Another Piano Bench

Piano bench, part V. Or is it part VI? Anyway, here are pics of this one, which happens to be exactly the same as two other ones I've created before. This one lived next to my piano for all of three and a half minutes before I packed it up and shipped it off to an anxiously waiting customer.

Details: Solid ash; leg structures stained dark; shellac finish on top; width 30"; depth 14"; height 18".

Next up: Another piano bench that I'll actually keep. And it won't have slats! What? No slats? I actually build things without slats?

Do you want slats? More slats here.

Drumstick

When I hear the word drumstick, I think of ice cream in a cone with the top dipped in chocolate and a sprinkling of nuts on top. But this is about something else.

My lathe is my friend. My spokeshave used to be my friend, but it's been demoted to just an acquaintance. While finishing up some spindles today I came across a skinny-ish piece of ash and said to myself, "Drumstick!" 'Cause nowadays I'm dreaming up all kinds of nonsense that I can make with my friend the lathe: pepper mills, French rolling pins, regular rolling pins, lamps, pens, pencils, letter openers, big wooden spoons and forks, dildos, bottle stoppers, chairs, stair spindles, light sabers, dagger hilts, chessmen, chesswomen, and of course drumsticks.

Anyway, I chucked up the ash, gave it a spin, and out came my best approximation of a drumstick. An approximation was all I could muster 'cause I didn't have a live sample to measure or copy (since I sold my drums and my collection of sticks/mallets a loooong time ago). It's a little on the short side (12.75") compared to a 5A (~16.25"), but it looks right. (The skinny-ish piece of ash was only 13.5" long.) There's a taper, there's a tip, there's a rounded butt, and there's a signature. 'Cause it's not a drumstick unless it's an official Signature Model.

So here it is, the Carlo Signature Stick, model 1138. 'Cause I'm a rock star. With only one stick. I'll be playing one-handed until its twin can be fabricated.

Dimensions:
Length 12 3/4"
Diameter 7/8"

Ash, with a few coats of satin poly
Signed, limited edition (1 of 1)

Price: $1,000,000

Cash only (in a briefcase)

Free delivery to anywhere in the world

The Wall Structure, Part Two

Nelson Bench Project India: The Wall Structure, Part Two

Part Two meaning that it is installed and doing what it is meant to be doing: displaying stuff.

To refresh your recollection, it's a 16 foot wide by 2 foot tall slat structure with four slat shelves. It's a Nelson Bench hung on a wall, only it's not a bench. Hopefully that makes sense. It's broken up into four sections, each section being 4x2. Mounting is with some butterfly through-toggles in the drywall. Rather than bother with hitting studs ('cause my finicky stud finder seemed to not find 16" OC), I opted for equally spacing the drilled holes on the slat surface and just going with the toggles.

More on the Nelson Bench Project.

The original post has some SketchUp renderings if you're interested.

The first six pics were taken just after installation.

Although it's not wood, the metal bar structure was also part of the commission. This is a clothing company after all and the intention is to display a few things on the shelves and to hang a ton of clothes on a rack. During planning for this operation, I discovered something called Speed-Rail fittings for the junctions of the bars. With a few twists of an allen key, yous gots yourself some snug neato elbow fittings, T fittings and flange fittings. MUCH easier to manage than dealing with threaded pipe.

And the two pics below are with accessories in place. Throw up a few purses, slather on a bucket of clothes, and you get magic.

All ash construction. Finished with tung oil.

Dimensions of wall structure:
16' wide
2' tall

Dimensions of each shelf:
22" wide
1' deep

Dimensions of clothes rails:
5' lengths (x3) 1" GRC (~1 1/4" nominal)
55" height
16" offset from wall
Speed-Rail fittings

Price: permanent installation, not for sale

If you have a space that needs similar treatment and would like an estimate and some SketchUp renderings, shoot me an email and we'll discuss.

The Wall Structure

Nelson Bench Project India: The Wall Structure

Construction begins today on the latest George Nelson Bench project, code named India. It's a wall-mounted slatted structure that's 16 feet wide and 2 feet tall, with four slatted shelves.

This one's pretty monstrous - kinda like building a super long Nelson bench and slapping it on a wall. Well, not kinda like, but actually building a super long Nelson bench and slapping it on a wall.

Since the slats are transversely oriented, the Nelson effect is somewhat different. It should, however, work well in the space that it's intended for as it will draw the gaze upward and extend the height of the room.

The finished piece will be written up extensively in a future post along with bunches of pictures.

All ash. So the grain will be like my four foot Nelson.

Nelson: Project Delta

For the fourth project in the Nelson Series, I present The Foot Stool.

Find out more about The George Nelson Bench Project.

What do you do with smallish leftover pieces of ash from Project Charlie? Make a smallish Nelson Bench, of course!

This was a fun project. Quick and dirty. Not too many teeth to cut. And I even got to use my brand spanking new spokeshave and make some spindles. Yessirree, hand cut spindles. I don't own a lathe and I probably won't get a lathe any time in the near future. Come to think of it, I've never used a lathe in my life. During woodshop class in junior high school, our family was on an extended vacation when they covered turning, so I missed out. Now all I do is watch that turning guy on PBS and think to myself, hmmm someday I'll get around to messing with turning. But not now.

