Furniture Hardware. Keeping track.

When restoring furniture often this means taking pieces apart. But like taking a car engine apart, I am not just going to do grab all the hardware and put them in a box or a glass jar. Instead I am going to have holder laying out exactly where each piece of hardware came from. Often I use a piece of cardboard and just make a series of holes with a knife or an awl. Than I place the screws, nails, escutcheon pins, locks, handles, hinges, or whatever in a sequence that allows me the reassurance that everything goes back exactly where they came from. The holder can be made from cardboard or plywood or even hardwood. Lastly I make notations on the holders so that not only I can I install the hardware exactly, but that my subs can too. For example I will label a series of screws with the word left (L) and right (R) to make certain I don't flip the screws around. If L & R isn't enough I even label from what position I am looking at the piece when I wrote L & R. 

While this may be a simple tip it is amazing how useful it can be in the shop or onsite. 

Cheers.

Broken round tenon

I am in the beginning stages of repairing 110 chairs for the MIT chapel in Boston Massachusetts. When I am repairing any piece of furniture new, vintage, or antique I always weigh my options. The question I always ask myself is can I save the damaged area or do I need fabricate a new part. There are many things to consider when making this decision and they should not be taken lightly. In the video above you will see me saving a chair rail from one of the MIT chairs by fabricating a new tenon.

The process... To save the chair rail I vertically bored a 1/2 inch hole about 1 inch deep in the chair rail. The rail was 5/8 thick overall. By boring a hole perfectly centered I knew I had 3/32 -1/8 inch of wood all around to help hold the new tenon in place.  Why bore 1 inch in the rail? Over the years I have tested different length and width tenons in holes and have determine that 1 inch is ideal. Anything less can break and anything more doesn't drastically improve the strength.

Once the hole is bored I take a dowel and size it to fit in the 1/2 inch hole. I make the tenon by rotating over a saw blade while using a miter gauge.  This is really quick work and really easy.

The adhesive I love using for such repairs is West System G/Flex epoxy. This epoxy is thick, slow setting, and wicked strong.  I have tested this epoxy by gluing two pieces MDF for 24 hours and than trying to break the joint. What resulted from the bashing of the hammer was everything else broke but not the joint.  

After the epoxy is dry I am ready to glue the chair. The new joint/tenon is stronger than ever. Please note epoxy is only used when all other options will possibly fail. There is no need to use epoxy to glue up the chair. Always think about the next person who will need to fix the chair in the future. 

Thank you for reading and watching the short video. 

Cheers!

 

When to hold an item ransom.

Lets talk business! In my business I have learned the hard way that you can't always trust every word or promise coming from your client. While this may be hard to swallow or even read by many, it is the truth. Sadly like everything in life a few bad apples spoils it for everyone else.  

When it comes to business I am now a big believer in having a small contract ready for all transactions big or small. The contract I use entails the contact information, the dimensions of the items, the species, the condition of the item, the work necessary, an estimate, an agreement and understanding that I am not responsible for fire, theft, damage, the payment schedule. Lastly in the proposal I roughly give them a possible date of completion. I always like to keep the client informed of my schedule just incase a job before theirs gets delayed, that way they understand their starting date may get pushed back.  The reason for this is that I am a one man shoppe and I can only do so much.  

For payments I now request 1/2 up front, a 1/4 of the payment three quaters of the way done, and 1/4 on delivery. I must get paid first before delivery even starts. If the payment is over a $1,000 dollars they can pay me in a check, with credit card, and/or cash. If I have a funny feeling I am going to going to get screwed or if this is the first time doing business with a client than a bank check and cash is the only option. As a business you must be aware that clients can cancel a check and a credit card payment. But the client can not cancel a bank check and this gives me the necessary control of a transaction. 

This leads me to holding furniture as ransom. Please note this doesn't happen often but when it does I must be prepared. There have been times that I set up a delivery, unload the furniture, and than client tells me oh I forgot the check book at the office or I don't have my wallet. Often clients are being honest but you never really know. There has been times that I delivered a chest of drawers and I have taken back the drawers. There has been other times that I taken the leaves of the dining table, or even taken the seats of a set of chairs but left the chairs. This is how I control the situation. This is business and I often compare myself to a car mechanic. If you drop off your car for repairs, than when come to pick up your vehicle the bill must be paid.   

In the same retrospect if something is wrong with the piece I repaired than I have the responsibility to take care of the piece at no cost to the client. That is of course if the issue was agreed upon in the contract. 

I hope this post is helpful for you and may it give you a better understanding what this business is all about. 

Cheers!

Book Recommendation on Furniture Care and Conservation

 Often I get asked if there is a book on furniture care, repair, and conservation.  Really the best response is to join GROOP other wised known as the Professional Refinishers Group. This group of individuals are all over the USA and overseas. The members are all professionals and range in age from their 30's to 60's.  Some are professional conservators, restorers, makers, upholsters, violinist, and woodworkers.  We as a groop are what we call family and all we want is to share information and ask questions amongst our groop and get answers.  This is a support groop and secrets don't exist.

But if I had to recommend one book it would Furniture Care and Conservation by Robert F. McGiffin, Jr. Its a great book with a ton information. The methods in this book still are standards in the repair world.  The photo below showcases the chapters in the book.  

Giving new life to a piece of furniture.

When it comes to my world of restoration and woodworking I not too picky if the money is right. Take for example the set of 4 shield back chairs made from mahogany and now painted. While some will say why would you paint them? There are also many who will say I love them! Really when it comes down to it, my business is to save furniture from heading into a dumpster or another land fill. If I can give a client the look they desire by painting and/or adding new upholstery than I have succeeded. But not only have I succeeded in satisfying the client, I also prevent them from purchasing a low grade, off gassing, production made item made who knows where. Now that puts a smile on my face.

The process I went through to paint the chairs was relatively simple. I abraded all surfaces with the red scotch brite pad from Norton, wipe all the dust down, and brushed on a couple coats. Than I sprayed on 3 more coats of paint.  Why brush and than paint? The client wanted a brush look so by brushing first the spray coats will lay over the brush strokes and appear each layer was brushed on.  Spray painting is far easier and faster than brushing. Also spraying gives you more control and allows you to get paint in hard to reach areas. The spray gun of choice... drum roll please.... The cheap harbor freight gravity feed gun. Why? I dedicate my guns and I don't want to spend the time to clean each gun perfectly.  So I have a paint gun for white, black, grey, finishes, shellac, lacquer, etc.  This says a ton of time and solvents.  Once all the painting is done I hit all surfaces with  a brown paper bag and burnish the surface.

That is it. Quick and easy. If I can do you surely can as well.