Brian Eaton
04-02-2018, 9:05 PM
I'm working on this small shelving unit for my wife's essential oils (or voodoo as I call it)...It is approximately 13" tall by 18" wide with the sides being just shy of 3/4 thick (dimensioned from 1x4 pine) and the shelves just shy of 1/2" thick (dimensioned from .5"x3" stock).
I've done the glue up in three steps - first the three full length shelves, then the half length shelf and vertical support, and still to be done is an arched 3/8 thick piece of wood to go under the top shelf to provide a bit more strength and somewhere to mount the shelf to the wall (I added this after the original idea because I liked the idea of that arch and decided I needed a better way to mount the shelf to the wall.
So far I've enjoyed this project and have used it to learn more techniques - dados, stopped dados, making curves (I used a diy trammel of sorts to draw the curves). I even took some of the advice I was given in a previous thread about getting more consistent results when dimensioning wood and had more success with that this time. My question is...
Considering that the shelves will be pretty light duty (even as many little bottles of essential oils as the shelf will hold won't be that heavy) would dowels be worth it considering the joints are just glued up dados? I think aesthetically they would look nice (maybe two per shelf) but as well as this project has gone so far I hesitate to add them unless it is really necessary. I used draw bore dowel joints on a saw bench I just built and for whatever reason the dowels (1/2") didn't fill the 1/2" holes I drilled (I tried to be very careful but I don't have a drill press so it was done by hand).
Also, is thickness of the shelves too thin for dowels? Last I was at the store I remember seeing 3/16th - not sure if they had 1/8th. Am I guessing that one of those sizes would be appropriate if I were to use dowels?
Your advice would be greatly appreciated!
Test fit:
382949
Glue up part 1:
382950
Glue up part 2:
382951
1
I've done the glue up in three steps - first the three full length shelves, then the half length shelf and vertical support, and still to be done is an arched 3/8 thick piece of wood to go under the top shelf to provide a bit more strength and somewhere to mount the shelf to the wall (I added this after the original idea because I liked the idea of that arch and decided I needed a better way to mount the shelf to the wall.
So far I've enjoyed this project and have used it to learn more techniques - dados, stopped dados, making curves (I used a diy trammel of sorts to draw the curves). I even took some of the advice I was given in a previous thread about getting more consistent results when dimensioning wood and had more success with that this time. My question is...
Considering that the shelves will be pretty light duty (even as many little bottles of essential oils as the shelf will hold won't be that heavy) would dowels be worth it considering the joints are just glued up dados? I think aesthetically they would look nice (maybe two per shelf) but as well as this project has gone so far I hesitate to add them unless it is really necessary. I used draw bore dowel joints on a saw bench I just built and for whatever reason the dowels (1/2") didn't fill the 1/2" holes I drilled (I tried to be very careful but I don't have a drill press so it was done by hand).
Also, is thickness of the shelves too thin for dowels? Last I was at the store I remember seeing 3/16th - not sure if they had 1/8th. Am I guessing that one of those sizes would be appropriate if I were to use dowels?
Your advice would be greatly appreciated!
Test fit:
382949
Glue up part 1:
382950
Glue up part 2:
382951
1