Finally, finished my second woodworking project, this time it’s a stand for various tablet-like electronics. Three slots are sized for a drawing tablet, a laptop and an iPad, lined with felt to avoid scratching screen surfaces.

Some lessons learned:

• Making straight, precise cuts is hard without a table saw, especially angled ones. Electric jigsaw was better than a handsaw, but still required a lot of post-processing with sandpaper to make different parts line up.

• Internet was right saying that using hand plain against the grain is a bad idea. I caused a lot of chipping at the edges that way.

• Internet was also right saying that hardwood is better for this type of project. Pine chips and dents very easily. I took a lot of care to avoid that and even so there are quite a few, if you know where to look. I used pine because that was the only thing I could pick up in a nearby store, but for the next time it might be worth going somewhere with a better choice.

• On a related note, 18mm thickness is really overkill for this purpose. It made the stand bulkier and heavier than it needs to be. I think something like 6mm plywood would’ve been much more appropriate.

• Drill + sanding drum turned out to be the best low-cost option for making things line up. Previously I tried orbital sander for that, but it really wasn’t good for removing any significant amount of material.

• Hi-Tack Fast tack glue worked really well for sticking felt to wood. It grabbed felt pretty well, but didn’t penetrate deep enough to make it hard or scratchy.

• I should look into better ways of joining the parts together. I kinda brute-forced my way with a lot of screws, but that’s not as elegant as I would like it to be.

• CAD drawing really helped to visualize and tweak the shape before committing to it.

• A laser printer is a heaven’s gift. Being able to print the part templates from the CAD made things soooo much easier.

All that said, I’m quite pleased with myself. Here’s the CAD model if anyone’s interested.

\#diy \#woodworking