Hi All,

I haven’t been posting much lately, as both the Ezee-Feed business and the construction business has been keeping me out of the shop.

I was asked to teach a class on basic veneering course at a local Woodcraft Store, so I figured I would post a couple pictures of the projects.

The compass rose is part of the basic course, and the Hall Table is a project done in the intermediate class. (The legs on this table will likely be changed to something different, since I’m not too crazy about the combination. I’ll make another set using lacewood, which will match the top).

There is also an advanced class, but I don’t have pictures of any projects from it just yet. It will be a fancier Hall Table

It does feel good to be in the shop again.

Lee

About six years ago my son convinced me to HELP him make a model of a back hoe.

Having owned a back hoe I thought it would be fun to do.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I agreed to it.

The plans we used were very well done, and included a number of machines, as well as plans for jigs to make the process a little easier

The buckets work as real machines do. All the hydraulic cylinders move as they do in real machine, which was a very time consuming process of drilling dowels and inserting smaller dowels into the holes.

The amount of hours it took to make this were surprising, and his requests to make other machines fell on deaf ears.

The woods used are maple, wenge, and cherry.

I now strongly recommend Tonka toys!

Lee

Hi all;

This is a project we did a few years back, and while it was a fairly large renovation to a small house, I could only find a few pictures.

One is the shot after the demolition work. It entailed removing the original rear brick wall of the building and installing a steel beam to support the upper floors and the rest of the brick wall.

This opened to an extension that had been built previously added to the structure. The small addition was accessible by a rather small doorway.

This basically doubled the kitchen size as well as opened up the first floor dramatically.

After the demo was completed we installed the cabinets and mill work, which we built during the renovations.

The other photos are the completed space.

Lee

After reading Ms. Debbie’s post this morning, I noticed she has a passion for scroll sawing.

My experience with a scroll saw is somewhat limited, but I do have a great saw, and it does get some use. I often use it for dovetails, as it speeds up that process, while providing an amazing amount of accuracy. I cut the sides of the dovetails with an Inddependence saw from Lie Nelson, and cut the bottoms with the scroll saw. Very quick process.

My main reason to purchase one was because I didn’t have one, and I needed to buy a new tool. (Sad huh?)

Really, I wanted to be able to do inlays in some of my veneer projects. The fine blades available for this saw make it a perfect choice for this.

A couple photos I could find quickly are shown above. I can’t figure out what my computer does with all the pictures that are in there. Maybe I should shake it a little, to bring the pictures to the top.LOL

The fan inlay will eventually become a jewelry box front, (design still in progress). The truth is I can’t remember if I used the scroll saw, or a scapel to cut this, but it is one of my favorite designs.

The wheat inlay was a practice session for layered, or sandwiched cutting, also known a packet of veneers, where all the contrasting species of veneers are cut at one shot. The finest of the blades permit a gap free fit when the scroll saw table is tilted slightly. From memory I think it’s about a two degree tilt. The final parts will fit in several configurations, which can be used for different colored results, all with perfect fitting parts. No filling is required between the pieces due to the tight fit.

The scroll saw cut out in Mahogany was a trial run of the saw when I first bought it. Eventually it will become a candle shelf. It’s for my wife so there’s no hurry. If you look closely, you’ll see several peacocks in the pattern.

I purchased the plans and parts to make a cathedral clock which stand about four feet tall, but it will have to wait until I have the time to devote to it.

All in all, the scroll saw is a great tool and permit super accurate work.

Lee

We often do kitchens. Sometimes they are very challenging. Sometimes they are easy. This was an easy one, except the client, (wife), didn’t know what she wanted. Compounding the problem, both the husband and wife are Greek, and weren’t comfortable with their english.

My wife is Greek also, so I took her with me to translate. When I could get the women to stop talking about who knows what, I was able to get some details.

It ended up with her letting us do pretty much whatever we wanted, so long as the wood was a light color, and we stayed within her budget.

