# What to do with 40cu ft of walnut!!!!!



## Anonymous (21 Nov 2006)

Well this is the latest project, solid walnut wardrobes.
Work still in progress, handles still to be fitted and a general clean, but its nearly done.
The room has a 4metre high ceiling so the wardrobes are really tall 2850mm.

40cu ft altogether, 20 sheets of veneer.

Internally theres pullout shirt drawers, hidden drawers and small cupboards plus shelves and hanging rails etc.

it all matches the bed and the vanity unit I posted a while ago, you can see the bed in one of the pictures.

Amazingly it all fitted with no mistakes whatsoever, that doesn't happen to often, esp as other wardrobes were already there when I was measuring.






Thats the bed and ottoman








the design brief was it had to match this clock on the wall, hence the overhanging coving has been ebonised.




















Thanks for looking, Senior


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## ProShop (21 Nov 2006)

Wow, excellent Senior

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> 
=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>


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## davy_owen_88 (21 Nov 2006)

:shock: 

One word.... outstanding!


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## paulm (21 Nov 2006)

Fantastic !!!

Cheers, Paul


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## wrightclan (21 Nov 2006)

Absolutely superb!!! 8) =D> \/


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## Good Surname or what ? (21 Nov 2006)

Fantastic. Any shots of the internals? I've always fancied a gentleman's press.


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## sliver (21 Nov 2006)

I just can't speak........O.K. I'll try....fanbl**dytastic.    :lol:


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## tim (21 Nov 2006)

Very nice indeed.

Look forward to the final pics, hardware etc.

Cheers

Tim


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## neilc (21 Nov 2006)

As usual Senior excellent work. Hope to be able to produce something as good as that someday. =D> =D> =D> 
Neil


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## Drew (21 Nov 2006)

Congratulations on some beautiful work Senior. 

I'm not jealous, no not one bit :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: 

Drew


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## houtslager (21 Nov 2006)

ccasion5: looking great there, wish I had clients that had that type of money


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## Lord Nibbo (22 Nov 2006)

Fantastic built & design.  I wonder what they do if they move house?


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## Gill (22 Nov 2006)

I'm overwhelmed by the quality of your design and workmanship. Bravo!

Gill


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## filsgreen (22 Nov 2006)

Absolutely magnificent =D>


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## Paul Chapman (22 Nov 2006)

Cracking work, Senior =D> =D> =D> 

Cheers

Paul


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## mrbingley (22 Nov 2006)

Bloody brilliant.

Chris.


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## Colin C (22 Nov 2006)

Thanks Senior

It is just what I want to do when I grow up :wink: 

First class =D> =D> 

I hope to be heading in the same direction with my work :shock:  but I have a lot of chatching up to do :roll:


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## dedee (22 Nov 2006)

Ever thought of taking this wookwork lark up for a living - I think you'd do quite well :lol: :lol: 

Lovely stuff - I'd like to see the innards too.

Andy


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## CYC (22 Nov 2006)

The best project I have seen on this forum! 

*FANTASTIC*

Bravo.

How long did it take? Is this a commission or this is your house?
Did you take any WIP pictures. I would love to see some work in progress on this.


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## Sawdust (22 Nov 2006)

Come on Senior, admit it, you got them from Ikea didn't you  

Seriously though, your work is nothing short of amazing.

Cheers
Mike


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## Waka (22 Nov 2006)

I'm just stuck for words, anyway its already been said. Well done.


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## gwaithcoed (22 Nov 2006)

Gobsmacked :shock: :shock: 

Alan


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## Anonymous (22 Nov 2006)

Thanks everybody, i'm pleased with how it turned out, as is the customer, work has stopped on it until christmas as the customer is russian and has returned home. However I will try and post some more pictures in the future.

I think I may annoy people when I say it took less than 320hours for the whole project including fitting, I won't take all the glory I have a business partner who's fairly handy with the tools :lol: 

Bear in mind this is a commercial enterprise and I use power tools when ever possible, and when you do it day in day out you get pretty quick at it.

cheers Senior


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## promhandicam (22 Nov 2006)

Senior,

As everyone else has said – beautiful. What is inspiring for me is that this forum is a place where people of all different abilities (ranging from yours to mine) are able to share their efforts and give encouragement and advice. Thanks again for sharing the photos of your craftsmanship. =D> 

Steve


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## Anonymous (22 Nov 2006)

Thanks Steve,

I still get a buzz from doing woodwork and I like looking at other peoples work, whatever standard. Theres a lot of talented and knowledgable people on this forum, I think i'm lucky that I can earn a good living out of it, and do big projects like this.

