This project blog is just a bit late, given that the table we will be looking at today has been in the clients home for 14 months now!

The table was a simple end table, made up of a 22″ diameter top, top and bottom wood rings, and 12 vertical metal bars.

We began by constructing the 22″ round top and adding a small routed detail to the top and bottom edges to give an otherwise simple top a little more sparkle.

The next step was to glue-up and layout two 18″ rings that would accept the 12 metal bars.  We cut, mitered, biscuited, and glued the four pieces together. Then, using a compass, we drew the inside, outside, and center of the ring. After using a straightedge and a square to make a mark every 90 degrees along the center of the ring, we divided each ninety degree section two more times to get twelve 30 degree sections, thereby showing us exactly where we would need to drill for each bar.

Once we marked out the placement for the metal bars, we drilled a 1/2″ deep, 1″ wide hole in both the wooden rings. We also added a small chamfer to the inside edges of the ring an ogee detail on the outer edge.

After we had constructed the three wooden pieces of the table, it was time to turn our attention to the 12 metal bars.  We purchased raw cold rolled steel tube stock from a local metal company, which meant that it still has a slight oily film and other grit all over.

The first step in prepping them for finishing was to wipe them down with xylene to remove the oily residue. We then sandblasted every square inch of all 12 bars. The sandblasting both removed any left over grit and grime and it pitted the surface, which would allow the metal primer to adhere even better.

In the finishing room we sprayed on a metallic primer and an oil-based brown paint. Once the paint had cured overnight, we applied a faux-finish painted detail to the wooden rings and the metal bars.

When the paint had fully cured, we began constructing the base. The metal bars would be sandwiched between the two wooden rings and locked in place using a star nut and a bolt at each end.

The star nut was pushed into the end of the metal bar and, when the bolt was tightened and attempted to pull out the star nut, the wings locked themselves into the bar.

The most difficult part of this relatively simple process was keeping all twelve metal bars perfectly ninety degrees to the wooden rings. We quickly realized that if no attention was paid to how plumb the bars were, we were quickly left with twelve bars that were all parallel, but a few degrees out of perfect alignment.

The final product, complete with the stained top, looks beautiful in the clients living room!

We recently had a client who wanted a customized bench for his master bedroom.  The client was born and raised in Hawaii and had an attachment to the Hawaiian hieroglyphic of the sea turtle, otherwise known as “honu”.  He wanted a bench that was stout and sturdy, with angular lines, and he wanted to integrate the honu hieroglyphic into the bench.

Above is the design we decided upon.  The bench is 48″ long, 13″ wide, and 24″ high, which is a bit higher than normal, but being that our client was taller than the average person, it worked out perfectly.

We began by milling and gluing the bench top and the leg assemblies.  The leg assembly was made up of five pieces; two legs at 2.25″ square, two stringers at 1.75″ square, and a solid panel at .75″ thick.

The pieces were assembled using mortise and tenon joints and dados for the central panel.

The legs have a 6.5 degree angle to add a bit of flair to a simple design.

We tackled the turtle cut-out by searching online for a usable image.  We then resized it, printed it, cut it out, traced it onto the panel, then had it cut out using a scroll saw.

We then attached the leg assembly to the underside of the top using two mortise and tenon joints.

The leg assembly is also angled out by 6.5 degrees, which really adds to the overall design.

After we routed the four mortises for the central stringer, we glued and clamped everything up overnight.

The next morning we removed all the clamps and were rewarded with a rock-solid bench.

After applying a rich red-brown stain to the entire bench, and staining the turtle cut-outs with black dye, ensuring that the natural shadow lines would really stand out, we sprayed on three coats of semi-gloss lacquer.

The overall product is a sturdy, stout bench of fairly simple design with slight angled details and a honu cut-out that takes center stage.

Every year the Interior Designers of Idaho put on a furniture competition called the Chair Affair.  Any type of furniture is fair game, not just chairs. So, I used this opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. My wife had been asking me to build a buffet for our living/dining room. What better time than now to build a custom piece for our home, and have the impetus of a deadline to make sure it gets done within the next year.

