Welcome to Saturday, June 8th. I’m extra cognizant of the date because of my scheduling conflicts with the folks at Amazon. Still, it’s Saturday and, for the most part, it’s been a very good week. David is hankering for a glass of John Howell’s Bourbon, so I better dispense with the chit-chat here. Let’s get our drinks and see if we can work on Linda’s Stream of Consciousness prompt.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “start with a question.” Begin your post with the first question that comes to mind when you sit down to write your post. Bonus points if you end your post with a question too. Have fun!
Linda G. Hill
If we were having a beer, you’d have lots of questions, beginning with:
“Dan, where’s Cheryl?”
“I don’t think she’s going to be here today, David. She’s working hard to finish the second book in her series.”
“Do you know what it’s about?”
“The people we came to love in the first book are moving on with their lives, but there’s a new threat to the peace they came home to enjoy.”
“Cheryl took the day off. Can I get you guys your usual drinks?”
“Hi Curley. Yes, a nice cold Modelo for me and a John Howell’s Special for David.”
“Coming right up.”
“Dan, you have a new book coming out, but you’re currently promoting the first four books. What’s up with that?” You’re not releasing the fifth book in your trilogy—are you?”
“No, David. My next book, Bridge to Nowhere, is a stand-alone novel. The cover is done and it’s being edited and reviewed. People who read Secrets Held Against Evil will recognize some of the characters, but it’s not necessary to know them ahead of time.”
“So, this promotion of the earlier books is just marketing?”
“Yes. It’s an unfortunate side effect of being an author.”
“OK, enough about books. How’s that garden bench coming?”
“I made a lot of progress since we last talked about it, and I made one huge mistake.”
“Huge mistake? Are we talking repairable, or did the kindling pile grow substantially?”
“Repairable. In fact…”
“In fact, you might like it better—I hate when you do that, Dan.”
“Recovering from a mistake? Why would that bother you, David?”
“Recovering from a mistake is one thing. You have a knack for pulling a ‘when life gives you lemons’ moment out of mistakes.”
“When you’re this far into a project, you really don’t have a choice.”
“What went wrong?”
“I cut the mortises for the side rails and stretchers on the front of the front legs.”
“Ouch. As they say, ‘that’s gonna leave a mark’, or a hole in this case, assuming I understand what a mortise is.”
“Yep, a mortise is a rectangular hole, and I have four of them where they don’t belong.”
“Curley, I see the patio getting busy. Can we get another round before you head out there.”
“Sure, David. I like that you think ahead.”
“I’m sure you get this all the time, but I kind of expected you to say, “soitenly’. “
“Yeah, I get that a lot. People usually stop after I grab their nose with two fingers and smack my hand.”
“Gotcha.”
“Close call, David.”
“I couldn’t resist, Dan. Back to your bench. How do you plan to fill the holes” Wood putty?”
“No. I’m going to make medallions, cut a tenon on them, and glue them into the mortises.”
“Hide the hole behind a decorative element. That’s a good idea.
“I know. I’ve done it before.”
“Here you go. I’m heading out to the patio. Do you want me to put a food order in?”
“Pizza – small – meat lovers.”
“Done.”
“When do we get to sit on this bench, Dan?”
“The next step is to assemble the sides. Everything is cut, I just have to sand the parts I won’t be able to reach after it’s together.”
“Then what?”
“The long rails that connect the sides. That’s the front rail, the back rail and the crest rail.”
“That’s it for the frame. What will we actually sit on?”
“Seat slats and back slats. The seat slats can wait until last, but the back slats have to be mortised in between the back rail and the crest rail.”
“That’s a lot of mortise and tenon joints.”
“A dozen on top and bottom.”
“And how many medallions?”
For those who are interested in the woodworking part, the slide show below contains a lot of images and captions. All the photos were staged after the tools were turned off.
Anatomy of Mortise and tenon joint 
Trimming the cheek cut. The stop block prevents the chip from being pinned between the blade and fence. 
The cheek cut falls safely away 
Trimming the tenon 
The stretcher is the easiest part to recreate, so I started with it 
Cutting tenon for arm to join back leg 
The tenons are trimmed on the bandsaw with stop blocks to control depth 
The tenons are trimmed on the bandsaw with stop blocks to control depth 
The arm meets the back leg at a 16º angle. 
All the tenons are cut 
Stretcher and side rail – test fit 
Cutting the tenon on the top of the front leg 
Front and back legs connected by rail and stretcher so I can layout arm mortises and tenons 
The mortises start with a forstner bit on the drill press 
The mortises are finished with a chisel 
That’s the arm on the bottom. The front leg tenon fits nicely. 
Testing the leg fit into the arm 
Sanding front leg 
The bench sides look good from the back 
Here you can see the mortises that were cut by mistake 
I positioned the sides to check measurements 
That’s just about the width of the finished bench 
Bench sides. Dry fit and ready for glue
With any luck, Knuckleheads will go on sale on Monday, June 10th. There’s still time to enter the giveaway contest for a free copy. Click on the “Contact & Stuff” menu at the top of this post for instructions.
All five of my current books are now available in audio book form thanks to Amazon KDP’s Virtual Voice process. The voice is AI generated, but I can honestly say, it’s pretty darn good. The audio books are reasonably priced (all below $7 US) and, if you already own the Kindle version and want to add an audio version, you can do that for $1.99. There is a five-minute sample on the book page for each book. If you’re interested, click on any of the Dreamer’s Alliance book links below the image or on the link below for my latest book.
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