Waterjetting

Ahhh .. Waterjetting .... Another highpoint in technological innovation for me .... Here's a short excerpt below from the fascinating Wikipedia entry describing their history and applications ... Cutting food? Hmmm... wonder what that's about ... Click the pictures to enlarge them.

'Materials commonly cut with a water jet include rubber, foam, plastics, composites, stone, tile, metals, food, paper and much more. Materials that cannot be cut with a water jet are tempered glass, diamonds and certain ceramics.^[4]

Water jet cuts are not typically limited by the thickness of the material, and are capable of cutting materials over eighteen inches (45 cm) thick. The penetrating power of these tools has led to the exploration of their use as anti-tank weapons but, due to their short range and the advent of composite armour, research was discontinued.' Anti tank weapon ... Who'd a thunk it?Matt Santwire of A L Melanson in Rutland at the controls. Importing the files that we created in Dorset, emailed to him, which he then toolpathed at the computer in his office and then sent to the computer you see here that controls the cutting ... That's a lot of computing, trust me ... The machine's surface is actually flooded and the material is under water when it is cut. Since there is no 'force' the material is held in place usually just by gravity on the supporting bars you see in the top photo.Findng 'home', the starting point for the computer file ...

These are the parts of the ducks which will be inlaid in the finished kingsize bed we are working on a couple posts below. Looks like it was easy when it's done ... Wasn't ... All the little bridges were drilled out and the tabs sanded or filed off on the edge sander...
Other products we have made with the waterjet ... our aluminum 'windsors' ... the back is springy like an old lawn chair ...
The base for the claro walnut table we just finished ...
1.5" thick cold rolled plate steel ... Tough stuff ... Took an incredibly long time to polish it ... can't imagine cutting it any other way ...
This is the first sample center inlay we made on our first trip to Maelanson's. We discovered that the cuts are ever so slightly tapered as the jet spreads out slightly once it penetrates the surface, so we cut all the inlays upside down. That was a handy feature when we fitted them into the routed pockets on the headboard as they tightened up as they went in.
First sample of the center ducks in aluminum, back side ... You can see from the cad drawing that the image has been flipped ... good trick ...
Into the finished headboard sometime next week .... The polishing and fitting of the individual inlays and metal parts was done by Trevor, Will and Sam, coloring of the finished inlays was by Sam. Jim lent a hand in the early stages ... A total team effort for sure ...
Trevor cut the pockets for the inlays using our cnc, using a 1/16th" bit and a 1/32nd" bit for the final pass on the outline ... Amazing .... Stain color looks a little funky here because of the light .. It's going to be real nice I think when it's all done ...

What We Can Do With Metal

Sam's been working with metal now for about 5 years, full time for the last two. He's a great welder and fabricator and his artistic and problem solving sense is evolving everyday. As we get more and more requests for pieces both entirely of metal and as furniture, in combination with wood, often questions of finishes, materials, and capabilities arise ... Rather than answer the same or almost the same questions over and over, this post will serve as a general outline for potential clients who want to know more about what we can and can't do ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....

We have a fairly well equipped metal shop. We could use a little more space, a milling machine and maybe a more professional drill press but mostly, we're pretty well set. We also have a company we work with for custom CNC waterjet cutting and custom CNC plasma cutting, as well as chrome plating and powder coating ... Right here in Vermont ....

Sooooo, what are the options as far as materials, finishes, fabrication? For a quick overview, visit the 'Sam Mosheim' category off to the right there or any of the links directly below....

We work in steel, both hot and cold rolled, stainless steel, brass, copper, and punched 'tin'.

Possible finishes are:
Natural oiled mill finish .... 'The Williams Store Railings'Blackened steel, done with a cold patina chemical called 'ready brown' ... works great on brass and copper too .... It can be nicely highlighted with steel wool, then oiled ....
Polished natural steel finish. Essentially a process of grinding off the mill scale and polishing with finer and finer grades of abrasives ... While we have not as yet done any pieces in polished stainless, our satin finish stainless is typically looking a lot like the project above .... Perhaps just a bit brighter .... 'A Custom Contemporary Railing'
For antique or Art Deco style pieces, golf leafed, natural or antiqued, might be a good choice ...
For outdoors, we recommend two coats of primer, two of paint with refreshing when necessary ... any color ... 'A Fine Outdoor Railing'
For indoors, primed and painted, any color also; here with a nice gold paint from Fine Paints of Europe which will be glazed and antiqued later ...
A mix of finishes and materials .. blackened, natural,polished, brass and copper ... We're currently working on designs for a bed with inlays in a variety of metals and finishes ...
'A Door For a Pizza Oven Thermometer'

Products and Services .....
Custom Outdoor Chairs and Table Parts

Lighting, railings, sculpture, belt buckles, custom tools, fireplace accessories, furniture parts, metal repairs and custom welding ....

Whatever else you can dream up that you think we might be able to do ....
dan@dorsetcustomfurniture.com
sam@dorsetcustomfurniture.com

Sam's Railing is Installed !

Sam finished up his railing Wednesday .... He and Jim spent an hour and a half on site bolting the posts to the shoes ... It took longer to drive there than to install the whole thing ... Good measureing and careful planning get the job done ....

