Furniture Projects by John Manura
I have been a woodworker for more than 50 years. During most of the past 50 years I was making furniture for my home and relatives. My projects have included an entertainment center, a dining room with captains chairs, jewelry boxes, a Spanish classic guitar, a church pulpit, grandfather clocks and many other furniture pieces. This is just a sampling of the many projects that I have completed over the years. For most of my most recent projects I designed them using a CAD software program before I started construction. The pieces listed below are in chronological order starting in 1964 up till the present.
Record Storage Cabinet
This is one of my earliest pieces of furniture made in 1964 when I was in high school. My parents had purchased a new stereo console with French Provencal legs and I made this solid cherry record storage to match. After more than 50 years it is still in perfect condition. |
Grandmother Clock
This is a grandmother size clock that I made in 1968 for my future wife when I was still in college. It was constructed from scrap mahogany from a boat yard. the movement was recycled from an old antique mantle clock. |
Deacons Bench
This solid Oak bench was made in my shop in 1971 using a home made lathe that my father had made. The lathe consisted of two angle irons with a recycled washing machine motor - one speed 3600 rpm. |
Wall Clock
I custom designed this wall clock and made it using Oak lumber. Made in the early 1970's. |
Dining Room Set
I custom designed and build this trestle table and 6 captains chairs in 1976. It was made from poplar wood that I had purchased at a saw mill and then allowed to dry for two years in my basement before using. It was refinished in 2001 after 2 kids and a lot of use. |
Captains Chairs
This is one of the captains chairs for the dining room set. The seats were had carved and sanded. I estimate that I spent about 40 hours turning the spindles for each of the 6 chairs since I did not have a duplicator. |
Desk and Bookcase
I produced the desk and bookcase from poplar. It is now my maid work area for designing my furniture using a CAD system as well as other software for designing my turning projects |
Display Cabinet
This display cabinet was constructed from Cherry wood and has an inlaid top. The sides were angled to fit the angled wall space. I made this for the office at Scientific Instrument Services to display the machine shop projects. |
Entertainment Center
This is the largest project I have completed. It was made from Cherry wood and is 11 foot long. I contains pull out inlaid tables. This project took me about 6 months to complete. |
Church Pulpit
This pulpit was made for a church that I attended. It was made from cherry wood, have angled sides with wood panel construction. |
Bedroom Cabinets
I made two of these display and storage cabinets to match the bedside tables in my bedroom. The cabinets were made from Cherry wood and stained to match the existing bedroom set. |
Bedroom Desk Set
I made this bedroom desk set for organizing my personal papers out of Cherry wood and again stained it to match my bedroom set. |
My Fathers Projects
Here are a few of my fathers projects (Joseph Manura). He was a avid self taught woodworker who specialized in making and repairing grandfather clocks. He made many of his own tools and several for me including a lathe, disc sander and table router. This ability to design and build his own tools was my inspiration to continue this tradition and design the Accu-Slice system. |