Mini Moravian Bench Build Process

Return to main project page

With everything now a bit better understood, I was feeling much more comfortable about what I had to fix. This is the bit (on the outside edge of the inside face) I needed to remove from each leg to expand the mortice:

I started by cutting the ends of that wedge with a little flush-cut saw, just to avoid any risk of splits propagating further than I'd want them to:

Overnight, the 3D-printer had been hard at work making the Cock-Up Fixer 2000™:

That got clamped in place on the side of each leg:

The edge is positioned just in the right place for the new angled mortice and the face at the top is angled at 2.14° from vertical so that it can be used as a reference to guide the chisel (after a couple of intermediate cuts to get rid of most of the waste):

I was really pleased with the finish after paring; it's almost as good as the router plane finish:

After expanding the mortices in the first leg frame, I fitted the stretchers to see how it looks. They look much closer to parallel now:

This also showed something I was expecting: the angle of the shoulder on the stretchers will also need adjusting:

I checked the CAD model and it reported the angle as 92.21° (so slightly different to the mortice angle, which was 92.14°). I doubt that 0.07° difference is going to affect anything (as if I could cut that accurately anyway!) but I went for 92.2° rather than 92.1° anyway. To mark it up, I used a digital angle gauge on the top edge:

The marks got transferred down the side with the sliding bevel:

This time I used a rule to "join the dots" on the bottom edge as the digital angle gauge only sticks out one way and hence it would need to be re-set to a different setting for this side.

It was then simply a case of chiselling to the line:

I was very, very pleased that with all the mortices expanded and the stretcher shoulders adjusted, the frame slid together very smoothly and easily:

You can see the gaps that are now present on the inside edge of the inside face as a result of opening out the outside edge:

I'll probably insert some little wedges into those gaps to fill them up (once I've figured out a way to make wedges), but I don't see at as urgent (or even that important): the shoulders are doing the work of holding it together and the sides of the mortice shouldn't really matter (as there's no glue). Having them open as they are makes it easier to put the frame together and take it apart again.

I think the next job is to get everything clamped together fairly rigidly and then mark the locations for the mortices that will hold wedges to keep the stretchers in place.

I am a hobbyist metalworker and woodworker. I work as an electronic design engineer and spend most of my working days in front of a computer so I enjoy having the opportunity to use my hands and make things in my spare time. I particularly enjoy making tools as I can then use them on other projects. This website showcases some of the things I've made.

This website is free and ad-free, but costs me money to run. If you'd like to support this site, please consider making a small donation or sending me a message to let me know what you liked or found useful.

Please do get in touch if you notice any issues on the site or can think of anything that would be a helpful addition or improvement.