Approaching the terrace .. Click the pictures to enlarge them

Now you know why they needed a railing

This has been kind of a big railing project. It's out of town, (New Hampshire), it's a long one. (40' or so) and it's complicated. The builders placed tubes in the ground where they wanted the posts and backfilled around them, planning to pour the posts in place also, I believe. It turned out to be more complicated than that. Sam worked through it, and even though it made for some extra work on his part, he went the extra mile to get it right. There's a gate on the left end where the steps are ....
To start, we decided to make a portable form and construct the posts with detachable 'shoes'. Each shoe with a piece of 3/4" rebar welded to the bottom of it. The form was designed to hold the posts level straight and square while the concrete was poured and setting up. He had to go back after the concrete set up in the tubes, snap his level top lines and measure from inside of post to inside of post on each section. With the jogs and level changes, it involved a little fancy engineering, but when he makes the two hour tip this week with the finished railing parts, we're both confidant that it will bolt right into place. I have not been to the site, but it's on the Connecticutt River and appears to be a striking spot .... Click the pictures to enlarge them.

Setting up the jig for a test run outside the metal shop in the backyard

The posts with the 'hangers' welded on

The 2" tubing with caps welded on and ground smooth...

Some of the spindles and frame parts

A close up of the connections

Ready to paint

A Claro Walnut Slab Table

This post actually starts back in February when I wrote abut some claro walnut slabs that I had on hand. So far we've completed projects with two of the slabs ... I still have one available ... The latest project is a desk/table for a niche in the walnut paneled room we completed recently. It involved some fine metal fabrication and welding by Sam, as well as a good effort from the woodshop team to polish up the slab and get it to Holman Studios for one of Steve's fine finish jobs ... Anyway ... Here it is ... Click to enlarge the pictures for better viewing .....

Close up of the model and the figure in the Claro walnut top (from Good Hope Hardwoods)


The whole deal

Fine welding by Sam ... that's 3/4 x 6" solid bar welded to 1/2" and 1")

The naked base ...
The base building process below

The flat trestle bases and a 1.5" solid round bar connector ... drilled up through the bases and bolted to the tapped solid round stock ... Bolts and unbolts for shipping ...

The jig for welding the steel parts together

First end welded

A Cool Project from the Metal Shop

Sam's uncle, Peter Moore of VermontBrickOvens.com , Pawlet, VT, builds elegant wood-fired pizza ovens. Sometimes he needs little details like this digital thermometer door cover above or a fancy damper handle that Sam made earlier in the week (The camera missed that one) . The outer door frame shown here is maybe 8' x 10" made of 1.5" angle iron, but I thought it had a cool look when it was done so here it is .... Click the photos for a better view ...

First step, cutting and welding the 1.5X1/8" angle iron frame, fitting the 1/8" door

Step 2, scan a logo and cut a tree out of thin, (14 guage?), flat stock... or maybe it was an 1/8"flat stock ... Sketch on some mountains

Find some brass hinges and rivets and practice your mountain making and all you have left to do is make your mountains and stars on the real thing, hand forge a small pull, texture the big copper rivet, figure out how to epoxy on a little rare earth magnet to hold the door shut, patina the brass hinges, and you're all set .... Nice Job Sam!

click to enlarge for details

New Handrail

Well, we've got a new handrail out front ... Sam had a request from a client for railings like this and we weren't sure on the technique of sweeping horizontal bends so I decided a prototype would be a good addition to our entryway. We also had a friend come by with her 92 year old mother and her exit from the front porch with no handrail was sort of terrifying ... Anyway, it's up there ... looks good ... interesting process ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

It's got a certain 'welcoming' feeling ...

First cut every couple of inches until what you're bending is essentially a piece of square stock ... Fill in the resulting spaces with weld, grind and smooth. Repeat for the second layer...

make the upsweep, figure out the length of the support

Make a jig to weld it to the horizontals and whip up some brackets ... prime, paint, drill a hole and install it using some epoxy stuff from the lumber yard ... I'll post the name of it here later but it was pretty slick stuff. Hardened up just like the stone and is the same color too ...

The Parrot Chairs ... Sketching in Metal

Inspiration Photo

Via a referral from a friend in Massachusetts, we were contacted by a client who had an interest in having Sam fabricate some 'parrot chairs'. The client had saved a picture from a magazine, but had no other details like measurements, what the front legs looked like, a close up of the parrott detail, etc. We agreed to make a mockup for a small fee and the results and their proposed changes are shown below. It took us a while to get to it as there were some 'thought problems' to work through such as how to bend the back legs/hoop piece with even a small amount of repeatable control. I'm sure these things are pressed out cold by the thousands in factories around the world, but unfortunately, we're not one of them. We ended up making a pretty elaborate jig that, with a few modifications, will work fine. The jig was essentially based on the one we use to steam bend backs for Windsor chairs, something we've been doing since the late 70's. Creating a new chair design is tough in any medium, as what you are really creating is a functional sculpture, something viewed from all four sides with small complications like comfort, durability, and repeatable production thrown in. Tough in wood, not much easier in metal ... We'll see if we get to build them .... It will be a challenge for sure if we do ....

The 'sketch'

Proposed changes to the 'sketch' ... click to enlarge

Back view

Test drive ...The seat needs to be wider in the front and the back needs to be tipped back a little more .... other than that, not bad for comfort ...