Mission Plant Stands and piano chair

We have an order for a couple of plant stands with art-tile inserts in the tops.

One will be 12x14x30 and one 12x12x25 with 4, 4" tiles in the top.























The chair is to be a low-back chair for additional seat for the piano...to accomodate the 'instructor.'


Since the piano is mahogany, we'll design it with that wood and use a five-spindle back,

Perhaps something like this with shorter legs..seat height needs to be 18 in. Front width is 15 inches and depth of seat is 16 inches. Back will be just high enough for lumbar support.

This chair will likely have a wood seat rather than leather.

Mahogany Mule Chest

Finished Mule Chest

My favorite customer has commissioned a big 11-drawer Mule Chest to match her African Mahogany bed I made 5 years ago. From Veneer Supplies, I have purchased some beautiful curly Mahogany veneer for the end panels. There are 18 pieces in the bundle. Each is about 7 in x 82 in., so I'll have plenty for a couple of projects. Since my panels are going to require only two or three strips, I'll have plenty for the drawers if we go that route. The cost was about $170.00 delivered, so that pencils out to $2.50 per sq ft,


Chest dimensions will be about 5.5 ft wide and about 45 in high. Maybe should add handles for the poor guy who has to move it!


The carcass is now glued up. I used some beautiful curly mahogany veneer for the end panels with a substrate of 1/2 MDF. the 2 1/4 in. legs are mortised for all the panels, rails and drawer dividers. Through tenons on the bottom and a dovetail on the top rail holds every thing tight--even if there were no glue.

























































Drawer boxes all done in 1/2 in. 11-ply Baltic Birch

Will pick up 30 board feet of Mahogany for the fronts and we'll be ready to stain. Getting ready for Jody's happy dance when I haul it upstairs.






Attached the drawer fronts, and decided I don't like them this way. Going to redo the guides and resize the fronts to make a flush drawer. Unfortunately, since the drawers will be an inch deeper now, I will have to cut that inch off each drawer back and reglue.

This looks nice, but just not Arts and Crafts style.

It is June 18, I got the drawers rebuilt and ready to stain. I decided against the bronze pulls at 15 dollars apiece. Will have to wait for a while on those. My wife is anxious to finally have this unit in the bedroom -- she's been postponed enough with other paying jobs and a move. I started this back last Fall!

Bow Arm Morris Chair and Arts and Crafts Mirror

Just got an order for a Bow-arm Morris Chair and a large Mirror. The customer wants them in QSWO with the stain Stickley calls Onandoga...medium brown with some red in it.

I'll be using a new steam box for this project. I made it out of foil-backed foam insulation board. From what I read, it takes very little time to get hot inside and it sure is light! The steam generator is a two gallon 'stock pot" with a hose adapter glued to a hole in the lid.

I can't get 10/4 QSWO from my supplier to make the legs, so I'll have to go with 8/4. I don't like the 'quadralinear' technique for legs having through tenons. It makes the tenon look just like it is...cobbled together. These will have one joint down the middle of post, but grain will be matched so it will look pleasing.

My technique is to glue 1/8 in quarter-sawn pieces to the two plain-sawn faces.
The leg now has the beautiful qs on all faces, and the tenon is natural.

Another feature of my furniture is the book-matching of parts. Arms resawn from same board, legs -- especially for the front faces of legs book-matched . I also like to carefully pick out the front and side boards for the seat box, since they will get a lot of attention.

Wood's on order, so check back for updates as the project ripens.

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Oh my! the oak is spectacular-- lots of flake and very interesting patterns. I can hardly wait to resaw this.


I resawed a 6 foot length 8/4 . The two slabs were about 1/16 different in thickness, so I had several runs through the planer to get them flat and equal thickness ... of course I have to use the sawn-side up, so it is either planer or sander anyway..


All the leg mortises were hogged out with a 7/16 drill in a jig on the drill press and then finished square with the 1/2 in bit in the mortising machine. Tenon shoulders cut on the radial saw and faces cut running over the table saw, using a little jig I made just for the occasion.

All the clean out and final fitting of joints took just a couple of hours, made the curves on seat-box and top back slat the same 36 in radius. I will attempt to bend the arms to a 36" radius as well. The consistancy should be pleasing to the eye.

Bending the 72" board for the arm went quick and easy with my wife handling the nose clamp and my belly taking the board down to the form. It took about an hour to get temperature up to 180 degrees , then I put the board in for exactly one hour. Leaving clamped for 24 hours.









update ... dry fit complete.

Upholstery ordered, cutting arm mortices. I could set up a router jig to make the morices, but I want to be sure there is an exact transfer of any minor angle differences in the square leg tenons. At two inches, any mistake will magnify. The image that follows here, shows the arm mortice almost done. Very important with oak to scribe the cross-grain line with a knife--or you will guarantee tear out.




























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Arts and Crafts style Mirror

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This is a big one. 65 inches wide and 42 inches tall. All QSWO.

The customer has some left-over 4x4 Motawi Art tiles from his fireplace project, and would like me to place them in the mirror frame. The tiles retail for 27 dollars each...so you can imagine my joy when I dropped them on the shop floor - concrete, naturally. I tried to glue them back, but it was no use.... I sent off and order for the replacements, and $170 later, we're ready to go again.





Ready for tile panel.












Almost done. I'll transport without mirrors, and install them on-site. Just some wax now and a good buffing.

I'll follow up with a shot of the installation.