Finally! After the second attempt at the hinged verticals we’re ready for assembly. First I drilled out the pins into the “tray” part of the player station, repurposing the jig I used to chisel out the stopped rabbets:

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I also got the threaded inserts installed:

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Then it was time for sanding. This is probably my least favorite part of a project, but if you rush it you can usually tell in the final piece, so I have to constantly remind myself not to call it “good enough” and just go on to the next one. I wanted to sand the verticals while they were still hinged together so that I had more surface area to balance the sander on, and not accidentally round over the edges. But the piece wanted to constantly hinge open from the vibration of the sander. So I made a little jig to hold the piece steady while I drilled:

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The sandpaper makes a nice grippy surface so that the piece doesn’t vibrate itself out of the jig.

I got some dowels from the hardware store and cut 36 of them to 1 3/4” long, then tapered the tip just a bit with sandpaper to make sure they’d pound all the way in without a problem:

Then it was just matter of applying some glue to the rabbets, glue to the pegs, and hammering them home:

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Here’s my grandfather’s hammer which I use on every project:

Once they dried I cut off the nubs with a flush cut saw (I use a strip of tape to leave them just a tiny bit proud, to make sure I don’t scuff up the wood around them):

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I sanded with 120, then 150, then 220 to get them ready for finish:

After all the pegs were trimmed and sanded, it was time for finish. I removed all of the hinges:

Then wiped on the finish. After I had done the complete set (about an hour) it was time go back through them all and wipe it off. Two more days of that and the player stations will be ready to install!

The pine pins ended up with a nice contrast against the sapele:

The third coat of finish went on the player stations last night, which means they’re ready for assembly and installation to the table! Almost. There’s still the matter of the front panel: when the player station closes there’s a big gap between the two halves:

To fill that gap, a board will sit vertically in that space:

But this is just a loose board that sits there when the table is closed up. So the trick will be how to get the piece to stay in place and not just fall out. I decided to go with magnets:

There will be two on either side of the player station, and then a matching pair in the ends of the front panel. I got some 5/8” x 1/8” disc magnets that are rated N48 which, for this size magnet, says they can support 9lbs each! That should be plenty strong to hold this board in place, even if someone bumps it a bit while eating dinner.

After you close up the player station you place the board in there and it should snap into place. I epoxied the magnet into one of the player stations and I’ll let it cure for 24 hours before testing it to see if it works. If not, I have an alternative in mind.

As part of this process I also trimmed all of the front panels to fit inside the player stations, and now I’m just waiting on the outcome of the magnet experiment to see if I should go ahead and drill and epoxy all of them.

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I glued the other pair of magnets into the edge of the front panels last night, and I’m giving them 24 hours to cure before testing them out:

I had a previous project where I did not wait long enough for epoxy to cure and the two magnets slowly worked their way out of the wood they were glued into, until one came out completely! I used them on a door so that when it was closed it would stay closed without any special hinges or physical catches. They even act as a great soft-close mechanism where the door gets close to slamming shut but the force of the magnets slow it down it closes silently! Until the magnet falls out. 😭

These magnets may just be too strong versus the epoxy and will pull themselves out no matter what I do. If that’s the case then I’ll go with my backup design: cut a groove into the player station sides and add a tenon to the front panel so that they fit together when closed:

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In fact I’m kind of wishing I had thought of this design sooner, as it’s much less messy, time consuming, and expensive than working with the magnets. Even if the magnets work, I may just go with this solution on the rest of the player stations (and somehow patch the one I already did).

After letting the epoxy holding the magnets cure for (almost) 24 hours I tried them out…and they work really well!

I’m going to let them sit in the position of most stress (installed in the player station) and see how they behave. If the magnets haven’t moved then we may just be good to go. I think I talked myself back into using them after seeing how nice it feels to put the panel in there…

I installed everything on one side of the table and it’s looking great!

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So glad I took the time to get the grain to match all around. Compare to one of my reference photos where each station has a different grain pattern:

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A teacher in a woodworking class once told us that really paying attention to the grain is the difference between a great project and an exceptional project, and he was right!