NEW LIFE FOR A BELL TOWER PULLEY

Alright

This was a fun job that I looked forward to.

This bell tower pulley was possibly made in the late 1800's

and sat atop in the steeple of the old 1st Presbyterian church

on Chestnut St, in Dunnellon. They were doing a complete remodel /restoration

job to the Church and this Pulley was a wreck, the cast iron spoke was terribly rusty,

and the wood which was poplar was coming apart.

They originally took it to the cabinet shop on the south side of town, and was directed

to bring it to me.

The pulley was 48" in diameter, the plan was to get the spoke out of there and grind

as much rust off of it and then sandblast it, when I was done it was metal grey.

Then good quality Rust-oleum primer was applied and the Rust-oleum black paint.

Now I could begin the woodwork

 I used White Oak, as it is the wood of choice for wet applications, such as whiskey kegs,

 wine barrels, beds of early pick up trucks, and ancient ship building.

 

 

Let the woodworking begin.

The oak was surfaced to 7/8" thick and straight line to 6" wide

and 28 1/4" long, 12 pieces cut with 30degree ends and grooves cut for splines.

 

Glue time, then the layout for the 48" outside radius

and the 21 3/16 inside radius.

 

Cut time, I left one spline unglued so I could enter the inside

to cut the inner radius.

 

 

Sanding to make it consistent.

 

 

Cutting the channel for the rope.

 

 

Fitting for glue-up.

 

 

In Clamps.

 

 

The finished product.

Glued and Stainless Steel Bolts

 

 

 

 

A SIMPLE POUTING CHAIR

O.K. It's been a while, and time to put a few things up here.

 This lil childs pouting chair is made of Black Oak. Locally grown Oak.

 This oak can grow to height's of 90' and 30" in diameter at the base.

This log was not that large, but it sure did yield some beautiful wood.

 We just recently had a new grandbaby born on 6/7/2013

This Chair I built for her. The log was a bit diseased and

with that, there is some spalting occurring, so I positioned the wood to take the most advantage of the spalting.

A friend brought over his chair which was of pine construction, I took a few pictures and that was all I needed to build a replica except with my own twist.

Just a natural lacquer clear coat is all I needed for the finish.

 

ENTERTAINMENT CENTER MAKEOVER

O.K. It's been a little while, but I have a good customer whom I've built a cross legged table for them, a while back, and they came to me with a challange of modifying there Entertainment center.
 It was of an older design where your analog, 36" tube type TV fit snuggly inside, and the doors could be drawn and closed to cover the TV.
   They wanted to up grade with the times and replace the ole antique with a digital flat screen.
Well what do you do with the old Entertainment center, pitch it? Give it away?
 I Looked at it and heard there idea about cutting it off here, and bringing the top down to this level.
 Well after about a half  hour of examing, the piece, I decided it was doable, and I wasnt gonna take it on if I couldn't make it look like it had never been touched.
   Not only did I have to carefully dismantle a big part of it, so that it could be cut down, and some of the face frame had to be cut at given points, exact.
   I had to cut down the left door, which in old times, covered and displayed some of the old components or nick nacks.

 After sucessfully lowering the cabinet into it's new look, it was time to take on the door. I removed the glass, then cut the top rail out, then extracted the raised panel, then cut the door frame down to it's new size. Then I cut the raised panel down to it's new size, but now I had to figure out how to put that old style profile on the panel. That was figured out, the some pretty close matching stain did the job, and reassemble the door and hang it.

O.K. This is been a project I did months ago and just didn't get time to get these two pictures up
 These bookcase's are about 16" deep and a pinch over 8' tall.
     Construction was poplar face framing and domestic maple plywood.
I use Maple ply due to the fact it is a smooth grain, and yields a good finish with little wood grain showing.
  Sure looks better when the customer gets moved in.

Natural Edge Table - A Man Table

Alright, Here is another table ready for delivery.

This table is what I call a Natural Bark Edge Table.

It is made from 2" thick slabs of Turkey Oak.

The log that I was able to produce these thick and wide slabs from

was 90 years old, and that is rare for a Turkey Oak to reach that size,

which was about 24" in diamater at the base, and estimated to be 55-60 feet high.

They normally reach about 25-30 feet high and not much more then about 12"

in diamater, then die off.

The table top was about 39" wide X 54" long, and it was heavy.

That said the base had to be built stout and ridgid

so that when the top was placed on the base it would not rock or rack from the weight of the top.

I applied several coats of Lacquer to all parts of the table, to achieve

the desired smooth finish, then several more coats of a gloss

Polyurathane, to resist moisture.

This Man table will be enjoyed in a very large screened in patio

overlooking a garden and a paddock of pet goats, and an active bid feeder.

O.K.

Here I just finished up a Pie Safe/Cabinet

This piece is built of Saplted Pecan,

 It Measures 48" high, 32" wide and about 13" deep

This piece is 100% solid stock pecan, which means, the Top, Sides, Shelves, Floors, and backing are all solid pecan.                                                                                  I did a pickwick molidng profile on book match boards for the backing.The customer will do a hand rub oil finish on it, and once that is on it will really bring out the lines and color.

 Now if your unsure of the term spalting, basicly it is the early stages of decomposition, and most of the color and lines that you see are from different Fungi that develops in the wood cells.

Just to keep this brief, one type of Fungi causes pigmentation which can change the color in wood from blue to brown , red etc,

 another is called White rot, this is a little more advanced stage of decomposition. Now when the pigmentation stage and the White Rot stage are next to each other in the wood, that creats a black or dark line/pencile line.

Childrens Computer Desk & Chair

Alright, here is another fun project for me, Well most of my projects are fun anyway. This is a childs computer desk and chair that I did for the Childrens Library section at the Dunnellon Public Library.
   The two piecs are made of Maple, and I used standared table construction techniques, on the table and chair.

 The two pieces were stained to be a simular match to the rest of the furniture in the library