yes we do repairs

ive always felt that a craftsman should fix stuff.  particularly stuff that is important to people who really like the stuff that is broken.  it might be a family piece, like this one, and have sentimental value, or it could be just a nice piece of furniture with a problem here or there, looking for the good life.  also, as a 

craftsperson, where else are you going to get to work on pieces like this one if you automatically just say

"i dont do repairs"  .. i mean, check this out .. fantastic unrestrained inlay work .. probably 18th century?  definitely english, as its owner is.  anyway, this was an onsite job, particularly enjoyable because we have been discussing fixing it off and on for, literally, years. click the photo to enlarge it.

all done today ... check that one out.  ready for the next hundred years.

weve had a run of repairs lately .. heres a shaker like cabinet that had no pulls, a funky fastener on the latch, a big water streak down the front of it and some shelves inside which we removed and replaced with a rod for hanging clothes.  its got some charm now.

and how often do you see a paper mache tilt top table?  never knew there was such a  thing.
love the scrap abalone oval, what would you call it?,  an applique?

this one had a painting fall on it .. that broke the paper base where the column screwed in. we also added a new catch where before the hinged block was screwed together so it couldnt flip up

technically, this wasnt a repair.  we just made a new base for the top.  the center of the table is a square of reclaimed french parquet floor.  the real thing!  hand hewn from solid wood, with a clever, rustic, mechanism that changes it from a 44 " square to a 62" round

here you can see the mechanism and the hand hewn nature of the original floor

tah dah!  the top is darker, and the base is lighter, in real life ... overhead florescent lights ..

another nostalgic funky family piece .. had a big crack in the side and back, and the two front feet and one of the back feet were loose and had to be removed and reset.

havent seen it yet with all the drawers.  only one drawer needed work

and this piece ... holy moly !  braziliab rosewood danish modern, damaged in shipping.  another onsite repair

cool piece ..

loved the interior bar detail and and way they cut the doors with the angles on them..
only the left one is open enough to see that.

better now, not perfect, but better

and we recently did six of these .. removing worn out brass casters on the front legs,

and turning new balled feet for the front legs

this is the connector from the trestle table below

as you can see in the photo below, the wedge grounded out on the edge of the hole before the table tightened up.  we squared up the inside edge and made new wedges.  its solid as a rock now.

we also added a foot to each end to make it a 12 table

and were working slowly on the doors below ... engineering a frame to hang them .. interesting challenge. they are too short, and too wide for the hole.  i have a plan ...

and weve got a very cool 12 foot walnut table going too .. more on that later

almost forgot this one ... it had a very clever sliding dovetail joint between the back leg and the 1/2" thick top rail.  had to trim off one side and reglue .. should be fine .. its part of a daily use kitchen set ..

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another claro walnut slab coffee table

coffee table #2 for this month ... a fine cut off from the big slab that passed through here on its way
to miami. it had a pretty big crack, but it also had some incredible crotch figure. 
in the end it finished out to be about 40" long x 64" wide.  short and sweet ...

before

it came off the right end of this one

tah dah ...

i still have one cut off left ... +/- 36 x 42 x 3" thick in the rough

smallish, but nice!

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a claro walnut slab table 1st of 2016

ok, first slab table of 2016 ... a nice piece of claro about 130" long in the photo above ...

it started out as this slab from goodhope hardwoods

 

we nipped off both ends and cut it back to 130".

rough smoothed the bottom and routed for the legs

first coat of finish on the top .. we did a little filling with tinited advantech epoxy ..

and jim fabricated and polished up a set of our standard shaker style 1.5" thick steel legs

 couple close ups of the finished top here

ready to roll ... off to westchester county, ny

the next 60" round table with 3 leaves is stickered in the background ..

more on that one later

see many other slab tables we have made at this link

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ALLIGATOR JUNIPER LIVE EDGE WOOD SLAB TABLE

This is the largest Alligator juniper slab Ive seen. These trees grow very slow due to lack of water in the high desert region. I was told that this tree is approximately 1500 years old.  Dimensions are 78" long and tapering from 52" to 38" wide. After fabricating the table base I let it oxidize then partially sanded the oxidation off and applied a clear coat to give it a re-purposed industrial look. This has been my favorite hard wood to work with so you will see many of my projects crafted out of it.

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a live edge claro walnut slab coffee table

 we finished up another claro walnut slab coffee table last week

polished steel 2" tubing base with some squiggles.  were starting to use the squiggles

 more and more.  people like them and in my opinion, they add fun and lightness to the design.

click the photos to enlarge them ...

the coffee table above is in my own house and that was the inspiration piece for 

the base design the clients finally chose.  we did offer it with the base on the ends as shown

in the cad drawing above, but with the thicker slab, it seemed to feel better

 to have the base under the slab rather than at the ends ... 

i had some fun making the scale model .. a photo of the slab, painted mdf and brass wire

and sam welded up the base .. were waiting for the house to be finished soon to deliver it ... 

more live edge coffee and dining tables at this link

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