If only I had time to put stuff like that in my own house :lol: :lol:


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## woodbloke (23 Nov 2006)

Excellent stuff - what was the finish on the timber? - Rob


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## RogerM (23 Nov 2006)

Fabulous work. I feel both inspired and intimidated in equal measure!


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## jedmc571 (23 Nov 2006)

Senior, 
I was discharged from the military with post traumatic stress, and took up woodwork as a way of occupying myself, I am pleased with some of my results, but get easily frustrated when it doesn't turn out like it does on the TV shows.
Only today whilst trying to build a simple cabinet round a boiler, I threw my tools down with frustration and havn't been back since.
I came on to do some online woodwork ( read the forums ) and havn't checked out "Projects" for some time.
I am blown away by the quality of your work, and can appreciate the hard work and dedication you put in to get such results.
You have inspired me again, and I intend to get back to work as soon as I can.
I will be keeping an eye out for your future posts, and between yourself, the members of this website, and my magazine subscription, perhaps I can break into one of the best hobbies, and maybe even get some jobs round the house done !
Keep up the good work, and perhaps you should be on "Discovery Real Time" we don't really have a U.K Norm ?
Regards

Jed


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## Newbie_Neil (23 Nov 2006)

Senior

What an absolutely wonderful piece of work. It is excellent. Well done.

Cheers
Neil


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## lugo35 (25 Nov 2006)

great work , love it  

walnut seems to be the in thing at the mo


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## woodbloke (25 Nov 2006)

Lugo 35 wrote:


> walnut seems to be the in thing at the mo



In my book, walnut has _always_ been 'in'. Its a fantastic timber, (either European or AB) that you can do just about anything with, brilliant figuring, stable, takes polish well and works without any effort under an edge tool....just the best - Rob


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## Anonymous (25 Nov 2006)

Agreed, fantastic to work with, bit wasteful on sappy areas, but on a big job like this you can hide a lot of the poorer timber.

The finish is a semi matt lacquer by the way.

I'm trying to persuade the client to have a new kitchen, that will be stunning if he goes for it.


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## lugo35 (25 Nov 2006)

like working with it aswell rob wish all timber was as easy and pleasurable,but then again would take the fun out of the job if it was all easy


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## orangetlh (25 Nov 2006)

looks fantasic senior, not bad in 320 hours either. just interested in your timber supplier. We got 30 cube for a kitchen yesterday and 60% of the whole lot had to be thrown out. Some pieces were 100% sap.


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## Anonymous (26 Nov 2006)

bit far for you, brooks bros, maldon, essex.


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## tim (26 Nov 2006)

orangetlh":1yuf2r6x said:


> looks fantasic senior, not bad in 320 hours either. just interested in your timber supplier. We got 30 cube for a kitchen yesterday and 60% of the whole lot had to be thrown out. Some pieces were 100% sap.



Out of interest -who were you using? Did they think that the 100% sapwood was acceptable?

Cheers

Tim


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## whoops! (26 Nov 2006)

Senior, that is a stunning job done, What were the main problems that you had in the construction?
Over here in france you can buy plank sawn walnut , air dried, at about £850 on the cubic metre . How much is it in U.K now?

Decklan


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## Anonymous (26 Nov 2006)

Not sure of the exact price but about £38 cu ft for 1", bit more for 1 1/4"
No real problems in construction, just a lot of planning ahead in the design and cutting list.

A word of warning I was really chuffed with how this went together, no mistakes, next job drew a line on the wall for the builders to put in a window, only micalculated by 100mm :shock: :shock: I've got around it but I had a sleepless night worrying about it.