The design criteria was as follows:

1. The entire width of the unit could not exceed 48″.

2. The depth of the unit needed to stay fairly shallow, say 14-16″.

3. There needed to be plenty of storage.

4. It needed to look unique, not just look like a rectangular box.

5. Use this as an opportunity to experiment with mixing different materials, like stone, metal, and wood.

6. Use this as an opportunity to experiment with patinaed metal.

The Google SketchUp models above show the final carcass design with different door styles we were considering.  The cabinet is a straight-forward cabinet box with four curved legs that float the box a few inches off the ground, rail and stile doors with steel panels, and a granite top.

We began the project by building the cabinet box from African Mahogany plywood left over from a previous job. The box measures 42″ wide, 30″ tall, and 14.25″ deep.  All the joints are dadoed, glued, and clamped.

We decided to go with two sets of bi-fold doors, resulting in each door being 10″ wide.  We decided to bi-fold the doors to minimize the amount of space the doors need to open up into the room.

The doors are a standard rail and stile design, all 2.25″ wide and .75″ thick.

After researching for weeks on what type of metal to use, how to patina different metals, different patina colors, and the cost of steel and copper, we settled on using cold-rolled steel and an off-the-shelf gun metal blue patina spray.

We cut out 12 pieces of steel from a 4′x10′ sheet, using a metal cutting blade and a table saw sled.

We chose to use steel for our metal panels because it is inexpensive. It was only $42 for 40 square feet! Copper was easily four times the price!

It was now time for the patina process. We chose to use an off-the-shelf patina process from Metal Finishes Plus because it was simple and straightforward.

The process for the patina was as follows:

1. Rough up the metal. We chose to sand each metal piece using a sander and 150 grit paper, and then sand by hand, both vertically and horizontally, using 150 grit sandpaper.

2. Spray the metal clean with an air hose.

3. Spray on the Gun Metal Blue patina chemicals on both sides, soaking the entire piece of metal. Allow the chemical to work for 30 seconds to a minute.

4. Dip the metal in water.

5. Blow off the metal immediately using compressed air.

6. Spray on the Rust Arrest, stopping any further chemical reactions.

7. Dip the metal in the water bath again.

8. Blow off the metal again.

9. Spray on a clear finish, designed for metals, immediately.

10. Repeat 11 more times.

The patina process was not as constant or as simple as I thought it would be.  It seemed like the bluing chemical would have a greater reaction with the metal the closer the bottle was to the metal when it was sprayed, even if the surface of the metal was already soaked in the chemical.

Also, the washing and the spray drying stages created slight oxidizing on the surface of the metal that was not darkened by the chemical.  This was not that big of a deal, but it resulted in a yellowish-brown background, rather than the gray steel background I was expecting.

I also feel like the off the shelf chemical patina solutions will give only mediocre results. If one wants real vibrant colors and changes, copper should be used instead of steel, and actual chemicals and heat should be used, rather than simplified spray solutions.

After the clear coat on the metal panels had dried, we used silicone to attach them into the back of the lacquered door panels.  The doors were attached to the cabinet using full-overlay Euro hinges and the bi-fold cabinet doors were connected using a simple butt hinge.

The picture above also shows the unfinished legs dry fit to the cabinet, and the granite top set in place.

Once we sprayed on a couple of coats of lacquer on the legs, we glued them onto the cabinet box using a loose mortise and tenon joint.

The final piece is as seen above.  The piece did not win the furniture competition, but it looks beautiful and works like a dream in our dining room.

A few thoughts on the overall design of the piece:

The overall design is a mixture of simple contemporary lines, Asian style door panels, and a bit more traditional curved legs.  I think they all work well together because we only used one wood species throughout. If anymore wood colors were mixed into this piece, things would begin to clash, and get way to busy.

I believe the three materials used, stone, metal, and wood, came together very well.  The design of the piece was kept fairly simple, which allowed the three different materials to really take center stage.

