Hand made Windsor settee I'm working on.

[GypsyGraphics]

It's very theraputic. There are sounds and smells that come from no other process. The steamed ash has a nutty/popcorn/tea smell to it. If I was blind folded and you held a piece of ash under my nose I could identify it by the smell. The white birch used for the turnings has its own unique smell when it's worked.

The sound the lathe makes after so many years away from it really brought me back in time. I also really love the sound that the curved shave makes when scooping out the seat. These are things that very few people in even my generation have had the opportunity to experience. I feel a little sad for them.

Was already enjoying this thread, the WIP pics and seeing a prior finished version... but reading this last post, makes me wanna come watch, listen and smell the whole process! Very cool and very beautiful!

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Awesome indeed

 

[curtrnev]

I do wood working as a hobby and my hat off to you !!! I have never used a lathe before did you use a duplicator to reproduce your legs after the first one ?

 

[signmeup]

No duplicator. If you look closely at the tool rest in the lathe photo you will see little pen marks for the various lengths of the part. The diameters are done with a caliper and a small snap gauge that has multiple openings sized to different parts of the turning. A duplicator cuts by scraping and will not leave the right shearing tool marks required of a proper reproduction. Minor variations in the parts is desireable for this type of work. I'm also faster than a duplicator for that quality of part.

Another trick for making multiple parts is to use the width of your cutting tool to measure off parts of your turning. The rings on the legs are 4 parting tool widths wide. This method speeds up the work by eliminating the need to stop cutting a pick up a guage.

 

[Mike Paul]

Very nice!

 

[signage]

Look great

Now do you sell these also or is this just your way to relax?

 

[wes70]

Beautiful craftsmanship!

 

[signmeup]

Look great

Now do you sell these also or is this just your way to relax?

I made a modest living off these for a while. This one is going to a local Doctor who just had to have one. I didn't have a lot of sign orders on the books at the time so I agreed to make her one.

Making these in any quantity will give you carpal tunnel after a while. And kill your back. These require muscle to make and assemble. It breaks blood vessels in my shoulders when I pull the legs together to seat the tenons on the side stretchers for example. I'm too old to make these commercially any more.

 

[SignManiac]

Really nice skills and beautiful work! Not sure if it's profitable or not, but I'm sure your clients get great pleasure from you work. It's nice to have several different skill sets to fall back on in case one business is slower than the others.....

 

[Jillbeans]

Lovely work.
I had to deliver a sign up to an old historic tavern in January.
They had one of those against one wall, it had to be at least 10' long.
Wonder how the heck they made that?
Probably with homemade imporvised tools too.
You certainly are a multi-faceted Pancake King!
Love....Jill

 

[jimbug72]

Very nice!

 

[astro8]

As time goes on and I get to see more of your talents, the more I'm impressed.

 

[signmeup]

Lovely work.
I had to deliver a sign up to an old historic tavern in January.
They had one of those against one wall, it had to be at least 10' long.
Wonder how the heck they made that?
Probably with homemade imporvised tools too.
You certainly are a multi-faceted Pancake King!
Love....Jill

To make them longer you just keep adding legs. The arm bows would probably be bent one end at a time just like I did on this one. If it was old they would have used state of art equipement to make it like an adze, spokeshave, brace and bit and pole lathe.

Actually these old tools are very efficient to use. But they are hard to find and bring back to a useable state. Then you have to learn to use them. My wooden block plane was designed to be adjusted with a small hammer by tapping on the nose or tail of it depending on if you a want deeper or shallower cut. Setting the blade is an art.....but very fast once you master it. This is where the "instant gratification" crowd wanders off. (and blames their tools)

I've bought reproduction tools from fancy catalogues that looked like a million bucks but worked like cr*p. They are sold to "gentlemen woodworkers" who fantasize about making things....but really just like collecting fancy looking tools.

Now you can see why I don't have a problem working with my Chinese plotter. It's a space age piece of precision equipement compared to what I'm used to working with.

 

[Marlene]

As time goes on and I get to see more of your talents, the more I'm impressed.

me too! you are a person with some awesome talents!

 

[Keith Rae]

I'm impressed with your knowledge and skills working with wood, Understanding the characteristics and how they change as the wood seasons and drys. I have a lathe but not near as old as yours, but I did make a duplicator bar for it when I had to make about 75 spindles to restore an banister in a heritage home. I Know from experience it is rewarding to construct a fine piece of furniture, to bad people don't want to pay what it is really worth. How many hours will it take you to build it? What finish do you use on it Lacquer Urethane Varnish sprayed or brushed? To me the journey to get there is just as exciting than the end results. Keep up the good work and keep posting as the project progresses. Thanks for sharing.

 

[signmeup]

Thanks Keith. The lathe is only about 25 years old or so. I made it myself becuase I couldn't afford a lathe of that capacity at the time.(probably still can't). The lathe is amazingly quiet in opperation. The drive belt makes the most noise. I think the wood construction absorbs most of the sound.

As mentioned earlier I found the various duplicating devices were unable to produce a shearing cut and so you were left sanding torn grain for hours. I learned a number of tricks for duplicating parts like making parts of the turnings so many parting tool widths wide or making little guide marks on the toolrest. It's really fast because you never have to stop to pick up a guage or measure. I made a set of about 75 ballusters myself once. Boring! You get to contemplate life a lot when you turn multiples.

I'll probabley have 30 hours in this settee by the end of it. It's a longer one than I usually make so I don't have proper patterns and I'm a bit rusty....the last one I made was in 1998.

The finish will be black milk paint and bees wax. The paint will be brushed and the wax smeared on with a rag.

 

[Patrick46]

The finish will be black milk paint and bees wax.

Huhhhhhh?????????? never even heard of that before.

I'm glad you're NOT coating it with a urethane. Hand rubbed oils is what I prefer, and I've got a friend that makes an organic finish that is wonderful!!

http://www.landarknw.com/

 

[signmeup]

It's been a while but here is where I'm at. Now I have to trim off all the wedges that were used to lock all the spindle joints and paint the thing.

 

[GypsyGraphics]

Just beautiful Signmeup!
I'm hoping you'll post pics during the finishing process. i'm curious about the Black Milk Paint and Bees Wax process.

 

[signmeup]

Here is the finished product. The finish is 3 coats of milk paint and a light coat of lacquer followed by paste wax. (with lots of buffing between each coat.) I couldn't be bothered to go get bees wax and turps so I just used some Butchers wax I had on hand. Normally I would mix up bees wax, turps and dash of linseed oil but where I'm only doing one of these I didn't really want a whole batch of the stuff sitting around. I've got quite enough clutter here as it is.

Kinda hate to call the customer.....this one looks quite good in my dining room. If anyone was wondering, I charged $1800 for it.