New Designs

I recently finished a Kitchen table and 2 chairs. The table is an original design, while the chairs are Nakashima-inspired. The chairs are very low-backed because the client wanted the backs to be below the top of the table. The chairs are Walnut, and the Table is Walnut and Cherry.




Ultra content? I'll be driving these to the client in Cleveland next week. I don't know much about geography but I think that is a long way away.

Catching Up

Yes I'm still alive, if only barely. My surgery recovery has been very slow with me still being super fatigued. I had follow-up blood work done yesterday and will hear the results next week in case I need to do anything different than my current plan, which mainly consists of suffering twice a week on the CRUD runs. My only event on the slate at this point is running the Leadville Trail Marathon in 6 weeks with my Dad. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up! All the normal CRUD guys, along with 2009 newcomers Eric Grossman and Scott Jaime, have been kicking my butt on the Thur CRUD hill workouts. Look out for Eric at the WS100, and Scott at the HR100 this season as both are in good shape and getting faster each week.

We had a nice run today with the CRUD group through the Air Force Academy (Falcon Trail) and partway up Stanley Canyon. A few of the guys went up the whole way to Rampart Reservoir but I turned back right after this photo for a 3 hr run.



Just for Brownie, I wanted to show a few of my latest furniture pieces. This first one is a desk/secretary made out of Cherry. This piece includes more than 200 dovetails as well as a lot of inlay using other woods (maple, walnut, and mahogany).




Finally, this is a King size bed made out of Walnut and Curly Maple. The clients are quite short as you can see.

Pacific Buffet

My favorite kind of buffet is the all-you-can-eat variety, but this one is nice too. My first new piece in a good while so wanted to post a picture. This one just shipped out to its new home in Milwaukee.


Pacific Buffet - African Mahogany and Black Walnut

Shop Tour

I just moved from a 1000 SF commercial warehouse to a shop in my garage and basement. I now have a bit more space (1060 SF) but it is divided up into 2 areas. This has turned out to be beneficial as I can more easily move a project from the machine area in the garage, to the handtool area, to the finish area. The doors make sure the piece will fit in the cutomer's house when it is done! Lumber storage is the biggest issue and I will be building a lumber shed behind my house to address that concern.

Here's a list of my machines:

Robland NLX-31 Combination Machine (sliding table saw, shaper, 12" jointer, 12" planer, Horizontal slot cutter)
Steel City 26" Double Drum Sander
Rikon 18" Bandsaw
Powermatic Mortiser
Ridgid 12" Lunchbox Planer
Ryobi drill press
Ridgid Spindle Sander
Rykon Disk Sander
FESTOOL Domino
FESTOOL Random Orbital Sander
FESTOOL Circular Saw
FESTOOL Jigsaw
FESTOOL Router
FESTOOL Vacuum
Dewalt Compound Mitre Saw
Delta Dust Collector
Jet Dust Collector
Jet Air Filter
And now on to the tour....

This is the main machine area (formerly the garage).


This is my Robland Combination machine, which is where a lot of the rough work is done getting the wood flat and square.


Here's my handtool area.

Here's my workbench and a hanging cabinet with many of my handplanes.

This is my assembly table and my 2 helpers. In that back corner is where I keep all my FESTOOL machines. They are used here at the assembly table.

You can never have enough clamps.

Here's the finishing area. I use hand-rubbed oil and wax finishes so it doesn't have to be a "clean room" but keeping it away from the dust is still nice.

Templates are used whenever a part has a curve. This way I can be sure that all the parts that need to be are the same.

Tansu Media Cabinet

I finished up a new (actually just a more elaborate version of one of my standard designs) piece today and got a quick photo before getting it shipped off to its new home. This one is Cherry and Bubinga, with a Maple border inlay on the top and carved Walnut pulls.

This and That

It's been a wild week here in Palmer Lake; upper 60s early in the week, then 6 inches of snow, then upper 60s again. Today was a gorgeous day for the local ultra (Greenland 50K). A few Team CRUDers ran the event, while the rest of us ran the great Sante Fe/Ice Lake/Falcon Loop run (23 miles), which circles the Air Force Academy on a nice rolling single track trail.

Speaking of Team CRUD, check out our new socks!

