Polishing Stainless Bolts
If you have ever had the opportunity to see my furniture in person, you may have noticed that all of the exposed stainless steel fasteners have a great luster to them. This is a finish that I have to create on my own. It is done with a metal lathe and, although time-consuming, I feel the results are absolutely worth it.
Step One is turning with a carbide insert. This creates a perfectly flat surface and eliminates any odd surface marks.
the next step is the polishing the surface with a fine grit sandpaper to further refine the finish
The results are a handful of beauty!
Hardinge Lathe Adventure
One of the tools I use a lot for my work is a metal lathe. For many years I have owned a beautiful behemoth from 1959 made by Cincinnati You can do a lot of work with a big lathe, but it is not as convenient for smaller pieces. I have had my eye on a smaller machine to complement my big Cincinnati for the last year. I finally was able to purchase one- where? of course, eBay!
The lathe was located in Worcester Massachusetts. It had been owned by the recently closed United Screw Machine Products Inc. The son of the original owner was on hand and said their business had been primarily with Stanley in Connecticut. As Stanley has moved more and more manufacturing overseas, their business slowly shrank. The building was a beautiful classic brick factory.
The Loading was done by a professional rigger who was on hand to load the rest of the machines which had been sold as a lot. I actually bought my lathe from the dealer who had bought the entire inventory of machines. Here the rigger backs down a steep ramp to get to my truck.
My truck is loaded! Aside from the lathe, a drill press, maple work bench and a few other grimy goodies make it on the load. It actually turns out to be quite a load!
The trip back to the shop is easy and I quickly offload it with my much smaller forklift. Here it is on the ground.
…..And moved into place in the metal shop. You can just see the end of my bigger lathe in the lower left of this photo. The size of the Hardinge Lathe is just one thing. The real advantage is that it is set-up to do small runs of production parts. It features a rotating turret that allows you to rapidly move through numerous tools and perform different operations without changing tooling. It is going to be perfect to make the rod ends for pieces like my Callisto Table. I can’t wait to use it!
Cape Cod Beacon
My Family has convened at Cape Cod for several years- a tradition going back to my childhood, when we travelled to Cape Cod every summer.
During this trip I spent some time fishing on a stone breakwater that guards Welfleet Harbor. At the end was a beautifully rusted beacon and I took these great shots. It was an especially nice find as we caught NO FISH!
Wall Sculpture in NYC
I recently completed a commission for a Wall sculpture based upon WS2. The piece was intended as a surprise for my clients wedding anniversary and installation took place hours before his wife came home from work. I didn’t realize until I arrived that the apartment was a four story walk-up in NYC! that was quite a hike, but the results were worth the effort. The sculpture is made in walnut to match the existing walnut partition and was installed in the stair of their duplex loft. It looked great and the result was a very successful gift!
