Planning, Planning, Planning...

Not much to report. They say before you start building a piece you should have already built it in your mind a couple times. I have a couple big projects on the bench that I've spent about as much time as I can mulling over without going insane. Here's some drawings of a couple shutters I'm making for the windows on either side of our bed. The windows are 7 feet long & fairly narrow, so I designed this single panel door to accentuate the height & slenderness. Here's the rough stock, Western Maple for the frames & reclaimed fir for the panels. I'm looking forward to exploring door contruction & joinery strong enough for all that leverage. I'll also be making my first set of knife hinges so that the doors open 180 degrees.

Also a drawing & a mock-up of a very big table I've been planning for a commission. Hot-rolled & cold rolled steel for the frame, and walnut for the table top. The client had a very specific idea in mind, so not much design/conceptualising needed, just presenting a few options & deciding on proportions/finish etc, without getting too hung up on how I'm going to build such a big table in my tiny shop. For the mock-up I used a chunk of arbutus that had a beautiful beat, really cool wood, and fabricated these levelling feet that finish off the leg nicely & seem to work well. This table is almost 10 feet long, so time to upgrade my welding table & assembly table & shuffle some machinery...