Harry Potter bookcase WIP

[Farmer Giles]

Initially I wasn't going to post a WIP on here as it is so simple, however it has ended up that there will be a bit of a twist to it.

My eldest daughter wants a full room height bookcase with adjustable shelves "just like the ones in Harry Potter", After further questioning it could be the library at Hogwarts or Olivander the wand maker's shelves in Diagon Alley.

Her room has a reasonably high ceiling so they will be 2400mm high and the location is between a wall and a door frame and is 880mm wide. The bookcase is 200mm deep. The sides, base, top and shelves are all solid European oak to match the architrave and skirtings in her room. The back will be 7mm birch ply laminated with pippy oak as I acquired a couple of seconds sheets cheap. The middle shelf will be fixed and there will be 6 movable shelves on tonk strips.

So far relatively standard and I thought this would be an easy job so i got on with it. I used dominoes in its construction and I routed out the tonk strip with a trend router bit specifically for the job.

Sides cut to length, domino holes cut and tonk strips routed

Assembled and glued, just needed a little touch of diagonal tension to keep it square

Two coat of Osmo clear satin Polyx oil

The door frame architrave will hide the majority of the 7mm ply back. The rest I will hide with a bit of oak trim. I am assembling the back in her bedroom as it will be easier and lighter to handle or maybe in the spare bedroom. The ceiling is not level so I will hide this with a bit of sloping architrave around the top, or at least that was the plan

So I showed Lizzie the bookcase in progress. She said it was very nice but where is the secret compartment?! I thought, what secret compartment? But didn't say it knowing this would cause disappointment and although not specifically asked for of course I should know every Harry Potter bookcase has a secret compartment, obviously.

So I said that the secret compartment will be behind the frieze around the top. The frieze will have something like "Olivanders." carved into it and when you put your wand on or into the full stop it will release a catch and a shallow drawer will be revealed behind it. Once I said it I realised that I now had to do it as my daughters face had lit up.

So, the drawer will be about 80mm high, 840mm wide and just under 200mm deep. So I have dug out my Trend dovetail jig I bought or got given almost 17 years ago, I haven't got any further than assembling it yet.

In terms of the frieze, I thought I had best practice carving letters as I have newer done that before. I dug out some carving chisels I bought on an offer, could be Axminsters many moons ago, I was a couple of quid short of free P&P on an order and these were only a few quid so I they were almost free. Not the best quality of course but good enough for a few letters, maybe....

So after watching a few youtube videos, I selected a font, turned out to be Palatino Linotype

In retrospect, for a first go, a font with serifs and with variable width bits was not the wisest selection so I will not be using this for the job in hand, something simpler like Yu Gothic UI Semi-bold maybe.

However here is my first quick go with tools straight from the box with no honing, on well seasoned hard oak and without clamping it down.

I now have the next test bit on a carving vice (April Clearance, Rutland) and I'm just about to hone all the bits then try with the new font.

Cheers
Andy

 

[MusicMan]

Looking very good!

 

[Farmer Giles]

I honed the chisels last night, some of them could do with a proper grind, for example this one, so I'll do that at the weekend.

I traced out the new font, a bit rough but its only a test. I then marked the centre line of the font. Using an "R" as a test piece seems to be standard as it has vertical, horizontal, diagonal and curved sections.

I carved it out and it was easier than the one with serifs, and if I had marked it out more carefully I think it would fit the bill especially if I pay more attention to finishing the ends of the font off and the curve. Break out on curves is a bit problematic however I think I can get away with it. I also had a quick go with a trend letter template and a 1/4" V bit. Its a bit sloppy and I should have moved the leg to the right a bit. However even if I square off the legs I prefer the hand carved letter. Now to practice a bit more but with the grain at right angles to this test as that will be the grain direction of the frieze. My daughter hasn't settled on the final word or words yet so I have a bit of time.

Cheers
Andy

 

[bugbear]

Instructional Video here:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/2006/10/ ... ing-basics

BugBear

 

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks BB

Similar in approach to the other videos I've seen but he seems to be be more proficient, and he's carving serifs.

I've come to the conclusion that Oak isn't ideal for letter carving, at least for your first attempt, but I'm kind of stuck with it for this job. There is no way you can do some of the carving moves he shows with the oak I'm using. I have some off cuts of mahogany and walnut I may play on to see the difference.

Cheers
Andy

 

[AJB Temple]

Your big challenge with letter carving, once you have grasped teh basics of cutting the shapes, is getting the spacing right between letters (kerning), as type layout does not use uniform spacing. I always struggle with this when laying out onto wood. Oak is fine for lettering as long as your tools are sharp. I tend to get rid of quite a lot of the waste with a router first using a small bit and not going too deep. Never watched a you tube video on it but letter carving is quite fun I think.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks AJ, in terms of kerning, I was hoping that this was part of the font on the 'puter so if I left justified the text and printed it out it should have the correct spacing.

I honed the carving tools on shaped japanese water stones last night, however I have put some of them through the scary process since and it make a big difference.

 

[Farmer Giles]

A definite improvement over my first attempt with serifs, I'll try the font without serifs next then decide which one to use for the sign, by that time my daughter may have decided what its going to say.

Cheers
Andy

 

[RogerM]

I went through a similar learning process when carved some initials into a blanket box. You might find something useful there. In my limited experience getting a really keen edge on my chisels was the key.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I went through a similar learning process when carved some initials into a blanket box. You might find something useful there. In my limited experience getting a really keen edge on my chisels was the key.

Excellent carving! I'm going to practice a bit more, the latest is that she wants "POTIONS" on it, two "O"s a P and and S, oh well, not easy to find a word without curves that suits the theme I guess

I may look at thinner fonts, the ones I have been working on are very chunky.

 

[RogerM]

Sometimes the obvious is the way to go. For a beginner (that includes me), either "Roman", or something derived from "Roman" like "Felix Titling" or "Perpetua" make "carving friendly" letters. In my very limited experience I have just played around with the letters in MS Word, using something reasonably large like 160 point, and then on the "font tab" going to "effects" and ticking "Outline" so that you get an image of the outline of the letter rather than a solid figure. I don't like sticking the paper to the wood because it's really tedious to remove - the glue soaks a long way in to the wood, but copy it using carbon paper. You'll also need to hand draw the ends of the serifs to remove the square look that the computer printed letters give you.

 

[AndyT]

It's good to see the improvement already. Quite encouraging for anyone else having a go.
Getting a v tool sharp is a non-trivial task in itself. Thousands of words have been written about it, the best in my opinion being by Chris Pye. You need to think of it as three tools in one - two straight chisels separated by a small gouge. It's easy to get a sort of hook on the bottom, but that won't work and needs to be honed away.

[Edited to get Chris Pye's name right.]

 

[Farmer Giles]

I've been practising gouge sharpening over the last couple of days. My usual straight chisel sharpening routine is a grinder with white wheel if its really bad, slowly with plenty of dunks in water. Followed by using a jig on the tormek water wheel then I put a micro bevel on using scary sharp film and a richard kells honing guide. Unless I ding the chisel, a few strokes on the scary film is all that is then neded for quite a while to keep a very sharp edge.

Extending that method to gouges, I have the new tormek gouge jig which works lovely but to hone the edge I will be using the tormek profiled leather wheel and paste for the inner profile, ordered it from Axi yesterday so will let you know how it goes. I havent used the jig for the microbevel on the leather strop yet, too busy reprofiling all the gouges as they were all pretty poor out of the box. I also have my eye on an addis wide shallow gouge. I have some profiled japanes water stones that I could use for difficult tools but I don't think I'll use them.

 

[Farmer Giles]

The kids helped me put two coats of satin polyx oil onto the oak veneered backboard at the weekend. I am assembling this up in the daughter's bedroom as don't want to gas her with the solvent fumes and it was easier to move the bookcase up without it plus the kids are less likely to do damage painting it in the workshop The pale lines are where I masked it off where the backboard will meet the bookcase so I can glue and air-nail it in position. We will find out how accurate I was marking it up later

 

[AndyT]

That's daring! I'd have put the finish over the whole of the back and nailed it in place without glue. That way, if it ever does need to be removed, the back can come off without damaging it.

Not saying your way is wrong, mind. Whatever works is good.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Yes, not my preferred method either but I can't use the sides to fix the book case and the studwork is all over the place. It sits on the skirting so the plan is to use the back to fix it to the wall, its 7mm ply so will be man enough if glued and pinned.

EDIT just found a stud near the top so will be able to hide a fixing direct to the top as well.

 

[AndyT]

I see. I was thinking about it as a freestanding thing, but fixing to the wall is always sensible, even if you have tricksy stud walls.

 

[Farmer Giles]

It's floor to ceiling and Lizzie will have to use steps to get to the top shelves as the ceiling is quite high so I thought it may be wise to give it some good fixings.

So the steps may be another project, but the missus is getting inpatient so the kitchen will come next, well after the router table

 

[DiscoStu]

Enough of this letter carving stuff - where is the secret compartment!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Farmer Giles]

Well, it wouldn't be secret if I told you

The masking worked, for once I was spot on and the shelves are up. I would take some pictures but her ladyship is resting after a hard day playing out with the dog.

Only cock up was I managed to find one of those stupidly expensive glue bottles for not much, it has a tip designed to keep you in the middle of the edge of a board and depositing a nice thin bead of glue. well the top blew off depositing copious amounts everywhere.

Next job is the shelves so she can start putting the books on, and the "secret draw" come frieze around the top. Its not going to be difficult to find but hopefully not too obvious to her little sister