Start of Player Stations

We had a rainy Sunday due to Hurricane (now Post-Tropical Cyclone?) Hilary and I got to spend it in the shop! The final coat of finish went onto the last two cupholders, and then it was time to start working on the player stations. These consist of a two vertical supports that are split and hinge open, and then the actual tray which becomes part of the top when folded up:

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The tray was already cut when I cut up the tops for the cupholders and corners, so I worked on the split vertical supports. After jointing and planing a board I cut them into 5” tall blocks. Cutting a series of pieces to exact size is easy when you clamp a stop block to your sled:

After a couple of test cuts I found that 18.5° was the ideal angle for the split, so that the tray would be even with the top of the table, and flush with the base when open:

I cut a wedge at that angle and then used it along with another stop on the miter sled to cut the 5” blocks:

Next up was cutting the slot for the hinge. I’m using SR-301 side rail hinges from Brusso, the best of the best! I assembled a jig to hold the two pieces of the support in the open position:

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And then went to the router table and figured out where to place a couple of stops so that the mortise would be just the right size for the hinge:

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After a quick pass back and forth I ended up with a perfect fit:

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Next I needed to drill the holes for the screws. A centering bit does the job here, using the 18.5° wedge to hold the piece flat for the drill press:

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After drilling 48 holes I ended up all of my supports ready to go:

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Next up will be attaching the shorter splits on these pieces to the trays.