Arts & Crafts bookself - Finished

[Einari Rystykaemmen]

Hi guys and gals,

We have run out of space from our bookselfs, so it's time to build another one.

I suggest SWMBO to go for Arts & Crafts style this time and after several (dozens... ) drafts she accepted this design.

I decided to use baltic birch and birch plywood for this bookself. Dimension of this will be around 1100 mm height x 320 mm deep and 910 mm wide.

I will stain it (in the end...) close to light teak color for better match our current furnitures. Finishing might be some water- or solvent base laquer, but I havent decided it yet. I will have plenty of time decide that later... :wink:

As you probably know, baltic birch could be quite challenging timber. It usually has lots of internal tensions, which twists timber after cutting it to smaller (or thinner) pieces in few days. I don't want to make any compromises final look of the bookself, so it will be fun challenge to archive wanted result. Actually I spent my first evening planing and cutting few parts in rough dimensions and laminate few "components" together to get straight enough timber for final dimensioning.

Here is my first evening result. Yes, I know... Not much archieved within 3 hours... :roll:

More update will follow in few days.

Cheers!
ER

 

[mtr1]

Looks a nice design, it will be good to see it develop.
Having never used Birch before(except ply), but received some in a sample pack from my supplier today, I'm interested to see the problems(if any) you have using it. I really like the look of the timber, and would like to use some at some point.

 

[Chataigner]

Looks nice, as it's to be "arts and crafts" style, will there be nice square pegs fixing the tenons?

I look forward to seeing the progress, I too have never worked in birch, sounds interesting.

 

[Einari Rystykaemmen]

Looks nice, as it's to be "arts and crafts" style, will there be nice square pegs fixing the tenons?

I look forward to seeing the progress, I too have never worked in birch, sounds interesting.

This is not a true Arts & Carfts style, little bit modern variation of it. All joints will be done with loose tenons (Festool Domino is way out of my budged, over 800€ here... ). This is actually first time for me to try that method.

Birch is very nice wood to work on and beautiful looking when finished. It's kinda "National Tree of Finland". Only problem is that here in northern Finland is hard to find straight grain birch without internal tensions. Souther Finland birches are more straight grained and easier to work on. As a amateur woodworker, it's not reasonable thing to order timber there because of freight costs. After that birch (or any other species) costs too much for me. I'm fortunate to know few pro cabinetmakers here and sometimes I can buy top quality timer from them in reasonable price. :wink:

 

[RogerP]

Nice looking design except unless the books are as wide (front to back) as those stiles the end books will jamb in the recess or at least not sit flush to the sides

 

[Einari Rystykaemmen]

Good point, RogerP.

Distance betweet those stiles (inner edges) is 200 mm, so most of the bigger books should sit there nicely. Of course design is always compromise between practicality, outfit and match between existing furniture. I'd like to go for this design and learn from it for future projects. Personally I like to experiment new things in every project. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it don't. Every time some lesson is learnt.

 

[RogerP]

Distance betweet those stiles (inner edges) is 200 mm, so most of the bigger books should sit there nicely.

That's okay then - just thought I'd point it out in case it had slipped by you. Look forward to a photo when it's finished.

 

[Qwibble]

Nice design Einari.
I've been piling books on the floor for the last few months so might just have to do the same as you and make a new bookcase.
Q

 

[Dibs-h]

Post a few pictures of your workbenches please? They look interesting - half steel and half timber.

 

[Einari Rystykaemmen]

I hate when daytime job disturbs a hobby too much...

This project has been on hold several weeks because of long days at work. However I had some progress during this weekend.

Bookself frame joinery is almost ready. I decided to go for traditional M&T instead of floating tenon. Main reason was thickness (or thinness..) of frame vertical posts, which probably would cause me trouble with floating tenon joinery. 45 mm thickness just wasn't enough for this...

After joinery is ready, it's time to fit side panels to the frame. I still haven't decide if I use plywood (which I already have) or go for birch veneered chipboard. It's hard to find cabined grade plywood over here, so I have to decide if I accept few knots on plywood or purchase more expensive veneered chipboard.

Hopefully I have time to continue this on next week. If so, I will update this WIP thread of my progression.

Cheers!

E.R.

 

[barkwindjammer]

Thats a great design Einari your wife has a good eye for style, will be following your progress and cant wait to see more pics, like Dibs said your bench looks interesting

Jim

 

[jumps]

How have you found the birch after the initial machining and laminating? Did you notice much movement over the weeks before you did the final cutting?

I also like the lines, and look forward to seeing it develop.

 

[Einari Rystykaemmen]

Birch could be really tricky, so I took plenty of time searching good quality timber. In northern Finland it's hard to find straight-grained birch, which is essential feature to keep movement under control. If it's straight-grained, it won't move significantly. Not so straight-grained timber means lots of waiste (needs much more tooling allowance), because it will twist alot within few days or even weeks. Sometimes twisted grain birch could even stall your table saw when ripping, because timber get squeezed around blade and rifing knife. When birch finally settle down, it's very stiff and stable timber.

In this project vertical poles are Southern Finland, straight-grained, 8 years old dead-dry birch. They haven't move at all after final miling. Horizontal parts are made from Northern birch (from my own forest), which I've dried up about 3 - 4 years. With twisted grain it took lots of waiste and even laminating to get parts straight enough. Timber has moved a bit (around 1 - 2 mm per meter) during these weeks, but I'm still inside my tolerances. :wink:

About that workbench. Those photos were taken from local elementary school woodworking classroom, where I did initial ripping and miling. My own workshop is uninsulated cold shed, which I cannot use in winter time especially temps of -25 degrees of celsius, what we had here last couple of weeks... Many times in Finnish woodworking classrooms, workbench feet are made from thick steel tube welded together and bolted to a tabletop. I don't know why, maybe they are looking for more robust construction to get workbenches last many years of heavy use. I will visit there on next week, so I try to remember take more pictures from it.

Cheers!

E.R.

 

[Einari Rystykaemmen]

After many delays (because of daytime job... ) this project is finally finished.

I decided go for existing plywood panels though new veneered mdf panels might been better in the end...

Anyways, here is glue up of the framework. Panels are floating, so no glue there (frame needs little bit room for seasonal moving). All m&t's are of course carefully glued. Before gluing I applied spirit-base stain and few coats of Chestnuts Hard Wax Oil onto panels and frame parts.

Bookself top was attached to the frame with screws and L - shaped metal brackets, which I painted brown. Brackets oval shaped screwholes allows seasonal movement. They hided pretty well on finished color and they cannot be seen, unless you intentionally look for them under the top. Base was attached same way from underside. I didn't bother to paint them, because you can't see them anyway...

Shelfs are adjustable about +/- 10cm, which is enough to this application. I don't like to "punch holes" on whole lenght of the vertical poles, because in the end you don't never use 90 % of them. I also didn't like to break "harmony" of the desing with row of holes.

Corbels (corner ornaments) are glued to straight to vertical poles with butt joint, because they won't get under any tension. So no fancy joinery there.

So, finished piece look like this:

And you guys who are interested of that workbench, I have couple of pictures for you. This kind of workbench design is very common on Finnish elementary schools. Benchtop is fitted with two end-vises, one on each end. This allows two pupils to work on same bench. Bench base is welded from (about 60 mm diameter) square steel tube. Base in bolted to bench top with pretty big bolts. In my experience this kind of bench last many years of heavy, not-so-professional-and-appropriate use of pupils...

Cheers!

E.R.

 

[barkwindjammer]

Thats a great looking piece Einari, and those benches look like they could take a lot of punishment