19 comments on this post:

1. John,

   Very cool! I live in this world right now. My house has 373 sqft of living space on one floor, and then I have a basement that houses mechanicals, laundry and my shop. Even though it is small for a house, I always keep in mind that things like yachts and RVs have even less space and make do by inteligent design. I bought some wall bed hardware a couple years ago and plan on making one with a table below that I could work at if extra space was needed. I thought the second bunk bed set up was very ingenious, I also liked the pretty lady!

   Thanks, Rutager

   P.S. Real helicopters can fly upside down, just not for very long!

2. 1. Megan Fox
   Can not beat that.
   2. Get dog food on way home
   Must invent a tool that will do it (Can be a power tool)
   3. Bravest human that ever lived was the first guy who smelled blue cheese and thought it was food.
   Same goes for beer.
   4. Why do seminars last an hour and a half and the chairs get uncomfortable after 20 minutes?
   This is where we come in with marvelous handmade wood ones!
   5. Who invented the noodle loaf?
   Norris Noodles INC.
   6. The most common male search in Google: “how to tie a tie”
   And how to cut the perfect dovetails 🙂
   7. I wonder if anybody has gotten a barcode tattoo…
   With the current trend around…We will all have one soon 🙁 New world order.
   8. Why do wives talk so much?
   Opps, scared of going there.
   9. Real helicopters cannot fly upside down.
   CT-17 can! Plane the bottom of your dinning table..During dinner!
   10. BING means, “Bing Is Not Google”
   And Microsoft’s last survival chance. Eaten by apples.
   11. Rip cutting by hand is hard work. Maybe not for long…
   JS-8! Or there is a new tool plot on the way? Not for long?
   12. It cost, on average, $3.77 for a review farm to post fake, positive reviews on a site.
   Wow! I fall for these myself sometimes.
   13. 77% of Americans believe online reviews. Only 24% have ever written one.
   How many still vote?
   14. I think I need a new helicopter.
   Me too, on the waiting list hoping for some cancellations of the CT-17 !
   15. Why are hummingbirds so aggressive?
   Don’t know.

   Now for the video, these furniture are amazing. The innovation and details where shelfs and desks can keep the stuff on is amazing. The mechanism and movement seems well done as well. Thanks for posting this.

3. Everybody knows 14 of those; new ripper, Jack?

4. Rutager, 373 sqft is not small for a house. It’s small for a breadbox! Do you in one of those multi-dimensional houses that’s like the Tardis? Looks small on the outside, but can fit multiple JMPs on the inside?

   John, I’ve been admiring that furniture for several years – such inventive and clever designs. I don’t need any furniture that disappears into a wall, but I sure love the idea. Now if I could make my cars fold up into the wall, Sharon would stop bugging me about using the “garage” for a shop. Which it clearly was meant for. Women.

   So I’m wondering what you actually got out of that seminar. Besides some new drivel to inflict on us. Perhaps the seminar will have paid off, if this post can generate more than the hundred or so replies of your previous record-holding post.

   CT-17. I can hardly wait. I’ll have to think of something to build with it. Something small … and flat.

   – Peter

5. Peter-
   Fly rods aren’t flat but you can shape one with a block plane…

   John

6. Barcode tattoos? I have seen several.

7. I’ve met many ladies with the same barcode tattoo. Strangely, they were all named Mrs. Butterworth.

8. 🙂

9. John,
   I would like to know if the tenonmaker can also be used effectively as a kerfmaker. If not, do you have extra kerfmakers as well? I can just hear all the forum regulars’ collective smirk: “fat chance buddy, get in line…”. To be sure, I am not blaming your current production philosophy, rather I am blaming myself for being out of sync (story of my life) with the ordering schedules. And truth be told, I’m also blaming this guy Rutager a little bit for snapping up so many of the extra items! Just what is he building anyway!?! Perhaps he will be the first BCTW francisee. He seems to have a sense of humor so I hope he doesn’t mind the gratuitous shot:)

10. Rutager just about cut his head off last week flying his helicopter indoors, so he has bigger worries than the playful barbs here.