The design of the curved legs exceeded all my expectations.  The leg design was the most difficult part for me, and I was debating on their final design up until I actually dry-fit the leg template.  I was not sure if the curved style would work well, since there were no other curves anywhere in the piece, or if they should be of a more angled or straight design.  Once again, I think the curved design worked because the rest of the cabinet design is so simple and clean, allowing the legs to be the focal point of the cabinet box.

The pulls I chose, after over an hour of deliberation, were simple with a little bit of an Asian influence.

A final close-up shot of the curved legs and the striking grain pattern of the solid African Mahogany.

The picture above shows the two models we designed and built.  Each unit has a tray which sits on top of, and fits into, the pedestal below.

Each pedestal is constructed from MDF with four sides and a bottom, with baseboard wrapped around the top and bottom.  The tray was a MDF bottom with hardwood wrapped sides.  Simple as that.  One pedestal was simply left alone, and the other pedestal, shown below, was fluted.

The finish is where these units really excel.  The first two layers are painted on vinyl base coats, followed up with three coats of clear, high gloss conversion varnish.  The final product is a solid painted color with a rock hard clear varnish protective coating.

One of the unique aspect of this project was the clear varnish we applied to the tan pedestal and tray.  The client wanted to make sure there was some depth to the otherwise even colored paint surface.  This was accomplished by adding gold automotive glitter to the conversion varnish.   The results can be seen above.  It turned out beautifully!  Not to flashy or gaudy at all.

Material: Quarter-Sawn Sapele, Eastern Walnut

Dimensions: 120″Long, 14″ Wide, 26″ High

A wholesale client of mine in San Francisco sent me this project. A very simple and very long hall table.

The first step was to flatten the two 8″ wide boards on the jointer and mill down to 1.75″ using the thickness planer.  You can’t see it in this picture, but the grain detail on the quarter-sawn Sapele never ceases to amaze me every time I mill down a board!

Once we milled the boards to the correct thickness, we flattened off one edge on the jointer, cut the board to 7.125″ on the table saw, and glued both jointed edges together.  After gluing overnight, we sent the entire top through a widebelt sander to get a perfectly flat finished surface.

Now that the top was done, it was time to focus on the legs.  After milling up four leg blanks 30″ long and 2.5″ square, we marked for the two mortises, and using the hollow-chisel mortiser, made all eight mortises.

The legs are the only part of the project that have any detail. That detail is a slight angle from just below the stringers to the bottom of the leg.  The top dimension of theleg will be 2.5″ square, while the bose of the legwill be 2″ square.  That .25″ angle on each side will add just enough detail to keep the console table from looking to farm style, yet simple enough to not look out of place.

With the legs mortised and the sides angled, we milled up the four stringers out of Eastern Walnut, tennoned each end, sanded all the legs and stringers, and began the assembly.

The client requested a different material for the stringers, either Maple of Walnut, to help break up the vast expanses of Sapele.  After looking at the 3D rendered drawing with Sapele and Maple, he decided it was too striking of a contrast, and chose to go with the more subtle look of Eastern Walnut.

As you can see, a glue-up that extends over a length of 118″ doesn’t lend itself to an easy glue-up.  We had one long custom-made pipe clamp from a project a decade ago that was long enough, but nothing else.  Well, it was just time to improvise.  Using two clamps facing in opposite directions and overlapping the ends in the middle, we were able to make “one” pipe clamp.

The two white sticks are supports to keep the middle of the stringer at the correct height to ensure the base glues up correctly.

After the top was sanded smooth, it was attached to the base via 14 pocket screws and no glue.  We chose to use pocket screws to allow for a certain amount of wood movement.  If the top was glued to the base using dowels of loose tennons, there is the chance in the future that as the top expands and contracts, the glue joints would breaks free and cause all kinds of havoc between the top and the base.

The three pictures above are what the console table looks like with three coats of tung oil on the base and four coats on the top.  With quarter-sawn Sapele you are looking at the edge of the grain, not the face of the grain.  That means when the oil hits the wood and sinks down into the pores, the oil beads reflect the light in all different directions, giving the surface a shimmering, iridescent look.  Very striking indeed!

