Scroll down to see more projects. I also offer more typical repair and refinishing, as well as from-scratch custom design and creation. Please use the form at the bottom of this page, or email me directly at owen@orowoodworks.com, if you have any repair, refinish, and/or custom woodwork needs.
This customer's grandfather made a pine dining table several decades ago. Rather than replacing it with something factory-made, they thought it might work as raw materials to create an entirely new design. By re-using the majority of the materials we were able to maintain the sentimental origins while updating the appearance and surface area of the top.
The first step after pinning down the new design was disassembly. Luckily in this case the piece was entirely nailed and screwed together, so nothing had to be broken, forced, or cut.
Once that was done, I took measurements of all the original components. I then re-milled everything back to flat and square. New furniture-grade pine was used to make three 4x4 beams. The slats from the top were resawn and milled into 1/4" thick veneers.
I went back to the 3D model to check all the dimensions before moving on to assembly steps, and made some more adjustments to the design to increase stability and provide extra support under the ends of the table. Then the trestles were built, and the base assembled.
Next came the top. I rough-cut the slats at 45° and laid out the pattern so I could cut pieces to rough length. Each piece was then individually trimmed with a hand plane on a shooting board to get a near-perfect miter joint. The pattern was remade upside down and colors marked on the underside, then each slat was individually stained. The pattern was again remade, this time right side up. That was tightly taped together then veneered to the 3/4" MDF substrate.
Excess from the top was trimmed off, blue-dyed curly maple edge banding applied, and then finish could begin. We chose epoxy for the top due to the softness of pine. Having nearly 1/8" of clear plastic protecting the color and helping reduce dents is sometimes beneficial. The base was dyed black and top coated with satin polyurethane. I also used a little bit of scrap material to make a matching serving board.
Some of the 1/4" pine slats were also used to make a new veneered top for a buffet the same customer owned.
This custom piece was created using the customer's slab, felled from their family home's back yard, milled and dried here in Stillwater. I flattened and surfaced the slab, made the bowties, cut their mortises and glued them in place, flushed them to the surface, completed the surfacing process, finished, and installed the piece.
A special project from start to finish. The customer had an old pine dining table built by her grandfather. The goal was to take a simple slat table and increase the size of the top while simultaneously altering the design. We created something entirely new using mostly materials original to the disassembled table. To accomplish the increased size the slats were resawn and veneered onto an MDF sheet in the chevron pattern, after dye was applied. Epoxy topcoat.
This small cabinet was custom designed and built for a family ranch in Purcell, OK. The redbud wood for this piece was felled, milled, dried, and crafted in Stillwater and Guthrie (rough milling done in Guthrie at Gooch Sawmill). We chose the redbud for this project because it is Oklahoma's state tree, and just so happened to also have a pleasant yellow color along with spalting. The yellow provides a great contrast for the wenge inlays bordering a spalted maple inner inlay.
So far I have made around ten of these serving trays. The box is made from curly maple, and the bottom panel is zebrawood and generally features a stenciled letter in the center of the bottom panel. The box is continuous grain around the exterior with splined miter joints. The splines are wenge. The walls feature a spalted maple inlay wrapped around the exterior.
I built this fancy box for my files and wrenches. Walnut walls, with spalted maple book matched slats veneered on 3/4" ply. Interior is MDF base with 1/4" ply dividers. Shellac and lacquer finish.
A set of three lidless boxes was designed using the customer's custom-designed and fabricated table legs from their new dining set. Each box has a unique CNC-carved inlay pattern filled with gray epoxy, and two padauk lines running around the perimeters. The boxes and bottom panels are made from solid zebrawood with a strong feather figure in the grain.
01/214
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.