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Archive for May, 2011

Historic Cabinets

I’m more of a carpenter than a cabinet maker. I do mostly trim and cabinet installations now, and use my cabinet making knowledge on rare occasions—mostly to alter existing cabinets, as opposed to making new ones from scratch. For the few new cabinets that I do make, I use the latest technology. For example, I use pocket screws to assemble face frames, and SenClamps (Senco corrugated fasteners) to fasten cabinet sides to the frames—eliminating the clamping and drying time saves so much time when you’re making cabinets. Read the full article…

The Thorsen House

(with Gary Katz)

Not long ago, Gary Katz and I visited the William Thorsen House in Berkeley, CA. Built in 1909—one year after the Gamble House—the Thorsen House represents the “last of the large and elaborate wooden houses designed by Greene and Greene,” (Edward Bosley), for which Randall Makinson, in his book Greene & Greene: Architecture as a Fine Art, coined the term, “Ultimate Bungalows.” Read the full article…

6 Tape Measures

Tape measures. There are so many types, yet don’t they all do the same thing?

Justus Roe & Sons began manufacturing steel tape measures in 1865. A patent filed on July 14, 1868 by Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven, Connecticut brought an “Improvement in Tape Measures”—a spring-powered retracting mechanism. The spring-powered tape measure, which we’re all so familiar with, gained popularity in the 1900s, when it started knocking folding rules off the work site. Read the full article…