Coop, Coop and more coop

Today I finished the roof pieces, the floor and the roosts.  Tomorrow I'll work on the doors and windows.  It's going well and it's a lot of fun.

More Coop'

Today I continued to frame in the coop.  It's going well.  I'm anxious to get the coop done and start working on some furniture projects.  It's not the kind of project you can put aside for a while and come back to.

It's large and takes up a lot of space so it needs to get done right away.  I also learned the hard way the last time we had chickens.  They grow quickly'  I had to rush things and make the coop in a couple of days.

The Coop Continued

More images of the coop.  The roof is on, the sides are framed in.  Tomorrow The rest should go up and near completion.

The Coop

Our dining room has been temporarily turned into a chicken coop.  We have the baby chicks living in a brooder in our dining room.
I put aside the lap desk project for a while and started building the coop.

Here I have framed it in and framed the area for the window, nest box area and side doors.  It's a lot of fun building a coop.

The ladies have arrived

When we lived in New Jersey we had chickens.  We finally feel settled enough after a pretty eratic year that we decided to get some chickens.  We picked up our six baby Black Star chicks tonight.  Todat I started building their coop.  I'll have images tomorrow.  Last time I built an 'A' frame style coop this year I'm building

 a shed type coop. 

 a shed type coop. 

Studio Furniture/Mark Del Guidice

When I first moved to the States, almost 11 years ago I spent some time looking for work.  I got in touch with the Furniture Society and Nancy Sitta.  Nancy worked for the society and was a former employee of The Society of Arts and Crafts.  Nancy hosted a dinner for me on Newbury Street that was attended by other society members such as Mark Del Guidice.  I owe a lot to Nancy, Mark ended up offering me work and I worked for him for a few months in his studio in Norwood, MA.  Mark has been working the Craft show for over ten years.   Here is a sample of the work Mark does.  It was good too catch up with him.

Crafts Boston

Today Liesl, Quinn and I went to Crafts Boston which is put on by the Society of Arts and Crafts.   It is always good to get to Boston and see friends.

Liesl's old employer Judy Neugebaur had a booth there.  It was good to see her.  It was also good too see  Matt Hutton from The Maine College of Art.  I haven't seen Matt in a few year, it was good to catch

up with him.  I wish I had more time to spend in Boston, I love the city.

   

Shaker Lap Desk

Today I started working on a shaker lap desk.  I've been carrying around some leftover quartersawn pine

boards from my days at Peters valley.  Chris Beecksvoort was a guest instructor and this lap desk was the project for the week long workshop.  I decided that I would make it.  Today I cut the material, cut the dovetails and sanded the carcase.  I ended the day by having the carcase glued up.  I hope to cut and attach the bottom to the carcase tomorrow.

 

Final Resting Place

I didn't have a home for the tables when I made them, so- to get them out of the studio I brought them home and put them beside our bed.  They look great'  The old pine boards match the color of the old bed.

Joe and Norah's

Another piece of furniture Joe inherited from his Grandmother is this beautiful old RCA Victor cabinet that has been stripped down to expose the beautiful mahogany.  The image is fuzzy but you can see the hand crank on the right to generate the music.  The top is hinged to expose the player.

German pre war clock

Today Liesl, Quinn and I went to Quinn's Cousin Hannah's birthday party in Newton, Mass.  Joe and Norah have a beautiful home. I noticed this fantastic minimal grandfather clock.  Joe informed me that it belonged to

his Grandmother.  The clock came from Germany and dates back to pre war Germany.  The clock is made out of walnut and walnut burl.  It's beautiful.

 

Paradise City

Today I went to the paradise City Arts Festival in Marlborough, Massachusetts.  The event was held at the Royal Plaza Convention Center.  I always enjoy going to these events because we always run into old friends.  My friend and fellow furniture maker Peter Handler had a booth there.  It was good too see Peter again.  I've known Peter for over twelve years now.
Peter lives in Philly and does some amazing work with anodized aluminum.  Next weekend is the Crafts Boston where we'll be going as observers and meeting up with old friends again.
Here are some images of Peters booth

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Adirondack Facelift

These old friends were long over do for a face lift.  Today was an awesome day out so it was a good time to give the old Adirondack chairs a long over do coat of oil.  The old boards were so dry that I almost used a

full can on them.

 

Putting a finish on the tables

Today was a beautiful day.  A great day to be out side working.  I use a product called 'Duraceal'.  It's an oil finish for hardwood floors.  I love the way this product works on furniture.  I gave the tables a coat of

duraceal.  I'll wait a couple of days and then put a coat of wax on them.

