Bookcase build, Black Oak.

[William Fretwell]

My commercial design build has kept me busy so the chance to build something is very welcome. The recipient will be 5yrs old shortly so this has to last him a long time!

The dimensions were given to me by his mother, 12” deep, 39.5” high and 23” wide.

Went to my not so local saw mill and bought oak and cherry. The cherry is for the next project. They assured me the oak is Black Oak.
It’s been air drying in one of their barns for some years, I got it back to the workshop and registered 13.5% moisture.
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Five days later it was down to 9-10% at room temperature. Started prepping the wood.
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Scrubbed it, then smoothed the furrows with a #5 then took off any high points with a #7. The scrubbing was very easy. I did not get too hung up on perfection just want to see the grain, what I’m working with, so I can plan my cut list.
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Two and a half hours later all the boards prepped:
451391 Good work out!

Now the back of some of those boards have some issues so not all rosy. I checked the moisture again, back up to 13.5%. These digital meters clearly don’t go very deep!

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The sides are made of two boards totalling 12”. They are 39.5” long. The edge joint prep used a #7 for the straight edge then a #4 to add a very gentle dip in the middle of each board to put pressure on the ends. Don’t want them drying, shrinking and pulling apart. I stood a searchlight behind the bench and examined the gap line as I progressed. Then I added one clamp in the middle to ensure the edges closed up. Not sure if this will be visible in the pics:
451394 And with the clamp 451395

So glued up the two sides and then prepped the 4 shelves with the pretty grain oak. Had to glue 8”+4” for the shelves. I had to be creative with my cutting due to the ‘bad bits’ on the back. Same optical aid to the edge matching but less curve required as the shelves are quite short.
451396Two like this, the sides and shelves waiting for glue. Reached my max pic post!

[William Fretwell]

The shelves waiting for glue:
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[Jim Koepke]

Good work out!

Really, my work out wore me out after about an hour planing today on one piece of 4X8 rough Doug Fir.

jtk

[Scott Winners]

Hey Wiliam. That is some really nice looking oak.

Your MM readings are confusing to me. I am mostly checking firewood up here, but when I bring wood out of the cold outdoors into my indoor conditioned space I expect the MM reading to go up as the ice inside the wood thaws and becomes measurable moisture. Are your ambient temps below freezing this time of year?

If you have an offcut that was in the middle of a board a few days ago I would be inclined to split or saw it in half and measure the moisture on the freshly exposed face.

Maybe it was 9% when you brought it from freezing outdoors and is now 13% thawed out inside your heated shop, a simple transposition error?

Gorgeous stock, looking forward to seeing the finished bookcase.

[Frederick Skelly]

Great stuff! Look forward to seeing the finished project!

[William Fretwell]

Scott the first MM readings were after the stickered wood warmed up overnight in my shop. It had not been that cold locally and the barn above freezing. I took readings everyday looking for change. The Cherry was 14% after 40 years of air drying. It dropped to 9% after 5 days. One of the cherry boards has twisted very badly even after 40 years! The rest remained straight. Have to go buy more.
Like the guys in the family run sawmill, we all have stashes of stuff for ‘a rainy day’, ‘just in case’, ‘someday!’. With Covid lockdowns etc. that day has arrived. Use it or ‘it’ may loose you!

[William Fretwell]

Started glueing up the shelves this morning but noticed the joints at the ends were open. Overnight drying had undone my middle dip. Had to knock then apart, wipe off as much glue as possible, let them dry and start again.
The bookcase sides dried fine so I started to plane. First using a block plane for the glue line then a 5&1/2 jack.
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Side one had the worst reversing grain. Oak gouges very badly the wrong way. I used my low angle jack to make some progress but perhaps 8 different regions on the board, a nightmare.
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Not happy with side one I re-did the dips on the shelf glue lines and glued each one up as I finished.
451466That is two of them.

Got to work on side 2. I could actually plane in one direction along the whole length of the board! Still tricky, mostly I used the low angle jack but towards the end the shorter 4&1/2 did a good job.

451467Now that is a gorgeous piece of wood!

Next is shelf prep, final sizing, then the joints.

