Kitchen Produce Stand
This was a fun, simple project to make a useful produce stand for our kitchen. I used it as an opportunity to learn some new (to me) techniques. Although it's not made from a nice wood and there are some wonky cuts, it works and I'm happy with it. Some details below.
I made this in the carpentry workshop I attend here in Mexico City, using a power miter saw and hand tools. I used leftover pine boards for most of it, with some alder accents. The pine was unevenly cut by the lumberyard--I think they cut the planks with a table saw going in from each side--so I had to do some hand planing to get it reasonably flat. I wanted to practice different techniques, so the boxes use box joints behind and miters in front. For the lower box, I fit the bottom into a rabbet (which I had a hard time cutting straight and which I forgot to stop, mistakenly cutting through) and, as this offered minimal support for weights, a bunch of dowels. For the upper box, I was feeling more confident and fit the bottom into a groove. I added alder splines to the miters for greater strength and because I'd never done splines before. The legs were poorly designed--I didn't realize until after the crossbeam was added that the simple butt joint would be tempted to pull apart. So I added decorative/strengthening alder pieces to compensate.
I learned a lot about how to cut grooves and rabbets, how to do splines, and the importance of planning better. My next grooves and rabbets turned out much cleaner. Overall this was a fun project and a good learning experience.