The socks are just the latest step in our plan for total world domination. Better join us before it is too late.

For tomorrow's run, we'll be checking out the snow levels up at 9000 feet as we head from my house in Palmer Lake up Balanced Rock road to Rampart Range rd, then back down Winding Stairs road (22 miles). All 3 of the aforementioned roads are rough Forest Service roads with little traffic. The black bears are just coming out so hopefully we'll see one tomorrow.

In furniture news, I just completed a new design this week; this is the 4th piece in my Shaker collection and is made out of Cherry, Birdseye Maple, and Aromatic Cedar.

New Pieces, Better Photos

In furniture news, I have recently finished a few new pieces and made arrangements with a photographer near my shop to start having my stuff professionally shot. What a difference it makes. Over the last year, I had gotten a little better with my photo skills and had a nice set-up with lights and several backdrops, but I was still having a problem with getting the whole piece of furniture in focus (particularly larger stuff) and with no harsh shadows.




Anyway, I think they came out really nice and while it is a hassle to haul everything to the studio prior to shipping or delivery, it will be worth it. I was also able to use a few of the good photos in a new Ad I'll be running in 2008 in 2 magazines: Arts and Crafts Home and the Revival and Style 1900.


I've also spent quite a bit of time editing old photos to remove the backdrops, so that all the photos on my website look more consistent and clean. Finally, I added a little javascript slide show on the main page of my site. This kind of busy work is nice as my race gets closer, as it takes my mind off it.

Providence Fine Furnishings Show

The DeWitt Woodworking Booth

My friend Rick (a fellow CRUD runner) and I just returned from pulling a trailer to Providence RI and back, which turned out to be almost exactly 2000 miles each way. This was my first such show so I expected, and did, learn a lot about better ways to display my furniture if I decide to do any more shows in the future. As for the show itself, it was a busy 3 days that passed quickly due to a constant stream of people coming by and talking. I was able to get away from my booth a few times and cruise through the exhibits. Several very well known furniture makers were also exhibiting at the show, so it was great to meet them and see their furniture up close. Of special interest was Brian Boggs, one of the foremost chairmakers in the country, who actually built a chair during the 3 days of the show. He did this almost exclusively with hand tools. Several well-known woodworking programs, such as the North Bennet Street school from Boston and the Rhode Island School of Design also had booths showing student work.

Brian Boggs Booth

Booth and Show Attendees

Some Amazing Marquetry

John Landis Cabinetmakers Booth

Rick had the opportunity to check out a lot of downtown Providence and the Brown University campus during the day while I was at the show. We also got out for runs each morning and checked out a few bars at night. On Saturday, they had what is called "Waterfire" which was quite unusual. The Providence river runs right through downtown and they light fires atop small concrete posts that run down the middle of the river. Classical music played and various street vendors were out. Gondolas moved up and down the river with couples having dinner and wine.

For running, Rick and I found a paved bike/running path that started in Cranston near our hotel and ran west for a long ways. The fall colors were amazing and we seemed to be the only ones out on the bike path each morning. I'm not sure where all the local runners were.

Training Log

This was supposed to be a "back to normal" week though the driving didn't help any with getting my runs in. I did what I call a half workout on Tuesday, meaning I did a normal workout protocol (in this case a cut-down run in which I increase the pace by .1mph each .25 miles) but I just didn't do it as fast as normal because my hamstring is still bothering me. If things were going well, I'd warm up then start the cut-down at 7:30 pace and speed up over the course of the hour to about 5:20 pace and hold it there for awhile. The first 2 runs in Cranston were about 7 - 7:20 pace, and the longer run on Sunday was more like 7:45 - 8:00 pace.

Mon 10/22 – 0
Tue 10/23 – 1:00:00 on TM, cut-down from 8:00 to 6:30 pace (loaded trailer and driving to RI)
Wed 10/24 – Token 5:00 jog in Indiana (driving to RI)
Thu 10/25 – 0 (More driving to RI)
Fri 10/26 – 1:10:00 flat/rolling pavement, Cranston RI
Sat 10/27 – 1:45:00 flat/rolling pavement, Cranston RI
Sun 10/28 – 2:06:00 flat/rolling pavement, Cranston RI
Week – 6:06 / 48 miles