Entertainment Console - Design Phase

Sometime last year, Sylvia and I were having dinner at my friend Ken's place.  He'd recently got a copy of The House That Sam Built. Sam is one of my favorite designers.  I love his simple, elegant and organic sense of design.  This hall table was the piece that most captured my eye.

At that time, I jotted a couple ideas down and  when I got home I did some really rough sketches, until I found something I really liked.  I let it stew a bit and after awhile came back to it and did this sketch.  This was something I added to the list of projects I wanted to do.  I planned to do this as a veneer piece with solid edging that I could sculpt round in a bow to Maloof.





The order of things changed recently when Sylvia got fed up with our present couch and decided to get new living room furniture, which meant I had to actually hang the TV and build a console.  I also decided to tweak the hall table design.

I sketched these two perspectives while Sylvia and I were watching something, so she could see what I was thinking and give some buy off before I started scale drawings.






Based on the single point perspective and the actual measurement of the wall and all the components of the entertainment center, I produced this first drawing.

At this point I put it out to my woodworking community on Facebook and Twitter.  I got some really good feedback.  Mark Cherry, a buddy on Facebook and @woodshaver101 on Twitter, has done a lot of cabinet style furniture and suggested, due to the length, I employ a torsion box in the design.  Earl Kelly, again a Facebook buddy, thought the piece looked a bit stretched and after stepping back, I thought so, too.  This is the final single point perspective with 5" trimmed from each side, all from the panels.

The center section will sit just back enough for each front panel to bypass.  The bottom-middle is for the surround sound's bass reflex speaker, the center speaker will be directly above and the left and right front channels on each of the respective shelves in the curves.  The choice for the material center panels is still up in the air.  I was originally thinking metal and may still go that route.  I just need to consider vibration.  I'm planning on building this as a veneer piece.  Under the right circumstance, I don't mind solid wood, but if the piece will benefit from man made materials, I'd rather go that way.  I'm thinking the shop made veneer will be ~ 1/8 inch thick.  The dark wood is Wenge and the top and panels will be Black Limba.  

I've still got some logistics to figure out, one being to find some good plywood.  I'm looking forward to the build!

Woodworkers Fighting Cancer - Shaker Table Build Part II

A few issues have come up during the rough dimensioning that have steered my design in a new direction. Originally, I planned to have the entire table made of the Cherry board from the first post, with a small Mahogany band running up the outside of all the legs and terminating to the Mahogany breadboard ends for the top. Either because I'm fairly new to this or just an oversight (probably both), I found I didn't have enough Cherry to also do the top.

I also found one of my legs had a check running much higher than I originally anticipated. Due to these challenges, I decided to rethink my approach. During Wednesday night's The Woodwhisper Guild meeting, I was able to bounce the idea off of Shannon Rogers of The Renaissance Woodworker, Rob Bois from The Bois Shop and Nabil, who is a prolific woodworker from The Woodwhisperer Chatroom. Thanks to their advice and encouragement, I've decided to go with this approach: From the floor up; Mahogany feet will be attached to the bottom of the Cherry legs to reach the length the legs need to be; I will still be banding the outside of all the legs up to the top of the piece; The top will now be veneered with the Canoe Birch on the bottom, a "breadboard" border of Mahogany and a "sunburst" cut from a piece of Osage I recently picked up at Jensen Hardwoods in Walla Walla, WA for the top.

The Green Shop - Planning (Part One)

When we decided to sell our old 1910 Craftsman house, the deal was that Sylvia got a pool and I got to have a "real" shop. Even though I had grown up with a pool and spent more time doing pool care than actually swimming, my workshop was a small two car garage with 7 foot ceilings and I was game for whatever I had to do to get into a space where I could move wood around instead of tools.
As far as building went, I had helped my best friend over the years whenever he needed an extra body on a construction job. So, I knew my way around a construction site, but I was not experienced or fast enough to ever lead a crew.

When it came time to design a shop, I had an engineer draw up plans for me and just got the project started. Now that I'm in the energy consulting field and learning from the very best, I would have done things much differently.

Whether the shop you want is attached to a house or stands alone, there are some very critical decisions that need to be worked out at the design phase. What type of structure do you want to build? Do you want to work on a concrete slab or wood floor? Do you have an option to position the structure for solar gain? What, if any, plumbing would you like in the shop? Do you plan on heating and air conditioning the environment? These questions along with many other questions dealing with code, electrical requirements and load (weight) requirements need to be answered before the plans to the shop are even started.

So let's start with one of the questions. Concrete slab or wood floor? If you can orient the structure for good winter solar gain, a concrete slab will be a big heating benefit. For me, I wanted to have a crawl space, so I could avoid electrical cords and dust collection pipes being a tripping hazard or just in the way of moving lumber or sheet goods around the shop. Plus, I don't care much for standing for long periods on hard surfaces. It is at this stage in the design you'll need to decide where you want plumbing and what type of HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) you'd like to use.

On my next building post, I'll discuss the envelope, scheduled plumbing, and HVAC options. Also, as I stated before, I'm not writing a book and therefore am not going to get into all the details. If you have a specific inquiry, please comment or email me.

A Rare Opportunity

I wanted to let all of you who are interested in design know, there is a rare opportunity to view an interview with Wendell Castle. Neil Lamens of Furnitology can barely contain himself as he has the opportunity to have a private chat with one of the great designers of this century. Check it out!

