Jas Becker - Cabinet Maker

Windsor Chairs, Benches, and Stools

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Archive for the 'Furniture' Category

Windsor Chairs, Benches, and Stools

Monday, March 30th, 2020

   

 

WINDSOR CHAIRS, BENCHES, and  STOOLS: 2019 was the year for Windsor Chair, Bench, and Stool orders.  I shipped 14 Contemporary Windsor Side Chairs, 10 Contemporary Windsor Arm Chairs, 3 Contemporary Windsor Benches,  4 Contemporary Windsor Low-back Stools, 3 Contemporary Windsor Low-back Swivel Stools and I took orders for an additional 4 Walnut Contemporary Windsor Side Chairs.  I sold another of my Contemporary Windsor Bowback Benches in hickory and finally the Custom Windsor Hall Bench (pictured below in cherry with ash spindles) that is sitting in the shop right now in March of 2020.  Eighteen of the chairs were ordered by one decorator from my own state of Vermont, but the rest of the sales came from 7 different clients spread out across the country.  Please click on the links above to go to the web-page for that particular item or click on the thumbnails (some are quite distorted) below to see a larger (properly proportioned) picture.  Click on this link for a brief description and history of Windsor Chairs.   If you click the Arm Chair link above you will see a picture of the other variation of this chair with canted arms.  In the photo(s) below you will see the arm chair with arms parallel to the seat.

    I have made these benches and chairs in other sizes, woods, and finishes.  I’ve made taller, deeper chairs for tall customers.  I have made a shorter, deeper bench to accommodate a cushion.  I’ve made many different lengths of benches and I have made variations of armchairs to suit the table they need to fit under.  Call to order something slightly or completely different: 602-252-1904.

     Finally please note that there are two pages of thumbnails; if you scroll down to the bottom of the first page you will see small numbers 1>2 and clicking on the 2 will take you to the second page.

Desk and Return in Maple and Bubinga

Tuesday, March 20th, 2018

Bubinga, Maple, and ebonized Walnut Desk and Return

Custom Desk and Return

Desk and Return during building process

Detail bubinga edge and wenge inlay

This Panel Desk and Return, suitable for a reception area but built for a very nice home office, is constructed of solid maple with bubinga panels, drawer fronts, and accents.  The drawer pulls are ebonized walnut.  The top construction is baltic birch core topped with maple veneer and edged with solid bubinga.  There is a wenge inlay between the bubinga edge and the maple veneer on the top.   The customer provided very specific functional specifications and overall dimensional limits (103″ x 87″).  He also specified woods and the top design.  The project resulted in two quite large pieces with a total of 12 drawers.  There are several “grommets” (through-top fittings), an electronics shelf under the corner and a lockable CPU cabinet.  Cables are contained using carabiners attached to the underside of the top.   A computer keyboard tray was added on site and assembly took a bit more work than anyone expected due to a very much less than level floor in the office.  Ultimately everything worked out as you can see in these wonderful photos the customer took for me.  Both of us are very pleased with the results!

Bookcase from Office Hutch

Tuesday, May 28th, 2013

 I recently modified an office hutch I made 10 years ago :      Jas. Becker Credenza Bookcase

 

 

It became a freestanding bookcase:   Bookcase from Ming Shaker Credenza

 

and a credenza.  The credenza required no modification, but the upper bookcase portion required a new bottom and base plus a new top to cover the uneven original top surface.  Here you will see photos of the original hutch and the bookcase (minus a few of its adjustable shelves) plus detail photos of

the base:   Bookcase with a new base

and the new top:  Ming Shaker Bookcase with new top 

The new cherry is obvious in these photos, but over time will darken and should blend in nicely with the patina of the original wood.  This lucky lawyer as well as a pile of his partners got to buy (and take home) the custom office furniture I had made for them at pennies on the dollar when the firm decided that uniformity, not individuality  should be the decorating theme.

Mission inspired Round Table

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Mission (inspired) Round Table:  Designed and built in the spring of 2011 to compliment four cherry chairs I have in stock, (http://jasbecker.com/styles/mission-furniture/chairs/) this mission inspired round table is substantial in its proportions.  Cherry with ebony wedges, it has interchangable braces (the round shelf underneath), one in cherry and the other in ebonized walnut.  It and the chairs are available for sale.

iMac Desk

Monday, February 6th, 2012

Ming Shaker iMac Desk: A computer desk built in the fall of 2011 and based on Don’s Desk (http://jasbecker.com/styles/ming-shaker/dons-desk/), this “Dan’s” Desk was made specifically to support an iMac with a cutout on the top to allow the iMac base to slide in from the back and various slots accomodating wire management.  I wish I had had one of the computers for the photo.  Perhaps I can get the customer to send a photo with the computer installed; if I do I will post it later.

