Bamboo Dining Room Table

Last year I was working with a client to rework her living space and she expressed interest in finding and buying a bamboo dining room table. I agreed to help her find one because I had been hearing so many great things about the sustainability of bamboo.

As is often the case for emerging ideas the hype with bamboo furniture does not mean that items discussed are available. We looked in our local market for a bamboo dining table and were not able to find one, and searching the internet provided hours of research without finding something that fit in our budget.
I resolved to build a custom table and we decided that I would use bamboo plywood, simple enough right!!!!
Well after a bit of searching I finally found a vendor in the Kansas City area that sells Plyboo. I of course found out later that they do not stock the Plyboo so if I wanted to buy it I would have to pay for shipping. The plywood price was around $250 a sheet, pretty high but workable. The shipping price was not immediately available, when they called me back in a few days and told me that the shipping would be around $250 per sheet I realized that this was going to be an expensive project.
I looked online for other purchase options for bamboo plywood but I did not find anything that was significantly less expensive. By the time I added a table base, cut the plywood and did the finish work I was finding realizing that the table would be pretty expensive for a piece of plywood with legs.
I searched the web to see if it was possible to buy bamboo dimensional lumber, but did not. I did find several sites that had some trim and stair treads, which did not suit my purposes.
The project was on the shelf for a few months when I was researching bamboo flooring for another client and I was looking at a website that offered unfinished bamboo flooring, and I started thinking about unfinished flooring as possible table top material. I have used unfinished flooring for table top applications before, the unfinished flooring does not have a micro-bevel on the edges between pieces, which allows for sanding and finishing with less obvious joints. The unfinished flooring costs about 1/3 to 1/2 what the plywood costs and the shipping was about a tenth of the plywood.
Once I received the unfinished bamboo flooring I laid out the table in such a way as to use an entire case which produced a table top, 3 feet wide and 7 feet long. The bamboo was attached to FSC birch plywood and then I finished the table with an 1 - 1/2 inch edge.
I used a water based low voc finish, which I would not do again because the finish tends to wick into the fiber of the bamboo, causing pock marks. I used oil - wax finish on my newer tops, it smells great and has a nice luster.
I have continued to refine my fabrication methods and have created a collection of 6 tables that are made with reused vintage(1950's) douglas fir plywood, reclaimed wood breadboard ends, and bamboo. I used vintage hairpin table legs for three of the tables and they look great with the new tops.
I am hopeful that in the near future the bamboo plywood manufacturing companies will start offering bamboo dimensional lumber, then the design possibilities really open up for this wonderful material.

Why SHIFT modern?

The SHIFT in the name is a reference to a broad paradigm shift to live in mindful harmony with the environment.

The modern housing movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s had many similarities to the current desire for unique living spaces. The current “green” movement is more broad-based and intentional about the full environmental consequences of design in addition to being unique. SHIFT modern focuses on materials that are reused, recycled and sustainable.

Modular design is employed whenever possible to reduce waste during planning rather than during building. SHIFT modern often repurposes materials to get the look of custom finishes without the cost and waste.

I find it very intrigueing that many of the "prefab" homes that are available look very similar to my house which was built in 1961. I am hopeful that the prefab movement realizes the promise of well reasoned and efficiently constructed homes. I think one of the driving forces will be the shift of the baby boomers wanting to live in smaller well conceived and built homes. I also hope this translates into higher density construction with shared utilities and better community structures.

Alternative Energy Rant

I like to dream about ways to make alternative energy assessable to everyone...
Today I am really focused on the fact that I am tied to a grid that I cannot control and that may be perilously fragile... today is an ice storm day. It is raining pretty hard, the trees have a pretty good coat of ice, which is still building. I occasionally have to focus on being calm because my heart is racing as fast as the rain drops splatter on the roof. The wind is picking up and that means limbs of the large trees in town will be starting to break. The rumble of utility trucks can already be heard, in fact a crew was just down the street removing a branch from a line.
About six years ago there was a significant ice storm here in north eastern Kansas and we lost power for about three days, the ice was beautiful, but it was pretty scary not having traditional utilities. We borrowed a generator, but that was a pretty small band aid.
Here's what I want:
I want the utility company to put PV solar arrays on my house, I will let them do so for free, and they can charge me regular price for the electricity I use and they can keep the rest in their grid. If the companies did this on residential and commercial properties, maybe we could avoid having to build any more coal fired power plants and we would have a more diversified energy production system. I know that this is not a silver bullet, but I want solar and like most people I cannot afford it!
The utilities should be able to realize return on investment sooner than I would, plus if they would offer free solar units to their customers they could start creating the economies of scale necessary to bring down the functional cost of solar power. I get so mad when I hear that solar is not competitive because of transmission costs, if power generation could become diversified to the point of usage we save in many respects.
Next Dream:
I want a hybrid solar-fuel cell powered heating system for my house. I want solar to generate hot water and hydrogen for heat and fuel storage. The traditional HVAC system is very myopic and produces waste on every front. I am not a physicist so I do not know if this is even possible, but I would like to have an integrated power generating and fuel storage system that could also power a vehicle. I really do not want to have a basement full of toxic batteries.
I think the number one obstacle to an energy production paradigm shift is the energy companies wanting to control distribution so they can control prices and profits. If they would focus their businesses on developing new technology and ways to lease/sell the generation equipment, they could get away from power being the commodity.
Wind energy:
The energy companies whine about start up costs and transmission, and there is the NIMBY factor of giant turbines congregated en mass. Here a modest proposal: Put the turbines along our highways!!!!! Instead of trying to hide the turbines on a farm, string them along our current highway system. Wouldn't it be cool to drive down the highway in an electric car, stop at the charging station that gets its energy from the turbines lining the roadway!!!!!
As you drive along a major interstate you will notice that there are already power poles, there would be good accessibility for construction, maintenance and transmission. They could be put up like Christmas lights, plug and play.
The other thing that often accompanies interstates are railroad lines, in most cases the land for the rail lines was given to the rail companies some time ago, this would be an excellent place to put more turbines, also the trains could easily transport the components to assemble the turbines.
I guess all of my dreams follow a singular theme, get over the centralized generation theme that has always been the norm for the generation of power. Integrated generation reduces need for transmission and ultimately creates a more stable and scalable way to incorporate green power.