Sping Fever

The Garden ... of course

Yo! I see I haven't been writing much lately ... must be Spring Fever in Vermont (finally). I think I've played my last paddle tennis for the season and I made it to the tennis court and the golf course in the last week. Too much going on outside to sit in front of a computer any more than I have to, which, (fortunately), has been quite a bit lately. We've had a flurry of requests for new quotes and designs which is quite a change from the last couple of months when I thought someone had stolen my phone or taken down my website. We've got quite a few projects on the board and in the pipeline which is nice. Some of the things we've been working on ... click to enlarge ...

A challenging desk repair .. delivered it today ... more on that later

Finished the doors .. more info here

Put the stove in last fall ... Need a wood shed now ... concrete Friday

Me and my original woodshed with beams I hewed from pines on my property in Arlington, VT .. circa 1975.

A cherry, burl and walnut coffee table to go with a credenza we made four years ago .. roughed out the lumber and stickered it today ..

A cherry bed like we made for my neighbor Sheila (and a few other clients)

Will roughed out the turnings today and Trevor started on the rails and the bolts.

We're copying a knife display case we made about 10 years ago for a new store J K Adams is opening in Stowe ... If the felt for the back of the top case comes tomorrow, we'll finish it up..

In process

This is the next tbig thing ... a room full of paneling, a desk and a bar/stereo cabinet ... concept below ...

Designs for a 'dragonfly ' coffee table for a potential new client

the bar cabinet for the project above ...

All for now though that's not all that's going on ... They say Spring is a time of renewal ... I guess ...

a claro walnut slab headboard

our faithful delivery man ken, delivered and hung this claro walnut headboard in new york city last week.  the project has been ongoing for a month or two and it was nice to see it finally in place.

i posted this photo of one of three new slabs i received back in march.  this client picked up on it and asked us to make her a headboard from this one. 

 we did some rough planing, and wet it with some alcohol, and we were on track.

it had some unusual burl like details along the top edge. 

we made a quick cad drawing that included some drawer boxes cantilevered off the ends of the slab.  they seemed a little much, so they were dropped in the end in favor of the minimalist look in our photoshop mockup below.

all's well that ends well and this one ended very well for our client ...

 one of the three slabs from march is still not spoken for ... it's ready to be something anytime ...

A Cherry Queen Size Bed

We finished the queen bed a couple of weeks ago ... just posting the photos now ..

With the short rails for the studios photo

Before the final hardware ... bolt covers and mattress brackets

4/24 We're underway on a copy of Sheila's bed. Sheila's my neighbor. She called me from her rental house in town after she closed on her new house a few years ago. She liked a bed on my website and wanted to come and talk to me. I gave her directions and she said: 'Nice! I just bought the house across the street.' These clients also found me on the internet and made the trip from Northwestern Massachusetts to check out our work in person. They liked what they saw and now we're making their bed. Will's doing the turnings and Trevor has finished the bolts and joinery and will make up the headboard on Monday ... Should be good to go by the end of next week .. Nice project ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...


CAD Drawing

Will roughing out the turnings with the duplicator

Cleaned up and first coat of varnish so they can be sanded one more time on the lathe. Once we drill them to join them (the 56" posts are too long to turni in one piece) we won't be able to put them back on the lathe accurately, so we do as much to them before then as we can ... saves time in the long run

upside down posts and rails bolted together. If you've been reading my blog lately, you'll notice that the stairs are gone ...

The jig for accurately drilling the bottom posts...

A Fine Bedside Table

Close up of the inlays

The finished table
A couple years ago we made a bed for a client that had, inlaid in the headboard, our interpretation of the family coat of arms. It was a challenging inlay with many different elements and woods finely executed by my man , Trevor. It was one of his first really complex inlays after he took over the CNC router operation full time. About now, he's definitely got it all figured out. Anyway, now he's working on a bedside table to complement his first project, plucking small elements out of the larger inlay and setting them in various places on the table ... Cool project ... Click to enlarge the pictures.

The headboard inlay up close

The headboard inlay in process ... Check the little walnut piece ... it's a 1/16th by 1/8" x about 6 or 7" long, cut by Trevor in one piece from walnut .... I can still remember his smile when he pulled that one off

The finished bed

Organizing the table parts ... the curly maple legs were roughed out by Will using the Vega duplicator, and then final cut and cleaned up freehand

Trevor's redwood burl lion and walnut 'stars' in process

Installing the walnut borders, long grain and cross grain on the maple top

The fox has been inlaid on the right side apron, the bottoms of the legs have been trimmed and we'll start to glue up the parts you see above later today. There will be two drawers and a secret compartment. Like I said ... cool table