Southwest Christmas Tree

So is it the tree itself or the decorations that adorn it?

It seemed only appropriate that our transition from dwellers of the Ponderosa pine forest of Northern Arizona to dwellers of the Saguaro forest of the Sonoran Desert include a transition in Christmas tree. Used to be that we would dutifully obtain our US Forest Service permit and cut our own Christmas tree from the foothills of the San Francisco Peaks, teaching us, without learning, that there is a reason for Christmas tree farms on more than one score. We carried that same notion to the Sonoran Desert, thinking we would just go out and cut ourselves a nice expired centuryplant flower stalk, which we had seen here and there playing Christmas tree. Given the federal bureaucracy's penchant for picayune, probably a permit for that too, but rather than risk a fine or a rancher's shotgun we found instead a discarded yucca flower stalk behind a shed at Tohono Chul Park. They seemed glad to sell it, and so here's our Southwest Christmas tree. Well lacquered now, the moth larvae scraped out, it should see us through quite a few holiday seasons.

And yes, indeed, greetings of the season to you all!

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at: FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Missing Stile Home Library -- Woodworking Tip #18

Home libraries have certainly populated my woodworking career, and though my design preference for small shelving units is the Hungarian Shelf; when the collection reaches a certain size books just feel better “housed” rather than “shelved,” cozying themselves with walls on five out of six sides. When used on a huge wall there is something disconcerting, upsetting, precipitous about Hungarian Shelves...some number on the Richter Scale being conjured.

For these larger libraries I have often used the “missing stile” approach as above, leaving the stile off one side of each vertical bay. Each subsequent carcase slides behind the stile (vertical) on the one already placed giving the whole library the look of having been built in place. I have used this system successfully even in series of six bays. The resulting junction of the stile and rails is resolved in one of three ways: the rail is either of considerably less thickness, it's end is curved, or, in the case above, beveled.

No matter which method, from a design perspective, the library also avoids a kitchen cabinet look wherein rails and stiles are sanded flush. One hint with this method is not to glue the back in its dado, thus allowing ever so little racking, if required, when the carcases are screwed together.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at: FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Queen Murphy Bed

Through both time and culture many are the instances where the bed was not a permanent, stand-alone piece of furniture. From the 20^th century minimalist roll-up futons to the 17^th century Dutch sleeping cupboards to the American Indian blanket, these beds were not in the way during the day. Whether William L. Murphy really designed his bed to disappear in order to avoid the impropriety of bringing a lady to his small San Francisco apartment might be debatable, but it's function of saving space certainly is not.

This particular bed allowed an office to double as a guest room. I used Create-A-Bed hardware, which was well-machined, operated perfectly the first time, and in no way utilized Murphy's Law. I took some liberties with their plans, however, such as making the bed header (top) assembly a single finished piece of woodwork that required no crown molding. This simplifies both assembly and disassembly but requires strict adherence to the plan dimensions. The kickboard is not shown but screws onto the sides at the base thus avoiding the use of a nailed-on baseboard. C.A.B., Inc. makes their own hinges which allow two of the pull blocks to not only rotate into legs but also cleverly release the safety latches at the top.

Interestingly, as of 1989, the name Murphy Bed is no longer proprietary and has entered our language as a common word to describe any pull-down or wall bed, making Mr. Murphy just as famous as Mr. Kleenex.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at: FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Queen Murphy Bed Details

Header Assembly

12" Mattress

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at: FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

"Quilted-Wood" Headboard

Dinner conversation with friends last night turned to the matter that typically purpose precedes design. Such was the case with my “quilted-wood” headboad where the purpose was somehow to mimic the feel and pattern of the quilt in the wood. To match the beige background material I chose hard maple. To mimic the dark border of the quilt I chose cherry. I then measured the size of the four-block cloth pattern and duplicated it with wooden blocks of the exact same dimensions. A template was made and the four-block pattern was routed, not easily, out of the hard maple field into which the wooden blocks were embedded. I thought briefly about a more dramatic, high contrast set of woods, say ebony, zebrawood, bubinga, purpleheart, but aside from my aversion to tropical hardwoods, I sought more muted and subtle variations in order to echo the feel of the quilt. Thus I chose North American woods, both soft and hard: Douglas fir, redwood, hemlock, cherry, black walnut and oak. The basic form of suspending the headboard on dowels (maple) from the posts I have used before, one of its advantages being that the headboard is easily removed from the posts with 8 screws making it possible to transport the piece in even a small coupe. These two will likely stay companions for a very long time.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at: FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

"Quilted-Wood" Headboard Details

Buttons cover the assembly screws, which also expand the dowels slightly to lock them in place.  Woodworkers take note that the frame is attached to the panel only at the bottom.  The frame allows over .25" panel expansion or contraction.

Quilt maker's label

Flagstaff First Friday ArtWalk Tonight!

Print Display Rack

The most excellent nature photographer Tony Freeman Nature Exposed Photography will be displaying his work tonight at his law offices in downtown Flagstaff, 19 W Birch Ave., between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM.  An added bonus will be the giving of awards to the winners of the Youth Lens High School Photography Competition.  Do see the amazing work of these young people.  Also, fan through his prints in this display rack, which I built for his gallery, and take one home with you!

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at: FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Pond Surround Deck

Detail of radial turn

Enlarge photo to see the koi jumping on command

Pictured here is one of series of decks at this location including a second pond surround, dining deck, spa deck as well as several pump houses, all at different levels.  Much as I take joy in furniture-making it is good to get outdoors occasionally and build something that will not fit in the back of a pickup.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at: FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Vanagon Fridge Platform with Drawer

Ordinary T-mold provides a nice duplication of Volkswagen cabinet appointment.  Relieve the spline with a few small cut-outs in order to make the tight radii.  The drawer is full-depth, of course, to make best use of this combined platform and storage.

