Susan's Chairs continued

Maple Chair Arms 

Most of the jobs that we do involve making parts, sometimes there are many parts and then there are times that we just can't stop making parts. This project is one of them. The numbers are 800 4mm x 10mm mortices, 80 8mm x 40mm mortices 80 6mm x 40mm. This week we were able to get the frames assembled and determine the size of the seats and the length of the backs. Those will go out to be upholstered on Monday.

 

Milling of the parts has created 6 large bags of wood chips. There are some horses in Milford who will be enjoying the fruits of our labors when the chips are spread in their stalls. 

This is the jog that Dan used to mill the curve on the rear sear support. A good cup of coffee always makes the day go better. 

 

 

 

 

Front seat supports 

When you look at the back of the chairs you will see these Maple backs.

 

 

Susan's Chairs

Last Spring I started to work with designer Ian Kirby on a chair design for a private dining room. Ian drew up the initial sketches of the chair and then I made a full size model in Poplar. Ian then took the chair to his studio and made a few adjustments to get it just right.

The next step was for Ian to made the drive to his client's house to review the design with his client and get her approval. I and one other maker gave the client bids on fabricating 16 of the chairs in Maple. The time frame from model to approval of the bid took up the summer and the better part of the fall. Just prior to Thanksgiving the price was approved and we received  the go ahead.


The first part of the process was to find a good supply of quarter sawn Maple. I dealt with Peter at Horizon Wood Products in Northern Pennsylvania and one other supplier here in Connecticut in sourcing the material. Peter had a large quantity of nice hard Quarter Sawn Hard Maple for a good price and the proper thickness. The material arrived in my shop in mid December, it was a large stack of material. Seeing it next to the model and on the fork lift was a little intimidating when you look at the stack and realize that you have to mill it all down to little parts and then put the little parts together to make the chair.

Chair Model in Front of rough Maple for Finished Chairs

I let the wood sit in the shop for a few weeks so that it would acclimatize to my shop. I had other  work in house that needed to be completed and I had to bring in other materials for the fabrication.

After creating the bill of materials or parts list the next step in the process was to make up the seat blanks. In order to bend the seats I needed two bending forms, I was happy to have the CNC router in the shop as it made short work of cutting the curved form parts. Prior to having the CNC router I would have had to make up a master blank with the seat curvature and then make copies from that blank using a hand held router and a rub collar.  For 10 days I started things out by gluing up 2 seat blanks in this press. I am cutting parts for 20 chairs, making 18 and delivering the 16 best.

Clamping up Seat Blanks

The past two weeks have been spent on sorting the wood and milling the parts for the chairs. When you look at the cut list and think about what you have to do the job is not bad. But when you consider the lineal footage of edging that you have to run on the router it makes you stop. From the time I went back to the tools after lunch and quitting time I had to run 5600 lineal feet of 1/8" quarter round on the chair parts, and that is only a fraction of it. Prior to today we have generated 5 large bags of maple chips while milling the parts to size, Dan filled up two more bags today. I am lucky to have a relationship with a local barn that uses our solid wood grindings for her horses.   

5 Decades Down 4 to Go

On February 16th I completed my 5th decade. For 4/10th of that time I have had a job, whether it was delivering news papers, cooking pastries or making stuff, working is a part of who I am. First having a job allowed me to be in a place where I fit in. Later it became a way of paying the bills.

I discovered through work that I am a visual learner. I did not enjoy the school process because I need to see how things work or fit together. I need to write a persons name down to remember it. I like to know where you are from or where you live so that I can place your home on my mental map of the world. If I am not familiar with where you live I need to open the Atlas and see where Namibia fits on the globe.

I have spent a full 38 years building stuff. When I set out to make something I start by putting it together in my mind. Then the item gets translated to paper sometimes it stays as a sketch or I will progress to a full shop drawing. Once that step is done the item gets built. Once I get started on the building process I used to quickly discover what knowledge I am missing. That is where books and mentors came in handy, helping to fill in those gaps in knowledge.  I have been lucky to have been able to find some very great mentors, some of those mentors are still in my life and others are no longer with us.

Two important lessons came from my parents, my mom who was a great knitter; had no hesitation in riping out a weeks worth of knitting to fix a mistake that she noticed. My dad taught me that you can do anything you set your mind to. Those lessons have allowed me to build a house in 5 days in Bridgeport and to accept that the right thing to do is strip off a finish and just redo it.

My best friend Mark's mom, Nicky Morgenstern; was helping me make a bed/ storage unit. Her first question was "which side of the line do you want me to cut on" in those simple words I discovered 1, the importance of layout and 2, that there are no dumb questions. With that simple sentence she set me off to ask questions and to learn. She also prepared me to work with the thousands of Habitat volunteers and families all who had questions about what they were doing.

As a young teenager I spent part of the summers on my own at our house in Mansonville Quebec. I plodded along renovating a early 1800's house that should have been torn down. You only have to cut about 1/2 an inch of sheetrock with a skill saw before you realize that there has to be a better way. There were many houses being built in the area so I got onto my bicycle and rode over to a silo house that was being built and spent a day working to help cut sheetrock. I don't want to know how many boards of drywall I have hung or taped since then. I do know that I learned to hire a taper when working on anything more than one room. My mom now lives in that house my dad and I started to renovate all those years ago. That house is the longest on-going collaborative project I have worked on.

My wife Julia and I live in the second longest ongoing project. I am lucky in that I have known Julia for about half of my life and we still love each other. We continue to learn and grow together.

