments and photos, so here they are, along with some other photographic highlights from the weekend ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

above the open studio shop photo is a better photo of the claro wlanut slab table we had on display this weekend.  it is leaving tomorrow with the ladderbacks to spend the summer at the vermont visitors center in guilford.  a lot of folks (about 600,000 stop there per year) enter vermont from massachusetts and connecticut on route 91, and we're hoping that some of them will see our work and contact us with new commissions .. it seems like we ought to be able to get at least one or two out of 150,000 or so.  summer's a good time here ...

 

this is a close up of the under structure with our new base design using polished and welded 5/8ths" rebar.  people almost smiled when they noticed the rebar ... it fits in with our 'bethlehem steel' and 'bridges' series too.

for the copper table, which was the other big furniture hit of the weekend, we started out with a 1/2 size model a month or so ago.  i did that on my own nickle, even before i actually got the commission for the big table.  i figured i couldn't go wrong with whatever i wound up with, and i was intrigued with the clients' concept as well as my concept for executing their ideas.  it also was a test of my local sheet metal shop on the execution of the design ...

the clients loved the model and i even found a half size chair mockup i made a long while back to contribute a sense of scale.  this is it in the raw and our only objection was that the copper didn't lay perfectly flat and 'humped' and rattled occasionally, a problem i expected to get worse as the individual sheets doubled in size.  i also figured there are only so many nails you can apply before it would look too 'naily'.

so, our solution was to get some weldwood contact cement and glue each copper piece to the plywood and 2 x 10 substrate as we went along.  before we got our veneer bags, this was our typical process for installing central inlays in our dining tables.  it also works great for male/female lamination forms. these are mostly 2 ton hydraulic jacks you can get quite cheaply on line or at your local hardware.  i think i have about a half dozen.  be sure to support the table underneath before cranking them up.

 the last little bit of design was stablilzing the two base pieces and supporting the 9' span, which we did with sam's help and a little twisted and welded steel ...

 tah dah ...

after sanding and sort of polishing the copper and the nails with some red 5" round scrotchbrite pads we found at the hardware store, we applied a chemical called liver of sulfide (outside please... rotten egg smell) and today, after some back and forth, i oiled it with a polished on coat of linseed oil which blended the fingerprints from the weekend and made it look like a beautiful old penny.  i absolutely love the look and i have a couple proposals to send out for other sizes and different bases.  liver of sulphur is available from dickblick art supply.  clean the copper first with dish soap and a little ammonia. follow the directions and rinse neutralize (2 spoons of baking soda to 2 cups of water) the copper when it looks they way you want it to.  the initial cleaning seems really important ... 

here jim patinas the 1/2 size mockup.  you can clearly see the before and after here.

a view down the table's 11' length ... it's off to Connecticut tomorrow ... 

 and we have a 10' claro walnut table that is virtually finished, slightly ahead of the house where it is going to live. it needs only a final topcoat and some polish.  i thought about setting it up on its base for the weekend, but it's really heavy, and the shop was too full, and maybe we'd drop it, or someone would scratch it ... in the end, we left it on edge, covered with soundboard and only occasionally allowed interested visitors to have a peak ... enlarge this one.  it has a great fiddleback figure over its entire length and is without a doubt the most consistently figured slab i have ever seen.

   we did set up its blackened base though .. folks are always amazed at the minimalness of the structure, but that is made up for by the weight of it.  steel prices have skyrocketed lately though and that is the reason we are exploring other base deisgns like the rebar above.  just the steel and the cutting was $1800. and then the pieces still have to be drilled and tapped, ground and polished, sanded, patinated and finished, a process that almost doubles the cost of the steel.  i get a lot of inquires on these, but few takers.

 

 sam's spark screens above and will's custom banjos below were also much discussed items.

he's got a pete seeger type longneck in the works at the bottom of the photo above.  the fretboard for that one is as long as the entire new 'daffodil'  picolo banjo below. 

 skin head, nylon strings, canary wood inlays, antiqued brass hardware, warm tone.

kit's jewelry is back in the safe and

penny's paintings are back in her home gallery ...

the rhododendrons and peonies are blooming, most of the garden is in and dinner is done ... lights out ...