New Member completed project photos

[Rob Millard]

I just joined this site yesterday, and I thought I'd post photos of my most recent project. I'm an active contributor to other sites, so some may have seen this before.

The piece is an accurate copy of a Seymour night cabinet. It is made from Mahogany, curly maple, satinwood, ebony, Australian oak, white pine and marble. I make all my own inlays. The finish is shellac. Any and all questions or comments are welcome.

Rob Millard

[larry merlau]

very nice work, those inlays and the carving are impressive. welcome to the creek and come often. you will fit right in for sure and they wil be many looking to you for your input as your skills are very evident excellent piece.

[Joe Mioux]

Rob:

Welcome to SMC. That table is spectacular!

[David Fried]

Welcone Rob. That is FWW centerfold material! Very nice.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Rob,

Welcome to SMC! You have joined a great forum! Your work is simply stunning, I look forward to seeing more of it!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Welcome to the 'Creek, Rob! Fantastic work! I'm sure members will be asking your advice! Again......Welcome!

[John Miliunas]

OK Rob, you'll find me to usually be a bit long-winded. Let's see if I can find the right words for your piece. Hmmmmmm....How about WOW!!!!? Sincerely, magnificent work! Welcome to the Creek and look forward to more of your projects and hopefully, some "how-to" instructions, as well!:) :cool:

[Chad Pater]

Very Nice! I think you get the prize for the best first post! Welcome
Chad

[Karl Laustrup]

OK Rob, you'll find me to usually be a bit long-winded. :) :cool:
And if you think John, AKA Spring, is long winded, I can usually put him to shame.

Just two words:


Beautiful Work!!!

[Steve Ash]

That is absolutely gorgeous work. Wow!!

[Steve Inniss]

Rob, Wonderful craftmanship, a pleasure to look at. Welcome. -Steve

[Tyler Howell]

Now this is how it's done. Our man Rob steps up, great pix, fabulous work. I think we scored another great member to the creek.
Welcome Rob. your hooked up with some other great folks.
Glad to have you wading in the Creek.:cool:

[Jim Dunn]

Welcome to the Creek. And I concure with the others when I add a

WOW
as well:)

Jim

[Pete Lamberty]

Absolutely fantastic Rob. I already am looking forward to your future posts. :)

[Bob Hovde]

Wow, wow and WOW!!

[Ron Robinson]

Beautiful work. This is why I love this forum. As a new amateur hobbyist I'm exposed to craftsmanship of this caliber on a routine basis. Just seeing something like that is inspiring. Thank you for sharing your craft and please continue to post to this forum. When I see work like that I have a goal to aspire to. And even though I may never reach that level, I'm motivated to keep making sawdust and improve my meager skills.

Ron Robinson

[Jim Becker]

Outstanding work, Rob. Welcome!

[Mike Forsman]

Welcome to SMC. Really great work. I look forward to your future contributions.

[John Renzetti]

Hi Rob, Very, very nice work. The attention to detail is exceptional. The hardware looks interesting. What is your source for that?
take care,
John

[Alan Turner]

Rob,

Welcome to this very friendly home for woodworkers of all skill levels. The only imporatnt rule here is cordiality, and it is uniformly observed. I have seen this piece you posted before and it is, of course, up to your usual standards, as is the photography of this fine piece.

From what I know of your methods of work, I suspect that you will land most often in the knuckle dragging section of the forum, and we will welcome you over there as well.

For those who do not know Rob's work or methods, he makes wonderful use of hand tools, and only little use of electron consuming tools. He is a finisher's finisher as well, and quite knowledgable in the art of coloring wood by a variety of methods.

Welcome aboard, and I hope you will feel free to share some of your other work with the SMC crowd.

[Carl Eyman]

Great Work and Great Design. And if Tyler approves, it must be good.

[Roy Wall]

Rob,


Thank you for joining us here at SMC....the pleasure is certainly ours. Your work is spectacular and exceptional!!

