On Aug 11, 5:55 pm, Phisherman wrote:
On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:46:44 GMT, Steve wrote:
Hi All,
I'm new here, and new to woodworking in general. My first real project
is under way and I'll have a few questions as I go, so here's the
first...
My project is a music stand for myself. Store bought ones just don't do
it for me and I love natural wood anyway. For an idea of the kind of
thing I'm making, I found an awesome website with quality that I won't
even try to accomplish this first time out:
http://www.misterstandman.com
The first question I have is how to join the bottom "music rest" portion
to the back piece? The strongest joint that I can come up with is a
sliding dovetail with the slot in the back piece and the tail making up
the shelf, but I'm worried about how large of a bit to use. The wood
itself is 3/4" thick (both pieces), so is the dovetail going to simply
snap off when I put a heavy music book on it?
I'd make a triangular (or pie-shaped) piece, 3/4" thick, with a hole
in it. Dado the back (1/4" is fine) piece so that one side of the
triangular piece fits. A little more complicated if you want
adjustable tilt. A sliding dovetail is good too--the unglued sliding
dovetail can be fragile but after the glue fully cures (overnight) it
becomes very strong.
I guess the second question would be fitting it together with glue in the
joint without it binding or cracking. I figure epoxy will give me the
time to slide everything together (27" long), but I'm looking for any
advice as I only want to do it once 
Fuss with the dry fit, snug but not tight. I'd use woodworker's glue
and a small flux brush. Put glue on the deepest 10" of mortise and
the last 10" of the tenon. You have 5-10 minutes of open time with
the yellow woodworker's glue.
Cured yellow glue is unbreakable in shear. Just glue the last 2" of
each piece. Use a pipe clamp to drive the joint home instead of a
hammer, and don't stop moving -- if the joint's cut tight, which
it'll
likely be for appearance, it'll lock up hard if you pause for even a
second.