A friend of mine got hired to build a couple of restaurant booths for a local bar, and he asked me if I had any lumber for sale. He's never been to my house before this morning. So after talking it over, I've got a gig to build a couple restaurant booths, and a full time apprentice for the project. I'm pretty sure he thought I was kidding when I told him I was going to give him the Mr Miyagi treatment... It's for Calhoons Pub in Newfane, which happens to be where I play sand volleyball in the summertime. I was good friends with Jeff and Cheryl, the former owners who recently both passed away. Jeff had pancreatic cancer, and then Cheryl passed away suddenly earlier this year. Thier daughter Morgan is running things now and she's been doing a great job sprucing things up. So it seems the perfect opportunity to use some of my lumber and try to make something really special. I've got some really nice book matched red maple for the table tops. Haven't quite decided to use for the benches but I want go with live edge slabs there too - on a minimalist, semi-hidden frame so hopefully make it look like they're "floating". I'm really excited. I'll probably be working for practically nothing, but I think it's a great opportunity.
nice ,best of luck with the project,i used to enjoy woodworking until it became a job ,looking forward to seeing it progress .
It sounds like a great opportunity with your milling and woodworking background. We were at a restaurant in N.H. two weeks ago that had milled plank booths. Single plank booth table tops close to 2" thick. The milled lumber gave a nice look to the place.
Two quick comments to add: The restaurant had live edge pieces for trim at the top of the booths and the bark had broken or was picked off. Sadly, it looked unkempt. My other thought is that Dutchmen would look great holding the planks together.
I built a workbench for my apprentice. This is where the Mr Miyagi part comes in... The pieces are too big for my planer, so we're (he's) going to have to do them by hand.
we on FHC appreciate the look and so will the owners but unfortunately a lot of the public and their kids have no idea.
Well Im feeling really good about this project. Greg stopped over this morning and he seems totally on board with my plans and ready to work. So, first on the list was cleaning up the workshop, and it's about as clean and organized right now as it's ever been. After that, we put together a little model - not exactly to scale or proportion, missing key details, but I think is enough to express the basic idea and help Greg to see my vision too. After that, I set him up with a slab and a plane in need of a bit of sharpening -so lesson #2 became sharpening the plane. He's a currently unemployed machinist and he picked right up on that part. He worked for about an hour out by the wood pile in the direct sun, before offering to help me clean up the garage so he could get set up in there. So far it would seem everything is going according to plan... There's 2 stacks of slabs that need surfacing, so theres a long way to go yet. He said he's going to be over in the morning and work on them all day while I'm at the office, and that he might be able to get his brother to help on Tuesday. They want it done in a month - and if we can through that part, I think we'll be in really good shape.
Nice little mock up of the bench you made there. Any thoughts on renting a rectangular floor sander to surface the slabs? Lay the planks out and run each one and move on to a finer grit. Just thinking out loud.
Sounds interesting... I told him if he feels like giving up we could price out other surfacing options. But I had him using the #605 and he picked right up on it. I've done a few myself that way and it wasn't too bad. I think there's something about revealing that planed surface that helps you keep going. The pics don't really do it justice - there's some nice curl to the grain near the live edge. Speaking of which, do you know of any techniques to highlight grain like that? I don't think grain filler will take on maple, and dye isn't an option - they want something light colored.
Shawn, sounds like a great job with lot's of exposure.. your eye for the details will carry you through. i would be inclined to try some bleach to highlight that maple grain. or maybe its vinegar on maple, i can't remember which is for maple. good luck
I have used very fine powdery dirt. Rub some on lightly with a rag, light sand the high spots after. No edge tools after that. It may show any errant plane digs though. I just did a piece of rough cut pine for an example. Dirt on right half. Quick poly spray across the bottom half. It shows the grain nicely. A soft bristle brush should help with finish adhesion. Stain or shellac will darken it too much overall.
Progress update - from Greg. Ive got to get going on my end of the project here - or they're going to be done with the slabs before I even settle on the design for the bases!