451468Today’s moisture between 9 and 14% for the same wood that was one board yesterday! Loosing faith in the digital!

[Doug Dawson]

451468Today’s moisture between 9 and 14% for the same wood that was one board yesterday! Loosing faith in the digital!
To get a reliable (re repeatable) pinless meter you may have to step up to a Wagner, which (the one I have anyway) would cost 8 times as much as that one, but which has never let me down.

[William Fretwell]

Shelf day. The first two required serious levelling on the back, scrub, low angle jack, #7. Did take some time.
Sharpening blades, re-setting the #4&1;2 blade bevel.
451555This is the back of number three.

451556Change of angle to take the twist out of my back!

451557The two best looking shelves.
Pure pleasure to plane compared to the reversing grain side. The second two took a 1/4 of the time for the first two.

Clean up the mess and enough exercise for one day.
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Ready for the final sizing and joints.

[William Fretwell]

Final sizing of all the pieces, rather fiddly. Cleaned up the end grain with my shooting board. The shelves showed an occasional end crack. After final sizing and clean up I wiped all the end grain with Tung oil to seal the ends and slow drying.
451653Final edge. End grain cleanup 451654Low angle jack with handle added. Tight fit and a large rare earth magnet hold it on very well.

Laid out the dovetails at the top of each side. Had a panic attack when I thought I would have to use green masking tape but managed to find some blue! ;).
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Method of sawing:
Hold saw vertical, start the cut across.
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Now angle the saw with the cut line with it on the front corner and cut half way down at the front.
That pic is invalid due to video.
Now level the saw at that angle as you cut, then keep the cut going to the bottom.
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This gives a perpendicular start and a clean consistent angle down guided by the front cut. The catch up cut follows the perpendicular line across and now you are half way down all in line to finish the cut. Works for me!
451658Chisel the base line then relieve the cut to make a back wall.

Removing the waste has several approaches. Some use a fret saw like this one to remove the bulk:
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Sadly this one was an early model with a design defect. The blade retainer grub screws split the retainer groove open and it breaks. It needs holes drilled in the titanium to accommodate the grub screw ends to change the direction of force to longitudinal. I was given very precise drilling instructions but after months of waiting and several emails, no part. If you have this early model it WILL fail.
So I used a chisel of the WACKUM family.
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Flip over and carry on! See next post for remaining pics.

[William Fretwell]

451670In the words of the marketing genius, Rinse and repeat. That’s a cup of tea where I’m from.
451671 All set for the next part!

[William Fretwell]

Started on the pins, reversing, somersaulting grain board first :(.
451776Sadly the Tung oil on the end grain made the blue tape fall off..

So back to the pencil:
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All marked up, must remember to stay inside the line when I cut!

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For these cuts I like the Japanese pull saw, the thin back gives lots of visibility for the angled cut. Then the back shoulder gets established and the chopping begins. An extra couple of cross cuts gets rid of some wood. It’s all about relieving the pressure on the chisels.
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Managed to get some blue tape on the chisel so I don’t go too deep!
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The variations in the nightmare board are evident. Yes I get to plane it again........

[Curt Putnam]

It appears that you are persevering very well. This is an enjoyable build - to watch I guess.

[William Fretwell]

Different pin technique for the other end, must be a short memory thing!
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Put the end up this time and used the dovetail saw.
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Recently lined my tail vise jaws with leather. Get a bit closer access. So chiselling down from the other direction this time, fishtail and regular chisels. Cross cuts with the saw help waste removal.
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Went well really. The board actually had 4 reversing grain areas and needed some more work.
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I made sure the inside face was straight flat and square. Some work in the dovetail corners and rubbing areas, the rest just multidirectional planing.
The shelves are next, through mortices wedged, should be simple.....
I’m going to remove 1/4” of the front side edges to remove some bad wood on one side and increase the space to round the front top edge and the other shelves that will protrude slightly. Rounding will make it look friendlier and be safer if someone takes a tumble.
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[William Fretwell]

The sides needed some more careful touch up. Here is one end with the grain direction shown:
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The shelves are through morticed in the sides with two mortices, two wedges will be added in the end grain. The tenons are cut in the shelf edge.
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A back wall is created as before to guide the saw on the outer cuts and the chisel on the inner cuts.

