a round cherry expanding pedestal table

well, here we go again ... always one of my favorite designs, and were happy to do it again and again.  the one above is from 2003, and it had three 18" leaves.  the one we are making now will be the same, only with just one leaf.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

we started with a cad drawing testing the water for 52 vs 54".  in the end, i sent them a cardboard template via ups and after putting it in the room, they decided on the 54".  ive blogged about a similar table before in this post back in 2013, and a smaller version in mahogany, way back in 2008.  

but here it is again anyway ..

get yourself a nice matched set of curly cherry boards and glue them up ..

and then cut and stack your plywood propeller pieces and veneer the edges and top.  glue up your column pieces with the angles on the top and bottom then too.  

i have a taper jig photo somewhere ... 

and get yourself some equalized table slides from moin hardware

then, if youve got one, cut the half round sections on the cnc, and cut the inlay pockets at the same time .. let me say here that we did not have a cnc in 2003, and we made many, many tables with central inlays without it.  faster now with it though.

start with the borders;  in this case end grain walnut, burl and end grain vertical grain fir, glued up in a log and sliced like baloney ... put some glue on it, drive a headed brad in next to it 

and bend it to press it tightly against the edge of the pocket.

check your fits with some mdf templates

and cut your burl pieces  ... still need to add the edge inlay and do the finishing.  more photos to
follow

home stretch ... in the finishing room now

all in, all done .. couple views below

with the 20" leaf in

 other sizes and variations on the form ... "take an object; do something to it"

Read more

sometimes we copy stuff

occasionally, we are asked to copy existing pieces, often, as in this case, because the original maker is no longer in business, or in the case of antiques, no longer living.  those are basically our two criteria.  we often get inquiries asking "if we can make this" and you can usually google "this" by its title or description and find out if the maker is living and still in business.  no luck on these.  and they looked pretty old.  and they were really comfortable ... the first project was a bench, below, that we made from the original in 2011.

 the original bench came to our shop, and much to our delight, the entire structure was held together with stainless steel threaded rods, clever brass t nuts and elegant hand made brass cyclinder nuts.  so, we had patterns for the legs, with mortises and tenons to copy it.

lots of pieces and some fussy interlocking stuff, but we eventually got it together.  finished nicely with some brush on, soak in, wipe off penofin nantucket mist ... so actually, when the chairs gave up the ghost this year, we still had the original bench disassembled and piled behind the chop saw waiting to be fixed for the employee lounge .. after 4 years we still hadnt gotten around to that.

 

 you can see the original bench patterns in the dark wood in the pile of parts above.

 i thought these would go relatively quickly, but when youve got 88 pieces of wood with intersections and other miscellaneous joinery, and some threaded rods and t nuts to deal with, nothing is ever going to go as quickly as you might think.

but in the end, they are graceful and sturdy, and im sure will be around for a long time. i look forward to seeing them in the clients garden once the snow melts in boston ...

Read more

a curly maple pedestal table

we just finished a nice curly maple pedestal table.  

its heading to Connecticut next week.

its based on a design weve done a number of times now, usually before in walnut.

we started with nice wood from our favorite supplier, irion lumber.

myron sent us a matched set of boards, all from the same log.

before the angled apron and the finish. this is the first time

for the angled apron, which we feel gives the top a lighter look.

the base support pieces are mitered and dominoed and then glued up a pair at a time.

then the halves are glued together.  they are secured to the base by timberlock screws that engage

the cross grain 3/4" dowels inserted in the pieces before they are glued together.  we usually add a little glue between the horizontals and the verticals, but  its mostly the timberlocks the give the base its rigidity.

we now include two dowels in each base section.  this blog post contains the most information

on the construction and assembly of this type of table.

heres a smallish oval version from last december.  

that one went to an isalnd in the carribbean.

 and heres the original from 2010 with a
link to the original table design and blog post from august 2010

Read more

a built in cherry desk

well, long time no blog ... 3 weeks at least ... lots going on here at the end of summer, or should i say the beginning of fall.  i turned the heat on in the shop when i left today.  some in the area had a frost on their windshield this morning.  the light is changing, and the foliage is beautiful.  life is good. particularly since we installed this built in cherry desk this afternoon.  chris has been working on it for a few weeks now, and im glad to see it in place in its new home.

click the photos to enlarge them ... 

we started with a drawing and then moved on to the full size mockup below

it is in a bedroom, and the space, while not exactly tight, wanted to not be confining.  hard to tell that on paper so we built the mdf and notched luan mockup, which the clients actually used while we worked on the desk. 

great sun .. great view out the windows ...

the construction was a mix of table joinery and case joinery ...

drawers everywhere .. 10 in total, and chris got a real dovetail workout. 

      

ash boxes with cherry ply bottoms ...

more photos tomorrow when the installation is complete ...

its a short drive, but a beauty of a drive ..

Read more

pie top table

so, my designer friend, nina, wanted something unusual for the top of the antique 

table base that she bought at brimfield below.  had to be round.  

i scratched my head for a bit, and this is what we came up with.

click the photos to enlarge them. 

its a very cool thing.  kind of like a piano stool.  i wish i had taken a picture of the raising 

mechanism.  that knob in the middle of the shaft locks it at whatever height you

tighten it at.  its got an acme thread adjusting shaft and a spinning collar that raises

and lowers the top.  at the bottom its about 22" high, and at the top. about 38".

very slick.  im sort of stumped as to its original purpose, but it is really well made and very stable.

a 14" wide piece of glued up reclaimed oak, cut into four pie shaped pieces, and glued up.

we had to special order the 2014 silver dollar as our local banks didnt have any.

we tried a bunch of different patina chemicals on it, but the only thing that worked was a soak

in good old chlorox for about an hour .. it wasnt perfect, but a little black sharpie and 

it was good enough.

cad drawing above.  we cheated by throwing the plank up on the cnc and cutting 

it there for a 10 minute perfect fit and glue up.

Read more

another round walnut table new pedestal design

one of our new clients came up with a concept for a variation on one of our tables that was really clever.

click the photos to enlarge them ...

she asked if we could make this table we made in 2013 open to have 4 of leaves inserted. 

it seemed like it could work, so we made a model, which she accepted and we were off to new design land.

 

 all finished now, but these dark tables are tough to photograph

 with 2 of the three leaves

lots of pieces

cad drawing showing placemats and seating when open and closed

some fine walnut from irion lumber

since we had made the model on the cnc from the cad drawing, it was a simple matter for trevor to cut some full size templates for the base pieces from mdf and lay them out on the 12/4 stock

joinery details

 glue up

the finished pedestals

the rest, as they say, was just an exercise .. cut the halves, cut the apron pieces, install the holes and pins and catches ... using our trusty jig

more info on this at the blog link above

tah dah

disassembly, and final sanding .. stain and finish next week sometime

Read more