Large bookcase project

[Rod Dilyard]

I spent the better part of Friday and Saturday installing the first set of bookcases in my Pastor's study at church. He asked me at the start of summer if I'd build them for him and I agreed after making it very clear that I work very slowly - only weekends and evenings that aren't little league or, now pee-wee football.

Well, he thinks it was worth the wait so I guess I can stop feeling guilty about taking so long.

It stands 9' 6" tall and just over 14" long. Since my shop is in my basement I wasn't able to completely assemble it until now. Fortunatley it went together like I knew what I was doing.

The was part of a large church addition/renovation project that was completed about two weeks ago. This particular room is about 25' by 15' and is located in the original 100+ year-old church sanctuary that was divided up into office space. As you might imagine some of the surfaces are less than plumb and/or level. The wall that this unit is on is part of the new construction so it was very plumb - almost no need to scribe at all. The floor, however, was way off. The high spot is just to the right of center and drops more than 1" to the left and 1/2" to the right.

The slots routed in the baseboard are there because someone thought it would be a good idea to put a cold-air return in the wall where I needed to install a bookcase.

Its cherry and cherry veneered MDF.

[Keith Burns]

WOW ! That is one great looking set of cases, some of the best I've seen. Two thumbs up for sure !

[Mike Vermeil]

Nice! I really like how the black bead board backs set off the cherry.

[Chad Pater]

Wow, that looks great! Tell your Pastor he has no excusses not to be organized. He should get lots done now, if you can ever get him out of the office...
beautiful job
Chad

[John Hart]

Wow! Magnificent work Rod. It'll be there in the next 100 years or more I'm sure.

[Jack Hogoboom]

Just awesome. Makes me think I should sell my tools and take up Origami.

Thanks for sharing.

Jack

[George Matthews]

Fortunatley it went together like I knew what I was doing.


Well it certainly does look like you know what you're doing!
Very nice!

[Michael Gabbay]

Rod - beautiful work! That should score a few points with the big guy. ;)

[Jim Becker]

You did a wonderful job, Rod! Beautiful! (And cherry was an excellent choice... ;) )

[Roy Wall]

Rod,

That is nice work my friend - very well done!!! That's a bookcase that looks like a piece (large one albeit) of fine furniture!!

EXCELLENT!!

[Shelley Bolster]

I am completely, totally and undeniably impressed! :D You are far too humble Rod - creating a piece such as that leave no room for argument - you DO know what you are doing!!

[Tom Hamilton]

Beautiful. My SIL pastor would be very pleased to have those in his office at church.


The cold air return actually adds a positive decorative element to the base in my view.

Nice job! TJH:D

[Dan Forman]

Simply magnificent in all respects.

Dan

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

Yikes! Beautiful!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Rod, absolutely beautiful. Just awesome.

[Gail O'Rourke]

Rod, I have made bookcase and seen a lot of bookcases and this one I really really love.

I love that the bottom cabinets do not span the entire unit, but bump out only in the middle three. Excellent choice, I love the cherry and I love the arch tops.

Great job concealing the return, I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out. Is the counter portion of the piece three pieces?

Nice job.

[Rod Dilyard]

Thanks for the encouraging remarks - you are all very kind.

Gail, yes the bump-out portion is one piece spanning three units and there are two smaller fixed pieces on each end that interlocked with that to form the whole.

The idea is to extend that desk-height line all the way around the room using raised panel wainscoting on the wall areas that don't get shelving.

Shortly after I started I was asked by the deacons if I'd be interested in building a matching desk when I get done with the bookcases.

I've got a lot of work to do!

I took my digital camera with me to record the installation process but discovered too late that I left the memory card at home in the computer. Oh, well, I'll try to get more pictures when I install the next units.

Thanks, again for your kind words.

[Dale Rodabaugh]

Holy crap Man,that is gorgeous.Really great work.:) :) :)

[Rod Dilyard]

Here's another picture that kinda shows how the fixed counter-height shelf is built. The joint between the pieces is hidden under the fluted column.

You can also see some of the over 3600 5mm holes - I used a plunge router and a home-made jig to speed up the process but it still took about 6 hours to drill them all.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Rod, great project. As a pastor, I know you can never have enough book space. I have books coming out my ears because I never have enough room to put them all. I'm glad to see that you're doing your part to help out your pastor. Good for you. It turned out wonderful.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Absolutely gorgeous, Rod. I'll bet your pastor figures it was worth the wait. Not much to add that others haven't already said, but I'll sure be looking forward to seeing the desk.

- Vaughn

[Christopher Stahl]

Those are gorgeous! You did a fine job.

chris

[Larry Crim]

You must have done some really bad things in your life to build something this nice just to have the pastor put in a good word for you with the big guy LOL

Really great work
Larry

[Bruce Page]

Beautiful work!


WOW!

[Jules Dominguez]

Not only beautiful work, but I'd be happy as hell to accomplish that much in my spare time since the start of summer.

[Pete Harbin]

Very nice Rod! It's absolutely outstanding!

Pete

[Jim Hager]

That is a beauty for sure. Love the cherry and dark beadboard background, I think it is black. Building a large piece like that and hiding all the joints is a challenge but it is fun to see it all come together huh? Good job for sure. A piece to be treasured by each man who holds the position of pastor of that church for a long time.

[Dave Malen]

The King of bookcases :D Nice job. Love all the detail work.

Dave

[Neil Clemmons]

Rod,

Excellent design and execution - I really like the cherry finish and black beadboard combination.

Two questions - First, do the 1 1/4" holes go all the way through each upright for wires? I couldn't tell from the pictures.

Second, what did you use for the finish?

Thanks for sharing your work.

Neil

[Rod Dilyard]

Neil, yes, the holes go all the way through for running wires. Each shelf also has a hole in the left-rear corner for the same purpose.

Ah, the finish. I'd like to claim that I used some complex formulation developed over years of trial and error, but I didn't. After sanding everything down to 220 I stained it with plain old Minwax Cherry oil-based stain. I let that dry for at least two days and spray (I use an HVLP sprayer) a coat of slightly thinned Minwax semi-gloss polyurethane. I let that dry until I can sand it without any "gum" collecting in the paper - sometimes 2 or 3 days and sand the whole thing using 360 grit paper. I wipe it down with clean, slightly-damp-with-mineral-spirits cloths and spray a second coat. On the "show" surfaces I repeated and sprayed a third coat.

I know its against the rules to stain cherry but I've had good luck with it so far and as long as the Finishing Police don't know where I live I'm going to stick with it.

Thanks, again for the kind words.

[John A. Williams]

that is awesome work!

[Von Bickley]

Fantastic Cabinet Work

[Keith Foster]

Simply Incredible!

[Dan Mages]

That is simply beautiful!! Congrats on a very well done project.