We cut the wall between the dining room and kitchen and installed a breakfast counter, with cabinet below. This made the kitchen appear to be twice as big.

The cabinets are European style, meaning no face frames. The advantage of this is they allow larger access to the interiors of the cabinets.

All the cabinet box parts are 3/4 inch furniture grade maple plywood. The upper cabinets have low voltage task lighting mounted to the underside of them. (we build a light rail on the bottom of our upper cabinets, to hide the lights).

All of the doors are built with matching face veneers, as are the back panels, under the breakfast bar.
While they look like raised panel doors, they’re not. The panels are 1/4 inch Maple plywood, with the edges edge banded, mounted to 1/4 inch maple plywood. All the stiles and rails are maple.

We were fortunate that the sheets of plywood were matched, so we took advantage of that. I can’t remember exactly how we attached the panels together, but it’s been about ten years, so I guess we did it well. (maybe it was 16 penny nails, bent over on the inside) LOL

The refrigerater cabinet was built for a smaller frige, due the small size of the room, but they went and bought a larger one, so the fit is kind of tight.

The base of the phone stand next to the frige has a vent routed into it for the heat register. We also strayed from the normal soffit so we could put accent lights above each cabinet door.

We also replaced the trim around the doors and window with maple, as well as trimmed out the opening we created.

The countertops are granite.

They turned out to be a very nice couple, and were very happy with the new kitchen.

Lee

We renovated a large condominium, which included a library. We made a conference table for the client. As they were good clients, I made this library stairs as a gift for the gentleman. It matched the wood used in the conference table.

The woods are Wenge, and White Ash. A beautiful combination, for sure.

The step’s overall design came from a picture I saw in an advertisement. A few modifications and it was off to the races.

The post is a mitered, tapered piece of Wenge, which is a very splintery wood, but after the finish is applied, that problem is overcome.

The top section and bottom section have the grain kept on the same face. (the reason for the blue painter’s tape was to keep track of the grain orientation).

The white ash steps are glued and screwed from below. The wenge base is assembled with mortise and tenon joints, and matches the base of the conference table.

Spring loaded roller balls were inserted in the bottom of the base to allow it to roll easily, but when someone steps on the tread, it drops down to prevent it from moving.

The finish is a conversion varnish.

This was definitly a fun project, and was appreciated by the client. Actually myself and Bruce took the client on a trip to Hearne Lumber, and he helped us pick out the lumber. He enjoyed that immensely, as did we.

Lee

We did a pair of his and hers bathroom vanities with a beautiful veneer. Called Cinnamon Laurel Burl, it is a great looking wood. We got it from Certainly Woods, out of New York.

The designs came from Tommi at K Gallery Art and Design. Her work is a joy to build, due to the great looking designs she comes up with.

The sheet goods are Mahogany furniture grade plywood, the solid wood is Mahogany, and they work well with the veneer color.

They are reverse images of each other, and sit at opposite sides of the room , with a whirlpool tub between them.

The construction technique is pretty straight forward. The only difference is the need for secondary sides to allow for the scrolls.

The bun feet make it look more like furniture than bathroom vanities.

The finish, conversion varnish, was done by my partner, Bruce Driscoll, as always. His training as a professional finisher comes in pretty handy. Actually, thinking back, I believe he built them as well, long with my stepson, Evan.

Lee

My son, who is a big Flyers fan, has been playing ice hockey since he was four. Prior to that he was roller blading around the house. He started at 2 1/2.

That’s his obsession. He just turned fourteen, stands 6’ tall, weighs 210 pounds. He’s certain he’ll play for the Flyers.

So when he was 10 and needed a bed, it seemed fitting to make him something with the theme of hockey.

My boss, I mean my wife helped me design something, and also did the paint work. The handle to the doors and drawers are hockey pucks.

While it’s a little different than our normal work, I thought I’d post it. It’s constructed from shop grade maple plywood. The drawers are 1/2” maple apple ply, which is similar to baltic birch, but much smoother. It comes in standard sized sheets, unlike baltic birch. A great product for cabinet drawers.

