One thing you figure out quickly is that working with oak or any other hardwood material is about 4 times more expensive than pine. However, oak offers many advantages, the most obvious is that it is much denser and holds up better to cutting and scratching than pine. Once you cut pine you need to make sure you are extra careful not to dent or scratch it but with oak that problem is not as apparent. Oak is also easier to stain and provides a much more uniform finish (at least in my limited experience).
I think the approach I will take with each project is to list some of the lessons learned, so maybe I can help somebody avoid the same things, list the basic steps and show a couple of pictures. Here are the lessons from this project:
1) When using a mitre saw make sure all the settings are accurate before cutting. At one point I couldn't figure out why my cuts were slightly slanted, then I realized I had twisted the base about 5 degrees which made all my cuts off by 5 degrees so I had to re-cut several pieces.
2) The fence part of the mitre saw is an excellent place to mark how long a piece you need to cut. Once you cut one piece and if you have several more pieces of the same length to cut, just mark the end of the first piece on the fence of the saw. That way you just slide the next piece down until you reach the mark and you are guaranteed the same size piece, as long as the cut you are making is not longer than the fence.
3) Packing tape is a great way to hold mitred joints in place until the glue dries. I am attaching a picture from the book to show what I mean:
This project was good practice using the mitre saw to make angle cuts and learning to glue joints. Then only tool you really need is the mitre saw. Overall this was an easy project and produces a nice looking finished project. I completed this project on December 29. Here are a couple of pictures:
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