Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Dining Tables - help 21Mar 21, 2012 9:10 am Guys, If any of you need any dining suites, lounges beds etc, we found this guy on New Bridge Rd Milperra ( in Sydney ) last Saturday by pure accident, the people are lovely, & not at all pushy. They use to supply HN, but their prices are way cheaper without comprimising quality. Here is their likk: http://www.loungesuitewarehouse.com.au/ ... -opts.html Re: Dining Tables - help 23Mar 22, 2012 4:03 am Jodge & MCLaren, Yes I did make that table, (and many others) over the years. For 20 years my father & I had our own timber business, sawmill, kiln, factory and showroom. Dad was a Carpeter Joiner by trade and spent most of his life as a master builder. He "semi - retired" about age 52 and we worked together in timber business for the next 20 years until he died aged 72. We did Carpentry, Joinery, Cabinets, and Furniture together over that period. I never bothered to get a trade ticket, most of what I learned from my dad - he learned from his grandfather who obtained his carpentry joinery certificate in Dundee Scotland in 1888, I still have a framed color copy of my great grandfathers carpentry joinery certificate, they were individually hand water colored back in those days. Thing is we worked in local southwest WA timbers mostly, Jarrah Blackbutt Marri (Redgum) & WA Sheoke. A LOT of the techniques taught to me are not used any longer so they aren't even taught within the apprenticeship system. All our furniture was mortice and tenon jointed by hand. In the old days the glues used on furniture were made from rendered down horses hoofs largely and in Australia the acidic soils result in acidic sap within the timber even when kiln dried down to an equilibrium moisture content of 12%, and that acidic sap deteriorated the glue - so in order to make furniture that would last, the joints had to be mechanically strong. These days with modern epoxy resins - everything is finger jointed straight off the moulder... some of the new glues are cured with electric current instantly - no need to cramp joints over night with sash cramps - this all speeds manufacture and today time is money... However the same acidic sap resides within the wood today and some of the quick glues are still broken down in relatively short periods, and with these new machine joints with zero mechanical strength - they simply fall apart after a few years. The problem I encountered - making real solid timber furniture the old fashioned way, heirloom stuff that would last at least 200+ years - is that no one wants to pay what it costs for the labor these days, so to compete with imported crap, often I would end up working for $3 an hour! There's a reason our craftsmen are leaving the industry, and that new apprentices aren't entering the industry - everything these days is IKEA assemble it with an allen key, & made from particle board, and has designed obsolescence, throw it away and buy another... Who's making next century's antiques today? At 50+ I couldn't see any future in the timber game... Our Log contract went to Gunns and they are as good as broke within just a few short years.... One day we will want decent furniture again - and I have serious doubts we will have the timber resource or skill to actually manufacture it in the future. Such is this brave new world Cheers Re: Dining Tables - help 24Mar 22, 2012 5:14 am Hi Ian, What you say is so so true. When the kids were younger, we wanted to buy a chest of drawers for them, so we went to a reputable furniture store who I won't name & paid good money for it. From the outside, it looked strong & sturdy, but two years later, the bottoms & backs of the drawers were falling out as a result of the material being particle board. The glue also came unstuck! In comparison, there was a furniture factory the was near us , it was family owned who had a showroom attached to the factory, we got them to custom design two beds for our kids. The beds were made from beautiful wood, very sturdy to the point they've lasted a good 15 years & we can't find an excuse to get rid of them. Like you said, 15 years ago we paid $500 for each single bed, when at that time there were beds selling for a quarter of that price, but this is good quality stuff. Like you said, sadly this family lost their business & closed up shop due to a very large store that sells flat packed furniture located 15 mins away from these people. We need to wake up to ourselves & realise that when we pay peanuts we get monkeys, & what's even sadder is a talent like yours that has been handed down from father to son is forever lost , never to be found again . My advice is come to Sydney, open a showroom & try your luck with your beautiful furniture, I'm sure there are people out there who would LOVE to buy your masterpieces....& I'm one of them Re: Dining Tables - help 25Mar 22, 2012 8:27 am Hi Ian - sad but true! What a wonderful story being able to go back to your grandfather ... We are lucky enough to have a writing desk the same as the one below but with castors which dates back to the 1870's - imagine making something that has lasted that long and there's a lot more life left in it. We are now looking for a chair from the same era to go with it .... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ As I said earlier we are hoping to source some beautiful wood to make a console table ... it might be hard For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Dining Tables - help 26Mar 22, 2012 11:34 am Interestingly - I cannot 'teach' what I know to students for example in even a tafe college course... for 2 reasons. 