Serving Bisket - Top and Bottom

I'm behind on my little project due to being "forced to spend a day by the pool, BBQing and drinking beers with a few friends?" Well, at least it was fun and I got to eat my two favorite foods, Pork and Bacon. YUM!!! Throw a piece of ham on that and I'd be in heaven! I BBQ'd pork tenderloins, wrapped in bacon and rubbed with roasted and ground fennel seed, salt and pepper. I don't know if I've covered the fact that Sylvia has decided that nothing needs to die for her subsistence. While I agree with her feelings on the subject, I told her I'd like to get through the summer before I go completely vegetarian. At least she can still eat eggs. The new diet hasn't completely killed me because Sylvia is an awesome cook who could probably make brussel sprouts taste OK.

Anyway, I managed to get a little shop time in tonight and got the top panel that I'd re-glued, re-sanded. I cut both the top and bottom to final dimension and tomorrow will hopefully have time to get in and figure out the dimensions for the legs and start getting them rough cut.
Also, on a tangent, be nice to others. Yesterday, someone attacked a friend's blog with some really just plain, nasty comments. It was clear the guy had some weird agenda, probably because my friend has worked hard and made a very, very successful blog (http://thewoodwhisperer.com).
Anyway, like I said, be nice. Life is WAAAY too short to spend any of it being someone that you wouldn't even like.

Serving Bisket - OOPS! & Changes

Well, I got the top and bottom of the serving stand glued up. That was one step forward. When I ran them through my drum sander, the bottom looked good


but the top, mmmmm not so good. I didn't pencil on a triangle to keep my boards organized and I got my heartwood stuck between my sapwood.


Or did I get my sapwood stuck between my heartwood. Either way, I doubt it tastes much like peanut butter and chocolate. So, one step back and re-saw and re-glue the top.

The rest of the night I spent trying to figure out the edge detail. Since I am still limited on the selection of tools to choose from and I really wanted a curve that I can't get with a router (at least that I know of), I decided the tablesaw was probably my best bet. This first profile just seems too much of an ogee to have the Asian feel I'm going for.

I tried a few different configuration of the angle of the temporary fence and the angle of the blade, but nothing felt good. So, back to the sketch book. I think this design has a better Asian flair and is much more doable with the on the tablesaw.



We'll see.

Serving Bisket - The Rough Milling

I learned several lessons yesterday. First, no matter how hard you try to get the blade tracking correctly on a bandsaw, if it's been neglected for over fifteen years and therefore the tires have gone bad, the blades gonna still fly off. Second, you can't joint a board on a jointer that isn't tuned correctly. Third, and final (at least for yesterday), you should probably wear shoes in the shop. I dropped a piece of lumber on one of my toes and OUCH! Well, after getting Ken's jointer adjusted correctly I was able to get my boards faced jointed and get a square corner. Today I hobbled around barefoot (I did say probably should wear shoes) and cleaned an area to work in and I got the top and bottom of Bisket's serving stand rough milled and glued up.
Even though I'm not to good at this yet, I'm having a great time. I went into the shop this morning when Sylvia went to church, turned on some Elton John, and started cleaning. You can actually see the floors again. As I said, I'm really not ready to start projects. I need to build cabinets to house all my "stuff" and build some actual work stations (notice the door on sawhorses I'm currently using for a workbench). Those saw horses are the base for my "router table", too. I don't remember what I was thinking when I built the cabinet for the drill press. I must've been feeling very tall that day, 'cause it's built for someone that's over six feet. But the old girl takes precedent. I try to always remember "family first, then friends, then everything else." Once I get the final top and bottom of Bisket's stand cut to size I can figure out the dimensions of the "legs". I'll probably need to tune up my drum sander as it hasn't been used in about five years and it's been bumped around a lot.

Serving Bisket - The Design

O.K. Here's the thing, I've never taken the time to learn any of the CAD type programs. In all probability, I never will. I'm much more comfortable opening up my sketch book and grabbing a pencil. It's actually been kinda nice to do a little sketching; I used to all the time when I was younger. The last time I picked up my sketch book was over ten years ago. I never got that good and because I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, I tend to stop doing things I'm not great at doing.
I know that's insane. Well, now you're getting to know me. Back then I would never let anyone see what I'd done ('cause it wasn't perfect), so here are a couple of examples from my "early" work.
Now to the task at hand. Bisket's serving stand. I really like the idea of this first design.






The problem is that I am still very limited in my tool selection. The shop is not finished. I have several tools that still need to come over from my buddy Ken's (extremely small) basement
shop. I know it sounds like I'm whining, and .... I am. But anyway, this would've been cool. My "customer" (my lovely wife, Sylvia) said, "Really? Aren't we going for the whole Zen thing?"
The customer is ALWAYS right, and I really don't care as long as I get to design and build the thing. So, here's the "Zen" design I came up with. I have some red fir left over from building a pergola for "the customer" that will be just perfect for this.


The height needs to be nine inches. I'll figure out the rest of the dimensions after I get some of the rough cutting done. I'm hoping to get a lot done this weekend and will post as I go.

Serving Bisket

Time slips by way too fast. It wasn't that long ago our oldest dog, Bisket, was a pup that bugged, my now deceased, Cocobear non-stop. On Coco's last trip to the beach, I took this photo of my "Girls on the Beach". Coco was almost 16 years old (a long life for a big dog). Well now, Coco's been runnin' in the wheat fields on the other side for about seven years and Bisket has taken her place as the grand dame of the house. I don't think Bisket is gonna make it as long as my Bear. She has a hard time going out for walks, now. Most recently, she started having trouble eating with her bowl on the ground. We even had to switch over to mixing her dry food with Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul. That right, it's as expensive as the name makes it sound, but she's been a good girl and deserves to enjoy everything her life has left.
Which brings me to my first project. Even though the shop is far from ready, Bisket needs something decent to eat off of. I mean,C'MON! This is pathetic!!!
So, ready or not, time to draw up something for the old girl, so she doesn't have to eat off a box of flourescent light bulbs!