CUSTOM WORK FOR YEAH! RENTALS

Michael Antonia of YEAH! Rentals came to me with a design concept for tables and stools he wanted for his event rental company.  We worked together to find the perfect wood and colors and are both stoked about the outcome.  Here are a few of the pieces I made...

YEAH! Rentals Coffee Table

YEAH! Rentals Table + Stools

All of these pieces can be rented through YEAH! Rentals and will make your next event way radder!

All images via YEAH! Rentals | Bottom photo via the YEAH! Rentals Instagram.

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CUSTOM WORK FOR MORRISON HAIR

A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of working on a really rad project with Laure Joliet and Morgan Satterfield.  Morrison Hair in Laguna Beach is a new salon from Rachel and James Morrison, designed by Morgan and Laure.  They commissioned a wood slab dry bar from me and a couple of other pieces in the salon.  Below are images by Laure of my wood slab bar and the brass inserts I made for the hair dressers work stations.

SLAB BAR:

BRASS INSERTS:

Thank you to Morgan and Laure for including me on this project... I cant wait to work on future design projects with these two!

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SLAB WOOD COFFEE TABLE

I made this coffee table for my friend Taryn. Its made from a live edge slab with turquoise bent metal legs. I have to similar sized slabs Ill be using for similar style coffee tables so if you want to buy them before theyre listed on Gunn & Swain, email me here.

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Work Bench Storage Hack Keeping Sanding Blocks Out of Sight But Close at Hand

How many of you never seem to have enough storage space in your shop?  In this post, Ill describe how I utilized wasted space on my workbench.

Eventually, I plan to add cabinets and drawers under my workbench.  However, when I do, Ill lose about a 6" tall storage space because of the apron on my bench.  I hate wasting space, and would love nothing more than to have a home for every tool and gadget in my shop.

Sadly, it took me a while for this idea to hit me, but when it did, I felt like a load of bricks had just been dropped on my head!  At times I feel like I have as many sanding blocks as a teenage girl has shoes.  Storing them in a useful way has always been a quandary until now.  

For my biggest sanding blocks with handles, I drilled corresponding holes in the apron of my workbench.  I used a spade bit that is 1/8" larger than the size of my handles.  The sanding blocks are easily removed and stored.  The larger sized hole also allows for less than perfect positioning while drilling the holes into the work bench.  I put storage locations on three sides of the bench for my large sanding blocks. 

Thanks for reading yall.  If you have a question or comment, you know what to do!

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another custom pool table

well, theres not much to add in this blog post as its pretty much the exact same table as the one below, featured in this post from last december.  i do like the dark green felt and the curly maple rails, but otherwise, theres not much to add.  thanks again to my favorite fine woodworking pool table article.

we used the same types  of beams and blinds from the same supplier as last year ..

and the construction was pretty much identical ..

clickthe photos to enlarge them

 dark green simonis cloth

the set up was straightforward and it played exactly like the last one .. 

as you can see from the table in action video,

i think i missed a few more shots this time, but on the whole, 

the speed, sound and cushion action was identical to last years edition.

below are a few other pool table in action videos starring yours truly, who is

not quite as sharp as he used to be ...

the other table like this one

murphy table video

other pool tables we have made

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RECYCLED PALLET WOOD ALBUM CRATES

These crates were made to hold our records.  I made them from pallet wood and welded the metal frames, each with a different face design:

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handwork machine work does it matter

blow this one up and have a closer look at it ..we made these in 1997 ...

pretty classy, eh?

they are based on a half round federal card table in the clark art museum that we got permission to measure and flip upside down earlier that year.  we also used a copy of  the work of many hands: card tables in federal america 1790-1820, a weighty tome for sure.   these tables are also our very first cnc project.  each leg, if you count each separate little piece has 90 pieces, some of which we obviously glued up in blocks and sliced like baloney.  the ovals were custom made by dover inlay in maryland, but the little satinwood bell flower drops and the larger oval satinwood panels were cut on my friend richards cnc. the rest we did by hand.  there are 43 blog posts regarding cnc work in the category to the right,
trevors cnc projects

on the fine woodworking website today, there is a debate over the distinction between handmade and assembled from machine cut parts, digital manufacturing, friend or foe, a false debate in my humble opinion.  turn on the table saw and you are no longer handmade.  in the comments to the post, where i, in fact, left my own two cents, i particualrly enjoyed the opinion of belchior, from brazil:
 
 "Since its almost impossible to produce something from wood using bare hands and teeth, lets suppose that tools are considered acceptable, for the purpose of this discussion."  perfect !!  

so, onward.  we make stuff.  we use the tools we have to do the parts of the job we need to do, be they hand, electric or digital.  we go forward, exploring the process, which in the end is, hopefully, where the pleasure lies.  here i give you some before cnc; with cnc; and after cnc, but not using the cnc, images. 
you be the judge ...
friend or foe?  click the images to enlarge them ...

before cnc, about 1992  ... cherry lacewood, burl, rosewood, milk paint

  after cnc .. 2010 .. much technology here, both cnc and waterjet.. blog posts here
cad/photo design, cnc cut lathe duplicator templates; hand finished turnings; hand carved turnings, steel, copper, aluminum, and brass waterjet cut inlays; etc. etc.see end of this post ...

before cnc; about 1990

after cnc, but not using the cnc  blog post here  .. 

we did use our duplicator to turn the legs, a tool for sure, but not digital

way before we knew what a cnc was.. 1983 .. the cnc would have been  
extremely helpful on this project though.

all handwork ... 2012 .. blog post here  .. 
could have used a cnc but it was faster to do this by hand

1989 .. this table would be a lot easier with a cnc, but we did it all by hand ... slowly and carefully

with holman studios ... 9 x 26 , 88 radius on the edges. all parts, including templates for the granite and the base parts on the cnc.  design, veneer work and finishing by steve holman; call parts cut on the cnc by dcf ..

cant imagine doing this table by hand, though the guy who cut the radiuses on the granite cut them freehand with a handheld 4" angle grinder with a diamond saw blade ..

granite cut here .. no cnc

about 1990 .. all by hand ... a wonderful, fun project

all cnc  a room screen from 2006

with the table above 1992 .. all hand work ...
so, the question is: can we make furniture that appears handmade and combines handwork with digital fabrication?  yes is my answer.  is the digital process good?  is it bad?  does it matter? can we call a truce?

i hope so .. the digital part is not going away, and, in my humble opinion, it shouldnt.  imagine ... 

seedersinstruments.com

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