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Low bookcase


Tmize

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So now that the mortiser is back up an running. I carved out a few hours tonite to get started on the frame work. I really don’t have much of a sketch on this one. I’ve been back a forth on the design on this one. It started out as a dovetailed case but I didn’t like it once I got started on it so I scrapped that design. It is having to fit in a very exact place of dead space behind back door. It just happens to be just deep enough for books. 

The ends will be frame an panel into 1 1/2” legs. Will have to long rails along the front with matching rails along the back. These will support the shelves. So I created a story stick of all the mortise location for the rails a side panels. 312DDD01-D308-44F1-B660-30E2F3FB5762.thumb.jpeg.8e0b52639abdf2f684b83b6a87a6057a.jpeg
I laid out one leg off of the story stick then transferred it to the matching leg. 
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The front rail have a deep mortise about 1 1/16” deep I draw bore into the leg. On the back legs I set the rails in a good bit. That ended up causing my two mortises to cross. I notched the tenon so they can cross each other inside the leg. 
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AB042D81-DC28-4F1D-B002-EC3291AC2666.thumb.jpeg.658af0fc342b5331f153d6b7681cd80e.jpegI did a small dry fit this afternoon. I still have a lil more joinery to do the pieces laid on top will be dovetailed into the legs. I’m thinking about doing a sliding blind dovetail between the rails to add some strength an help with racking not that this piece will ever have much twist force on it. My logic behind this it will lock the front an back together so that if the shelf was to get loaded down it would take stress off the M&T and dispute the weight across both boards equally. Hope that makes sense. Anyway I’m expanding my joinery skills a lil bit an trying a new joint. I’ve gotten the basics down now I feel so on to more interesting pastures. 

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So I had a good day in the shop today. I got the top rails dovetailed into the legs. The fit isn’t great I don’t know what happened guess I got off my line some. It will still do its job an never be seen.
 

I got the end panels rabbeted an fit into the frame. If I did this right it should equal 1/8” revel all around the frame. Never done it this way. I fitted it a touch looser than normally would a clear coated panel since this will be painted. I’ll paint it before the glue up I may I have to trim it some more we shall see. EF026EB0-FBFB-4C81-A36C-99D1523ECE61.thumb.jpeg.2396defce865a9de4cc0ca3c7a7b827a.jpeg

After that I got started on the sliding dovetails spacer between the rails the shelves will sit on. I tried to do a lil pictorial on it. Since I had total of 8 to do I got pics of different times during the process. I kept forgetting to take photos on the same joint. This is just the female portion of the joint. 
 

First I did a mock up male end to determine the length of the tail 2/3 the thickness of the material is a good general rule. I’m doing a 1:6 ratio tail. I laid it out cut it an that gave me the base measurement. I copied it with a pair of dividers. 
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I laid both rails clamped together with a centerline across them. Eye balled center an made a mark. Place square across them them an knife in a line heavily. 
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Mark the slope down both sides an make a knife wall for the saw to track in a make the cut. This is where i wish I had my new saw for this cut. Following the angle isn’t that hard no different than cutting thru dovetails. 
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I put a single saw cut thru the center of the joint to help with chips flying out. If you don’t the chips seem to get wedged the deeper you go without the center cut. To help with blow out on the back side I take a chisel an gently chamfer it down to the base line before going after the rest. If you have never gone cross grain with a chisel the waste goes very fast bevel up so pay attention damhikt 
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Once it’s down to 1/16 or so from the base line I switch to the router plane and smooth an level it all out. 
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There you have matching sliding dovetails in both rails. I’ll cut the tails sometime this week an put this thing together. 

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Thats some good work "T".  My hat is always off to those that have the patience to do hand tool work like this.

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"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;  remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." - Epicurus

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1 hour ago, Chet said:

Thats some good work "T".  My hat is always off to those that have the patience to do hand tool work like this.

I tried it a couple times at the router table an was so aggravating that I swore them off for a long time. Then I watched a video online how to do it by hand an said I could do that ?

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So I made a little  jig to perfect the tails ends. It’s simple had a piece of cut off 12/4 popular I set the bandsaw table to 1:6 angle an made the cut. I didn’t even clean up the saw marks. With one corner still square I slowly cut to much off the front side trying to sneak up on the cut ?. So I glued on a piece of 1/4” plywood an fine tuned the angle some. I had it just a touch to loose now so I taped a baseball card to the bottom of the block. Now is just a perfect fit.  I trimmed down the corners a touch to help installing them. Couple small hammer taps an it’s there. 
The way I use it is clamp the work piece to the bench. I saw cut the shoulder line first. Slide the jig up to the end with a 1” chisel lay it down across the end grain an lightly tap the chisel in. The key is don’t go crazy on the tap just hard enough for the chip to raise up flick that part out of the way. Then once the waste is out of the way just skew paring down to the saw line across the joint. Just remember to keep the chisel pressed firmly into the jig.5C8358BE-1302-4D2A-946A-41F85350ECD0.thumb.jpeg.b95029d042274caa7026ae9e2e125496.jpeg1056C048-61F5-41BB-9B73-22E56A5FF898.thumb.jpeg.42a54df2d65cc224e4466c054216f6ca.jpeg25A9634F-0C76-4089-BE82-28264A1710DC.thumb.jpeg.9660d8a0f9d1b1d6c60fc88254be4b64.jpeg9A823423-2816-4A13-B6B3-01C4285F999B.thumb.jpeg.0e0b4e6d128823aab5350517613a01ae.jpeg

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I figured someone would bring that up. ?. I’m sure I’ve used one at one time that will be worth thousands of dollars one day as a shim on something pointless. I was little in th early 90’s when the baseball card crave was going on. I have so many baseball card just in boxes stacked up in the storage room. 

