Book Stand Takes a Detour

Let's take a moment for a couple brief detours.

First, "Goodbye summer." There... it's over.

On Monday this week the temp reached a high of 90° F. The last four days have been in the fifties and sixties. So, the days are numbered for the cicadas, like this one in our backyard. For such little dudes, they sure make a prodigious buzzing sound. Some days their chorus seems to drown out my power tools. But not for much longer.

Second, the panel parts you see above are part of remaking the interior carousel of the Jeffersonian Book Stand.

I'm afraid I had second thoughts about the material I had selected. I just wasn't satisfied with the grain and color matching that I was getting with the edge bands and the face veneers. It was time to make a bold move and set all six carousel panels aside and come up with some new material. After a bit of consternation, I was able to locate the yellow birch you see in the photo above. Great color compatibility with the rest of the piece, nice straight grain, and I was able to cut the edge bands from the same part of the plank as the veneers. I couldn't be happier.

One final pic of the detour. Here's my shop made jointer plane taking some sweet shavings off the edge of a panel. Now the new panels with matching edge bands are all glued up and ready for the next step.

While the glue was setting up on the new carousel panels, I pulled out the top panel substrate and began preparing it for the center pocket. The folding support leg will slide into the pocket when the top book support panel is in the closed position.

Adding some yellow birch to line the opening. Later, I'll add a solid wood panel that will have notches to engage the folding support leg.

A couple more poplar edge bands...

The glue in these Baltic birch layers is really tough on the old plane iron, but the resulting surface is great for gluing on the poplar edge.

With the edge bands on, I check and flatten both faces of the panel, making it ready to receive the veneers.

Now, if my calculations are correct... this will be the last time in the vacuum bag for the Jeffersonian Book Stand. A great way to mark the change of season. Onward and upward!

Hej då!

Craig