So what do you do with this little bench? Sit on it? Let your kid sit on it 'cause it's tiny? Use it as a footstool while relaxing on the sofa? Use it as a footstool at the foot of the bed so you can put your shoes on without having to bend over all the way to the floor? Anything like that will do.

My favorite idea for a use for this one is as a coconut grater. All one would have to do is find one of these:

And attach it to the end of the stool and make something like this:

And there you have it! Coconut grater stool!

My grandfather made one of these (not a Nelson coconut grater of course, but one similar to the line drawing above) and used to grate coconuts in the garage. Actually, he probably made a few of them and gave one to each of my aunts and uncles. He made all sorts of things out of wood and didn't need no stinkin' power tools. Give him a hand saw and a screwdriver and anything was possible.

Perhaps a Nelson project in the future will be the coconut grater.

As for this project, here are the dimensions:

Length: 13 3/4"
Width: 7 1/4"
Height: 8 1/2"

All solid ash construction.

Price: $50 Sold!

Although this piece has sold (yippee!), one can be custom-crafted for you if this style of piece is what you're interested in. Any size or any wood species-- it's up to you. Email me with your ideas and I'll SketchItUp for you and give you a price estimate.

To arrange purchase, send an email to craigwoodworks at gmail dot com

Nelson: Project Charlie

Ah, number Three, Project Charlie. The Other Piano Bench.

For more on The George Nelson Bench Project, go here.

Note: Piano not included.

I'll admit now that I have a thing for the usage of something that's not a piano bench as a piano bench. Because frankly, standard piano benches are just plain ugly. They usually come in two flavors: Flavor One is a wooden topped thing (with or without a hinged top) with tapered legs. Flavor Two is a cushion topped thing that's just a bulbous piece of nonsense. Since flavor two usually has some sort of height adjustment dealie built in, the bulbousness of the cushioned top makes it just too bulbous to look at. Bulbous. That's a great word.

Example of a bulbous bulbousity:

Please note: I absolutely did not make the bench pictured above. I don't believe I would want to make the bench pictured above. I don't believe I would want to sit on the bench pictured above. I don't believe I would subject my piano to being accompanied by the bench pictured above. Sure my piano is an old rickety thing, but it does have some sense of decency and style left in her.

My sister's piano didn't come with a bench either. She went to Cost Plus and picked up a cool looking piece with flared legs and an undulating rattan top. Now, that's a piano bench with some chutzpah!

And now here's my contribution to the family of piano benches that don't look like standard piano benches: The Nelson Piano Bench.

The first iteration of The Nelson Piano Bench (Project Alpha) wasn't exactly a Nelson because of the glued up end pieces and the absence of the teeth with the notches. This bench does have the teeth and the notches and even has the requisite center toothed piece.

The legs aren't angled 'cause I was concerned about stability. Some piano players (myself included) get way too animated and physically involved with their playing that a back and forth swaying motion might be detrimental to the player's uprightness if the angled legs were present. Therefore, I kept the legs straight. The dadoes within which the legs rest were cut on all the slats including the outer ones. This was a little thing I wanted to try to see if it looked cool that the leg ends were visible. I think they're cool.

Here are the dimensions:

Length: 30"
Width: 14"
Height: 18 3/4"

The length of 30" is more in line with a typical piano bench length. Project Alpha was much shorter. The height is just a tad lower than Project Alpha because as I mentioned in the Project Alpha description, it felt a little high. A quarter of an inch lower feels just right.

Ash top, with poplar legs. Yeah, I know, the legs are poplar. I ran out of ash for the legs so I had to resort to whatever else was on hand. Hence the poplar. What little pieces of ash I had left went to Project Delta.

Price: $150 Sold!

Although this piece has sold (yippee!), one can be custom-crafted for you if this style of piece is what you're interested in. Any size or any wood species-- it's up to you. Email me with your ideas and I'll SketchItUp for you and give you a price estimate.

To arrange purchase, send an email to craigwoodworks at gmail dot com

Nelson: Project Bravo

Number Two on the Nelson Project list is, well, The Nelson Bench.

Get more info on The George Nelson Bench Project.

OK, I lied. In the description of what The George Nelson Bench Project is, I stated that I won't actually make a George Nelson Bench. Well it seems that I somehow had to make one just to make sure I was able to make one and keep it as for real as possible. Note that when saying the words "for real" out loud, don't pronounce the "r." It'll sound something like "fo real." Never mind.

So here it is. Project Bravo is a four foot Nelson Bench complete with proper toothed ends and notched slats and a center support as well. The legs are angled inward to give it that oh so sexy Nelson flair. The stain on the legs is more of a chocolate brown than a true ebony-- so that'll be my little distinctive difference from a Nelson Bench that you can find elsewhere.

The dimensions:

Length: 48"
Width: 18"
Height: 14"

See? Even the dimensions are authentic!

All solid ash construction.


Price: Inquire

To arrange purchase, send an email to craigwoodworks at gmail dot com