 

Attaching the tops

Today was a day of appointments but I was able to get into the studio for an hour to sand and attach the table tops.  I dilled and countersunk holes in some wooden cleats that I attached to the inside of the aprons.  I then screwed the table base to the tops.  The patina of the old floor boards against the fresh new pine looks great.  I'm happy with the results.  All that is left to do is to put a coat of oil and wax on the tables.

Glueing up tops

Here are the table tops in the clamps.  I put a bead of glue on the tongue and groove, there is a finish on the boards so it might take a while to cure or not cure at all.  If not- I'll use the boards anyways.  The old floor boards have a great patina on them and I really like giving them new life.  I'll let them sit in the clamps overnight and

attach them to the base tomorrow

 .

Finishing touches

I was only in the studio for a couple of hours today but it gave me the opportunity to cut the pegs off and to give the tables a final sand.  Here you can see the stop chamfer detail and the pegged tenons, cut flush and sanded.  I'm not sure how I'll finish the tables, probably oil and wax.  The end grain of the pegs will hold

more oil and really 'pop' adding a nice contrast to the piece.

   

Pegs and corner blocks

The tables are made out of pine that I had bought at the home depot for a $1.00 a board.  The boards were 4 feet long and 1 1/8 inch thick.  I put a stop chamfer on the aprons for a nice accent.  I love making furniture out of the off cuts around the studio.  I love re-purposing materials such as using the floor boards for the

tops,  giving them a new life

 .

Tables Continued

Today I glued up the rest of the table parts and then pegged the tenon joints, 16 pegs in each table.  I used

 1/4 inch dowels for the pegs

.  

Asian Longhorn Beetle

Sometimes you do things just because they're fun.  A few post ago I talked about a project I built for my friend Jeff Ellis that was a stump.  Jeff volunteers for the River Bend Farm and he had a display about the longhorn Beetle.  This is the end result.  Jeff used spray foam adhesive as the bark, it worked really well.  This was a

fun project

 . 

Ready for glue up

Today I went into the studio for a couple of hours to sand the table parts.

I have some old wide pine floor boards that I cut to size and will use as the tops. All of the parts have been sanded and are ready to be glued up.  I'm leaving the floor boards looking as they are.

Parts, Parts, Parts

The end result, nice clean tapers and mortises.  This is a simple jig, a piece of plywood cut to size and a couple of clamps.  It works well.  I cut the tenons on the aprons using a single saw blade on the table saw. 

The tenon is only 7/16 inch wide so I only needed to make a couple of passes with the saw. The tenons are through tenons, meaning they run the full length of the mortise.  The legs are light so the tenons are only 1/4 inch wide and 7/16 inch deep.

Tomorrow I'll sand the parts, glue them up and cut and glue up the tops.  

Mortises and Tapered Legs

I threw a 1/4 inch straight bit into the router table and use it to cut a 1/2 inch deep mortise in the

 center of the  leg

I used a plywood taper leg jig I had used on an earlier project to taper the legs on the table saw.  The stock I had at hand was 1 1/8 inch thick so I cut the legs square and tapered them to 3/4 inch at the bottom. 

Tables old and new

Today I went into the studio without having anything particular to build.  I have a lot of projects on the go but today was about getting organized.  I guess it was a little early spring cleaning.   As I was cleaning I discovered some table legs from earlier projects that I brought with me from New Jersey.   I got inspired to make some small shaker style tables.  I love re - using old parts so I used some off cuts from a previous project for the legs and aprons. I have some old wide plank pine tongue and grooved floor boards that I'm going to use for the tops.

cigar Box Guitar complete

Today I tweaked some things on the guitar.  I put a coat of wax on the box, not the best thing for sound but I love the warmth it gave it.  I inlaid a coin in the neck, made a bridge and strung it up.  I'm not sure of the tuning of the tthree strings.  I have to do a little more research.  The top is a little too thick, dampening the sound but I worked with what I had.  A thinner cigar box lid will be better.

Cigar Box Continued

A couple of weeks ago I was at the local Salvation Army thrift store.  I found a cardigan sweater vest that had these great mother of pearl looking buttons.  I liked the vest but I bought it mostly for the buttons.  I drilled a hole large enough to accomodate the buttons and inlayed them as fret markers on the guitar.

Here is the guitar almost complete'