Kirk (KC) Constable
11-12-2003, 8:15 AM
My brother is a restorer of antique lighting, and keeps his cello in the 'lobby' of his shop. I've never made him anything of wood...so after looking at the adjustable cherry music stand in the Shaker Workshops catalog for a year or so, I decided the kit was too cheap ($159 w/shipping) to not try it first before I spent a week trying to make one of my own. :(
Ordered the kit on a Friday...they shipped it the following Tuesday...it arrived the next Tuesday.
The pieces of the kit are well machined, and shrink wrapped. They look to be sanded well enough to go straight to finishing. Except there's some assembly required...and here comes the 'gripe'.
Legs are attached to the turned post with a sliding dovetail. The joints were extremely tight. Like a doofus, I jammed one up in there pretty good to see if it would even go...and I had a helluva time getting it back out (even with the help of a rubber mallet). The instructions say to sand a little on the 'tenons' if necessary to get a good fit. Well, that's hard to do without redefining the dovetail. And sanding wasn't enough for me...I used a chisel. I mean they were tight. I didn't really want to, but I used poly glue on these joints simply because it's more 'slippery' than the PVA glues. I don't think I coulda put the legs in there with PVA, and I'm pretty sure a 'beginner' (who might be a more 'typical' kit buyer) would've been in big trouble.
The music 'desk' consists od several pieces, mortised and tenoned on both directions. Again, the machining was beautiful...the sanding 'ready to finish'...but there was no way to arrange the pieces such that the unit was flat on one side or the other. All the joinery was off by just enough that none of the joints were 'flush'...and they were unflush on both sides no matter how I put 'em together. Again, that's not a real issue for me 'cause I'll stick the whole thing through the sander...but I think it would be for a beginner.
That's as far as I've gotten on it, but I kinda wanted to ask if anybody else has built one of the Shaker kits, and is this a typical 'problem'?
KC
Ordered the kit on a Friday...they shipped it the following Tuesday...it arrived the next Tuesday.
The pieces of the kit are well machined, and shrink wrapped. They look to be sanded well enough to go straight to finishing. Except there's some assembly required...and here comes the 'gripe'.
Legs are attached to the turned post with a sliding dovetail. The joints were extremely tight. Like a doofus, I jammed one up in there pretty good to see if it would even go...and I had a helluva time getting it back out (even with the help of a rubber mallet). The instructions say to sand a little on the 'tenons' if necessary to get a good fit. Well, that's hard to do without redefining the dovetail. And sanding wasn't enough for me...I used a chisel. I mean they were tight. I didn't really want to, but I used poly glue on these joints simply because it's more 'slippery' than the PVA glues. I don't think I coulda put the legs in there with PVA, and I'm pretty sure a 'beginner' (who might be a more 'typical' kit buyer) would've been in big trouble.
The music 'desk' consists od several pieces, mortised and tenoned on both directions. Again, the machining was beautiful...the sanding 'ready to finish'...but there was no way to arrange the pieces such that the unit was flat on one side or the other. All the joinery was off by just enough that none of the joints were 'flush'...and they were unflush on both sides no matter how I put 'em together. Again, that's not a real issue for me 'cause I'll stick the whole thing through the sander...but I think it would be for a beginner.
That's as far as I've gotten on it, but I kinda wanted to ask if anybody else has built one of the Shaker kits, and is this a typical 'problem'?
KC