> I bought the stock hemlock rail from h*m#  ch!po.  It is close enough that
>  I can modify it to match the ballustrades that are in the 
> rest of the  house which is the whole point of the project.  I planed off
the 
> two cock  beads that are on either side and planed off about 7/16ths from
the 
>  bottom.  Then I stuck on a 1/4 inch bead on the two bottom sides for the

> finish.  Pretty simple but my question is, is this cheating?

Nope.  ;-)

> Do true galoots only  use wooden planes?

Nope.  We use metal ones too...

> But now I  see that I should have glued the base because with all 
> the planing the base has  become loose.  Is there some way 
> that I can keep it solid without gluing it together?

Some have mentioned bed bolts or lag screws - how about tusk tenons with
wedge keys?  Then you could snug the joints up nice and tight, but still
disassemble if you wanted.  Of course, that would likely require some
redesigning of the current bench.

The answer would then likely be bed bolts.

http://tinyurl.com/7l7hh

- Bill T.

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