Please also see our shop at:  www.flyingcircusstudios.etsy.com

Meyers Collaboration II

Viking Express Camper/Cargo Trailer Conversion

Detail showing the new T-nuts attaching bunk

I was all about ready to rent a U-Haul cargo trailer to transport some commissions from Tucson to Flagstaff when I thought, "just a second, I already have one."  In addition to its primary virtue as an ultra-light tent trailer the Viking Express Camper can also be converted to a cargo trailer.  In about two hours I had drilled out all the rivets that attach the two bunks themselves to long piano hinges, leaving the hinges still attached to the chassis, and substituted them with T-nuts (no teeth, but use a little glue) and 1/4-20x3/4" Phillips pan machine screws.  I removed the two longitudinal bars that support the cargo cover from the bunk surface and mounted them as shown above to the sides of the chassis.  The only  added component for the conversion was a 1x2 piece of pine to raise the bar, so to speak, on the lower side.  The cargo bed cover thus becomes a cover for the entire trailer, and I would recommend that loads be kept low anyway and not weigh more than the combined bunks and fabric.  For another small retrofit to make your bed larger in the Viking Express Camper see:  Viking Express Bed Extension


Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:  FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com

Flagstaff Desk -- Style 3

 The Flagstaff Desk was my name for a series of study carrel type desks that sold well way back at crafts shows held in December at the Coconino Center for the Arts.   I kept one for myself and still enjoy such features as integral valence lighting, a bulletin board, handy pigeon holes in some versions, Flagstaff Desk -- Style 1, the huge "pencil" drawer and matching companion chair.  In all cases the carcase is solid wood as are all the drawer sides.  A flat screen monitor now often finds itself against the bulletin board, a keyboard on the desk top.  Even so the sense of entering a nook or private enclosure remains.

Hall Table

His and Hers Bureaus

Note that the grain runs across the two bureaus

Detail showing dovetails

This pair of bureaus was designed to promote spacial equity between the sexes.  Each drawer rests on its own web frame joined at the corners with an open mortise, the bottommost with a dust panel.  The boards of the carcase sides are elongated trapezoids, not cut on a table saw but edged with a jointer plane in order to minimize waste.  All corners of the drawers are dovetailed, and each drawer individually planed to fit its designated space (numbering included!).  The drawers slowly graduate in height and the pulls are custom made.

Detail showing web frames

Hiking Stick Compass

It's a rare day outdoors that a compass is required to find one's way, but it's any day that one can enjoy one of our planet's little miracles.  All that was required here was a 1" Forstner bit and a dab of epoxy to set this Suunto compass, which is available from Summit Hut, in the walnut knob of my trusty hiking stick.  The clip on the compass was removed, but the rotation of the bezel is preserved.

See also our Etsy shop at:  FlyingCircusStudios.etsy.com
Backpackers and campers find our wooden teaspoons a more rustic and lighter alternative to plastic or metal.  Our mini cutting board is great for camping! 

Nonmiraculous Spiral Staircase

As an architectural element the spiral staircase always holds intrigue.  Where might it lead?   An alchemist’s lair, an artist’s garret, a lighthouse lens, the captain’s quarters?

My dorm room window during my sophomore year at Columbia College provided me a slantwise view of the front facade of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a place built for an epic congregation, frequented then by only a few, myself included, and now the resting place of James Gandolfini.  Once in my wanderings I encountered a deacon who asked me “Do you want to see something?”  Not what you think. What followed was an enthralling, rambling tour through the hollow walls of the building honeycombed with passageways, tunnels, bridges, spiral staircases, windows both outwards and inwards, a world of its own that few if any parishioners would even guess at.

So when presented with the problem of connecting the lobby of the Northland Aviation FBO at the Flagstaff airport to the briefing room aka classroom above without taking up valuable space, the spiral staircase solution naturally came to mind.  What ensued was a massive amount of geometry and trigonometry to align all the factors of rise, run, rotation, radii, step overlap, etc., all those numbers eventually converted to huge chiseled mortises deep into an APS (Arizona Public Service) power pole.  The treads were laminated hemlock 2x4's each embedded so tightly that the balusters might not have been necessary, though I would not venture even an approach to the Loretto Chapel’s miraculous staircase.   The 2x2 balusters rose into the room above and supported a circular railing laminated to them piece by piece of 1/8" baltic birch, eventually some 25 layers.

I taught my first ground school classes in that room above.  We could have been in the 40's, discussing aviation on the second floor of our Quonset hut hangar. The circular railing sat right in front of the instructor’s table with the student desks behind.  Latecomers, every teacher’s nemesis, would then be unable to sneak into the back of the classroom, but instead their heads would rise inch by inch through this cylinder for all to see, the instructor’s scimitar mentally poised to swing across the tube, the transgressor’s head sent evenly bouncing down the steps with their perfectly parallel and equal rises.

This spiral staircase paid for much of my commercial pilot’s license, and later one of my ground school students ordered a similar spiral staircase, the ascent to a loft in her own home and a rare instance in my custom woodworking career in which I utilized the knowledge gained from #1 to do a second of something.  The Quonset hangar itself, alas, was a victim to progress, the staircase salvaged.

See our shop at:  FlyingCircusStudios.etsy.com

Letter Opener