Here’s my latest workshop creation. It’s a small reading stand for my wife’s grandmother (or rather, mine too, I guess). The curly flame maple isn’t actual wood, but some sort of printed-Formica laid over some pretty expensive chipboard. The Formica/chipboard came off a local office’s wainscoting, and I just had to grab a coupla panels. The Formica cuts well with a panel/plywood blade in my circle/miter saw. I still need to work on covering the chipboard up – I tried molding in this project and paint in this one. I’m leaning towards molding after seeing the results.
Now onto parts I like: the proportions (16″ w x 12″ h x 8ish” d), the red/curly maple combo (red is also the color for luck in Vietnamese culture), and the reading angle. After this picture was taken, I attached a clear acrylic strip on the bottom of board to hold books.
The back lifts of course.
And the back reveals that non-mortised butt hinge which shifts and stammers and really needs to be a piano hinge instead.
If you have any thoughts, love to hear ’em.
woodshopcowboy 
I always enjoy what I find on your blog. I actually thought this came out really really well, but then I saw the hinge in the last photo.
Anything you can do to hide that will make this a really nice piece. When I read it was non-mortised, I at first didn’t think you could mortise it because the endgrain is unlikely to hold screws, but then I saw you did that with the top piece.
Does the back really need to lift?
I still like it, though 🙂
Pete
Pete –
I absolutely agree. My wife says my own good looks would be ruined if they hinged on my butt….the hinge is ugly.
Thank you so much for the kind words about the rest of the design. And thanks for reading and commenting here on WoodshopCowboy. Made my day!
–Mr. Patrick.