Sharing the Wealth - Part III

Well, the actual work on these projects was finished several weeks ago, but with middle school starting up again I have been very busy. Now that things have settled down to a dull roar, I can finish posting the great results of a thoroughly enjoyable pair of projects.

Last time, James had successfully opened his book stand. All that remained was to shape the top and the legs and clean up the newly exposed surfaces, which were still rough from the resawing. Here he is using a rasp to smooth a tricky spot, having already cut the arch of the legs with the turning saw and trued the curve with the spokeshaves.

Here is a better look at how we fastened the work to the bench. You gotta love handscrews!

And here is the set-up to hold the work steady while he planes the resawn surfaces.

Now you might be thinking, "Why didn't they do that before cutting the curved edges - wouldn't it have been much simpler?" Of course! But what you don't know, and couldn't be expected to know, is that I was only trying to make the lone, cast-off piece of mdf in my shop (part of a shelf I ripped out of the laundry closet) feel useful - its spirits being so low after it realized that it is not really wood in the natural sense of things at all, and its grain is fake to boot! So there you go, we meant to do that!

Jenny had a little further to go to complete her necklace holder and ended up coming over twice. Which is just another way of saying "Twice as much fun!" Here she is using the panel gauge to mark the panel, which she then planed down to its final width. Next she planed the rabbets with the Record 778 and cleaned them up with the Veritas shoulder plane.

After the panel was done, the frame and panel could be assembled and glued-up. This left the pegs, which she whittled from some doweling and the curved top. The wood for the top was made by jointing and gluing together the last two scraps of the doug fir from making the frame. Jenny then designed the curve, cut a cardboard template of the shape and traced it onto the stock. She bored the classic shaker peg hole with the brace and bit and then cut the curve with the turning saw. The curve she trued with the spokeshaves and the face of the piece was smoothed with the #3, which required another bit of creative holding.

After the frame was removed from the clamps, and cleaned-up with a plane, the top was glued on and it was finished!

Here are two last shots. One of both the book stand and the necklace holder. And another of Jenny proudly holding her first woodworking project! Yahoo!

I am already looking forward to James and Jenny's next visit - and James' brother Kerry said something about making a cribbage board! More fun in the shop!"