Bookshelf WIP - need some help

[jorgoz]

I'm in the progress of working on a book-shelf/display stand and have run into a problem. There's too much room between the shelves making it look too tall. Frames are 1200mm high and 400mm wide, shelves are 1200 x 352.

How to solve this ? Add another shelf or lower the frames.

Adding a shelf, but how to make i look good, frames are glued ?

Lowering the frames, would be a last resort. I've bookmatched the legs and used blind dovetails, would hate to start over with a half assembled/glued frame.

The bottom shelf will be attached with 3 mm thick brass stretcher plates. The shelves will be tapered along their height to where they meet the frame

 

[DOOGYREV]

Things always look better in threes so adding a shelf would look fine in my opinion,
Or
You could just lower and fix the top shelf the same distance from the top, as the bottom shelf is from the bottom.
Or
You could just leave it as it is, and turn it upsidedown.
Depends on what you want to display, or if its a case of it being aesthetically pleasing, have you concidered making the shelves adjustable, or if you resort to having to cut the frame, its not always a bad thing, you could make a feature out of it.

I hope some of these suggestions help or give you some ideas

Nice joints by the way

 

[Chems]

How is the bottom shelf attached to the frame at the minute?

 

[jorgoz]

At the moment the bottom shelf is attached with clamps :lol: But for permanent fixing i'm going to make some 3mm thick brass strecher plates, something like this,

The 2 fixed holes will go in the stretcher, a bit like a hinge plate.

I've added a third shelf and it looks fine, but changes the basic idea completely, seriously thinking of cutting the top stretcher and lowering the legs, so the final dimensions will be something like 1200 wide by 800 to 900 high.

 

[mtr1]

Could you drill through the legs into the shelf, then dowel with a contrasting timber?

 

[woodbloke]

As I see it, you do need another shelf, the gap in the middle is far too large. The way I'd go about it is to have an adjustable one in the middle supported on shelf pegs so that it could be raised or lowered. This would only work though, if the centre shelf were the same width as the top and bottom ones, if he width were different, it would look odd :? - Rob

 

[jorgoz]

@ Doogyrev, thx for the tip on turning everything upside down. Why didn't i think of that :roll:

More ok, but still a bit on the high side, but i'll wait for feedback from whom who it's intended for.

Rob, i've never been much of a shelf pin fan myself, but in this case a very good option, thanks, one that get's to the top of the list.

Mark, don't want to use contrasting pegs in the legs, that would distract from the general sleek line i think.

 

[woodbloke]

... in this case a very good option, thanks, one that get's to the top of the list.

The advantage is that it's going to be pretty unobrtrusive, especially if you bury the pins in a little recess on the underside of the shelf...and also quick to do. Just needs a bit of careful marking out for the holes on each of the upright rails - Rob

 

[jorgoz]

I've decided to cut the frames and lower everything to a little over table height, 80 cm.

Working on the shelves now, beveling them.

Marked for beveling

Rough work with power planer, about 1 mm to go with the hand planes.

Now it's time for the woodies to step in and finish the job

In all, from marking to finished for sanding about 20 to 25 minutes. Who needs router jigs :mrgreen:

Also just received my 3mm brass bar for making the connectors, i'll be going with figure 8's.