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8 hours ago, Tmize said:

I figured someone would bring that up. ?. I’m sure I’ve used one at one time that will be worth thousands of dollars one day as a shim on something pointless. I was little in th early 90’s when the baseball card crave was going on. I have so many baseball card just in boxes stacked up in the storage room. 

I’m right there with you on the card collection. Don’t know if they are worth anything and don’t know if I’ll take the time to find out! But boy did I spend hours looking at them and putting them in books as a kid! 

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So with all the joinery complete an dry fits. I laid out the draw bore pegs. I decided instead of one 1/4” peg I went with 2- 3/16 pegs just goes to show how much a 1/16” makes I a visual appearance. The tick marks are actually the location on the tenons.BDB2B68B-3DE7-45A6-987A-E7BA35B2E3B0.thumb.jpeg.121eaed6b7cd8a6617a91e90a1b46a42.jpeg

Went over to the drill press to drill the holes thru the leg. Back at the bench I clamped up the rails to the legs. Using a 1/16” smaller drill bit with it clamped tight holding the bit against side of the hole closest to shoulder an gently tap it down to make a mark on the tenon. 27C52C3D-7447-4399-A734-342911E8FF33.thumb.jpeg.7b556c4990d1d21b39124c05cf5128f6.jpeg

The first glue up went good no issues. The back one not as well I got the bottom rail pinned in place. Then I realize the top rail is backwards. I pryed it apart so to pull it out an flip the rail. It wasn’t without a small causality. The whole tenon is glued an it is the bottom rail so I’m not worried about it to much about losing strength in it. 0EB31E9E-73E6-46D5-9DEE-5953B5B14F4A.thumb.jpeg.d42b2e2428bdc34fb8101c705c19f578.jpeg
 

On a side note I’ve been reading a lot on forums lately about hand planing in the dark with just a raking light in line. It was I very fun experiment it was like the whole world disappeared just you an the board. Now the project will be paint so there was no reason in making sure the surface was this clear but good practice. If you look close you can see the traversing marks from when I surfaced the bench top can see or feel any in the top with all the lights on  86402A2A-FF12-4D76-8417-948A828ED3D5.thumb.jpeg.b091876935bad31d0163b54e19b7988d.jpeg

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Not much happened over the weekend with this project. I got the frame all glued up an the shelves roughed out an glued an the panels got two coats of paint. Only issue I had was one side of two of the sliding dovetails the shoulder didn’t pull up tight like the others. So since this joint will never see the light of day again. I glue them to tails up with epoxy in hopes it will gap fill the error. I clamped them tight you can see in the pictures. 7A9F7EF6-F154-408D-AFD4-A2039C423D38.thumb.jpeg.c7dfa32c4c5764600b4df6858d5e12da.jpeg

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16 minutes ago, Tmize said:

Not much happened over the weekend with this project. I got the frame all glued up an the shelves roughed out an glued an the panels got two coats of paint. Only issue I had was one side of two of the sliding dovetails the shoulder didn’t pull up tight like the others. So since this joint will never see the light of day again. I glue them to tails up with epoxy in hopes it will gap fill the error. I clamped them tight you can see in the pictures. 

Should work just fine!  Looking great!

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  • 2 weeks later...

It’s been a minute since I updated this thread. I have really worked on the bookcase much. Been doing a few other projects around the shop. Built a couple shop drawers an some drawer organizer. I did work on the shelves a today. I got them notched to fit in the case. Not as close of a fit as I would like but the layers of paint should narrow them down some. I will finish the shelves separate of the case to ease with the painting. They will be joined the the rails they are sitting on with pocket screws( yes I do own one?). Got a few touch up spots to hit then painting?. I will probably start the beaded t&g back panel between paint coats. 451011C8-7DD9-456E-834C-A755315E6610.thumb.jpeg.587eb3492ba7a25e32c8a249a60828a4.jpegimage.thumb.jpg.e7f2f50384bb7b4aeb0dcfcd8f04c61b.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Every post and comment deserved a ?.  I ran out :classic_sad: ?

Well done, T and commenters!

(oh, I own a Kreg Pocket Hole Jig, too! ?  I only came across it the other day.  It had been MIA for a while now.  And, I ordered and just received today 3 new packs of #2 Kreg Square Drives (6 and 3 inch) ?  They have their place in any shop and home ?)

?,

RR

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5 hours ago, Bushwacked said:

new tools you say? 

Well new old tools refurbished two back saws. My bad axe carcass saw came in also. Built a shop cabinet to hold more tools. Rearrange placement of some thing in drawer around the bench. Made so cheap drawer organizer an put down some anti rust mats in the bottom of all the drawers that hold metal tools. Lots of small little things to keep me busy. 

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