daniel lane
05-12-2012, 7:51 PM
Thought I'd share a little project with you guys. I figure I have lots of room to improve and can benefit not only from the practice, but from the comments from the group. So, while it's not exactly on par with what George posts (give me time!), may I present Bookshelf For Daughter.
The missus felt that it would be nice if our little girl had a bookshelf for some of her books and (bless her!) asked if I'd like to make one instead of buying one. Of course I jumped on a chance at sanctioned time in the workshop. Giving the design about 5 minutes' thought, I picked up some poplar at the BORG - one piece of 1/2x5x24, one 1x4x48, and one 5/8x36 dowel. I didn't think to capture the build process until after I'd already traced and cut the side shapes, unfortunately, as it would have been amusing to show how I traced the curve from the shop trash can! I cut the sides on the bandsaw and sanded them to the line to get the curve. Next up, mortising for the mounting hardware:
231966
An improvised mortising bench using my sawbench, a clamp, and a moving blanket for comfort. It was fun using a 1/2" mortising chisel on 3/4" wide wood! I used a square and knifed a line 2" down from the top then place the mounting hardware at the line and market the other end of the mortice. Then I used a marking gauge to mark the outside edges of the mortise (set using the hardware again). I used the 1/2" mortising chisel to dig it all out, 1" bench plane to clean up the sides, and my small router plane to level the bottom for the hardware. First one took me about 15 minutes, I was so paranoid about blowing out the side, but the second one took me just 5 minutes:
231967
Next up was cutting a stopped dado for the shelf. I eyeballed the position of the shelf, then knifed the lines and cut a wedge out on the waste side for the saw plate. I bored and chiseled out a hole at the end of the cut for the sawdust to discharge and cut the sides of the dado with my LV small crosscut saw:
231968
A bit of chisel work and I had the stopped dado. It was tricky, since I have put a 1/8" roundover on the shelf front (toddler's room, remember) and I don't have any gouges! I had to slowly chisel away material to make a rounded dado to match the shelf, and the smallest chisel I have is 1/8". I wound up cutting the corner at 45º and using a fishtail chisel to make it square underneath, then slowly just rounded over about 1/8" at the face of the side. Ugly, but hidden and it worked well:
231969
While it doesn't truly suck, the first one was a little loose:
231970 231971
The next step was lining up for the dado in the other side. I try hard not to measure, so I just clamped the two sides together after lining up the hardware mortises:
231972
Yeah, looks like I could to a better job squaring up my mortise edges, but since these will be against the wall and not visible... Following the same process, I cut the dado in the other side. Unfortunately, I didn't photograph the result, but this one was tighter. (I can learn!) Next step was marking for the dowel holes, but let's get the thread started so I can post more photos.
To be continued...
The missus felt that it would be nice if our little girl had a bookshelf for some of her books and (bless her!) asked if I'd like to make one instead of buying one. Of course I jumped on a chance at sanctioned time in the workshop. Giving the design about 5 minutes' thought, I picked up some poplar at the BORG - one piece of 1/2x5x24, one 1x4x48, and one 5/8x36 dowel. I didn't think to capture the build process until after I'd already traced and cut the side shapes, unfortunately, as it would have been amusing to show how I traced the curve from the shop trash can! I cut the sides on the bandsaw and sanded them to the line to get the curve. Next up, mortising for the mounting hardware:
231966
An improvised mortising bench using my sawbench, a clamp, and a moving blanket for comfort. It was fun using a 1/2" mortising chisel on 3/4" wide wood! I used a square and knifed a line 2" down from the top then place the mounting hardware at the line and market the other end of the mortice. Then I used a marking gauge to mark the outside edges of the mortise (set using the hardware again). I used the 1/2" mortising chisel to dig it all out, 1" bench plane to clean up the sides, and my small router plane to level the bottom for the hardware. First one took me about 15 minutes, I was so paranoid about blowing out the side, but the second one took me just 5 minutes:
231967
Next up was cutting a stopped dado for the shelf. I eyeballed the position of the shelf, then knifed the lines and cut a wedge out on the waste side for the saw plate. I bored and chiseled out a hole at the end of the cut for the sawdust to discharge and cut the sides of the dado with my LV small crosscut saw:
231968
A bit of chisel work and I had the stopped dado. It was tricky, since I have put a 1/8" roundover on the shelf front (toddler's room, remember) and I don't have any gouges! I had to slowly chisel away material to make a rounded dado to match the shelf, and the smallest chisel I have is 1/8". I wound up cutting the corner at 45º and using a fishtail chisel to make it square underneath, then slowly just rounded over about 1/8" at the face of the side. Ugly, but hidden and it worked well:
231969
While it doesn't truly suck, the first one was a little loose:
231970 231971
The next step was lining up for the dado in the other side. I try hard not to measure, so I just clamped the two sides together after lining up the hardware mortises:
231972
Yeah, looks like I could to a better job squaring up my mortise edges, but since these will be against the wall and not visible... Following the same process, I cut the dado in the other side. Unfortunately, I didn't photograph the result, but this one was tighter. (I can learn!) Next step was marking for the dowel holes, but let's get the thread started so I can post more photos.
To be continued...