Work Progress on my current Commission for the St. Anthony Church in Strong City, KS

I have received some correspondence lately asking about what I am doing right now in the shop. So, I thought I would post a little progress on my current commission piece.

The people at the St. Anthony of Padua Church in Strong City, KS asked me to build a Hymn Number Stand to match the other pieces in the church I did earlier this year.

Here is a list of the other projects that go with this commission that I have already completed, some have been posted as projects, while others haven’t yet:
- Two new side Altars
- New Lectern
- New Processional Cross
- Restored Sacrifice (Front) Altar
- Restored High (Back) Altar

I started out to make a pretty simple thing to display the hymn numbers that the congregation will sing each week. Here is my concept sketch that I did for the board members, and for my proposal price.

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Then, they awarded the job to me, and I have had several weeks to think about it while I was cleaning up my backlog of other items to build.

Having too long to think about a project isn’t always good for my business income normally. This is especially true if I have already priced the work.

The more time I think about something, the more I find ways to stretch the project, and my abilities.

I have been wanting to try my hand at a tripod base table using sliding dovetail joinery, so I adapted that concept to the Hymn Number Board, and came up with this revised concept sketch.

I came up with this concept sketch while riding in the car with my wife driving and the kids playing in the backseat, while traveling to see my wife’s family. After drawing up the sketch, I have tried for the past three weeks to talk myself out of going to this extreme on the design. It isn’t that difficult of a project for some folks, but this will be a challenge for me, and that is what I was after. Finally, I tucked the pressure behind me and forged ahead. I am happy with the progress I have made this week, so here a few progress photos.

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Here is a photo showing the side posts with the Haunch-Mortises cut. I used my Legacy Ornamental Mill to do this work, which is pretty easy to be honest. I don’t know how I would do this type of work without the Legacy. I guess I wouldn’t, and would just settle on doing something easier, like a Mission Style leg post.

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Here is a photo showing the Haunch-Tenon that I used to attach the board to the side posts. I decided to use this joint so that the post would be stronger, and not weakened so much with a big mortise the full length being machined out.

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The next step for the board is to carve the word “Hymn” on the front, and then glue it into the side posts. I will glue the full length of the board to the side post, putting glue in all of the mortises. Since the grain is running the same direction on both boards, they will move in unison, and I am not concerned about gluing the joint. This however, is not true if you are using this joint for a bread board end on a solid wood table top. I did that project last summer, and the gluing process is completely different, but that is another story for another time.

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Here is a photo showing the side posts ready to glue to the board, but first I need to drill the round mortise holes for the section of side post that I have machined as a Barley Twist on my Legacy Mill.

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This Photo shows the base assembly in a trial fit. Things are looking good here, next step is to make the final shape of the legs, and get them ready to fit the brass covers/wheel.

The carved phrase on the Strecher board is from Psalm 69:32, “Sing Praise to the Lord.” I felt this Psalm fit the purpose of this furnishing for the church.

The Stretcher board fits into the sliding dovetail in the two round posts. This is sort of like putting two tripod tables together. I have received the brass foot coverings with brass wheels from Vandykes.com and will add those also when I get to that point. I did the sliding dovetail mortises on the Legacy Ornamental Mill. It is so easy, I wonder why I haven’t tried it before. The sliding dovetail tenons I cut using the same router bit on my router table.

To do this work, I had to design a horizontal boring fixture to drill the holes straight. In the past I have used the “eye-ball” method, but I wanted to make sure it was straight this time. I built the boring fixture last week. You can’t see the holes that I drilled in the base posts, but there are 3/4” dia. holes about 3” deep, perfectly centered and straight down the shaft of the post.

How did I do that? It is a mystery I am not yet ready to disclose….......

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Thanks for looking,
Mark DeCou
www.decoustudio.com

-- Mark DeCou - American Contemporary Craft Artisan - www.decoustudio.com