    No, the Tenonmaker is specific to gaging the female portion of joints.

    Last I heard, we have Kerfmakers in stock, 1-800-253-3332 to confirm.

    John

11. Oh man, Rutager, John’s made me feel bad now; I mean, I don’t even know you and I’m taking shots…So I apologize and I hope you’re alright, head firmly attached and all. To be sure, it is in part due to your high level of participation that makes the blog all that much more enjoyable. And besides, you’re off the hook–I was just now able to place an order for both a KM and a TM. I was getting along without a tablesaw for about 2 years, happily, I might add, by using a Festool track saw, but now that I got a Sawstop, I came to realize that a kerfmaker was a must-have for my projects. And I was able to pick up a few extra tools as well–did you guys know they’re having a big sale over there? heh, heh

12. Interesting that you used the Festool system, Teocaf. I do too – I don’t have a table saw. Fortunately I’m not trying to make money at furniture building – if I were, I’d definitely get one. Any chance we could see some of your work? You could post it in the Community Forum here.

    – Peter

    P.S. Congrats on the kerfmaker. Coolest idea ever!

13. Welcome Teocaf,

    “Just what is he building anyways?” I wish I knew, seems like I’m spending too much time trying to get my couch to fit my butt!

    Rest assured that John would never intentionally try to make someone feel bad about giving me grief! The helicopter was new and I wasn’t aware of how fast it would “sweep” sideways when I gave the ailerons some input; so as I was watching it about to smack into the wall, I over compensated and it came back towards my face just as quickly; I ducked.

    I’m glad that my over buying didn’t prevent your purchase. As a hobbyist woodworker, I like to have multiples of tools that are set to references ie., Bevel gauges, marking gauges, Kerfmakers and soon Tenonmakers. Changing set-ups back and forth during a project is a fast way to making mistakes and taking the joy out of what is supposed to be a fun activity.

    -Rutager

    P.S. It’s very difficult to insult me, and trying to do it will win you the respect of the rest of the DSN!

14. Teocaf, Rutager is not lying when he says that it is difficult to insult him. Believe me when I say that I have tried repeatedly but when you have to continually EXPLAIN why it is an insult??? Well you get the picture.:o 😮 As far overbuying by Rutager, I do not think that is true however, and this is a fact, Rutager is better stocked in Bridge City tools starting from the very beginning, than Bridge City Tool Works itself. Now that is saying something. 😮 😮

    Unlike Peter, I had never seen or heard of the furniture shown in that video but it is truly impressive. It is a shame and more than likely is not happening on any grand scale but think of what houses, apartments, etc. in China and India could be like.

    Fred

15. You guys are too much–give Rutager some credit. Peter asked me to post some stuff on community forum, so I look on it and rwest is on there more than most. It’s true, a couple of things left me bewildered (there was some contraption stuck to a ceiling and some wobbly pipe thingie stuck in the lathe toolrest–i couldn’t figure what those were about). Anyway, the point is he’s using his many tools and plugging away, putting up content. So anyway Peter, I will try to post some stuff eventually. It will be easier now since I have just received my DLUX5 and have a killer Macbook with Aperture on the way (quad core, baby). They killed Kodachrome man, and have forced me to go digital–who knew that technology would take off, huh; I guess I’m not what they call an early adopter… But speaking generally of fine and ingenious tools, like the ones that get mentioned, the big thing for someone like me, who comes to to a discipline like woodworking from other backgrounds, is the fact that they enable you to get up the learning curve not only much faster but with a lot more satisfaction.
    In regards to this incredible furniture–even though I have seen this before because I follow the design ezines and blogs fairly closely, it still continues to amaze. To my mind, they have overcome the two big drawbacks to earlier attempts by others: they’ve made it where you don’t have to clean your desktop if you want to take a nap or read in bed, and where you don’t have to muscle the major weight of the contraption to do the conversion. Sheer genius.