Mission Wardrobe

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Mission Wardrobe: It could also be called an Arts and Crafts Armoire and was completed in eary January 2012 it is a variation on the Arts & Crafts style armoire pictured in the main body of my website (http://jasbecker.com/styles/mission-furniture/armoire/).  Constructed of quarter-sawn white oak, it is deeper, has a different interior, is dyed (a combination of red and brown-mohogany aniline dye) and will be used in lieu of a closet in the customer’s entryway.  The bronze pulls were custom sized  by Craftsmen Hardware (http://www.craftsmenhardware.com/index.html)

Birdseye Maple Boardroom Table with Stainless Steel Base

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Boardroom Table: Jas. Becker Cabinetmaker just completed the installation of the largest table I have ever made, a 24 foot long, 8 1/2 foot wide, bow-sided table with a birdseye maple veneered top in seven sections.  The  stainless steel base (with painted steel superstructure) was provided by Master Metal Works of S. El Monte, CA.

This table project done for Global Forest Partners LP Global Forest Partners LP is one of the oldest and largest timber investment management organizations. GFP currently manages a globally diverse USD2.7 billion portfolio of closed-end commingled timberfunds on behalf of institutional and other qualified investors.

Here follows a very dry, pretty comprehensive, description of the process that gives no clue as to the amount of time thought, and often muscle needed to complete the project:

The process began with the building of a 18 foot by 5 foot melamine -topped glue-up table.  This table also served to anchor the glue-up “form” used to laminate the maple “bowed” edges.  It was expanded to 8 feet wide when it came time to glue the veneer to the panels.  The first task was to “condition” the nine foot long, 33″ wide sections of birdseye maple veneer.  This entailed painting both sides of the veneer sheet with a mixture of white glue, alcohol, glycerin, and water.  The damp sheets were sandwiched between two pieces of fiberglass screen and surrounded by several sheets of blank newsprint paper, then put between two sheet of 3/4 inch melamine and  inserted into the vacuum press, sucked flat, and left for several hours.  At the end of that time the vacuum press was opened,  the newsprint was switched out for dry sheets and then replaced in the vacuum bag; this process was repeated 5 times.  I pressed 13 sheets of veneer, two at a time; it took a week of work.  Simultaneously while the veneer “conditioning was going on I, once-a-day glued up a laminated, bowed, solid maple table edged segment using the “form”  built onto the edge of the glue-up table (mentioned below).  After the veneer was “moisturized”, dried in this manner, and stored pressed between MDF panels, I could start in making the panels.

The table top consists of seven “sandwiched” panels each composed of a core of one-inch thick birch plywood layered between two sheets of half-inch thick lightweight MDF.  The six larger segments have a four foot by two foot cut-out in the plywood core into which I  inserted a piece of one inch thick epoxy impregnated corrugated cardboard to help lighten the finished panels.  Each segment has a one inch thick solid maple edge; the outer bowed edges were laminated on an eighteen foot long “fair-curved” pattern built onto the edge of the glue-up table.  This pattern was also used to route the curves into the edge of the six bowed table-top sections  prior to gluing on of the matching curved laminated edges.  Finally the  panels were veneered with plain maple on the bottom and birdseye-maple on the top surface, then holes were drilled for the 3 1/2 inch brushed aluminum wire grommets from Doug Mockett and Company, sanded, filled, sprayed, filled again, then spray finished twice more with M.L. Campbell “Krystal” finish.

The seven sections were assembled on site using 1/2 inch thick shop-made maple “biscuits”  and “Tite Joint Fasteners” and screwed to the base.  Then the three maple edged, stainless steel “IT” trays were screwed to the bottom of the assembled tables positioned under the wire grommets.

Custom Oval Table Assembly Video

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

This  oval cherry small conference table is shown being assembled to the tune “Tenor Conclave” by Al Cohn, Hank Mabley, John Coltrane.  The project was a partial payment for the construction of this website for custom furniture maker Jim Becker. The video of the custom oval table construction was one of my son’s first.  Its been a couple years since then and his skills are much inproved; I need to get him to make more for me.

James Becker Cabinet Maker from colin becker on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/12839108