It’s a full size bed, but he’s beginning to out grow it.

My work bench is not a home made beauty most of us wood workers would like to build. It’s a nice, high quality teak bench, just not as pretty as some of them we’ve all seen.

I bought mine from a woodworking store that was going out of business. The original price of the bench was $ 1,200.00. I paid $ 800.00 for it. That was close to twenty years ago.

I try to keep it in nice shape, while not being too anal about it. When other people are using your equipment, some abuse happens.

In spite of this, it is still a prized posession of mine, and is in good shape.

To make it a more productive piece of equippment, I did some alterations to it that double it’s effectiveness.

These modifications are all based around the same vacuum system as we use with our veneer work. The modifications are very minor, but have a major impact on production.

In the photo you can see the “brains” of the system. The controls of the vacuum. This is mounted to a piece of plywood that’s attached to the end of the bench with keyhole slots, so it can be removed easily.

This control panel can be used for both vacuum clamping, or with a vacuum bag, simply by changing the hose on the top of it.

When used in the clamping mode the bench comes into play. I made up a manifold system, with three valves on it. I open the proper valve for the intended use. Opening one valve allows me to hook up a vacuum line with a quick connect fitting on a nylon hose. we have a quick connect fitting on the vacuum bag as well.

A second valve controls suction to a hole drilled into the center of my bench. The hole has a barbed fitting jambed into it on the underside of the bench. It is “piped” to the manifold with nylon hose. This setup allows me to clamp work parts to the bench, by using plexiglass parts with a gasket on the top and bottom. These plexiglass parts can be a simple square, or an intricate pattern.

A simple square piece is used when biscuiting the edge of cabinet parts. It’s a matter of laying a board on the plexiglass and stepping on the foot pedal. Within five seconds, the workpiece is clamped tight enough, that you can drag the bench around with it. To release the part, step on the pedal again and it’s instantly released.

With a pattern, duplicate parts can be routed out very quickly.

The next valve is “piped” to a hole on the front edge of the bench. The hole is surrounded by the same gasket material. With this setup, I can mount a work piece to the edge of the bench by holding it against the bench and stepping on the pedal. This is ideal for edge banding plywood, installing hinges on a door, planning a board, the list goes on and on. The part is very securly attached to the bench.

One word of caution: If you have dogs wandering in your shop, as I do, keep the foot pedal out of their way. Them stepping on it will release your work also. Usually, no always at a bad time!

The modifications took about an hour to do and have made production techniques immensly faster.

While drilling holes in your prized bench sounds like a sin, the returns are well worth it.

Lee

When gluing up panels in a vacuum bag, it is important to have a substrate under the parts. This substrate is called a platten. The platten is supporting the parts, much like a bench top. The platten is inserted into the bag along with the project being glued up.

The more important purpose though, is to permit air evacuation from all areas of the bag. In the picture showing one of our plattens, you can see 1/8” saw kerfs, about an 1/8” inch deep. These permit air to be removed from under the flat panels, with no obstructions. It is important to keep these airways, or saw kerfs free of glue build up. Also, cured urea resin glue is hard, brittle, and quite sharp, so keeping the platten free of dried glue is important to prevent it from cutting your bag, or interferering with your projects laying flat .

The tops of projects must also have a platten, but this can be a 1/4” thick piece of M.D.F., and cut about 1/4” larger in both directions, than the panel being glued. It dosen’t need kerfs.

The bags themselves must be kept clean of dried glue for the same reason.

Notice also, that it is a piece of Mellamine, which prevents the glue from sticking to it. It has all corners and edges rounded with a 1/4 round bit, which prevents the sharp corners of the platten from puncturing the bag.

If your bag should get punctured, it is repairable, much like a pool liner.

It is also possible to make your own bags if desired. There are several sites on the net that offer both the supplies and instructions to do this.

