Little Journey's #1: Back Log

Catch up
This is a project I started from quartersawn white oak scraps about three years ago. However, I got involved in other things, so it has been bouncing around in storage getting slightly damaged during the interim. I took it out to inspect it and start the finishing process; aka actually completing the piece.

This is from “More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture” by Robert Lange. The Little Journey’s Bookstand was originally made by Roycroft to to hold a set of books called “Little Journey’s”. (I have a set of the books now… thanks to ebay).

I used the project to prepare for making a large dining table that is not finished yet either. This was the first time I cut through mortises and angled through mortises. For a small project there is a lot of hand work, 16 though-mortises, besides the eight housed mortise and tenon joints. I also hand chamfered the tenon ends. I drew out a full size pattern for the foot.

Figure Faults
Time for inspection. I still liked the overall piece and most of the wood selection. The top in particular I remember book matching.

I was not very happy with my some of the workwork. At the time I built this, I had only been woodworking for about a year.

Here were some of the problems…

The tenons were too deep to cut out with a tablesaw, So I cut them on the bandsaw, freehand. Unfortunately I nicked the actual shelf.

You can also see that the shoulder is not sitting flush to the leg.

Also seen here…

Corrections
A new friend who is also a pro woodworker came by and I was showing him some of the problems I found in thei piece. He gave me a bit of good advice to fix the bandsaw nick. “Trim the entire shelf,” he said. He then gave me a great reminder that it is often easier to have an offset than to try to get parts flush.

So yesterday I knocked down the project and began by trimming both shelves.

I then decided that I now had the knowledge and skills to better square the tenon shoulders along the ends of the shelf.
I used a crosscut sled to square the shoulders closest to the shelf edges. I should have done that the first time!
(no pic)

Then to handle the middle section (between the tenons), I clamped on a straight edge t-square and got out the flush trim bit.

I routed the middle section flush staying away from the tenons.

I chiseled the corners clean.

Since I had changed the tenon depth, I had to recut some of the trough mortices deeper.

I have a few more to go, but was very pleased with the repairs so far. Check out the fit of the shelf shoulders now….

Next up
A few more mortises and re-sanding.

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne