Back to the tallest to the shortest stands "bridge". This "bridge" idea will provide another display surface without having to make another entire stand
Here's the idea with the real stands and the actual bridge in place for determining where its support stretcher should be place between the side legs of the tallest stand.
Eight more mortises and four more loose tenons for a bridge support stretcher on both sides of the tall stand and it was FINALLY glue up time for the tall stand. Once again I'd use 30 minute epoxy - 30 minutes to set up to allow plenty of time for getting glue in FORTY mortises and on both ends of 20 loose tenons. Epoxy because I KNOW its water proof, not just water resistant. UNFORTUNATELY ( here it comes ) the stuff I mixed up was FIVE MINUTE epoxy rather than the 30 minute epoxy I'd used on the other stands! Discovered this while gluing up the stretchers to the legs on the narrow ends. So rather than gluing everything up at one time I did it in two phases.
"There's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.". In this case TWO more slips.
First, I had marked the location of the bridge support stretchers BEFORE I'd actually made the bridge and then again using the actual bridge rather than spacer blocks, with the tall stand merely dry fit together When I layed out the mortises for the bridge support stretchers I did it off the first set of marks on the legs - which turned out to be close to two inches lower than they should be. That was Brdige OOPS #1.
To solve that problem I ripped some of the same redwood I'd used for the bridge and cross cut it to about a quarter of an inch shorter than the "bridge" stretchers. This resulted in it being about a half inch wider than the bottom width of the bridge, ofrming a "T" on its end. I rounded over the ends and the bottom edge and before gluing it to the bridge, drill holes in the bottom to align with the bullet pegs in the bridge stretchers.
When the glue had dried I set up the tallest and shortest stands and added the "corrected"bridge. Something didn't look right so I put a level on it. OOPS #2, the tall stand side was about 1/4" low. Measured from the top of the bridge to the bottom of the leg end and then from the top to the bottom of the stretcher end "fix". YUP - was supposed to have ripped the fix to 1 5/8 and apparently misread the tape and ripped it to 1 3/8".
And here's the finished project ,Watco Teak Oil finish - a few group shots.
And here's some of what was hiding in a 40+ year old fence board which is now a top on a bonsai stand. The contrast between the rather formal stands, with their subtle grain patterns, and the tops of the stands with their very prominent grain isn't apparent from a normal viewing distance. Only when you get close to examine a bonsai sitting on one of these stands will you notice the grain on the top of the stand - a reminder that the little trees you're looking at have larger bretheren.