As a rookie hand tool enthusiast, I eagerly await your expertise in WW. So, without hesitation--

Please tell us about your joinery on this table, and how you fit a drawer???

[Thomas Rudolph]

Fantastic! You are at a level that I hope to one day obtain. Thank-you for sharing it with us.

[Rob Millard]

Rob,


Thank you for joining us here at SMC....the pleasure is certainly ours. Your work is spectacular and exceptional!!

As a rookie hand tool enthusiast, I eagerly await your expertise in WW. So, without hesitation--

Please tell us about your joinery on this table, and how you fit a drawer???
The sides, back, bottom rail and lower drawer rail are tenoned into the leg posts. The top drawer rail is dovetailed to the leg post. The bottom board is "captured" in a groove run near the bottom edge of the sides and back and glued to the lower front rail. The top board in the tambour section is screwed to the drawer runners. There is a partition in the tambour section to prevent items stored in there, from fouling the tambour as it opens, this partition is housed in stopped dados. The drawer is joined with standard half lap dovetails at the front and through ones at the rear.

I fit a drawer in what I guess is the universal way. I first plane the front to fit for height and then saw it to length for a tight fit. Using a No.9 miter plane and a shooting board, I remove the saw marks and this will automatically give the proper side clearance. The side are then planed to the same height as the front and cross cut to the proper length, grooved for the bottom and the dovetails cut.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Rob Millard

[Howard Rosenberg]

photos!
Howard

[Corey Hallagan]

Wow, beautiful work!! Thanks for the photo!
Corey

[Roger Myers]

Rob...welcome to the creek!!!

Folks, I've long admired Rob's work on a couple of other places I drop in too, and we are in for a real treat. His work is always impecable and an inspiration to me.

[lou sansone]

welcome rob

very nice seymour piece! beautiful inlay and nice carving on the legs. It is really hard to improve on his (seymour's ) work! One can only hope to do it justice by the copy, which you have.

Question about the photography.. What type of resolution are you using ( xxx meg pixal bla bla bla ). I am also new to this site and want to begin posting some pictures of my work. Your photos seem very good.

thanks
lou

[Rob Millard]

welcome rob

very nice seymour piece! beautiful inlay and nice carving on the legs. It is really hard to improve on his (seymour's ) work! One can only hope to do it justice by the copy, which you have.

Question about the photography.. What type of resolution are you using ( xxx meg pixal bla bla bla ). I am also new to this site and want to begin posting some pictures of my work. Your photos seem very good.

thanks
louI use a Nikon D-70 ( 6 Mega Pixel) with a Sigma 24-70 f2.8 lens and a circular polarizer. The shutter speed is very slow ( about 1 second ) because the f stop is fairly high at about f 11. The photos were taken in the RAW mode, edited and saved as a high quality JPEG. These photos were then run through Photoshop Elements 2.0 using the "Save for web" feature. Here I reduced the the quality, and the height/width, so they would display quickly and fit the screen not requiring any scrolling. For web based photos, you don't need a 6 Mega Pixel DSLR, I made perfectly acceptable photos with a 3.3 MP Minolta. What is important, is to have a camera that will accept filters, and will give you control over the f stop, so you can get enough depth of field to have the entire piece in focus.
I have attached a photo of the “studio” set up used to take the photos. This photo was originally 5.7 MB and 3008x2000 pixels and is now 451x300 ( 15% of full size) and only 25.7 KB.

I agree the Seymour pieces are the pinnacle, but today they are much easier to make then when they originally did them.

Thanks

Rob Millard

[Rob Millard]

Hi Rob, Very, very nice work. The attention to detail is exceptional. The hardware looks interesting. What is your source for that?
take care,
John
The customer supplied the drawer pulls, which are an exact match to the one on the original shown in the New Mussey book on Seymour furniture, but those pulls themselves are replaced. These pulls are are typical of the hardware sold by Londonderry Brass and the code 4 hardware from White Chapel, so he must have obtained them from one of those two suppliers. The tambour knob and side handles were things I purchased from Lodonderry. Their hardware is the best of the best and except for rare exceptions the only hardware I use.
Thanks
Rob Millard

[Mark Singer]

Beautiful design and great workmanship! Welcome ! Look forward to see more!