16. Teocaf,

    As I know Rutager fairly well it is incumbent upon me to keep him under our collective thumbs. I made the mistake of giving him credit once and I have never regretted anything as badly as that. 😮 😮 It is much like when John says he gets a headache when he hears “Rutager is right”. 😮 😮

    Fred

17. John,

    Since the Tenonmakers are on their way to our shops; any chance you can make a video showing a good way to get nice and square mortises so none of us embarrass ourselves or the tool?

    Teocaf,

    Thanks for sticking up for me! The “contraption” stuck to the ceiling was just showing off, the best use of that jig is to drill perfect 90 degree holes anywhere on a large work piece that wouldn’t fit on a drill press. The lathe mounted thing allows you to drill into a work piece that is on your lathe; think mortise on a chair or stool leg, it could also be used for making decorative holes that get filled with contrasting woods. Feel free to ask any questions on the forum, I check it often.

    -Rutager

    P.S. Yes, Fred did give me credit once, but I asked for a credit card! He doesn’t listen too well.

18. A complaint that I have regarding a lot of manufactured furniture, space-saving and other, is that it doesn’t exhibit much, often not any, craftsmanship. By that I generally mean upholstery right to the floor – and most upholstery lacks any element of craftsmanship (using the possibly yet unintentionally unfair gender-specific characterization). So what do I want to see? I’m not sure: If the world adopted my ill-formed principle that furniture had to display craft, then there’d be even more people sitting on the floor. Maybe I mean honesty in materials and processes which would not have vinyl or veneer edges glued onto plywood and particleboard. I like the look of the edges of plywood, especially the coarse edge of 1-1/8″ T&G fir floor underlayment with it’s fat plys, occasional voids and squooshed laps for all to see, but a friend showed me an IKEA desk with faux ply edge-banding; yuk. I like IKEA, but yuk.

    I really like the stuff in the video, though we just “finished” (never) a 650′ house and I can barely picture any of the transformer pieces here, possibly because they threaten to impose a level of organization that seems to be missing in my household, but definitely because I would be rather worried that if I looked too closely, I would find the cut structural and mechanical and material corners that seem to be necessary when manufacturing even too-expensive furniture.

    BUT! If they sell a lot of transforming furniture because people are deciding to do more with less, then I’m all for it and I’ll expect that urge to lead to higher standards of craftsmanship and a transition (return?) to the notion that a piece of furniture should last forever or at least until our biosphere implodes.

    Gary

19. Well Gary, there’s furniture and then there’s furniture, and never the twain shall meet. I’m not sure that it’s useful to make comparisons between such a big range of products. At IKEA they actually post their guiding principles at their stores, one of which is that they start with a specific price point and then figure out the design and material from there. And the “upholstery to the floor” furniture you describe is all the stuff in the flyers that jam the sunday papers with their perpetual “going out of business” sales and the roomfull of furniture for a few hundred bucks. So all that is the low end of the spectrum–cheap and expeditious. This stuff they show in the video is much farther up the scale, with design, engineering, features, materials and finish to match. Pricey stuff. Like, for the Wall street guy keeping an elegant flat in the city for, you know, some extracurricular activities. I have seen some of these items up close in NYC and the perceived quality did not disappoint. I bought an expandable kitchen table (wood and glass) about six years ago and it is holding up quite nicely against my two young ones’ daily attacks. The IKEA convertible crib on the other hand has been reglued and rescrewed multiple times. Worlds apart, even though they share the same designation as furniture.
    Of course, there’s that whole other part of the spectrum where the craftsmanship that you mention comes in: the studio furniture, which as you know has indeed experienced a resurgence in part due to people like Esherick, Maloof, that dude John E. and many others. So where am I going with this? Well, I’m going back in to my shop to make my own stuff, because I don’t want to buy much of the cheap stuff, nor can I afford very much of the other stuff and I’ve grown rather partial to my own design ideas. I happen to share your affinity for the look of certain plys for example. I’m also excited by the new materials like bamboo slabs, kirei board, Torzo ply, 3Form etc. Wave of the future, man: they’re visually very interesting and some of those can arguably keep the biosphere going for perhaps a little longer.