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The middle section I drilled holes then chiseled out the piece.

452007 Sawing out the waste 452008

The sides were laid down inside up and the shelf ends aligned and an outline drawn around the end.

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The 2” mortices were chiselled out. Luckily I had a 2” timber frame chisel. One hour ten minutes for six mortices. Don’t drill the corners to mark the other side, just have some waste wood and chisel through.
.

452013Trial assembly, seems to go together. Not all present as I’ve yet to add shelf backers for lateral stability and keep books from sliding back.

Pretty it up time, reeding blade in combination plane on reversing grain wood, what could go wrong?
Apparently nothing!
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Shelf backers, glue, tenon wedges, more beading and finish to go......

[Michael J Evans]

Will,
If one didn't have a wide chisel like that is it better to chop with the grain with say a 1" chisel (or whatever stock thickness is) or across grain but make multiple small connecting mortises?

[William Fretwell]

Yes Michael you would chop across the grain in sections with your widest chisel. Establish your back wall at both ends first, that will keep your chop line straight. The advantage of that chisel is once you have relieved the middle wood you can chop 1/8” sections. The length of the chisel makes keeping it vertical very easy also.

[Michael J Evans]

Thanks Will

[William Fretwell]

Oh yes where was I? Reeding.
The sides reeding I used a small eBay rebate purchase to level the outer sides down to flat. The grain was rather a problem but the large Shoulder plane to the rescue.
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Used my block plane to round the edge. Now the side edges feel essentially rounded and look good!

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This is the bit where I plan ahead for two wedges in each through tenon. Hate to split the shelf so a good sized hole drilled where it will never be seen and a wide saw used to create a saw cut to the hole. Wedges! Yes choose a dark wood so it looks cool (ie: can actually see them). Cherry lying around, made 27 five degree wedges.

Glue up time; who said that? Start brushing glue, tenons, mortices, dovetails, Ok this is more than 5 minutes.

Assembly: Start with top and dovetails, add shelf, add shelf, shelf no fit! Bottom shelf so book matched grain I put the beading on the wrong face! Fix it mode, quick bead, round corners....

Mallett assembly, more glue, more glue, clamp x 8 plus mallett x 83.

It’s together! Wedges, 24 cherry wedges, custom trimmed. Hammered in, in pairs.

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It must be lunch time........

Some time after lunch...... Trim the wedges with a saw, plane the tenon ends, plane the sides, again...... Plane the side bottoms so it stands upright with no wobble....

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At this point I should say the knot free, diamond flecked, deep grain, nightmare to plane wood is looking pretty damn good! The beading adds a sort of sophistication to the shelves, implying the books might be worth reading!

The three bits of wood on the bench are shelf backers. They are glued to the shelf and one dovetail will be added to the side edge so the sides can’t be pulled apart. It pretty damn strong already but if the 5 yr old lives in an earthquake zone the added stiffness will be appreciated!

Can’t wait to develop the grain with smoking hot BLO, some gorgeous grain waiting to shine.....
Tomorrow...........

[William Fretwell]

I cut a dovetail on each of the shelf backer ends. It had to be near the shelf as it’s attached to the long grain sides at right angles. The idea is to glue the backer to the shelf so a little extra was left to plane away for an exact fit when the dovetails are made. The dovetail strengthens the backer joint to the shelf.
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The gradual planing of the backer bottom edge was done in the front vice. As it only uses the top edge I used a spacer in the bottom 1/3 of the vise. I made several sizes that slide in a dadoe for a snug fit.

452420 The other sizes 452421

Final assembly complete, some final touch up and planing then the smoking hot boiled linseed oil applied with a wire wool pad and tongs.

452422 Before and after: 452424

The lighting makes the top look anaemic but it is rich gold in colour. It drank 750 ml of BLO. Another coat in a couple of days then Tung oil thereafter.

452427 I can assure the 5 yr old it will hold his heaviest books!

[Curt Putnam]

Really nice work! Thank you for taking us along.

[Christopher Charles]

Looks great and the first coat of finish is always my favorite part of a project! And can't do better than to encourage reading :)