The new cover after it was taken out of the mould. You can see it's pretty thoroughly coated with glue, the veneering tape is still stuck on and it doesn't really have a great finish yet.

The back of the cover. You can see several points where the polyurethane glue has seeped through the gaps and around the edges of the mould and tried to join the mould to the cover. Thank heavens for Contact(R) - no glue stuck to it!

However, the process of the glue drying out has shrunk the wood slightly, resulting in a pretty noticeable bend on the cover.

After several hours of carefully cutting the glue off with a scalpel, sanding it with 220 grit sandpaper, and finally two coats of special oil/wax finish, here it is. Yes, that's right folks, it actually attaches to the laptop!

And you can see from this photo that the bend is gone. Gone, I tell you!

Here, in slightly better light and in more detail, is the actual cover. You can see the joins where it broke apart and the slight imperfections around the edges where bits have broken off. But I made it, it's mine, and it's wooden!

The 'carbon fiber' laptop case on the top form, after being sanded to give the glue more chance to stick.

Because the Dell logo is inset, I had to drill a hole for it in the top form. Forstner bits for the win!

Image003