Repairing The Cracks.

The good news is the broken music stand is now back to a full state of repair. The bad news… well that comes in two parts.
Having originally built the stand in a very relaxing weekend I’d made a point to really enjoy the whole process. I kept up a steady pace but completed it using nothing but hand tools and creating a lovely pile of shavings rather than that alternative; dust.
When the stand was in need of repair I was no longer in that relaxed place and had to fit the work in to a short amount of time. I had to remove the cracked shelf so I could put on a full replacement but the angled dowels along the glue line meant it couldn’t be prised off.
As a simple solution I opted to hit the shelf with a hammer. This wasn’t as brutal as it sounds. I was just looking to remove as much of the material from the shelf as possible so I encouraged the crack along and split it right off.  Being left with only the glued portion of the shelf left firmly in place I got prepared to make some dust. I secured the stand in my vice and carefully lined up a fence for my router to run along. The surgery was quick and painless and after some squaring up at the corners I had a nice clean and flat face ready to accept a new shelf.

There was now a handful of minor dents to deal with. To give back a fresh, crisp appearance I simply planed around all of the edges to create a small chamfer for consistency. All that remained was to take back the finish and apply fresh oil all over so the whole piece came together as one.

During the build of this music stand, in fact whilst building anything I’ve ever made, I don’t recall having the thought that any of the parts might end up sticking out of my arse cheek. But somehow that’s precisely what happened next!
Part of the split shelf was left on my bench top. I jumped up to sit on my bench and Oooch! As I leapt up not only did I have half the shelf sticking out of my cheek but I also managed to spill a full cup of tea down my knicky knacky knews! The wood was stuck in deep enough to fully support itself horizontally! Anyway, half a pack of Elastoplast and a couple of days sitting unevenly and we’re in the all clear.
In my experience workshop accidents don’t happen in the most obvious places. I spend much of my time worrying where I’m putting my fingers and rummaging for my goggles. Still, it could have been worse…

On another note, we should another video on here tomorrow!