Gamble House Entry Table

Welcome to LumberJocks Dmath.

This project is a marvelous introduction to yourself. From what I can see, it’s a faithful reproduction of Green & Green furniture. Would you please provide more detail of the wood and finishing process?

Last year, I purchased Darrel Peart’s book on Green & Greene furniture, but was unaware of Bob Lang’s book. Please provide more information, ie. publisher, title, etc.

Thanks!

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/

It’s a beautiful reproduction. I like the joinery and the shape of the drawer handles.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Great table, David! Well done!
I love G+G stuff, real eye catching yet still practical.
Don, here’s a link the Lang book.
Cheers
Phil

Dave,

That was a fabulous article in February’s issue of Popular Woodworking! One of the best I’ve seen in a while, actually. I love your idea of using the brass screws and then shearing off the tops to make them look like pins. I think that idea can be adapted to lots of different situations.

One question I did have when reading the article… why are the box joints all cut to different dimensions? Is that specific to G&G furniture? Or is that a design idea you incorporated? It seems like it adds another level of difficulty to the project, but I suppose it wouldn’t look quite the same if they were all cut to the same dimensions?

Welcome to the Lumberjocks, Dave!

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the comments guys. To answer a few questions… Bob Lang’s book is another in his series of Shop Drawings. It is available via his website www.craftsmanplans.com (it’s also available at bookstores and amazon.com though I think authors make out better when you order directly from them). I wish it had been available when I started making my table as it is one of the pieces in the book.

Ethan, thanks for the comments on my article. It was fun to do. The original Gamble table has the varying-sized fingers on the drawers. It does add a little complexity to the joinery but makes it much more interesting. I made a test piece with equal-sized fingers and it didn’t look nearly as good. I spent quite a bit of time measuring photos of the original to try to get my finger sizes as close to “right” as possible.

Don, the wood is South American mahogany with ebony for the drawer runners and pegs. I sanded most parts to 220. The ebony pegs are sanded to 1000 and the runners to 400. I applied 3 coats of Natural Watco Danish oil followed with a coat of paste wax. Not much to it really. I know some like to keep putting on the Watco forever but I get too impatient.

David

-- David, Central Ohio

Great to see. I love Green & Greens work. Glad to see the drawer detail…I guess this is your work. Great job.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

I don’t want to take credit for the drawer design. The details on the drawers are as faithful to the original as possible, including the brass “pins” on the top edges. I did change the design of the drawer pulls.

David

-- David, Central Ohio

all your time researching this was well spent… what a great modern antique!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Vincent Van Gogh -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

And, David, you got the ‘cloud lift’ detail just right. I’ve been thinking of a way to incorporate these in one of my boxes. I think it might work where I route the base to produce corner-legs. 9See my current WIP here I guess it’s a matter of experimenting.

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/

Just saw your article in Pop Wood, congrats on being published. What a great article on such a beautiful piece. Very informative to boot. It’s not everyday you go flipping through magazines on the newstand and see something you recognize!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Vincent Van Gogh -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Oh, and thanks for not entering this in the Most Creative Category :)

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Vincent Van Gogh -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Don, when I clicked the link for your work in progress I got an error. Let me know where to look. I’d like to see the cloud lifts.

Scott, thanks for the kind words. As for not entering the Most Creative category, I didn’t think I should since the design isn’t original. On the off-chance that it had won I would have had to donate the prize to the Gamble House. :)

I have a question. I’ve tried several times to upload a buddy image but it doesn’t work. After I choose the file and click upload I get a blank browser page and nothing happens. I’ve tried resizing the image and keeping it quite small but same result. Are there some parameters I should stick to?

-- David, Central Ohio

David, delete the .0 at the end of Don’s link, or just use this one

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/502

I’d keep the buddy icon 72 or 96 dpi, no bigger than 1×1… if it’s a jpeg size shouldn’t be an issue. I can give you a hand with Photoshop, but can’t think of anything else that might impede uploading.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Vincent Van Gogh -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Very nice table. And welcome to LumberJocks.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Very strange. I tried again to upload the icon from my Mac at home. No luck. So I emailed it to my computer at work (a PC), remotely logged in to that machine and uploaded the image with no problem. I think there is a compatibility issue between the Lumberjocks server and either Mac OS or Safari (the Mac browser). Either way, I got the image uploaded.

Karson, while I’m in Ohio now (and Missouri before that) I’m from Wilmington. My maternal grandmother was from Milford and she and my grandfather retired to Millsboro. Unfortunately, they’ve been gone for quite a while now.

-- David, Central Ohio

So I guess you don’t get back this way much. If you are around give me a shout and we’ll meet up. and discuss the good days that are to come.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

In the past year and a half my parents retired to SC and my wife’s mother to NC. For most of the last 15 years we got back to Delaware regularly to visit them but now I don’t guess we’ll get there much. Maybe for a Blue Hens playoff game sometime (if KC can manage to refind a winning formula—I still miss Tubby).

-- David, Central Ohio

Quote David: Don, when I clicked the link for your work in progress I got an error. Let me know where to look. I’d like to see the cloud lifts.

David, I didn’t mean to convey that I had added cloud lifts to my current project, only that I think they would work where I have added the corner feet to this small box.

What do you think?

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/

David, I use Safari and OS X .. no problem here.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

OK, I am officially inspired! I love the finger joints and how the are not flush and also rounded over. Thanks for sharing!

-- Branden - Sacramento, California - www.ShopDogUSA.com

Don, I think by rounding the sharp transition to the feet you’d have cloud lifts and that it would look great (not that it doesn’t look great now). I left a similar comment on your project page.

Branden, thanks. I have an article in the current (Feb 07) issue of Popular Woodworking on making the drawers including the finger joints, in case you are interested.

-- David, Central Ohio

remembering this table, I was wondering if you were going to participate in the side table contest?

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Vincent Van Gogh -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Scott,

I thought about entering the contest but I’m in the middle of another project that I need to get done. So there’s no way I’ll be able to get something done. I had thought about making a round version of the table. I may still make it sometime.

David

-- David, Central Ohio

doesn’t this fit the “challenge”?

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

It would by me but since this has already been published in Popular Woodworking magazine. The editors might not think so.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

As much as I’d like to enter the contest, entering this table isn’t in the spirit. It isn’t an adaptation of the Thorsen table but a near reproduction of a Gamble table. I wouldn’t feel right using it.

David

-- David, Central Ohio

terrific table .. really good craftsmanship and detail

-- ..... art for lifes sake

David:
Thanks for the great example to follow ..
I’ve saved these photos to keep my project (The same table from Lang’s Book) on track
Thanks again… Hope mine turns out close to your great example.
Bruce

-- Bruce