We don’t make our own bags, but this is due to a lack of time as much as anything else.

Lee

In the home office project, there are large curved door. At the time of writing about the project, the pictures showing the form work were mixed in with over a thousand other pictures.

Well, we found them, and I thought some people would like to see how it was done. To be honest I forgot how it was done, and had to ask my employee / partner. I guess old age is setting in early.

He is the same guy that introduced me to vacuum systems originally.

See: http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com/Vacuum_Systems_pg_1.html

The two layers of 3/8” bendy ply is inside the bag, already glued. The plywood is clamped at the bottom of the form, bent over the form, and then clamped at the top. The the bag is turned on and the vacuum is pulled. The green felt is inside the bag to permit the air to be pulled out of the entire length of the glued up parts. Without the felt, the bag would suck tight to the plywood, and leave air in the far end of the bag.

If this form were to be placed in the bag, it would be crushed in short order.

Add this technique to your repertoire and your woodworking can move up to another level with possibilities.

Lee

Here’s a nice little fireplace mantle we made a while back. It was built to add to the existing 3 piece marble surround.

Built using Mahogany plywood, and Birds Eye Maple veneer.

The columns were built with M.D.F. We glued up six layers of 3/4” , with brown builders paper in the center.

Then we turned a tapered round post. After sanding it smooth, we split the post in half at the paper line.

This gave us two half rounds, which we veneered with Birds Eye Maple. These were screwed from the back onto a piece of Mahogany plywood.

The flats of the column are Mahogany plywood pieces mitered to meet the wall on the outside, and a narrower piece to meet the marble, on the inside.

The mahogany crown molding is shop made on the table saw, and cleaned up with a cabinet scraper.

The top is Mahogany plywood, with an applied Mahogany molding.

Not a high budget job, but nice looking.

Lee

Whenever the spirit moves me, I’ll make cookbook stands for kitchen clients. The wood used is pieces left over from the cabinets. These are given as gifts.

They are easy to make, and show the client you appreciate them.

The first is made from curly maple, also known as tiger maple, with a walnut inlay.

The second is a birds eye maple, with rosewood and maple feet.

The third is walnut.

I enjoy making them, as they’re quick and let you play with design.

ALL of our lumber is purchased from Hearn hardwoods, in Oxford, Pennsylvania.

Rick Hearn, and his wife, Pat, has become personal friends of mine, thru our dealings with them. These are GREAT people and are quite passionate about their wood.

Lee

A client was having a new house built and wanted several rooms fitted out with cabinets.
The wood used is Mahoany, and the veneer is Quilted Makore. (it seems that we had a run of clients who chose the same materials).

The construction techniques are pretty much the same as are typical in this type of work. Instead of raised panels, we used flat panels.

The substrate used was 1/4” M.D.F., covered with veneer on both sides. Since our stile and rail cutters are designed for 1/4” panels, I had a shaper cutter set made to allow for the added thickness of the veneers. While the initial investment in the cutter was a little steep, the time saved from then on more than paid for the set.

A lot of client choose flat panels, so the cutter gets pretty heavy use. It is worth the extra money to have a good set made.

The large crown moldings were purchased from an outside supplier. While it seems a little strange for a cabinet shop to buy the moldings, the cost of buying them is actually cheaper than us making them. That also frees us up for other things, and allows the job to proceed at a quicker pace.

This house interior was designed by K Gallery.

Lee

We often work with blueprints. We also work with renderings, which I prefer. Sometimes we’re working with a sketch on a napkin. My least favorite form of drawing.

Blueprints are often sterile and difficult to understand for many clients. Often they have no clue what their agreeing to. In this case we provide shop drawings, which provide a better understanding to the client. We have them sign the drawings, so latter they can’t tell us they didn’t know what we were building.

Sketches on napkins really don’t help the client or us. Again, we must interpret what the designer is trying to accomplish, and relay that to the client.

