Stelter Co. wall mock-up

"I'm building a wall, a fine wall/Not so much to keep you out, more to keep me in." -Pet Shop Boys "Building A Wall"

Close to being completed. Sheeting today and paint tonight.

Machinery

My wife took some photos the other day. This is of our new piece of machinery.

I gotta think this guy sings nothing but Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" to himself...and he's even MORE naked than Cher was in the video.

Punch the clock

Thanks to Laura with The Rusty Pumpkin for the sweet time clock. I was able to fit some inked ribbon on the old bobbins, and she works like a champ again. Declan was put above of the clock to make sure everyone punches it...

Shop improvements

Gotta keep the dust out of the reception area. Door, window, done. Well, some insulation and drywall too...

Center on Sustainable Communities EVERGREEN Fundraiser

This table is being donated to the Center on Sustainable Communities EVERGREEN Fundraiser this Wednesday, Nov. 2 at People's Court in Des Moines...Did you know William Elliot Whitmore is playing???...Yeah, it's gonna be a pretty, pretty...pretty sweet event!

Pictured here in its raw steel state, the table will be finished in a RAL #3003 Ruby Red powder coat finish. The square perforated adornments and accompanying hardware get a RAL #9010 Pure White powder coat finish. The table measures 24 1/4"W x 60 3/4"L x 12"H.

For more information on the event checkout COSC. See y'all there...

Hohanshelt Residence - exterior railing

A LOT of railing for Melanie and Jason. Steel 2" sq. tube posts, 1 1/2" sq. tube top rails, 1" sq. tube bottom rails, 1/2" rd. bar laterals. Silver powder coat finish by Miller's Custom Powder Coating. Thanks for Melanie, Jason, Gardner Homes, "Broseph" Bryce, Logan for taking the time to drop off the last couple of stair rails yesterday and everyone back at the shop for helping knock out this project in short order...really short order - thanks Terry, Tyler and J.J.

Clean and contemporary. I dig it. Cheers.

2011 DSM Juice Mixies awards

Thanks to my pal, Eric Rowley, for bringing the photo shoot into the shop for a session with one of this year's winners, Canby. Check out all of the winners at Juice or pick up a copy at your local merchant.

Pauly

Haiku - booth construction, day 2

We be jammin'...

Frames are done and we moved on to some sizable glue-ups.

Haiku - booth construction, day 1

Here's a side view drawing of what is going to be 50'+ of seating for a new restaurant by the name of Haiku on the Drake campus. Plywood? Hell no. The backrests and seats on this installation will be solid 5/4 white oak.
















Bob and I tore through over 200 bf in the planer with a couple of passes on table saw as well for preparation of glue-ups tomorrow. 2x4 frame construction 16" on center is probably overkill on something like this, but that's the way I want it. Besides, who's to tell me I'm wrong? I've been accused of over-engineering before...and I honestly don't mind it.

Gabriel's platform bed - headboard assembly

Too tired to explain everything...it should be done this week though. Hoping to get to polyurethane tomorrow.

Gabriel's platform bed - rails

All of the biscuit slots were cut today, but I failed to make sure I had enough #20s to glue up the headboard. In lieu of that, I selected the rails and "faced" them. Didn't get to any mortising - that'll be tomorrow.

Gabriel's platform bed - headboard

Here's a preliminary mock-up of Mr. Saenz's headboard for his platform bed. Like all our other glue-ups, this one will also be biscuit-jointed. That glue-up will be done tomorrow along with a whole lot of time on the mortising drill for the rail connections.

Oxy-acetylene cart

I finished up my oxy-acetylene cart today. Heavy duty - this one's built to last.

Royal Mile flagpoles

Here's some fabrication pics of four flagpoles headed for the Royal Mile on 4th St. in downtown Des Moines. Hutch wanted a ball finial on each pole, so I sacrificed a few ornamental ball caps. The actual poles themselves are simply electrical EMT. It was chosen for being light, but still relatively strong and a modest galvanized finish to reduce the onset of oxidation. A few chain links were cut in half and welded to the poles as attachment clips for the flags. Another link was welded down by the bottom that will have a safety cable fished through it and then fastened to an additional fish-eye anchor on the exterior wall.