After allowing the tung oil to dry for a couple of days, it was time to ship this table off to San Francisco.  Packing and shipping my pieces of furniture still scares me to death. I worry about every possible thing that could go wrong!  This table was pretty simple though. After covering the top in two layers of 1″ bubble wrap, and thouroughly wrapping it with plastic stretch wrap (the greatest packing aid known to man!), we laid it upside down on the base of the pallet, nailed on all the necessary 2×4′s and braces, attached the top, lined the sides in cardboard, and had FedEx National LTL pick it up!

We needed to design a TV stand to hold their large flat screen TV, a receiver, satellite box, VCR/DVD combo, and DVD’s & CD’s.  The clients wanted it to work around the constraints of this little corner space and wanted it to match the rest of their furniture in the room.

Currently, the clients are setting the DVD player, satellite box, and TV on top of an end table, while all the space to the left, on the hearth, is being unused.

The design allows for all the components to be stacked together and placed in the left most compartment, while the two drawers are deep enough to hold CD’s and DVD’s on end, and the door below will hide anything the clients decide needs to be stored away.

The first step was to mill the quarter-sawn white oak to 7/8″ and glue up the top and sides to the main cabinet.  Fairly simple and straightforward.  Culls were used to help flatten the centers of the glue-ups.

Once the sides and top were cut to length and sanded flat, we used a router and fence attachment to cut the stopped dados in the underside of the top which will accept the mortise that we cut in one end of each side.

Here is a shot of the two sides and the top with all the dados, stopped dados, and mortises routed out.

Once we routed all the dados and sanded all the surfaces we began buiding the main cabinet base.

Once the base was dry, we flipped the unit upside down and, using 11 clamps to hold every joint secure, finished assembling the rest of the cabinet.

The next morning we focused on building the two drawers and door, milled the drawer fronts, attached the drawer slides, and nailed on the trim around the base of the cabinet.

Once we dry fit the drawers and door, we gave the unit a final sanding and sent it off to the finishing room where we wiped on a coat of Fruitwood stain and sprayed on three coats of conversion varnish.

Final pictures to follow in a few days.

The dimensions are fairly straight forward.  30″ tall, 30″ wide, and 64″ long with legs that are 2.5″ square.  The only part of this project that is unusual, is the lower stringer.  With a dining table like this a lower stringer is not structurally necessary. The legs are connected to the upper stringers with mortise and tenon joinery, which makes them plenty sturdy on their own.  But, the previous table had a lower stringer that the clients liked, so this one would also.

By using SketchUp, we were able to fiddle with the spacing and figure out the perfect dimensions.  If the triangular pieces were angled too far inward, the people sitting on the side would hit their legs.  If the angle was to shallow, the people sitting on the end would hit theirs.  Once the stringer was designed, we isolated each part, and dimensioned the lengths and angles, ensuring everything would come out perfectly the first time.

We began with 6/4 rough Alder and milled six board down to the final 1.25″ thickness.  The table top’s look needed to mimic that of a rough plank top, meaning the joints between the boards needed to be a bit rough and uneven.  This was achieved by running a card scraper along the edges with varying pressure.

The five pieces that made up the lower stringer were connected together at the joints using a loose tenon that extended all the way through.  Using the angles derived from the SketchUp drawing, we made the cuts with the table saw and a tenoning jig.  We assembled the lower stringer pieces by clamping them down to a nice, flat table top, allowing us to measure widths and spacings.

Once we had milled, mortised, tenonned, and distressed the legs and stringers, it was time to glue and clamp all the pieces together.

After all the surfaces were sanded with 220 grit sandpaper, we applied the nice medium brown Old Masters “Provincial” stain, sprayed on two coats of lacquer, wiped on a dark glaze, and sprayed on the final two coats of lacquer.

Here is a close-up shot of the triangular joint on the lower stringer with the through vertical tenon.

Here is what the table top looks like after we applied the one coat of stain and glaze and four coats of lacquer.  The glaze is black in color, so after we wipe it away, any glaze that settles in a depression or a groove, such as the seams between the boards, remains dark because the glaze is left behind, thereby accentuating the distressing marks.

