I finished the leg brace, and the result is a rather complex looking set of recesses on the front RHS leg – it is not as complex as it looks to do, since you are just doing a series of simple half lap dovetails.

I managed to avoid any major cock-ups today, but to make up for it I discovered one that I made earlier.

Mr Maquire says at one point in his video instruction that you need to reduce the width of the top rail so it does not stick out below the bottom of the apron. Although I did cut them down, apparently my measurements were out by 1/2” resulting in the ridiculous situation below. I decided it would look less awful to leave the little dangly bits that will be below the apron (rather than having a gap). Having said that, I will almost certainly snap one or more of the dangly bits off during the forthcoming work, so it is probably irrelevant!

Since the top part of my half laps are quite thin, I drilled pilot holes for the nails – this was an opportunity to try out my Millers Falls no 2 drill, which from my tool fiddling records (I know, I kept records!) I see that I bought for £25 in March 2016 (this is the first time I have used it since then). It is a good drill, and handily it came with all the original drill bits, one of which I used to make my holes. I probably need to do a few more holes to justify the 25 quid!