The scrap pieces in my garage are piling up and I was looking for a way to clean them out. I’m glad I stumbled upon this project because it’s relatively simple to make. I haven’t made through mortises before so that was a learning experience. I picked up a pretty good tip from Mike  Pekovich, who said to start with the outside and work in. This way the mating pieces will cover any defects and the side that’s seen will look perfect. 

I also got to use my new Woodriver hand planes on it so I’m pretty happy about that. I also learned that I could benefit from using a tenoning jig. The tenons that I made fit nice, but I had to clean them up quite a bit from the dado stack that I used. If anyone has a set of plans I can check out, please let me know. I made this project with red oak and walnut. I sprayed it with Minwax water based Polycrylic, clear satin.