Renderings are my favorite, as they are more like colored drawing the clients really understand. We still do the shop drawings, but we know exactly what the designer is trying to accomplish. The shop drawing help us in the building process, as we can determine the sizes and construction methods, as well as transfer the parts to a cut list program. This makes keeping track of all the parts really simple.

These photos are the renderings we used for the living room / bar project.

The first photo is a mirror image of the ceiling. The second is a plot or floor plan of the room. The third is the bar drawing. These renderings were done by Tommi at K Gallery Art and Design.

No one is surprised at the outcome, as far as looks go, except they are generally blown away by the real thing, as opposed to the rendering.

Lee

A Recent Project that consisted of building a trayed ceiling, a home bar, Limestone and marble fireplace and floor, plus much more.

This Project was designed by K Gallery Art and Design. A husband a wife team, where the wife, Tommi, does all the design work, and Nick, the husband doing all stone stone work. Nick is a seventh generation stone carver. As a matter of fact Nick’s family owns a quarry in Croatia, where both of them are from.

Between the two of them they’re a incredible team. We’ve been working with them for about seven years now, and they a great to work with.

Part of our work was building the ceiling and installing the crown molding. The ceiling has a 10’ wide television screen recessed into it that is remote controlled. The crown molding has accent lighting hidden behind it.

Tommi did the faux painting on the ceiling, and the room decorating, in addition to designing everything. She also acted as general contractor on the project.

The bar is built from a combination of Mahogany and Avodire Crotch veneer. This is a veneer that Certainly Wood Veneer company sent us a sample of. When my wife saw it, she told me she wanted our dining room set made with it. They were quite surprised when I had someone call to order it. We asked how much they had, and they said 700 square feet. I told my guy to order all of it. He told them, we’ll take it. They said how much do you want. we said all of it.

This veneer in it’s natural color is a variation of creamy tans, and brilliant golds, all mixed together. It really is spectacular. If I don’t get to that dining room soon, there will be none of it left, as it’s quite popular with the clients. (at which point my wife will kill me). Sad, so sad.

The countertop is onyx and has lighting between the cabinet tops and the onyx. The result is it glows, as onyx is translucent. Quite impressive, but especially at night.

The bar has a full compliment of appliances behind it, from wine cooler, ice maker, sink, refrigerator and liquor storage.

The curved cabinet has a drawer and door, both curved to match the cabinet. The cabinet on the front side has a vertical drawer for cd’s, and the cabinet next to it has a full range of stereo equipment. We had to add a ventilation system to this cabinet to keep things from overheating.

The fireplace is marble with heavily carving and the columns aboved are hand carved, as are the limestone panels surrounding it.

The mirrors are beveled, as is the glass in the tall cabinet behind the bar.

The room is quite spectacular.

Lee

Continuing with the demilune tables, the legs can be made up from solid lumber, or in the case of the table shown, veneered.

Photo one shows the glue we use. Photo two shows the cutting tools we use. Photo three shows the cutting guides we use. The far right hand one is perfect for making accurate cuts, as it has a handle to apply pressure downward, and prevents the veneeer from slipping. Again using blue painter’s tape on finished cuts is important.

Typically I used veneered legs due to the fact they are cheaper to make from poplar, and covering them with a fancy wood. The process is rather simple. After cutting the legs to the desired shape, we cut veneer slightly wider and longer than the leg blanks.

Once the pieces are ready, we coat all four sides of the legs with a coat of Tite Bond II glue. We make the legs a little longer than needed, and screw them vertically to a piece of plywood. This way it’s easier to coat all four sides of all the legs with the glue. We also glue all the strips of veneer, on one side, with the same glue. This does cause the veneer to curl up like a spiral, so it’s important to keep them under control. Maybe some push pins to hold them down will help.

After a hour or two, depending on the humidity in your area, the glue will be completely dry, and ready to be used.

Now is where you go in the house and steal your wife’s iron. ( Later, just deny stealing it, with a line like, “yeah right, I stole your iron, I’m a closet ironer”). She’ll accept that.

