The 'Small' Table ... 20' x 8'

Well, after a rainy weekend, during which I got to catch up on some emails, drawings, bookkeeping, (ugh), shopping, and reading, I've actually got a minute to do a little writing here. May was quite a month, with two show openings, Open Studio, some smaller projects, and work on two big tables, which, if you could find a place to put them end to end, would stretch 46' from one end to the other .... Lots of cnc files, (like, probably more than 100), lots of engineering and problem solving, lots of mdf and lots and lots of moving parts around, some of them 3cm thick and solid granite ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
We've had to move most of the work now to my 28'x 30' garage, where they just barely fit side by side ... In the foreground is the working base, made from Timberstrand, which allows us to work on both the bases and the tops in our separate shops ...
Surprisingly, one of the unexpected problems was swelling mdf ! We tend to think of mdf as a totally stable, man made, inert material, which was one of the reasons we chose it for the substrate .... Turns out, over 48", mdf can expand by as much as 1/16th of an inch as humidity rises and moisture is absorbed ... It doesn;t sound like much until you consider that the solid wood edging expands in width, but not in length, so molding pieces that once butted tightly together no longer fit quite so tightly together. Our solution was to take off the moldings and joint the sections (that's the smallest section of all of them in the photo above), so that the cherry now touches, but the mdf doesn't. No problem, as the substrate is covered with granite and other, curly maple veneered panels.
Thursday last week, for the first time, we set up the completed base for the 20' table in Steve's shop, after disconnecting a few tools and dismantling some of his dust collection system. The open center sections are for electrical access and will later be closed in with veneered panels held in place by super magnets.
Next, we added the steel. The entire outside two feet of both tables is Canadian, 3cm thick granite, at approximately 150 lbs per piece, hanging out there in space. There are 18 24" wide pieces in the 26' table and 12 24" wide pieces in the 20' table ... The substrate, with it's cherry moldings, is bolted to the steel. After load testing, we decided on 2.5" x 1.5" rectangular tubing with 1/4" walls. Those pieces are of diminishing lengths to follow the curve of the tops of the tables and 8" less in width than the table at all points.... They were cut on a sharp, 67.5 degree angle, drilled, tapped and capped by Sam.
In Steve's shop, we were able to assemble the sections temporarily on their permanent base to be sure that once the table is finished and assembled on site, everything will fit together smoothly.
That's Steve Holman in the center (it's actually his project and we're just the 'helpers'), his assistant Kevin is on the left above, and Trevor, my cnc guy, is on the right. Trevor has done an amazing job figuring out how to cut all this stuff, including the solid wood edges, bolt holes, holes for the electricals, and the granite patterns on our (second floor) cnc. It's been a lot of hauling....
Trevor was at Steve's shop to deliver the 'outriggers', the pieces that hold the steel supports for the 26' table, which we will test assemble in my garage when that base is completed, later this week. After we checked the granite templates for the 20 footer, we disassembled everything and Steve will start the finishing process on that base this week as he finishes up construction of the base for the 26' table.
I then drove to Proctor to deliver the templates for the small table to Herb Johnson at Johnson Marble, and got a little education on granite cutting. The straight lines are cut using a beam saw that appears to be from an earlier era, but still chugging along fine ... The templates are traced onto the slabs of granite with a scribe, and the straight cuts are lined up with a laser that is 'pretty accurate' but checked after setting with the actual blade of the saw before they are cut. Then, Herb's assistant, believe it or not, cuts the curves freehand with a diamond blade on a right angle grinder, a truly Olympic display of hand eye coordination. He says he's been doing it that way 'for a long time' and it is amazing to see how the finished granite pieces fit against the curved cherry moldings. By the way, the miters, which are about 30+ inches long fit as well as the templates. Herb told us that we did 'the hard part' by making the templates .... well ... maybe ....
While I was dropping off mitered end templates for the 'small table' I was also picking up the cut pieces for the 26' table and we now have 10 of the 16 pieces in place. After some truly small adjustments to the 6 center templates, they will go to Herb when we pick up the 6 mitered granite pieces for the 20' table ...
The 20' table with it's missing end templates is now assembled on the working base in my garage, next to the 26' and my convertible is out in the rain. The center mdf panels for both tables will be final fitted after we have all the granite and then veneered and finished in Steve's shop.
The granite is beveled and raised about 3/16ths above the cherry moldings and the center sections. I wish I had taken this photo looking down the miter as the fit (all of them so far), is perfect ... The granite has these wonderful blue flecks in the right light, but reads mostly as black ... More later in the week I hope .... Two other posts HERE and HERE ...