1. You have to have "teaching" qualifications to teach... so a lifetimes experience is worth zippo but even of i never had ANY experience as long as I have 4 subjects towards a cert 3 in training I can teach, even if I have never done the actual trade at any time in my life!. In order to teach today you just have to be able to talk the talk - you don't have to be able to walk the walk. An example - aside from my timber experience i also am a master 5 skipper of commercial vessels. At one stage my whole family and I were employed to rebuild a dwelling on an offshore island for a year after it was hit by a cyclone and badly damaged. So my wife and 2 of my kids needed rec skippers tickets to operate the islands dinghy's - a daily commute chore... Even with all my years at sea and commercial qualifications, i wasn't allowed to teach my own family to pass the exam instead I had to get a school teacher that i went to school with as a kid to come and teach & examine my family for heir recreational skippers tickets.. and his ONLY sea going experience was a few weeks in a sailing club. Its more important that you can t3ach than to actually have any experience in your topic. In short - we are paying peanuts and getting monkeys. As for wanting to source the materials for a project - good luck with that! I could go into how our 10 year logging contract was stolen from us by the states Enviro dept without any compensation and how I took them to the Crime & Corruption Commission over it and they just swept it under the carpet....and Gunns timbers from Tasmania ended up with our log contract volumes and they are now as good as bankrupt it would seem if recent media reports are to be believed. There is ingrained corruption within all facets of our society today including govt departments and their employees is my life experience. Corrupt lawyers go on to become corrupt judges - who keep their money with corrupt bankers and pay bribes to corrupt politicians....who's corrupt accountants keep track of it all - and if you stick your neck out and make a noise about the issue - a corrupt policeman will come knocking at your door!. There's a reason such situations are described as a crime ring - because a ring represents a circle and as we all know - every part of a circle is bent! There are fewer and fewer people left with small sawmills from which to source decent native timbers any longer and once you do source such wood - you have to lay its aside for at least 3 years for 2 inch thick wood for it to season and even then it will need finishing off in a seasoning kiln to draw down the remaining intracellular moisture to a stable 12% EMC for Australia's coastal plain areas if you want the resultant furniture to remain stable. Who can afford to buy timber these days and set it aside to season for a few years - everyone wants instant return on their capital today, chip it make it into particle board and sell it the next week, because the compound interest on your raw wood over a few years will make it too expensive to buy or use...in a finished product. Its all about the "time is money" attitude of business and bankers today - no one has the time to make the type of furniture that many of us aspire to owning. Also few have the capital to buy such fine furniture pieces today. Despite making quite a few of these slab type tables over the years and displaying them in the showroom and having many tourists and visitors thru the showroom, I can recall selling very very few of these tables..... Generally speaking people come thru the various furniture gallerys of southwest WA and oooh and ahhh at all the slab tables - but few actually buy them, most console themselves with the fact they cannot afford such a table / suit and buy a solid timber coffee table - to take home instead!. I would have sold maybe 2 or sometimes 3 coffee tables a week - because people came to look at the slab dining tables and consoled themselves with a more affordable coffee table... Then again some of my coffee tables were rather special too.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Some days I miss the timber work - but not many. Cheers Re: Dining Tables - help 27Mar 22, 2012 2:41 pm Hi Cass Sorry to hear your SS is so disorganised, you must be very very disappointed and frustrated ......I really hope things improve for you soon, especially once the outside is all done and you move onto internals. So far for us things have been moving smoothly, but we are still at the stage of having our DA lodged and having meetings for colours, kitchen etc. So far so good for us. Have you spoken to anyone at W H/o? Not even sure what is the "best" step is to take in this situation, without making things worse? Hang in there, "tough" times don't last but "tough" people do........keep thinking of the big picture at the end. Maybe someone who has been in this situation can provide some constructive advice?. But I guess this rain has really messed everyone up, creating chaos with tradies schedules. Lets hope autumn means a lot less rain (fingers crossed!!). We built the Wisdom Majestic 40 - moved in! Our blog - http://ourwisdommajestic40.blogspot.com.au/ Our H1 thread - viewtopic.php?t=54156 Re: Dining Tables - help 28Mar 22, 2012 2:46 pm springtime Guys, If any of you need any dining suites, lounges beds etc, we found this guy on New Bridge Rd Milperra ( in Sydney ) last Saturday by pure accident, the people are lovely, & not at all pushy. They use to supply HN, but their prices are way cheaper without comprimising quality. Here is their likk: http://www.loungesuitewarehouse.com.au/ ... -opts.html Hey, thanks for the tip, they are not far from me, I will check them out. We built the Wisdom Majestic 40 - moved in! Our blog - http://ourwisdommajestic40.blogspot.com.au/ Our H1 thread - viewtopic.php?t=54156 Can anyone suggest a house layout where the kitchen-dining - living runs the length across the rear of the house left to right where our best view will be we… 0 4345 Hi there, long-time lurker but first time posting. I've bought a house 2 and a bit years ago and last year we had some major water damage on a converted pergola area… 0 7925 Yes, unless you are in a low intensity rainfall area or the area is protected from rain. Do you have access to NCC Part 2 or can you download it? I can email you a copy… 10 12462 |