Starting with the back side of each leg, and the iron set to medium high, place the veneer, glue to glue against the leg, and slowly iron it on. You’ll need a veneer roller or block of hardwood with rounded edges, to firmly “seat” the veneer to the leg blank. Work from one end to the other. After it cools, tap on the veneer with your fingernail, along the entire length. If any areas aren’t adhered well, you’ll hear a hollow sounding noise.

Once your happy with the adhesion, use a laminate trimmer with a bearing bit, and working with the grain, trim the veneer tight to the leg. An easy way to determine which way to go is look at the grain. The proper way is to verify that if the router bit grabs the veneer and tries to rip it, the rip will head out of the veneer, away from the leg, instead of deeper into the veneer towards the leg.

After all the backs are done, do the sides of the legs, using the same technique. after the sides are completed, do the fronts.

When done in this order, you won’t see the edge joints. As far as the glue goes, a molecular cross linking take place with this type of glue when heated. If you need to adjust something, you can reheat it an shift it. After 24 hours, this will no longer be possible. It’s permanent.

If you decide to do this using satinwood, be advised it is on of the more difficult veneers to work with, as it chips very easily, and is kind of tough to cut with a scapel.

To be continued…

Lee

I love working with veneer! The possibilities are endless, and the material is relatively easy to work with. One project I make often is Hall or Demilune tables. Photo one is a table I gave to a client. Unfortunately, I didn’t bother to get a better shot of it, as it’s pretty nice. This one is Rosewood and Quilted Satinwood.

One thing I really like about making them is the fact that both the size and shape can be varied, as well as the the choice of veneers. This lends itself to interesting combinations in types and colors of the wood.

They are great project to practice working with veneers, and due to the small size of them, they don’t take too much time or materials.

Most of the ones I’ve made end up being gifts to whoever happens to be around once they’re finished. Otherwise I’d have to find a buyer for them and that takes part of the fun out of it. And leaving them in the shop isn’t a good option because they would get destroyed fairly quickly.

Since I do make them often, I have made several jigs to speed up the process. The second photo is a form to make the table apron. It is made from particle board, and the surface the apron sits on during glue up is covered with packing tape. This prevents the apron from sticking to the form if the glue come in contact with it.

The apron itself is made from two layers of 3/8” bendy board. This is glued up in the vacuum bag. The veneer can be glued on at the same time, or later. That depends on what the veneer will be, and how the grain direction will be oriented. Either paralell to the table top, or perpendicular to the top.

The third photo is a 1/4” thick piece of plexiglass. I use this to make cutting the M.D.F. to the right size and shape using a router and bottom bearing pattern bit. The black line is a gasket on the top and bottom of the plexiglass, which permits me to use my vacuum system to clamp the template to the M.D.F. It also clamps it to my bench top. Just by stepping on a foot pedal, the M.D.F. is sucked down tight to the template and the bench.

I also made a couple plexiglass templates to cut the veneer for the top very quick. One is used to cut the main area of the veneer, a second is used to cut the border. A third one is used to cut wedge or pie shapped pieces of veneer to be taped together, to form the top. This method of using the pie shapped veneer permits bookmatching the veneer.

My usual method of cutting the veneer is either a scaple, or on the table saw. In either case, I use blue painter’s tape on both sides of the veneer to prevent chipping. The table saw is much quicker because you can cut all the pieces at one time. When doing it this way I make a plywood sandwich, with the veneer between them. I screw the plywood together, taking care not to screw into the veneer that gets used. Then I cut the plywood into the desired wedge. After removing the veneer from the plywood, remove the tape, pulling it with the grain. Otherwise the tape will chip the veneer.

I’m going to end it here. Tomorrow I’ll continue this in part two, which will allow me to collect some more pictures.

The custom desk project was built to fit into this room. We took the original design from the architect, and some comments from the owner, and came up with this. It is a combination of both of their ideas, plus a few of our own.

