Sliding Dovetail Bookends

Step 15: Final assembly and comments

While there is no glue in the joints, decorate your bookends and guides in any fashion you like. Maybe you want to put a nice chamfer along the edges. Perhaps you want to round the corners. My wife wants a celtic knot cut out of the bookends. However you wish to express yourself, now is the time to do it. The functional portion of the piece is complete, and now it's time to be expressive. Once you're ready, put a bit of wood glue in the notches in the bookends, attach the guides, and clamp for a while. Be sure to use some scrap material between the clamp and the piece so you don't damage anything. Wipe off any excess glue with a damp cloth.

That's the rudimentary sequence of steps for building this bad boy. Now comes the even harder part of detailing and finishing the piece. I'm leaving that for another instructable, but here's some advice:

If you want to do something fancy with the bookends, do it before you glue up. It will make life easier.

Sand the piece down using increasing grades of sandpaper. This will bring out the grain, displaying the natural beauty of the wood.

When making meat sauce for spaghetti, brown the meat with a little salt and rosemary to give it a nice subtle flavor.

If you use a sealing finish, such as shellac, be sure to avoid getting it into the dovetail or on the dovetail pins. Doing so will change the geometry of the joint, and will probably cause the piece to stop functioning.

Thanks for reading my instructable. I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms.

Comments

[edsternet]

Thanks RB for a most instructive project, and also was thoroughly entertained by the sharply honed wit throughout. I like you already. Will definitely give this one a try. Thanks again Ed