[Bordermarch] shield press failure

[James Wickham]

Well I finally got all of the pieces to my shield press together, cut up enough wood for 2 blanks, glued them together, and started tightening the press.  Then, the unthinkable happened.  I heard a tell-tale "crack" as the spots that I had modified from the original design split.  Apparantly I had failed to consider that the cutouts would take away from the integrity of the wood.  So I have now learned one way to NOT make a shield press.  Luckily the half that I did to specs survived with nary a scratch and I was able to salvage the wood that was to be used for the shields themselves before the glue dried.  Live and learn, as they say.  Now I must procure some more wood to remake the defective pieces.