Oak Bookcase Nearly Finished

[catface]

This is a small (5 foot tall) bookcase I have nearly finished. Inspired by an open frame design for a corner cupboard by James Krenov (the fine art of cabinet making ISBN 0-8069-8572-0, page 170). The material is American White Oak, with a hand rubbed oil finish. The frame is mortice and tennon, with through joints at four locations on front (and rear) of the frame. The cupboard has dovetail corners forming the carcase, an applied back (with baise lining inside), and veneered doors (veneer made from stock cut on tablesaw). Adjustable shelves are supported on movable bars set into the carcase sides.

My favourite shop ? Choosing the wood.

Frame assembled to check prior to glue up. (Note shoes to protect feet).

Getting some help from my assistant.

Through tenon at top of frame.

Through tenon at bottom of frame.

Plano glue press - pressing home made veneer onto plywood base to form the doors. The doors were made together in one piece which was then cut down the middle, ensuring the two doors meet dead straight in the middle when shut.

Fitting the case to the frame. You can see the movable shelf bar supports at the rear of the carcase.

Detail of the dovetails on one corner of carcase.

Better view of shelf support cut outs.

Got the doors on - fine fitting.

Doors oil finished & brass hardware in place.

Full of books already ! note pin in top of case - this pin and two through base of carcase into frame, is all that holds the carcase into the frame.

Good pic of the finished bookcase (matches fireplace overmantel).

All done ! SWMBO approves. Now I've just got to make the one for the other alcove . . .

Regards Catface.

 

[ByronBlack]

you need to remove the characters after the .jpg extension on the url for your pictures to work.

Like so:

 

[DomValente]

Lovely job Catface

Dom

 

[catface]

thanks for the tip re pictures.

 

[Anonymous]

Very nice indeed catface. Reminds me of Krenov style furniture which i often like, and Oak is one of my favourite woods which I think looks gorgeous

Very nice joinery shown in those close up photos too =D>

 

[ByronBlack]

Catface, that is a fine cabinet! I'm a big Krenov admirer so this is right up my street! Nice finish on the through tenons, very neat!

Out of interest, where in Essex is that woodshop of yours? The only I know of in Essex refuse to let me choose my own boards

 

[catface]

Byron Black,
this wood came from Thorogoods Timber plc, (colchester road, ardleigh, colchester, essex CO7 7PQ) / www.thorogood.co.uk. I have no business connection with them. . .
They will let you choose boards. On the visit show, you could climb over the wood stack in the storage sheds & get out what you liked. But after a recent Health & Safety visit you cant do that any more. Now you have to ring up a day in advance & they will get a stack out for you to turn over & choose from. regards Catface

 

[Paul Chapman]

Excellent, Catface =D> =D> The only thing I think I would have done differently would be to use wooden handles rather than brass (but that's just nit-picking :wink: ).

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Philly]

Bravo!
Love it - thanks for the pictures,
Philly

 

[catface]

Paul Chapman,
I agree wood handles might be better & I do rather prefer wood handles myself. I tried several different shapes & designs but I wasn't satisfied with the final appearance and useablilty. The cabinet has magnets set into the door surfaces where they meet, and at the top center corners contacting magnets in the case top. These proved (after fitting !) to provide surprisingly strong closure, so simple handles ie. not having enough to get a digit into, wouldn;t do the job. I need more experience with handle design . . . regards , catface.

 

[ByronBlack]

catface, with regards to handle design, your inspiration (krenov) will give you plenty of handles, its one of the things I really like about his work; his attention to detail and nicely thought out handles.

 

[engineer one]

very impressive, and a neat idea.

interested to see that your assistant was wielding a spanner, what was he building :lol:

wondered though why you put closed doors on a bookshelf/case
most of us like to show off what we have :?

paul :wink:

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Very inspiring and unlike Paul I do like the handles I think you made a very good choice. =D> \/

 

[Evergreen]

Very, very tasty. And that's timber, design and workmanship.

Regards.

 

[Imperial]

Really nice, were the dovetails done by hand?

 

[catface]

Bloonose,
the dovetails were done "half by hand" - all of the with the grain cuts were done on the table saw, indexing the workpiece along vertically for each cut, then the waste was removed by chopping out across the grain with a chisel. You can find this method explained better by Mark Duginske (page 28 Fine Woodworking on Boxes Carcases and Drawers ISBN 0-918804-26-4). Hope this helps & thanks for the comment.
This tablesaw dovetain method is fairly quick - you set up an indexing fence and dont need to do any marking out (except for cut depth). But its hard to get this method to give reliable results, because one slip when indexing & if youve lost too much wood then its repair time (or scrap it & start again if youre fussy). I hand cut for board width upto about 8 inches across, after that the machine method makes it much quicker, if rather stressfull. This case is 14 inch deep so its a lot to do by hand ( and a lot of accurate marking to get done).
regards, Catface.