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## mel (26 Nov 2006)

senior 
you really do some excellent work and must be very well thought of in the area where you live {wherever that is } 
love to see proper craftmans quality workmanship as most of the stuff i see nowadays is all MDF {industrial cardboard or mdfluff as we know it} 
keep up the good work and pictures 
regs 
mel


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## mailee (26 Nov 2006)

WOW! Senior that is really fantastic work! I can only dream of work like that. Unfortunitely most of my work is the fluff or pine with only a few projects in proper wood. Mind you after seeing your work I think I shall take up embroidery. :lol: It is nice to see such quality work on such a large scale too. Congratulations.


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## PowerTool (27 Nov 2006)

mailee":3slyi8wb said:


> after seeing your work I think I shall take up embroidery. :lol:



Now _that_ is something I will look forward to seeing pictures of :lol: 
(not quite sure which forum it should be in,though :wink: )

Andrew


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## orangetlh (27 Nov 2006)

tim, was James Latham in Yate. Pulled out 14 boards of solid sap today. Looked like returned stock they were fobbing off. luckily they will accept it back but only if its been unsawn or planed. Just a pain to sort through it all administrate it.


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## Chris Knight (27 Nov 2006)

Beautiful job!


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## syntec4 (27 Nov 2006)

Very Very Nice  
Lee.


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## JFC (17 Dec 2006)

Very nice work . I love the detail around the turned sections , adding those small mitres really makes a piece i think . Top class craftmanship !


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## Anonymous (17 Dec 2006)

That's absolutely stunning work, Senior.

What fascinates me is is amount of measuring, head scratching, calculating, and sleepless nights you must have had working out how the whole thing was going to be built, taken apart, finished, and then re-assembled on site with not a joint-line visible. Forgive me for asking some impertinant questions.

Did you actually assemble the whole thing in the workshop or just build and then break down one section at a time and trust to your measurements?

Is all the carcassing solid walnut or did you use veneered board?

What sort of staged payment plan do you suggest agreeing with the client for a job of this size? Ten week's work takes a lot of funding!

In my cabinet making I am starting to make the move from just making one-off free-standing pieces to taking on more large projects including fitting like kitchens and bedrooms. Work such as yours is an inspiration to me but I am terrified of taking on more than I can chew. I hope you can help me make the mental leap.

Cheers
Brad


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## Anonymous (17 Dec 2006)

Brad- it basically is 6 top boxes, 8 wardrobes, posts, coving and skirting. All assembled and connected on site. Everything is done on measurements, its the only way to do it, theres never enough room in a workshop to set something like this up and if there is you have too big a workshop.

The secret is knowing how it all joins together without big joins showing, all the joining screws are hidden behind hinges. Practice makes you very confident that these large pieces will fit ok, but mistakes do happen from time to time, I always think overcoming mistakes is one of the most important factors in this business.

With regards to payment stages, this actually only took 4 weeks as there are two of us in the business, 160hrs each, we normally take a third deposit, a third on delivery and a third on completion. However this customer did half (deposit) and half.

If you start to take on bigger jobs my advice would be to spend hours on your cutting list, and really think about how each unit or part is going to join on to the next. Make sure you incorperate scribes into the job so that you have some room to play with.
If I can advise you in any way feel free to pm me.


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## Anonymous (17 Dec 2006)

So it's all quite simple then! :lol: 

Thanks for that, Senior. I think the secret is to break a big job like this down in one's mind into it's componant sections.

The first kitchen I made terrified me until I just thought of it as 10 cupboards which happened to be screwed together. After that it went fine.

Your payment system makes sense. I've been taking a 25% deposit, 25% when work starts, and 50% on completion. I think on jobs where there is fitting involved I'll start asking for 25% on delivery. That would help my cash-flow, which to be honest is my biggest single problem.

Thanks for the ongoing offer of help; I'll try not to bug you too much!

Cheers
Brad


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## Anonymous (17 Dec 2006)

Cash flow can be a problem, especially if you got £1000's of materials tied up in a job, but provided that you know there are sufficient funds and a profit coming in eventually from the job, you shouldn't refuse it on the grounds of cash flow.

Most business work by having to use overdraft facilities, I have a future project where I will need a large overdraft facility as I have offerred the client 30day terms, the reason being that the size of the job is too good to turn down or lose because I was not prepared to offer terms.


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## Jez (18 Dec 2006)

amazing... :shock: :shock: :shock:


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