The final product, which turned out beautifully!

I don’t know much about the phone booth, but it doesn’t seem like an exterior phone booth.  It had a small seat and a small writing surface inside, along with a light bulb on the ceiling.  The inside walls are lined with embossed metal sheets, maybe tin.

The wine rack is pretty simple – two sides pieces with twenty-two horizontal pieces creating eleven racks that will hold five bottles each.

We are using 4/4 red oak for all the pieces, in order to match the booth as closely as possible.

We milled all the rack pieces using an MDF template and a flush-trim router bit installed in the router table to ensure every single piece was exactly the same.  We also cut a 1/4″ tenon on each end that will be glued into the corresponding mortise that we cut into the side piece.

After mixing up a custom matched formula, we stained all the pieces prior to assembly.  This method was easier than struggling to reach in between the pieces and trying to get stain into every nook and cranny.  After letting the stain dry for a couple of hours, we added glue to the mortises on the sides, inserted the horizontal racks, clamped securely, and left overnight to dry.

A view of the finished wine rack after the stain and a couple of coats of pre-catalyzed lacquer.

We decided that the easiest way to mount the rack in the booth would be to remove the entire side, which was attached with 12 screws.  So, after backing them out, we lifted off the side and had easy access to the inside.

The final view of the phone booth.  The wine rack fit inside the booth absolutely perfectly.  The right hand side is screwed on and the left side sits snugly up against the left side window trim.  This picture really doesn’t do it justice.  It is a really cool looking unit, and it will look even more amazing after it has been filled up with 55 wine bottles!

Ranney Kitchen

The kitchen cabinet job is completed, along with the clients new kitchen table, and has been for about two weeks.  Everything turned out absolutely fabulous.  We had no major issues rear their ugly heads, and except for one wall with a huge bump, all the surfaces were flat and plumb and everything fit like a glove.

This project really opened my eyes to the amount of time it takes to install large jobs like kitchen cabinets or entertainment centers.  Even if everything fits perfectly, which, trust me, never happens in any home, it just takes a lot of time to load up all the project’s pieces and the tools, drive to the job site, unload everything, and put the puzzle together.  There are cabinet boxes, shelves, doors, drawers, end panels, moulding pieces, toe kicks, crowne moulding, and hardware that all has to come together pretty much perfectly, and it is a process that just takes time.  I vastly underestimated how much time it was going to take, and as a result, shot well past my projected completion time on the job, but that is how we learn, right?

Along with the cabinets, we also built a 44″ diameter dining table for the client’s nook.  The table is going to doubled as a workstation, so we designed a squared pedestal base to house the clients laptop, papers, and office supplies.

Bookshelves

After the kitchen job, it felt good to work on projects that took only a week or two to complete, rather than five weeks like the kitchen cabinets.  The next project in line were a whole bunch of bookshelves.  The design called for bookshelves that had a more open, sleek, and lightweight feel to them.  Not only were they less expensive than the traditional cabinet style bookshelves, but they did not feel like they were imposing or closing in on the already small office space they were installed in.  Everything went smoothly and some final pictures should be up shortly.  Check the next “At The Shop” entry.

Wine Rack

Another exciting and unique project we are working on is a wine rack that is being built into an old wooden English phone booth.  The final product will have 11 rows, with each row holding 5 wine bottles.  The parts are being stained and finished as we type this out, so check back later for the final pictures.

That just about does it.  We have a ton of business ideas we are working on to keep ourselves busy during these tough economic times, and I am dying to share them, but they will have to wait for another time.  I am getting sleepy and the new episode of The Office on Hulu is calling my name.

So a few weeks ago I saw a contest for the “Art of Manliness/Old Spice Man of the Year”. Of course Jared is amazing, incredible and very manly so I entered him. Out of 120 entrants he was chosen as one of the ten finalists. I hereby solicit your votes for Jared Alexander Patchin. He’s awesome, there is a 2000 dollar prize, so how could you go wrong? Go HERE to read all about him.