The hardwood is Mahogany. The veneers are Quilted Makore. The work surfaces are Black absolute granite.

The large curved pieces are doors, which provide an incredible amount of storage space. These were built using two layers of 3/8” bendy board, which is a flexible plywood. The two layers were glued together over a form and placed in a vacuum bag. Uni bond 800, a urea resin glue, was used to bond them together. The reason for this choice of glues is the fact it is quite rigid, so it will hold the shape after removing the parts from the vacuum bag.

It is important to estimate the amount of spring back that will occur, once the pieces are removed from the form. For this reason it is important to build the form at a tighter curve than the desired finished piece will be. Even with the rigid glue a small amount of spring back does occur. Especially with such large doors.

The form must also be very strong, or it will be crushed by the vacuum system! Or another option is an air bladder that is inserted into a hollow form, and applies an equal amount of pressure on the inside of the form, as is applied on the outside. This was our method, as it makes a much easier, and lighter form.

Once the doors were veneered we made Mahogany “ribs” for the inside of the doors, one on the top, one on the bottom. This guarantees they keep the same radius.

We bookmatched the veneers on the wide doors, and also from one side of the room to the other. The two oppossing sides of the room are exact mirror images of each other. This includes the two columns.

The curves on the custom desk project allow the desk to nestle nicely in relation to the curved cabinets.

The cabinets are installed on euuropean feet, which make leveling them simple, and allows the toe kick boards to be poped off to run wires under the cabinets.

The trim pieces above the upper cabinets have low voltage lighting hidden behind them, and gives a nice even glow above them. The upper cabinets also have the same lighting mounted to the bottom of them to put the same glow onto the granite.

The raised panel doors are made from 3/4” M.D.F. with a Mahogany frame biscuited to them. Then they are veneered and run thru the shaper. The backs are also veneered, using a mahogany veneer. This makes a very stable door. The stiles and rails are constructed in the standard fashion.

Once we finished the installation, the room was carpeted with black carpet. It really looked great.

Lee

After having built an interior for a home office, our client decided to have us design a desk for him. It had to fit into a small area, and allow both him and his wife to work at it together. It also had to fit the design motif of the room. The desk can be used as a one or two person desk, by stiiting either on the sides, or at the end.

Photo one is the completed desk, still in the shop.

Photo two shows the construction details.

Photo three shows test fitting the legs along with the stainless steel parts. They were turned from solid cylinders of stainless, and are quite heavy.

What we came up with is a curved, (on all four sides), desk. It fit nicely in the space, and since we used the same materials, it matched the existing furniture. After fighting over the price, we changed the design a little, which lowered the price somewhat. The final cost of the desk was $ 12,000.00

The main frame work is Mahogany, the veneered legs are Quilted Makore, with stainless steel top and bottom pieces. The writting surfaces are Black absolute granite.

We started with a full sized mock up, or model of the completed desk, which we left in the final spot for the finished desk. This allowed the client to decide if it would serve the purpose.

The legs are attached to the desk with 3/8” all thread, which travels from the top of the desk, thru the threaded stainless steel top piece, thru the hollow legs, and finally to the threaded bottom stainless steel foot. The bottom of the foot piece is recessed on the bottom and permits a leg leveler to be screwed in to the point of being invisable, should it not be needed.

We supplied a template to the granite company, who cut the pieces perfectly on the first attempt. They fit so well, I had to drill holes beneath them so they would allow the air to escape. Otherwise, they wouldn’t sit down. We also installed a method of raising any corner of the granite, using a screwdriver from the bottom of the desk, just in case the floor wasn’t level, and caused the granite to sit poorly.

The finish is pre cat lacquer.

The client visited the shop when the desk was completed. His comment was if he saw the desk first, he would have epected to pay about $ 50,000.00 for it.

I guess I should have built it first, and then given him a price.

All in all, a very fun project.

Lee