It started back in January 2017, shortly after I finished building my workbench. 4 feet of 8/4 hard maple. First time at a lumber yard, and not paying close enough attention to the stock. I didn't realize it at the time, but the board had a horrible twist in it. This ended up playing a huge role in why it took so long to build.

Edge jointing is fun! Face jointing is awful. No power tools for surfacing in this shop yet, so hand planes it is!

Hours later, got one side flat, and discovered how much was left to get it parallel. Not pictured: the massive twist in the other chop.

Skip ahead three years. Life kept me busy, but not wanting to deal with hand milling was the real dealbreaker. Ended up buying a planer about a year before this photo, and finally got around to flattening one side of the other chop. (I should probably make a jointing jig for it...). With two flat -- and parallel! -- boards, I also milled and glued up a support piece from some scrap left over from other projects done in the meantime.

Now for the fun parts. Trying to support these very heavy boards on the tiny drill press table while keeping them clamped together. Turns out this drill press is massively underpowered for this particular task.

Drilling was a success! Outline traced to chisel out the nut hole.

Not a bad fit!

Forgot to photograph a few steps, but glueing cork to the insides of the chops here. Trying to find the heaviest things in the shop to hold it down. Didn't occur to me that I was also inadvertently glueing the cork to the cardboard below wherever there was squeeze out.

Finally time to add the rest of the hardware. Using 5/8" threaded rod with handles from McMaster-Carr (via J. Katz-Moses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpg2XiVdYGc). Not pictured: the bushings in the outer chop. Currently compression fit, but I might epoxy them in later if the start wandering.

It works! Couldn't wait to start sawing everything in sight. 

Drilled new dogholes in the workbench to hold it down. Very excited to finally give some dovetails a try! Thanks for viewing!