[John Gregory]

I think everyone before me used up all the adjectives. Your work is awesome and more.

[lou sansone]

The customer supplied the drawer pulls, which are an exact match to the one on the original shown in the New Mussey book on Seymour furniture, but those pulls themselves are replaced. These pulls are are typical of the hardware sold by Londonderry Brass and the code 4 hardware from White Chapel, so he must have obtained them from one of those two suppliers. The tambour knob and side handles were things I purchased from Lodonderry. Their hardware is the best of the best and except for rare exceptions the only hardware I use.
Thanks
Rob Millard
hi rob... I was supprised to hear you say that londonderry is the best of the best. I have used them and thought that they were very good , but somwhat "scattered" when it came to their catalogue. I have felt that ball and ball was the best of the best, but I really haven't given londenderry a fair chance. My response is not meant to challange your opinion, but to consider that mine might be in need of modificaton. How do you feel about ball and ball?

regards
lou

[Rob Millard]

hi rob... I was supprised to hear you say that londonderry is the best of the best. I have used them and thought that they were very good , but somwhat "scattered" when it came to their catalogue. I have felt that ball and ball was the best of the best, but I really haven't given londenderry a fair chance. My response is not meant to challange your opinion, but to consider that mine might be in need of modificaton. How do you feel about ball and ball?

regards
lou
For Chippendale hardware, the sand cast line from Ball and Ball probably can’t be beat. I especially like their golden glow finish. My preference for Londonderry comes from their wider selection of Federal period hardware, which is the period I work in most often. Ball and Ball has discontinued many items in their line of Federal hardware. Another place that Londonderry surpasses Ball and Ball is in delivery time, Ball and Ball can be excruciatingly slow. I also like the cast nuts and hand filed threads on the Londonderry hardware as it adds that last little bit of authenticity ( I think Ball & Ball also makes cast nuts, but not hand cut threads) My chief complaint for Londonderry is the patina they apply to the hardware, isn’t that great, although one customer I have, loves it. This isn’t too big of a problem for me, as I like semi polished hardware, and I throw them in a tumbler designed for cleaning ammunition cases. The other complaint is that because the hardware is cast from originals, any defect is also cast ( by defect, I mean some kind of dent or filing mark etc.). This is fine, if the defect isn’t too noticeable , or if you aren’t using many of the same pieces of hardware on an item. For example, a highboy with its many pulls could look odd if each and every one had the same defect. Still for the Federal period, I like the Londonderry hardware.

Rob Millard

[lou sansone]

rob

thanks for the response. I agree with you on all the points you have made. I was interested in londonderry's clock dial parts, have you used any of their clock hardware?

lou

[Fred Voorhees]

Just so you know Rob, Tyler is our official "pic police" and you will have to deal with his harsh ways if you don't post the appropriate amount of photos along the way :p

[Bob Marino]

Hi Rob,

Welcome to the Creek. Beautiful work. Please tell me you have been doing this a loooooooooooooooooooong time ;)

Bob

[Bruce Page]

Rob, as already mentioned, that is FWW centerfold material! The piece shows extraordinary work and craftsmanship.

Welcome to SMC, I look forward to more glimpses of your skill.

[Rob Millard]

Lou,

I have use their finials and column caps, but not the spandrels. I have used a few of the Classical period ornaments, which are very similar, on a pair of light house clocks and they were excellent.
Rob Millard

[Neil Clemmons]

Rob,

A beautiful piece. It's great to have someone of your talent at SMC.

Where do we sign up for lessons?

Neil

[Jason Tuinstra]

Rob, it's all be said, but I just wanted to chime in and add my "wow" as well. So here goes.... WOW!!!!! Welcome. It's good to have you around.