Alright friends, let’s talk about this project I got obsessed with last week – making some sort of dancing wall piece out of larch timber that could be easily taken apart. Sounded simple in my head… yeah, right.

The “Great” Idea

Went rummaging through my leftover wood pile – found some decent larch pieces. Figured, hey, larch is tough outdoors, should be solid for some movement, right? My brilliant plan? Make interlocking panels that could wiggle, be hung, and pulled off the wall easily. Genius! Or so I thought.

Round One: Epic Fail

Grabbed the tools. Measured. Re-measured. Felt smart. Started cutting grooves into the ends of the planks with my router, thinking like puzzle pieces snapping together. Cut them deep enough for movement. Test fitted two pieces… felt kinda loose. Shook ’em a bit. Wham! One piece just snapped right off where the groove was cut. Turns out? Larch at that thickness where I routed is brittle. Like, really brittle. Snapped like a twig. That was dumb. Looked at the pieces on the floor. Garbage.

Switching Gears

Fine. Router idea sucked for this wood. Threw those pieces aside. Needed a stronger joint, but still movable, still removable. Brain started ticking. Remembered these barrel nuts and bolts I had kicking around – the kind you can tighten down but unscrew easily. Okay, maybe… drilled holes sideways into the planks, kinda where they’d overlap, thinking the bolts would act like big, sturdy hinges letting them pivot. Counter-sunk the holes for the bolt heads, threaded in the barrel nuts on the back. Fiddly, took forever getting the holes lined up right. Maddening.

The First “Dance” Test

Bolted two panels together. Held my breath. Moved one piece. It kinda… lurched. Not graceful. More like a rusty gate. Needed to loosen the bolts a bit for smoother motion. Did that. Better… until the wood itself, with the movement, started chewing up the holes where the bolts sat. The pivoting action? It ground the wood. Made the holes wider, sloppy. Pieces wobbled like mad. Was it “dancing”? More like staggering drunk. And taking them apart? Easy, yes. Holding up to actual movement? Nope.

Almost There (Kinda)

Pissed off at this point. Added big steel washers under the bolt heads and nuts – bigger than the holes. Idea was the washers would spread the pressure, stop the wood chewing itself up. Did another test. Movement improved a little, felt less like the wood was dying. Wobbled less…ish. Added felt pads underneath the moving parts where they rubbed to try and quiet the grind. Helped the sound, maybe a tiny bit the grinding, but didn’t fix the slop in the holes forever. Not perfect.

Hanging the Beast

Hung the contraption on some sturdy picture rail hooks on a temporary wall in my shed. Wanted the whole thing removable and the piece itself movable on the wall. Poked at it. The panels swayed. Sorta danced. The hooks held. Taking the whole piece off the wall? One hand. Done. That bit worked.

What I Learned (The Hard Way)

• Larch isn’t built for fine joints: Where it’s thin, it breaks easy. Where it moves? It wears rough. Needs reinforcement.
• Big bolts are buddies: The heavy-duty barrel bolts? Saved my bacon for disassembly.
• Washers: They matter: Without those big steel plates, the wood just eats itself. Saved what stability I got.
• “Dancing” is relative: We got sway. We got shimmy. We got drunk-stumble. Graceful ballet? Not achieved. Yet.

Finished piece looks… interesting. Rustic? Industrial? Jury-rigged? Yeah, maybe that last one. It hangs. It comes down easy. It does wiggle when you mess with it. Would I use this method exactly again? Dunno. Probably try thinner metal brackets instead for the pivot next time. But hey, it’s off the workbench and exists!