The flanges are 6" x 8" 1/4" mild steel with 1/2" holes spaced to be on center of the bricks' mortar joints. A hole was drilled into the tube that accepts the poles. A bolt and nut will then be run through the holes to keep the poles from coming out. There's really no such thing as over-engineering when fixtures all overhead of public right-of-way areas.

The poles are being shot gloss black powder with a fizz can painted gold finial. Install should happen in the next day.

ISU - Oak/Elm dining hall shelves

Today's post is an update on the shelving being fabricated for ISU Dining in the newly renovated Oak/Elm Hall. Check out this entry from a couple of weeks ago for a drawing of the design.







Thanks goes out to Eric at Colony Heating and Air Conditioning for busting these oak and elm leaves out for me on Monday. Fast turnarounds rule. The leaves will be cold forged and welding to some vineyard bar under the shelf, running the length of the fixture. Again, go back to the drawing for a clearer explanation.

I drew these leaves in Adobe Illustrator CS5 and was able to save each as an AutoCAD .dwg. I absolutely love Adobe.



After not being able to find the shorty tri-pod my wife threw away, I improvised with a 1/4 x 20 bolt, Vise-Grips and my Jawhorse. For what? As if fabrication pictures aren't boring enough, I've been recording footage of myself in the highly entertaining act of fabricating on my Flip for a compilation video of this ISU job. We'll see how it turns out after installation is complete and I can edit all the clips together. I'm having a hard time coming up with an accompanying tune to go with welding, grinding, drilling etc....Any suggestions?

"Book" book-ended shelf

I finished fabrication on this barn wood shelf on Friday. The books were inlaid about two inches deep to a snug fit without requiring any adhesive or fasteners. All that's left to do is construct an apparatus to hang the shelf on to give it a floating appearance. This particular piece is for my folks to replace my mother's outdated P. Buckley Moss ('80s anybody?!) prints. I can't wait to hang it for the two of them.

Coffee talk...

Coffee table above is 20" x 36" and about 18" tall. The lower section of the table will accommodate a shelf that I glued up earlier in the day. Entirely constructed of reclaimed barn wood with pinned, mortise and tenon joinery.


Both tables that will be for sale at Jazz In July art show on Tuesday.


Here's a bent wood, laminated coat rack constructed of maple, walnut and faced with zebrawood. Two gussets will be mounted right behind the face of the rack, just right and left of center. They will then meet on a lower mounting plate that attaches to the wall approximately 36" below the coat rack. The mounting holes are spaced 48" on center making installation into two studs easy...as long as you find them.

Some candies...

Not really any candies...but if you knew a Bosnian production manager that worked at Sticks named Ned, you'd get the joke. And I couldn't think of another title for this post.

Really, who IS the Squiggy though?


Above is a mock-up of one of two end tables for our house. Bethany and I picked out a piece of zebrawood last night at Woodsmith Store. The grain orientation can be really wild at times and makes power-planing difficult as the wood develops checking and chatter marks quite easily. I'll have my buddy, Toby, run these through his wide-belt sander to surface the tops. The frames are 1" square tubing that's been rusted and sprayed with polyurethane.



This is one of two reclaimed barn wood tables. The 1 1/2" thick table tops measure 20" x 36", with the one pictured above standing 34 1/2". Both are constructed with pinned mortise and tenon joinery, as shown below. The other table will be coffee table height.



It seems like I'm building everything in pairs these days, and this shelf is no exception. The books are actually going to be recessed into the wood and act as "book" bookends. The spines will be set back (as shown) so the recessed couple of inches won't be seen. These were inspired by Juxtaposed:Power from Blankblank. I can assure you mine won't be $3K...no kidding, follow the link.



Looking in my rearview mirror while leaving the shop, I had to pull over and take some pictures. This was around dusk, 8:56 p.m., as a nasty cell was rolling in...