I’ve changed my wordpress theme to a much lighter look (DePo Masthead by Derek Powazek) and thought I’d post a few links to some earlier, favorite pieces I’ve posted about in the past. Click on an image for links to the posts.
Armoire base by Todd Fillingham
Wisconsin Historical Society
I’ve started a new blog that will carry my posts about Milwaukee’s 3 rivers and my scheme to introduce small boats to folks who live along it. I transferred my earlier post that I originally posted on this blog and have a new post up. Here’s the link (click on the image below)-
I’ll still be posting about lots of other things on this blog so don’t go away.
I had intended to post part II of the Three Rivers series before posting about anything else, but it has been some time since I’ve posted about furniture and I’ve just finished this new piece so I thought I’d sneak this post in now.
We needed a table of just the right height to hold a fan in our bedroom window at home. Although I am in the midst of a pretty big project just now I thought I’d check out a few of my scrap piles to see if there was anything there to inspire me.
And, while I was at it, maybe I’d check out the paint locker and see what was lurking in there.
Here’s what caught my eye:
A couple of pieces of MDF, some interesting walnut cut-offs and a nice green latex paint.
I glued up the MDF pieces into a block 1-1/2″ thick-
Cut the walnut cut-offs to a uniform length-
Then drew a pleasing curve to shape the legs.
I cut out the first leg, used it as a pattern to trace out the other two, cut them on the bandsaw and sanded the curved cut.
Next I created a guide for my router to cut out the mortises into the top that would hold the legs.
The legs were rounded over on the router table on the long straight face.
I used a variety of implements to draw out a pattern for the top, created a template for 1/2 of the top, transferred that shape onto the top, flipping over the template to get the other half so that the curves would be symmetrical and shaped the top.
I wanted to create an interesting joint detail where the legs met the top. I did some sketching and decided that the top should have its bottom edge rounded. This was done on the big shaper, a finger chewing machine if there ever was one.
I managed to get the top rounded with out loosing any fingers and proceeded to cut the mortises on the under side of the top using the jig I had created earlier.
I adjusted the fit of the legs into the mortises by carefully sanding down their final thickness.
You can start to see what this table will look like at this stage. I still need to square off the round corners left by the router bit in the mortises. I did this by hand using a sharp chisel.
Now I was able to see if the joint detail came out like I had hoped.
OK, this was what I wanted. A look as if the legs were cradling the top. This is reminiscent to me of the original tripod that held a bowl or tray from eons ago.
And here’s the table before finishing:
I painted the top, glued in the legs, rubbed on some of my special oil/ varnish mix and the table was complete.
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I’m finishing a project that was originally commisioned exactly one year ago. It got delayed because the end user wanted to have a chair re-upholstered and wanted to be sure that this table came out to the exact same height as the arm of the chair. The upholsterer took quite a while to get that job done so even though I had been given the deposit, had completed the drawings, had started making the tooling required and had purchased some of the materials I was told to hold off until the chair was done.
This table is a pedestal with curved sides veneered in maple, dyed black and finished with a polyurethane semi-gloss finish. Here’s a screen grab from the design I created.
This design was based on a table my client, an interior designer found elsewhere and asked me to modify to suit the end user.
I decided to carve the shape out of stacked MDF board. I had done this before, for the same client and end user actually, on a piece that was finished by Catherine Lottes.
I started by making two stacks.
Then glued the 2 halves together.
To create the shape from the glued up stack, the work piece, I designed a “machine” to guide a grinder with a cutter attached. I used my Rhino program to design the machine.
The work piece is shaped on one face then the machine is taken apart and the work piece is rotated 90 degrees about the vertical axis (vertical when the table is standing upright) and the machine is put back together around the work piece to carve the next face. The grinder that spins the cutter is fixed to a piece of PVC pipe that rides on guides attached to the carriage. The carriage in turn rides on rails from side to side. I can easily lift the cutter assembly out as well as slide the carriage out to access the work piece for final sanding.
Here’s the machine in action.
Some interesting textures are created in this process and I would like to make a table using this process that would retain the texture in some way.
See part 2 for the next phase of the making of this table.
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Today I have to refine the design of how I’ll present the images and information in the portfolio section of my site, my new site, the one I’m working to get up soon.
Right now I have someone who is doing the actual html coding. I’m creating mock-ups of the pages in Paint Shop Pro-5. I add a layer with notes and comments about how I want the page to look and where the links should go.
Something like this. I send Nate, my computer wiz, the file and associated image files and creates the page in html.
To work out how I want the site to be organized I am using FreeMind, a mind mapping app. to map out the links, write notes about content and to keep a focus on my goals for the site.
You can learn more about FreeMind at SourceForge.
One of the things I’m trying very hard to do for this site is to focus on specific goals for the site. First of all this site is a site for my business and should contribute to adding to my bottom line. I polled past customers about what they would like to have seen on my current website when they visited it and got some eye opening answers. One that stood out was that it wasn’t immediately clear what I do. Another comment was that they were not sure where I was located and since they wanted to do business locally that was very important to them. Those were great comments and I am doing what I can to address them on my new site.
It is very tempting to try and create a really slick, very cool, very hip site. My focus on this site however is to be as clear as possible to potential clients how I can benefit them. My prime benefit to 90% of my clients is that I can design and make for them something that they have not been able to find anywhere else. There is a lot more that I offer and once someone has done business with me they often soon realize that. They begin to get a sense of some of the wealth of non-tangible value that I can offer, part of what I hope to communicate on my new site is exactly that. More on that later.
Now I have to work out a clear way of presenting work I have done in the past in such a way that someone will get the message that I can do their project as well. I also want to show some designs that I will be selling on a made-to-order basis that will not only be practical pieces but also give much of intangible value custom work can give. I also want to put up some rough designs and sketches that may spark an interest in someone. Maybe someone is looking for something but they can’t quite articulate exactly what it is. If they see some of my rougher ideas they may interpret that image in a way that allows them to form a clear idea of just what they had been looking for. OK, that’s a little inarticulate on my part but this is something I hope to be writing more about.
