The Tansu Stairs are Done

Well, I was redoing the jobs list on my office bulletin board this morning and the little clipping above was pasted onto the corner of it. I put it there a while back and forgot about it but today, it caught my eye again. So true .... Most every big project takes 'a little longer' than expected and this one was no exception. But, now we're pretty much done. Shipping to Palo Alto has been arranged and all that's left is the shaping of the wall mounted handrail and a little welding on the mounting brackets for it. We had a few 'last details; to work out this week and they are detailed below. There are two other posts to this project .... here ... and here... Great project ....

The finished cabinet ... Click the photos to enlarge them ..

The boys got a little happy as they were about to put together the back cabinets ...

Tricky post moounting details and

tread to riser joinery

Shows the breakdown for shipping

and the skids with wheels we put under the base cabinets

Assembling the back cabinets ... More info on this project here ... and here ...

summer 2013

well, ok,  this is gonna take a minute ... loyal readers might think that since i haven't posted many new projects lately, that not much has been happening.  they would be wrong.  it's summer, and there is more going on at dorset custom furniture now than there has been for, literally, years.   lots of projects in the works, on the board and committed, and in the design stage.  i'm thinking that maybe this time it's for real, that the economy is finally rebounding, though i have been fooled several times in the last few years.  cautious optimism creeps in ... click the photos to enlarge them ... 

 the kitchen we started back in may is slowly getting finished ... we're on the home stretch, and the painters have taken over now .. here are a few progress shots, the last being from wednesday, the third.

 

we've got a little cornice work, and some pantry pullouts to construct and then we put it all back together when the paint is done and the appliances arrive ... 

 it's starting to look like the model ..

 next up on that project is a nice 8' x 8' master bath vanity, again painted.  this is an early elevation that has since been revised.

this is the inspiration photo, with notes  ...

we made the round corners and the main drawer box on tuesday and we'll be assembling the rest of the boxes later next week.

saw it, plane it, sand it ...

 lots of parts to this project .. two other interesting vanities ...

 this one in reclaimed barnboards, with their original, exterior texture intact ...

and some unusual corner shelves involving a hand hewn beam salvaged from the restoration process and some 3" thick torsion box shelves to fill the notches in the beam that were formerly occupied by the floor joists ..

 plan view

 above is the cardboard mockup, with some assorted door frames ... it's a busy site

and for the same builder, on a different project, we're going to get to do a slightly smaller, 8' version of this 10' cherry shaker style wall piece we did back in 2006, in the same house .. it'll be old home days .. 

 and sam's busy in the metal shop .. working on some new railings for the dorset church ..

  there will be a nice handrail and some forged scrolly things .. more on that later ..

 he is finishing up a couple more steel lounge chairs for a landgrove client, and we've got 3 or 4 more steel and wood furniture pieces on the board ... coffee tables, two dining tables ... i just noticed a couple sections of recently completed railings in the background of this photo ..  and so it goes ...

and will's off to west virginia for next week to take an instrument repair course with bob smakula ... in the near future, he's intending to really focus on his banjo business and see where that goes.  banjo, i think, #17, above.  cocobolo and brass, fretless .. cherry and walnut neck and pot ... more info on will's banjos at seedersinstruments.com

 and, weather permitting, which lately we certainly can't guarantee around here, we'll be having some walls for the new metal shop.  drawings are finalized, windows are ordered, used slate has been purchased ... it's all good.  but did i mention the tropical  monsoons we have been having here in vermont?  like clockwork, most afternoons we're getting an inch or so of fresh rain daily and it's supposed to be 90+ degrees again today.  sam's backyard trout stream is running at 10 times its typical cubic feet per minute for this time of year.  ten times its typical july flow, i said.  blown out, is, i believe, the term.

walls monday ...

and then it was friday

quite a lot went on this week ... i wasn't sure i was going to make it through all of it, but, in the end, i did ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

will is finishing up a new version of this sideboard we made back around 2004 or 5.  it will be stained and have walnut hand turned pulls.  he's got the top moldings installed now and will be starting the turning and finishing process on monday.

and sam had a busy week, working on some BIG turnbuckles for a local  remodel project

 

and the stratton rails are finished except for some touch up paint on the welds .. complex project.  angles, level changes, drainspouts ... all done now. 

and he welded up a whole new railing job ... straight rail sections plus the stairs ... paint 'em black next week.

and jim's working on some curved benches from some curved planks we have had air drying outside the finish room for at least a couple of years.  (actually they are in that link from 2010 ... finally made a decision.

first we curved the front and back edges of the tapered ash supports, then we burned them with the big torch, and then we swabbed on some red and black oil based paint ... these bookmatched benches will be good for indoors or out .. they are homeless for the moment and looking for a place to live ... price on request.

and trevor finished up the curly maple trestle table with some stain and varnish.  that one will be around until the room where it is going is finished in a couple weeks ... nice color!

and he started a new 11'6" long version of the table above, also from the mid 2000s.

 

roughing out the top made us think of bar shuffleboard .. all we needed was some wax.

the scale was different so we made mdf mockup aprons and a new, 4" square leg sample.

approved by the client ...

and the top is glued up .. nice cherry from our friends at irion lumber.

  and i'm working on my pottery chops, with a new technique of my own devising.

 

i have never had the time to put in to learn to throw shapes like these, so i devised some lathe turned mdf forms. first i roll out a .2" thick slab, then after it is on the form and rough trimmed, i put it on the wheel, add a 'snake' for a foot and throw the foot onto the bottom of the bowl form ... it has allowed me to make shapes that my pottery throwing skills will most likely never be up to, and, i love the 'target' shapes.  i can pretend i'm jasper johns or josef albers for a minute or two ... more on this technique later.

and we're fooling with some new zinc table top concepts, like maybe a 'hammered over' edge on a round top ... it could work .. 

and jim picked up a few items from a temporarily closed gallery in massachusetts ... ready to go and attractively priced for sure.

including this very fine claro slab table ... +/- 44 x 90 ... it has a polished rebar base, but we are open to other options .. call for prices and details on all these former gallery items .. 802-867 5541

   and the last of the ice went out of the pond today with the sunny skies and 50 degree temperatures.  i thin it is finally gonna be spring now ...