 

I celebrated the start of my 50th year by gathering people who have been part of my life. Some were able to come round to the house and share a meal, I had to settle with a phone call or e-mail with others. My friends and family have given me much of my knowledge and encouragement. That is what draws us as people together, community. There are no perfect friendships or relationships, each relationship can be meaningful to us. We can help each other through difficulties, celebrate achievements and enjoy the passing days.

The journey with the Glider Wing continued through this past fall. After taking the glider down from the gallery at the Yale School of Architecture I stored it in my shop for the summer. While it was there we prepared it to spend the fall months at above the entry to Cooper Union in Manhattan. The task of obtaining permits to install the wing was greater than the preparation or installation. I worked closely with Steven Hilyer at Cooper Union to try and obtain the necessary permit to install the unit. I want so far as applying for my New York City contractor's permit. This is no easy task. My application was shot down because I did not have NYC worker's comp, which you can not obtain until you do work in NYC. Steven eventually got the crane company to take out the building permit.
The installation was set for a Friday morning, start time in NYC was 8:00. Start time for me was 4:30 am. It was pouring when I left Milford. As I traveled south the rain let up and the sun was out, things were looking good. By the time the crew gathered at the front of the Cooper Union the rain caught up to me. When the crane company arrived at 8:30 the rain was coming down in sheets. In Ct that would stop the job, in NYC that just makes the job more interesting. With a crew of about 10, myself, a crane operator, a rigor on the ground a helper and the owner of the crane company, there were an additional 5 or so folks from the Cooper Union helping out. We managed to pull the base and wing out of the truck, fly it into position and put it all together by 10:30. Just in time for a little sunshine and an espresso.
This image was taken by Steven Hilyer and sent to me just recently.

 

The Scolari Wing

One of my staff members mentioned that the Yale School of Architecture was preparing an exhibit of Massimo Scolari's work, and asked if I was interested in bidding on the project. I very quickly walked into my office and called the Director of exhibitions Brian Butterfield to discuss the project. Brian andI discussed the overall project and I presented to Brian my plan on fabricating the wing as a torsion box with the final ash skin being applied as a veneer. Brian accepted my plan and asked us to start preparing samples and start fabrication.

Massimo Scalari giving our sample one last look prior to his departure from our shop

Prior to starting the project in our shop Massimo flew to CT to review all of the preparations for the gallery show. One stop was to our shop so that he could review our samples and discuss with me how I planned to build and finish the wing. To prepare for Massimo's arrival at my shop, Dan and I made up a sample of the wing skin along with a few other samples for Massimo Scolari's review. On the day of the job review I was lucky to have Dan & Jim out installing other work as we spent many hours reviewing the construction, grain direction screw size and many other details.

Dan working one the wing frame.

The next time that Massimo Scolari would see the wing would be when he returns for the gallery opening on February 9th. We could only hope that I got the image and concept right. Dan Kirkstead was the main cabinet maker on the fabrication of the actual wings. We all were involved on different aspects as the project allowed. After many hours of building we finally got the opportunity to assemble both halves for the wing a few hours prior to delivery. It went together beautifully. All told the wing weights about 700lbs, there are 240 brass screws, 32 oak pegs, 320 square feet of ash plywood for the skin and more screws and glue holding everything together. We delivered the wing to the Yale gallery and their riggers hoisted the wing into place.

After the delivery I was given a tour of the previous models of the wing. There was one model made for the installation at Yale, there is one yellow high gloss model, two models for the real wing and I believe that may have been one other. You will have to go to the exhibition and count all the models your self. The show opens this coming Thursday February 9th at 6pm.

The final product delivered and assembled at the Yale school of Architecture Gallery

If you would like to see more of Massimo Scolari's work his web site is below:

http://www.massimoscolari.it/

For the gallery hours and upcoming shows please follow this link to the Yale School of Architecture. 

http://www.architecture.yale.edu/drupal/events/architecture_gallery

It is never Just

So often we find ourselves saying well we can just do this, or a designer will ask can you just add a detail here. That little word makes so much work. It is after all a four letter word. It should join those other four letter words. I am trying to remove Just from my vocabulary. I tend not to use the other 4 letter words that we all know and lover so why should not his one be added to the list?

I was recently working on a work island made of translucent material called Chroma by 3-Form. The unit has 2 doors on the main base cabinet. The architect asked me to install two small pulls made out of the same material. I believe that he may have said something along the lines of " could you just add a piece like this? Well those 2 pieces ended up taking me a full morning to complete and install. How often do we find ourselves saying I'll just... cet'e jamis juste!

A Father's Many Hats

As a self employed woodworker one gets to wear many different hats. I get to work as a designer, engineer, finisher, sales man, builder, accountant and driver. Many of these skills over lap and some of them take me out of the shop and to intriguing places. When I worked with Habitat For Humanity all of the hats got to be worn during the same time. During my time at Habitat I discovered the meaning of "home".
Habitat's mission is to build simple decent homes for working families. Soon after my son was born I was walking home from working at Habitat and I felt the security of my home and how important it would be for my own son. The families at Habitat taught me how something so simple could mean so much.
In traveling around the world the importance of the simple home is what really joins us together. We as parents all want the same thing for our children, a safe place. Each of us defines that security in a different manner. I do believe that our children do look to us for security and strength. As we walk through our lives we are also walking with our children. As a father, I am honored to share with my son the lessons that my dad taught me as he wore his many hats.