Mini Moravian Bench Build Process

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This afternoon I got on with the other three mortices, which proceeded fairly rapidly so I could also make the other three wedges:

You might notice that two of the wedges are American Black Walnut while the other two are Sycamore. That's a feature! If you cast your mind back to the débâcle with the compound angle, you'll remember that I had to adjust the angle of the mortice but also that another effect of the angle was a slight angle on the mortice for the wedge. That wedge angle is about 2° but is slanted one way on two legs and the other way on the other two legs. Having made the first wedge out of ABW for convenience, it occurred to me that I could use ABW for the wedges that slope one way and Sycamore for the wedges that slope the other and it would be a nice easy way to tell them apart.

The wedges still need shaping, but I couldn't resist a trial assembly (even though the sharp tips on the wedges might make it slightly more awkward to get it apart this time!)

The next job is probably to shape the wedges, or possibly to cut the top and bottom ends of the legs off. I'm not completely finished with mortising as I still need to open up the cross-bar mortices (for the wedges that will hold those tenons permanently in place), but I'm going to leave that until after I've done the joinery for the top.

I'm still a little undecided about the joinery for the top. I'm probably still leaning towards tapered sliding dovetails (with the taper tightening as planks for the top get closer together probably), but I'm definitely open to opinions or suggestions. Having the tapers going across means that, as the dovetails wear, the top planks will get a little closer together, which is probably fine. If I did them the other way round, then I'd need a big mortice in the top for the dovetails to drop into and as they wear, the planks will stick out at one end more than the other. It also strikes me as a nightmare to mark up and cut that way round (not that it seems easy to do it cross-ways!). Anyway, other suggestions (dovetail-y or otherwise) welcome!

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.

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