Progress On The Giant Tables

That's Trevor down there on the end of the table .... about 30' away ... Click the picture to enlarge it and see him smiling away down there. He's allowed to smile as this table has been pretty much his baby. He is our CNC man, and I don't think we could build these tables without one. I mean, how would I even make a template for the 1020" (85 foot) radius edge of the table? Beats me .... Below is the assembled top of the 26' x 9' table we have been working on. I have described it in a couple of previous posts here and here ... check them out for the full story ... Let me know what you think
Here we are (again) working on the table. That's Steve Holman (on the table) below of Holman Studios and his assistant Kevin helping us get it together ...
We're still on the temporary base here, and Steve is working on the real base in his shop just down the road ... We're planning to assemble the whole thing, granite and all, at least once here in my garage before we ship it all to New Jersey, along with its smaller (8'x 20') cousin that we started work on yesterday.
Yesterday, we assembled the temporary base for the 20' table in the adjoining bay of my garage and Trevor started cutting the mdf parts for that project ... If I built these all the time, we would definitely need a MUCH bigger shop.
This one is only five four foot wide pieces, but it still takes up half the shop ...
Yesterday, Herb Johnson of Johnson Marble and Granite, of Proctor, Vermont came to get the first five granite templates. That's his shop above. Herb has done much stone work for me in the past including the marble vanity top in this post, and all of the marble tops on this page here.
He'll do the 10 end pieces with the miters and their neighbors and see how they fit with the rest of the templates and then finish up with the six center pieces. He claims I've done the hard part by making the templates .... Glad to hear that ....

Literally, Working On A Table

Yesterday, Trevor gave us a new meaning to the phrase working on a table ... Here he is, literally, working ON THE TABLE ! And, there's plenty of room if more of us wanted to get up there and work on it with him. ... And, this is less than half of it ... 3/7ths of it to be exact. Anyway, it's coming along. Today Jim set up a temporary frame for the whole table in my garage and it looks like I will just be able to close the overhead door once the top is all in place. We feel we have to have the top with the center sections and granite templates all together at least once before we call the gentleman who is going to pick up the templates and cut the granite. Can't be too careful on this one, and it won't fit in the shop. Click the pictures to enlarge them ... Plenty more on this project later ... It's a big one ...
The far end ... The first four sections not shown here have already been fitted and edged. Here, we are cutting the templates and the preparing the center sections for veneer ..
With the end section removed and the center section of the table now in it's place ...
The temporary base in my garage with the steel tubing in place and the end caps welded on. Next, as each section is finished and the steel is primed, we'll put everything in place and bolt the table sections to the steel and they will be finished like that.

The Ladderbacks

Ok, I admit, this chair design took a long time to get together ... There were several posts along the way, originally starting back in October !?. For one reason or another, there was no hurry, and now that we have finally finished 16 of them, I'm really liking them for a number of reasons ... Clickl the photos to enlarge them ...

1. They will look good with a lot of different table styles.
2. We can actually do most of the joinery work on our cnc ... I know, I know, that's cheating but I have yet to EVER make a profit on a new chair design. There is some small hope for this one.
3. They are incredibly light to move around and more comfortable than the look.
4. They don't take a lot of wood.
5. I feel like they will also be more durable than they look. (see leg test results below)

The photo at the top of the post is with my clients's Nakashima table which arrived the day before our chairs .. I think that was actually the 'no hurry' part.
Parts for 10 chairs, ready to glue up ...
With my table for the SVAC show opening on May 8th ... more on that later
With our big Claro Walnut Slab Table ... They looked great with that ...
Ten of them lined up and ready to go ....
By themselves. The chair in the background is lacking it's pierced plywood seat support which was a last minute brainstorm to add structural strength without laborious and weaker corner blocks. It also afforded good attachment for the slip seat ... gold star for engineering if I do say so myself.
The original first prototype from the first post back in October
Another post in the series showing a 'real' cherry prototype. I was intending to make a set for a cherry table that I had on hand, but I sold it before I got the chance, which was good ...
I have a few more photos later

