The picture to the left is of one of the first woodworking projects I ever did (a little over 10 years ago). I made the table for some friends when they moved into their new house. I was really excited about the table, and I was happy that they liked it. Over the years, the joinery has failed and the "beauty" of the plywood top has faded. But the table still has sentimental value to me given that it was one of my first "real" projects. I'm getting the table back this week. I'll recycle what I can of it and will be trading it out for a new one. The experience has given me the opportunity to reflect on the past decade of woodworking, and I am excited (again) that my friends will have a new table. Pictures are below.
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I am making good progress on an Arts and Crafts style desk for a client. See the photos below. I still have some details to add to the bases...curves in the bottom rails and tapers on the legs will lighten the desk up a bit. And of course I need to build some drawers. On a long project like this, it's always nice when a source of inspiration appears.
The quote below (from the early 1900's book Education Through Recreation by Lawrence Pearsall Jacks) was posted today on Canadian woodworker Tom Fidgen's website The Unplugged Woodshop. I don't know Tom personally, but his work (built with hand tools only) often provides inspiration itself . I thought the quote was worth re-posting here. “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.” - L.P Jacks Exciting stuff..I moved into a new shop about a week ago. It's in an old building that used to be a general store in the small town of Goldston, NC. I have about twice as much space, a wooden floor (instead of concrete), and most importantly...air conditioning. It's going to be 103-105 degrees here this weekend so I'll really be putting it to the test. Pictures of the new (and still not fully organized) space are below.
Lately I have been working on a prototype for part of a large desk I'm building. The past couple of projects have involved prototyping to some extent, and I'm really starting to realize the benefits. The only downsides to prototyping are that the process adds a little time to the overall build and there is a little cost in materials for the mock-up. But the benefits far outweigh all of that. I have been able to play around with design elements and solidify structural details...things that would have been pretty stressful if I had been using nicer wood. It frees me up to try new techniques and polish up on old ones. And it let's me make mistakes. I'll make mistakes on the "real thing" for sure. It's inevitable. But the prototyping process at least shows me when and where I need to be extra careful. The picture to the left shows a view of the current prototype. It is a stack of two file cabinet drawers that will be integrated into the desk base. Getting the drawers sized correctly and running smoothly (for what will be a heavy drawer in day-to-day use) is critical to the overall quality of this desk. I think I've got it and I'm ready to move on to the real thing. The picture below shows my first chair...almost-completed. I have a little scraping left before I do the finish work (milk paint...black-over-red). I always like the look of a completed project in its "raw wood" state before finishing. This has been a great learning experience in green woodworking and chair construction. The design of these chairs has been evolving for several hundred years, and all of that history is expressed in the chair's comfort and rock-solid construction.
Thanks to Elia Bizzarri (local chair maker & teacher) for leading me through this great experience. I'm starting to get back in the shop a little and it feels good. The mindset of the shop is starting to flow back in after having been tucked away in a corner of my brain for the past 6 or so weeks. I came across this Shaker "dictum" recently and it really shook away some of the cobwebs...
"Don't make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don't hesitate to make it beautiful." And one thing I deem necessary and useful is a banjo. My friend Zeke has gotten into making gourd and tack head banjos recently. So, some of the time I've spent in the shop recently has been focused on roughing out banjo necks with him. The picture below shows our recent progress... I'll be on a short term hiatus from the shop for the next few weeks. I had knee surgery about two weeks ago to fix a torn ACL that I injured a while back. It's not too bad, but I am itching to get back out there and finish up the tables project and then launch into several other fall/winter builds. In the meantime some reading and resting is on the agenda.
The batch of tables is coming along nicely. All of the joinery is done. I still need to add a few design details...tapered legs as well as curves in the tops & all of the aprons.
One of the goals of this project was to work on building processes for efficiently milling, making parts, cutting joinery, etc. To that end, during this project, I have developed solid methods for several things..most significantly the process of cleanly and accurately doing bread board ends. In the future, doing batch runs will go much faster as these methods are further refined. Larger, more complicated "one-off" builds should benefit as well. Below are some pictures....The first shows all of the tables and their associated parts. Then, an individual shot of each one...walnut, maple, cherry, and pine respectively. And one thing to note...you'll notice that the wood species for the legs (red oak) and aprons (maple) differs from the tops. The bases for these tables will be painted black (milk paint), so I was able to mix and match the wood species with the stock I had available. I am currently working on a group of tables. The tables will all be similar in design, but each will have slightly different dimensions. I think they will range in function (coffee table, sofa table, hall table, etc.). Below is a picture of the table tops. From right to left, the species are walnut (with some crazy grain patterns), maple (with some nice curl), cherry (also with some nice curl), and pine (some that we milled and dried ourselves). The next step will be to add breadboard ends to each top and then on to the table bases. And finally...see below for a picture of more progress on the Windsor chair. The seat (in white pine) has been roughed out and holes bored for the legs, arm stumps, and the center rear spindle.
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