Update and a small project

A lot has happened in the last 6+? months since I started the sideboard.  For one thing, I finished it.

Fin.

But then I found a job in a new location.  So my wonderful (7 month pregnant) wife and I packed up our giant Texan house and moved to a suburb of Washington DC.  Just as we were getting settled, and I had started dimensioning the wood for the crib, our little boy decided to arrive 5 weeks early.  Later, we stuck him in a pumpkin...not everyone had fun.

Ian

Since I would rather spend time with my wife and son, than in my new fully functional but very very small shop, I bought a crib.  The cherry allocated for the crib is still kicking around, but it is no longer an item of primary importance.

My new shop (with wood, for the crib?)

Our new house does not have a small alcove for our receiver and DVD player like our old house.  Until now they have been living on a wire rack, that is neither attractive, nor positioned well for use (the remote only worked from 1 cushion on the couch...first world problems).  To remedy this I could either build a new low entertainment center, or make a small thing to lift the TV off the cabinet enough to fit the receiver and DVD player.  Since this isn't permanent, we needed it quick, and I didn't have to buy any wood I decided to build the small lift thing.  It is pretty simply and the dimensions were determined by the receiver.  I did decide to complicate it by making the center support a sliding dovetail instead of a dado.  Since there are lots of how-to's for through dovetails I didn't take pictures of that. I did take pictures of how I made a sliding dovetail by hand.  First I marked the tail and used a marking gauge to define the shoulder.  I used a board to keep the saw at 90 degrees and sawed to the line.

Cutting the shoulder of the dovetail

 I cleared the waste with a chisel then snuck up to the line on each end. By putting part of a wide chisel on the previously excavated section I was able to keep the slope pretty constant, and just worked my way to the middle.

Slicing the angle of the tail

Getting tail size

Transfer tail size

I used dividers to transfer the narrow part of the rail to the pin board?...not sure what that part is called.  The using a block with the same angle cut down to the correct depth making sure to offset the block the the saw kerf (though one could also flip the block over).

Cutting the angle using a guide block

Most of the waste was cleared with a chisel taking care not to destroy the edges.  Then a router plane to sneak up to the final depth.   Once the waste was clear, I adjusted the fit and tapered the tail using the wide chisel.

After clearing the waste with a chisel.

A few passes with the router plane to bring the slot to final depth.

I finished this with a few coats of garnet shellac, and some wax.  Now we can use the remote from anywhere in the room, and the college style wire rack is gone.

The sliding dovetail.

Those other dovetails.

The finished piece, nothing special but it works well.

Next up is a canoe rack out of dimensional lumber.  While the wood may not last forever, the joinery certainly will.