4/22 The Duck Bed Has Flown To Its New Home

Update 4/22 ... Usually, after a long and complex project like this one, I'm glad to see it go. You know, time for the next one. This one was different. It's been in the works for about six weeks, involved a lot of old and new skills, and everyone in the shop pitched in ... I give Will the credit for the turning, carving, fussy inlay fitting and finishing; Trevor gets the credit for the complex cnc work on the headboard and walnut overlay with the inlay pockets, and Sam, well, he did a great job with the metal shaping and patina work ... I'll take a little credit, for the CAD drawing of most of the ducks and for leading the parade, but it was overall a shop wide effort. Jim pitched in too but mainly his job was to keep our other projects truckin' along. The clients were happy today and I thank them for their trust in us to commission and support us on a challenging project like this. Whew ! I'll also miss the ongoing duck puns ... ducks in a row, all ducked up, just ducky, duckin'around, what a bunch of quacks ... and so it went ... The whole project was a great one .. Click the photos to enlarge them ...
The whole shebang ...
To the right
To the left
At home

Other posts
Waterjetting the inlays
A Bed Update
A New Bed Project

Update ... Tax Day ... 4/15 ... Glad I have an accountant ... Jim had to leave early to do his ...

Inlay update .... Almost finished ... Sam has done all the chemical patinas on the ducks and I think he has just one or two more wing parts to wrap up tomorrow ... Will will be applying the final coat of varnish to the wood parts and we'll epoxy the inlays into the finished headboard next week. Can't wait ... Gonna be cool ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
To see how we made the parts for these inlays, check this post on waterjetting
This is the headboard today, after the gel stain coat ... top coat tomorrow ... Out the door soon ....
4/13/2010
Previous blog posts on the bed here and here
Close up of the center inlay for the headboard below .... Sam's adding the color now ....
Inlays for the duck bed are underway ... click the photos to enlarge them, ... more later
Cad drawing of the headboard
Waterjet cut inlay parts ... see this post here
Trevor's sample mdf headboard overlay ... 'Always best to test.' You can quote me on that.
In the test pockets
Fitting, filing, and beveling where the pieces meet. Some of the individual pieces (beaks, wings and feet) were also made thinner to create an illusion of depth ...
The first sample center inlay ... cut in aluminum, just to see if it would work ... who knew?
The brass grass was rounded and the inlay pockets were pointed by Will with an Exacto knife.
Unpatinaed redhead
More on the inlays for this bed coming soon .....

First test assembly .. twist and pinecone carvings by Will see previous bed posts linked above

The Biggest Table Yet ...(For us) ... 9' x 26'

I just cut and pasted the info from the previous post below rather than rewrite the whole introduction ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
Well, so far, for a refreshing change, it's been a pretty busy month ... Last week, we finished what I thought at the time was a pretty big claro walnut slab table, 3' x 10'. Turns out, it's not so big. We'll be able to put four of them, with chairs, on one of the tables we are designing and building with my neighbor, Steve Holman of Holman Studios ... The first of two tables in this commission is getting under way below and will be 26' x 9'. Then we have another slightly smaller one to build that will be only 8' x 20'. Steve's shop is just down the road from ours and we often collaborate on projects like these tables and like this project we did last year.

Here's the cad drawing ... The top is divided into seven sections with a 2" cherry border on the outside edges, around a 24" band of black granite, with veneered curly maple center sections. There will be a bunch of flip up power and data ports in the center sections. As you can see from the drawing, there will be some engineering involved to support the cantilevered stone. The base will break down into about 10 separate boxes for shipping and assembly on site. We've opted to use 1.5" x 2.5" rectangular steel tubing with 1/4" walls to support the granite. We'd probably prefer to use something taller, like 4", but than we get into a bump your knees issue. We wouldn't want that, for sure. Anyway, we've done a couple of tests and we think it will be ok. We'll know more when we get the actual steel from Melanson's next week. We can't cut the steep angles easily with either of our saws.
The steel has to be cut on a 67.5 degree angle like the timberstrand in the temporary working base above that we set up in the driveway ... It's hard to see, but the lengths of the steel pieces follow the curve of the table top. That's the base for half of the table you see above ...
Trevor and Sam sitting at the end section ... you can see about half of the 44.5" wide second section in this photo too ... It's seven feet across the narrow end where they are sitting and curves out to 9' in the middle ...
Here we've assembled two of the middle sections on the table saws to check Trevor's routing for the Norse connectors and some plywood butterflies we'll use to level the surfaces of the table where they butt together ...
There are a lot of operations to get this thing into shape ... Plus, only one section is less then 8' so we have to index the pieces, cut one end, and then shift them 18" to cut the other end on the cnc. That, actually, worked really slick.
Here's the view of the boys from the halfway point ... The raised sections are templates for the granite cutter ...
This is the drawing for the second table in the commission, a somewhat smaller 8' x 20', 5 piece table ... same deal, different dimensions ...