What’s New In and Out of The Shop – 3 year update

I just don’t seem to have time to write blog posts or at least I’m not willing to find the time.  My last post was almost 3 years ago! I had a prospective customer visit the shop this summer and … Continue reading

Lost But Not Forgotten

This maple kitchen work table was the first real piece of furniture I made.  During the winter of 1981-82 I was living with my girlfriend Elizabeth (scandalous, I know, but she’s now my wife) in a small apartment in Georgia, Vermont. … Continue reading

Custom Made Beds – Measuring your Mattress Thickness

One of the advantages custom made beds have over stock manufactured beds is the ability to have the bed sized perfectly for your mattress or mattress and box spring thickness.  While mattress length and width are standardized their thicknesses are … Continue reading

“Show Your Work!” Tips on Shopping for Fine Handcrafted Furniture

I was looking at another furniture company’s website the other day.  They claimed to make fine handcrafted furniture using the finest woodworking techniques and the high prices for the furniture certainly would indicate that they did.  However, while the pieces … Continue reading

Tricks of the trade – eliminating glue squeeze out

There are many little tricks that furniture makers come up with to make things go more smoothly in the workshop.  Often these are figured out after something has gone wrong, to keep it from happening the next time.  Today I … Continue reading

Fixing dents and dings in solid wood furniture

I’ve been working on my wife’s Christmas (2009) present lately trying to get it finished before I have to start on her 2010 present.  There are bits and pieces of it lying around the shop and I work on it … Continue reading

Tractor seat stools

Today’s photos show part of the process of making my tractor seat stool seats. These stools have deeply carved seats that are inspired by the old cast iron tractor seats that, despite being made from a very hard material, were … Continue reading

Designing furniture with 3D CAD

I have been drawing furniture with 2 dimensional CAD (Computer Aided Design) programs for many years and have always found 3D programs (where you draw the piece and rotate it to view it from any angle) intriguing. However, only in … Continue reading

Harvest Table continued

Today’s photos show the assembled harvest table rule joint in 3 different positions – leaf down, leaf half way up and leaf up. Proper routing of the joint and positioning of the hinges is necessary so that the finished joint … Continue reading

Rule joint

Today’s photo is of the rule joint of the two harvest tables I’m working on. This joint is simple enough when you get it right but the first time I made a harvest table I found I had problems with … Continue reading