Moving On

The time has come to take down the shop drawings for the kitchen hutch project. and re-load.

Dreaming

Finally got round to copying these patterns & drawings that have been sitting under my bench for a long time. A Finn Juhl, armchair #45 I believe. I'd like to take a run at it sometime. In the meantime the drawings can make themselves comfortable in the bunkhaus kitchen to feed the inspiration.

Winding Up

 

 

 

 

Just as well summer finally came to a gruesome, abrupt end. All that glorious weather did nothing for shop productivity. Realising I needed to capitalise on monsoon season and gain some traction, I dragged a bunch of Elm slabs into the shop hoping that something will transpire. Lots of rough milling so far (with a fair share of time spent staring at the slabs planning the cuts). While the kitchen buffet/sideboard parts rest and acclimatise, I've started on chair #1.1 after refining the design and introducing some compound angled joinery.

...and so it begins...

I'm wondering if I can squeeze one more into 2011. I've been wanting to take my first run at a chair for some time. A Safari chair might be the easiest place to start, basic frame, saddle leather for the seat & backrest. Pretty cool chairs but never seen one with decent lower back support, so perhaps there's room for improvement. Also got talking to a local artist who does some great work with leather...

So this all got me thinking. Using Stool #1 as the foundation, I've done a brutally rough mock-up, some full scale drawings, made a couple templates, and started laying out cuts on a couple slabs of Elm that have been sitting patiently in the shop. For the curved back legs I need to hit rift grain off the bat, so did some scouting around with the block plane, & it looks promising.

Here we go...

el Patio

Summer could happen at any time now. So I need to build a picnic bench for the bunkhaus deck. Thought I'd try Krenov sawhorses in aluminium. with some red cedar on top.

Housekeeping Continues

It has been over 2 months since my last post. 2010 has been declared the year of the studio. So I've set aside all new furniture designs until I get the shop sorted out. Still patiently working my way through the diabolical district permit process for a small shop addition for metalwork, and a covered outdoor working area/carport. In the meantime, I stripped the shop, built insulated walls & finished the insulation/vapour barrier on the ceiling. She's holding the heat now, just in time for the mild weather. Ripped out a whole bunch of stuff, whatever wasn't crucial, like a big utility bench. The extra space allowed for much needed lumber/in-progress racks/sharpening station/dust collector home.

Slowly getting on top of the chaos that broke loose & putting tools & machines in their place. Loving the bunkhaus laboratory's new warm, white walls, as any self respecting studio should have. Looking forward to getting the metalwork department into it's own space, then I can run ducting for the dust collection, put in a window etc.

A few words about sharpening & the sharpening station i threw together. I've been using this precision ground granite slab for flattening my sharpening stones, & decided to use it as a bench top for honing too. Some people don't flatten their stones too often, but I prefer to keep my stones flat, it eliminates possible confusion, like when you start getting a weird camber on a plane iron & can't figure out why. It's also less of a chore when you stay on top of it. Also really like this 10" slow speed electric wet grinder, works well. I had been persevering with a cool hand grinder, but I couldn't fix the annoying run-out on the arbor, so made the switch.

Here's a link about all sorts of cool local species, going harvesting with Dan has introduced me to a lot of these:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/24206/hank-gilpin-exploring-the-american-forest

Also a good clip, old school style:

www.finewoodworking.com/item/9932/truly-old-school-woodworking

I'm sure there's not too many people left in the world that can whittle a pair of shoes from a log. I'm also sure there's not too many people who can appreciate what it takes to set up & maintain a shop. Which brings me to a good book I read recently - 'Shop Class as Soulcraft' by Mathew Crawford, which questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a cubicle/knowledge worker, and the resulting almost complete loss of craftsmanship in our society/economy. He also takes a close look at the merits of manual work, a great read from a pshycologist turned mechanic.

and in a world where we celebrate mama pacha day once a year, but continue to buy furniture that doesn't last long, a few wise words from a designer buddy of mine (a most entertaining blog with all sorts of goodies):

http://blog.fyidesigndept.com/2010/04/tr-design-diatribe-thoughtful.html

Food for thought...

Shelter & Shutters

Like the Stones said - 'gimme shelter'. Here's the plan for the metalwork shop/carport; one giant bunkhaus awning. I've started some planning work; finding where the underground services are, gas, hydro etc, sourcing materials & contacting engineers. I plan to use Krinner ground screws for the foundation on the left wall (the foundation wall on the right already exists), these things are awesome http://http//www1.schraubfundamente.de/schraubfundamente.html and reclaimed 6X4's (that I salvaged last summer) for the framing. Hoping to save some weight lifting & use aluminium Ibeam for the roof trusses & aluminium square tube purlins, depending on what the engineers say, and if I can source 30 foot lengths of Ibeam from a mill. Corrogated galvanised steel roofing with a polycarbonate panel for light. I'd like to fabricate some kind of torsion kneebrace system using turnbuckles, that should make her hurricane-proof. Once the drawings are finalised I'll need to mosey on down to the district office to see if there's an outside chance they'll issue this dusty cowboy a building permit.

In-progress pics of the window shutters. A few swift, sweet passes of the jack to square & flush the ends of the panels. Love the Jack. I milled the planks for the panels from one of the many above mentioned rift sawn 6X4's doug fir 10 footers in the backyard, and a little walnut (partly a design feature, more about getting to my width). Cutting kerfs for the tenon wedges, always good to take a deep breath before cutting through a precious tenon. and shooting the door rails flush with the stiles with the jack & a makeshift shooting board. Yes, love the Jack. The massive wedged double tenons glued up like I'd welded the frame together, we'll see how they hold up. Still need to clean up & wax up, & make some hinges.

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...