back to work

we'll ok .. it's the new year, and we're back at work, and from the looks of it here, we're pretty busy.  luckily, the last few days things have kind of come into focus and under control ... a little new year miracle, compared to the last couple weeks of 2013.  click the photos to enlarge them.

trevor seems to have the 12' cherry cabinet details mostly complete, and we'll be doing some preinstallation recon work on site tomorrow or friday.  it's always nice to check the floors for level and the walls for plumb when you are installing a major piece in an older house.  well, first we have to finish the piece, but as soon as everything else here leaves, we'll be on that ...
it should be ready for finish after tomorrow.  next week after the other stuff leaves

the pool table is finished now that will has felted the rails below .. the felt is simonis, dark green and i believe it's the first time we have used that color .. like it.

and for above the table ..

 

we're working on this light, assisted by authentic designs, up the road in rupert .. 

it's nina mooney, the designer's concept, and i think it's going to be cool ...

we had to do some creative cutting, drilling, tapping, and epoxy work,  but i think we've got it.

 

photoshopped concept by nina here

and in the pool table photo above, you can see the model for the table in the drawing below.  it will be made from recycled chestnut and we should be starting the joinery tomorrow sometime.

and the benches below go with 8,  30 x 36" quartered oak table tops we finished on  monday.

the commercial pedestals are on site, and hopefully we'll install them next week with the 

pool table, the benches, and the dining table below.

we're using a fine (new to us) polyurethane varnish.  it's by a company called lenmar, which has been recently purchased by benjamin moore.  we used a coat of gloss as a base and applied two coats of satin on top with a 3" foam brush.  flowed out like it was sprayed.  i'm going to go out on limb and recommend it ... not something i usually do, but i like it as a finish.

this is another project for the hill farm inn, a rehab of a venerable bed
and breakfast down the road in sunderland.

there was concern that the antlers on the deer from the logo inlay

 would disappear if we left them in the burl.  sooo.

 

there was an antler that sam found in the woods rattling around, 

and trevor made some 'antler antlers'.  fun.

and we moved the mill from the old metal shop

 to the new one thanks to the help of our friend malcolm cooper, president and owner of jk adams

and his new company peace street rigging ... any excuse to use one of his tractors.

 the mill is happy to be back in a heated space ...

 sam's busy in the new metal shop .. knocking out a few projects before 

starting on a new big one next week

this coffee steel table base going to san francisco

and this one will be a base for a new claro walnut slab table we'll be building from the slab below.

it's going to be a nice one.  there's some good figure lurking in there

all for now ..

more new projects

following up on some stuff from the previous post, and getting some other new projects underway.  happy to clear the decks a bit and make room for some new stuff.  we hung the big mirror yesterday, all 13' 5" of it.  it was interesting as the building is old, the floor and ceiling or both out of level and when we hung it up level, it was just so obviously wrong that we had to move it around until it looked right with everything else that is going on there.  as it hangs now, the right end is about 7/8ths higher than the left end but it totally looks 'right' given the other stuff that is going on .. haven''t had to do that for a while.  click the pictures to enlarge them ...

 

 and the cherry bookcase clients will be in town this weekend ... that piece will be 

joining its friends that we made previously ...

 and the dart cabinet is happening now ... it can be fun working with crooked old barn boards.

 you certainly can't be fussy, and you definitely have to go with the flow.

 and it's been a good excuse to have a dartboard next to the chop saw for a while.

recipe for a railng .. cut a bunch of steel up into very specific lengths, and weld it all together,  

then take it to the client's house and bolt it to the posts you put there last week ..

 looks easy when it's done ...  

 

and sam's got a couple other table bases in the works.  the one above will have a danby marble top.  that's 1" rebar .. polished .. it's a nice look and the rebar is becoming popular with our customers .. 

 

 and another nakashima style base 
he's just making the base.  the client is making his own top.

and there's a new claro walnut table happening too ...  4' x 8' x 2.75" thick, with a 

beefed up steel base to go with the beefier slab.  it's gonna look good.  we've done a 

heavier base before in 1.75" steel, but this looks fine in our regular 1.5" steel.

the price of steel has increased so much lately that it's hard to justify working in the thicker stuff.

 

 the slab had a few surface, non structural, cracks that we filled with our usual advantech tintable epoxy.

  

chris finished the chest of drawers for the shaker piece .. we may install that tomorrow.

and trevor's underway on a new 60" round walnut table with a 22" crotch walnut inlay in the center of it.

 

more on that as we progress ... all for now ... dan

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 ...