Walnut reading stand

[Ironballs]

Whilst I was off the other week on my hols (but being ill for most of it :x ) I decided to plan out in scale my competition entry. As I was doing this my girlfriend was sat across the table reading a book and kept using various things to prop it up at the right angle.

A thought popped into my head :idea: and I went and had a look at a board of walnut I'd picked up at Mr T's offcut sale a few months back, it was only a small one and had a split in one end, but I reckoned I could get what I needed from it.

Quick bit of sketching and I worked out I could get all I needed (just) If I was careful. One scale drawing later and it was off to the garage to do a bit of planing and cutting....

Easy edge glue joint for the main part of the body

All main components cut out, wedge parts were bandsawn and planed, the lip was done on the tablesaw - decided an angle of 35 degrees would optimal for the stand

Laid out the parts to judge where the legs would go, toyed with the idea of biscuiting, decided it would be fiddly and not needed

Shaped in a curve on the leg pieces and spokeshaved some shallow curves on the sides and top of the main body to lighten the shape and add some interest

More glueing - not very exciting

The finished article after 3 coats of danish, a rub back with 0000 and a waxing. Came out alright for a quick job

Does the job it was designed for

One happy customer when she was presented with her surprise this morning

 

[Paul Chapman]

Very nice.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Waka]

Love that a lot, well done.

 

[gwaithcoed]

What an excellent project, well done , I love it. Hope your girlfriend is suitably impressed


Alan.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Just a thought, Ironballs - you could fit to the back a couple of weighted strings that could be used to hold open the pages if your girlfriend wants to use it, say, in the kitchen for cookery books. Pages sometimes have a tendency to turn over of their own accord.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Alex]

Yeah, i bet Mrs Ironballs was pleased with that! Very nice bit of Walnut. The only thing i would change is the supporting board looks to flat. Maybe split the board and put 10-15 deg chamfer rejoin so the book support resembles an open book.
Excellent little book steady 8)

 

[Karl]

Nice work Damian. Bet she's well chuffed.

Cheers

Karl

 

[Ironballs]

Cheers chaps, she was pleased, I'll bear in mind the weighted string mod too, see how she gets on.

Alex I did consider maybe doing a bit of shaping on the top edge and angling the join, however decided to keep it quick and simple as my wastage tolerances were nearly zero and build time had to be kept to a minimum.

Now if you wanted to knock up a beefy one with curves in quarter sawn oak, that would be worth seeing......

 

[OPJ]

So... How far did you get with the design for your competition entry??? :wink:

I really like this, Damien. It's simple and yet, if you wanted to develop it (make it adjustable or add some curves), that could easily be done.

Another thing that could be useful is somewhere on the back face to put one of those small, cheap LED reading lights. I've seen ones which are designed to clip on to the books and then unfold.

 

[Ironballs]

Design is coming along Olly, have bought some more wood, done a scale drawing and now need to do a full size drawing of the legs that I can transfer to MDF to use as a template and make the cuts in my timber.

Plenty more prevaricating to be done yet though... :roll: