Walnut Closet Doors

There is a long, harrowing history to this project that I wont bore my readers with, but suffice it to say that after breaking 4 mirrors and an expensive piece of frosted glass, I realized that I really hate glass, and decided to do these in walnut.

Designs, Models

I'm taking a furniture design class at Cerritos City College, and these are models of my first two projects.
The first project was for a table, so this is an idea for a cantilevered coffee table. The shelf is intended to store remote controls and/or magazines and is meant to be hidden from view, which it mostly would be unless someone was to purposely look under the table. Somehow my shelf on the model didn't end up parallel to the table top, but this is just a flaw in the model, not a strange design element. The model is 1/8 scale. Eventually I'd like to build this with rosewood legs and perhaps a contrasting top, like maple, or vise-versa.
The second project was for a case good, i.e. a piece of furniture that holds something. This is a credenza/entertainment cabinet. The fabric would hide speakers, and the shelves would hold a turntable, records, dvd player, etc. The doors would open like garage doors (vertically). I made them out of zebra wood on this model just for fun, but I actually really like the zebra wood next to the fabric. I don't know what species I'd use for the cabinet, probably something dark. The model is 1/4 scale. I can't wait to build this!

Bill Boyne's handrail

Bill Boyne contacted me a little more than a year ago, and asked me to build him a handrail. Bill learned of me through my best friend Nate, who was his mechanic at the time. Bill had a large piece of redwood that he had been saving for years (at least 10, if I remember correctly) for the purpose of building a handrail, but had been slow getting around to it. I came to learn that Bill was a builder himself, but was now advanced in age and did not feel up to the task of handling this enormous piece of redwood.
Bill spent about 30 minutes with me working out the shape of the handrail, drawing on a small piece of cardboard for me to take with me. A few days later we spoke on the phone and he asked me if I ever used walnut (I do), and mentioned that he had some he'd like to give me, which I could hardly believe. I crafted the handrail and delivered it a week or two later. He looked at it and approved, but wanted to make some modifications to get it ready for installation. And so we spent about two hours working together in his garage, crafting a second piece that would attach to the rail and to the wall. I watched with amazement as he masterfully manipulated his table saw, running his fingers dreadfully close to the blade. I took comfort figuring that, if he still had all of his fingers after all these years using a table saw like that, then I'll probably be OK too.

During those two hours I learned many of Bill's stories, including how he went from teaching high school in Compton to living his retirement on the Peninsula of Long Beach (in a word, laundromats). He also told me a story that has really shaped my thinking in business and wood working. He said that he once built a table for a gal, and wanted to use a highly figured slab of wood with a large knot in the middle. He thought she might not like it, but he loved it, so he proceeded anyway. He delivered it just in time for a party, and she immediately showed her displeasure, saying that she would not accept the table with that large knot. Bill told her to just leave it out for the party with the knot exposed and see what her guests had to say about it. The next day she called and apologized, and said that she'd never received so many compliments on a piece of furniture.

Bill gave me a large stockpile of solid walnut that day, and told me that there was more where that came from. Apparently it had been sitting in a storage unit, left over from his days of carpentry. He also mentioned that he had some wood working magazines that he would like to give me. I also got to know Bill's wife Sally this day, and experienced a great warmth that filled their home. I was completely overwhelmed by the kindness they showered on me.

I spoke to Bill one more time after this. I called him to see if he was done with staining and finishing the rail (something he wanted to do himself) and if he was ready for me to help him install it. He had already gotten a neighbor to help him install it, but told me that it really looked great and that he was very happy with it, and that I needed to come see it. It was shortly after this that I heard from Nate that Bill had passed away. I was deeply saddened, but also deeply grateful for the time I had been able to spend with him.

A few weeks later I got a call from Sally. She was beginning to go through some of Bill's things, and she had an enormous stack of woodworking magazines that Bill had set aside for me. Apparently, he had begun to go through them, photocopying the articles that he thought he might want to reference again so that he could pass the magazines on to me. I went over and met Sally to receive the magazines, and couldn't believe what a cache it was, and even more so the fact that Bill had so thoughtfully set them aside for me like that. Many months went by and, on a few occasions, I found my mind wandering to Bill and those great two hours we spent together, and remembering what a tremendous gift that stockpile of walnut was. I had used it for a number of projects, and had very little left. "There's more where that came from" was a phrase I heard in my thoughts once or twice. Then, this December, I descended one day into the basement (where my wood shop is) and noticed from a distance something highly unusual. I saw as I approached that next to my shop's door lay an enormous amount of walnut, delivered from Sally to Nate to my shop, with a Christmas card from Sally, signed from Bill. It was incredibly moving and a huge lift to my spirits at a time when I really needed it.

I never thought a handrail could be such an incredible project.

Cutting Boards and Picture Frames

I had a few days in December with no orders to fill so I decided to build some Christmas presents. I used scraps that were lying around the shop to build these cutting boards and picture frames. The cutting boards feature 6 species of wood: walnut, birch, maple, pecan/hickory, rosewood, and cherry.

Bowl

This was a gift for some close family friends. I thought it would be really simple to glue some boards together and throw them on my lathe and make a bowl. I had never actually used my lathe before. To make a long story short, it was a lot more work and time than I had predicted and the final product is not quite what I had envisioned when I was starting out, but it still turned out really nice, all things considered. I learned that the keys to making a bowl are as follows: 1) don't make it too deep. 2) Sharpen your chisels constantly. 3) Accept that you will waste a lot of wood, and don't waste your time trying to save the wood in the middle. 4) Buy a shorter tool rest. 5) Spend a long time with your gritty sandpaper before moving on to the finer grits. 6) Keep going all the way to 400 grit- it will start to look like glass. Next time I'm going to see if I can track down anything finer- do they make 1000 grit sandpaper? Would that just be printer paper basically?

The light wood is Ikea butcher block, left over from when we replaced the counters in our condo's kitchen four years ago. I think it's birch, but my dad thought it was maple, so I'm not sure, but it seemed too soft and pliable for maple in my opinion. The dark wood is walnut that my friend and former furniture builder Bill found in one of his storage units somewhere and gave to me (does that count as salvaged, reclaimed, green, etc.?).

Thanks to my dad who came over to the shop to redirect my efforts every time I got stuck or frustrated, and thanks to Caleb for explaining to me that I was doing it all wrong and completely straightening me out, and for actually working on it for a little while. Thanks Lou for the great pictures!

Speaker Shelf

I saw some shelves like this at my friend Brian's house, which doubled at the time as a funky furniture store. He wanted $30 for 4 of them I think, but I only wanted one and he didn't want to break up his set, so I used some leftover teak veneered plywood to build one myself. It was meant to be a stand for a rear speaker, but Jana has decided that she likes it better for now as a candle stand, at least until I build another one for the speaker on the other side of the couch (which I thought worked well on the end table over there, but Jana disagrees on this now).