Mike Heaney
10-20-2007, 6:49 PM
Attached are a few pics of my latest completed project. I took this one on in order to convince myself that I could still build something after getting completely frustrated with a part completed oak bookcase I have been working on for six months. I was losing my sanity with oak that twisted and cupped on me due to changing shop humidity and a very slow build. So, I walked away from the oak until the humidity drops in the winter, and decided to build this in the meantime.
The design comes from the "Bookcases" book by Niall Barrett (Taunton Press),and he credits the design to Peter Turner- so I credit them both! My version follows Niall's pretty closely, but uses highly figured maple for all parts. Main jointing mechanism for all pieces is via biscuit joining. I was originally going to use floating tenons, but decided it was going to be way to hard to position things consistently well, so followed Niall's plan with the biscuits. This required buying a biscuit joiner- so I got the Dewalt, which after a long set up time to get a good fit (and some filing on adjustment screws to get the threads to run true) works fine.
This is the first project where I have not used my table saw at all. All dimensional cuts were done with my Festool saw on the MFT table- Very smooth for rips and crosscuts on the figured maple, and easy to set up the tapered cuts using a long Festool straightedge.
I used a 1/2" radius roundover bit for all edges except the bottom shelf which was left square. This is the one area where I felt Niall's directions were a little off. He has you set the bit depth so that the guide bearing sits above 1/2 the thickness of the stock- I thought this was odd, and sure enough it comes out odd- the first side is fine, but when you flip the stock over, the bearing is not running on uncut board, but in trying to find the bit of stock you have just removed. As a result, you get a deeper cut on one side to the other. My solution was to dial the depth down a little and end up with a very narrow flat piece on the edge of the board that I then smoothed into the curve profile with sandpaper. Maybe one of you has some views on this- happy for any insight!
For those interested in dimensions- this case is about 27" high, about 10 3/4" wide at the bottom shelf and about 35" long. All components milled to 1/2" thick. Its going to sit between a couple of armchairs to supply storage space for magazines on the bottom shelf, big books on the lower V and small books on the top V. I did change the design a little to create a bigger gap than suggested between the two V shelfs- My wife has a lot of big text books she leaves lying around the chairs, so having somewhere convenient to drop the books currently in use should help.
Cutting the curves for the handles and whale tails was tough- I was using a coping saw and jig saw and struggled to keep them square all the time- and I think I need some of those little riffler files to tidy up curves like that in the future. Of course, a band saw would be nice too!!!
Glue up of the subcomponents was straightforward, using Titebond. For the final assembly, I had my first experience with long setting glues. My wife took one look at the contents of the Cyanoacrylate (sp?) type glues and banned them from the house! So, I had to find some hide glue instead. This worked ok with the following comments.
1. The set time was nice and long, so we could get our glue on all surfaces and biscuits and fuss with the clamps for as long as was needed.
2. I had used blue painter's tape to make clean up easier- unfortunately I left it on for 2 weeks, with the result that some of the tape had become glued into the joints- much careful chisel work resulted- must remember to remove tape promptly in the future!
3. One of the reasons for point 2 above was that the glue seemed to take forever to set (about 70 Farenheit in my basement)- glue was tacky for several days. This was not a problem as by now my MFT had become my glue-up station (perfect height for this project!), but did result in me leaving clamps on for much longer than I expected. Someone with more experience of hide glue may have some insight here- much appreciated.
Finish is Minwax Tung Oil blend (I believe it is a mix of Tung Oil and Varnish). Just a couple of coats flooded on then wiped down. Finish was then buffed by hand with wax to help the grain stand out a bit more. As usual, its hard to capture the grain in a quick set of pics, but hopefully you get the idea. As you can all imagine, the grain caused some interesting tear out issues- and resulted in a lot of work with my scrapers to even things out!
Comments and criticism appreciated as always.
Now I just need to get back into the right frame of mind to tackle the big bookcase with the multiple through tenons!
The design comes from the "Bookcases" book by Niall Barrett (Taunton Press),and he credits the design to Peter Turner- so I credit them both! My version follows Niall's pretty closely, but uses highly figured maple for all parts. Main jointing mechanism for all pieces is via biscuit joining. I was originally going to use floating tenons, but decided it was going to be way to hard to position things consistently well, so followed Niall's plan with the biscuits. This required buying a biscuit joiner- so I got the Dewalt, which after a long set up time to get a good fit (and some filing on adjustment screws to get the threads to run true) works fine.
This is the first project where I have not used my table saw at all. All dimensional cuts were done with my Festool saw on the MFT table- Very smooth for rips and crosscuts on the figured maple, and easy to set up the tapered cuts using a long Festool straightedge.
I used a 1/2" radius roundover bit for all edges except the bottom shelf which was left square. This is the one area where I felt Niall's directions were a little off. He has you set the bit depth so that the guide bearing sits above 1/2 the thickness of the stock- I thought this was odd, and sure enough it comes out odd- the first side is fine, but when you flip the stock over, the bearing is not running on uncut board, but in trying to find the bit of stock you have just removed. As a result, you get a deeper cut on one side to the other. My solution was to dial the depth down a little and end up with a very narrow flat piece on the edge of the board that I then smoothed into the curve profile with sandpaper. Maybe one of you has some views on this- happy for any insight!
For those interested in dimensions- this case is about 27" high, about 10 3/4" wide at the bottom shelf and about 35" long. All components milled to 1/2" thick. Its going to sit between a couple of armchairs to supply storage space for magazines on the bottom shelf, big books on the lower V and small books on the top V. I did change the design a little to create a bigger gap than suggested between the two V shelfs- My wife has a lot of big text books she leaves lying around the chairs, so having somewhere convenient to drop the books currently in use should help.
Cutting the curves for the handles and whale tails was tough- I was using a coping saw and jig saw and struggled to keep them square all the time- and I think I need some of those little riffler files to tidy up curves like that in the future. Of course, a band saw would be nice too!!!
Glue up of the subcomponents was straightforward, using Titebond. For the final assembly, I had my first experience with long setting glues. My wife took one look at the contents of the Cyanoacrylate (sp?) type glues and banned them from the house! So, I had to find some hide glue instead. This worked ok with the following comments.
1. The set time was nice and long, so we could get our glue on all surfaces and biscuits and fuss with the clamps for as long as was needed.
2. I had used blue painter's tape to make clean up easier- unfortunately I left it on for 2 weeks, with the result that some of the tape had become glued into the joints- much careful chisel work resulted- must remember to remove tape promptly in the future!
3. One of the reasons for point 2 above was that the glue seemed to take forever to set (about 70 Farenheit in my basement)- glue was tacky for several days. This was not a problem as by now my MFT had become my glue-up station (perfect height for this project!), but did result in me leaving clamps on for much longer than I expected. Someone with more experience of hide glue may have some insight here- much appreciated.
Finish is Minwax Tung Oil blend (I believe it is a mix of Tung Oil and Varnish). Just a couple of coats flooded on then wiped down. Finish was then buffed by hand with wax to help the grain stand out a bit more. As usual, its hard to capture the grain in a quick set of pics, but hopefully you get the idea. As you can all imagine, the grain caused some interesting tear out issues- and resulted in a lot of work with my scrapers to even things out!
Comments and criticism appreciated as always.
Now I just need to get back into the right frame of mind to tackle the big bookcase with the multiple through tenons!