Casual Book Rack

[radhak]

I had posted earlier of intentions to copy the design from woodsmith:



Well, it's almost done - waiting for the finish to dry.

I started out wanting to make it mobile, but dropped the idea. I did make the lower shelf trough too.

Red Oak mostly, but had to use ply for the troughs as I ran out of wood, and have vowed to use up all my wood before buying new !

All joints are M-n-T, but the troughs rest on stretchers at the back and dowels on the side.

I miscalculated the size of the top : would have liked more of a overhang, but had forgotten I had to rout a cove on the underside when I cut it to size!

Definitely not 'fine furniture' (even the grain on the ply and the hardwood is too unlike for my tastes; would have preferred QS), but was fun to build.

[Bill in Buena Park]

Looks great, Rad - nice mods to the basic design. I believe you said the troughs are resting - are they fastened to the stretchers and dowels, or are they removable?

[Uncle Cracker]

Nicely done!

[cgallery]

I think it looks great.

I suppose solid wood in place of the plywood would have been nice, but it is going to be concealed by books anyhow, no?

[Shep]

Looks great. Keep up the good work.

[atgcpaul]

Looks good. Floating tenons or not? Was the curved section to the straight
leg hard to do?

[BobSch]

That is one sweet-looking bookcase.

I'm really getting the itch to get back in the shop but it's only 31° today so it'll be a while yet.

[dbhost]

Very nicely done. Don't worry about the hardwood / ply grain mismatch. It looks good the way you have it...

[radhak]

Thanks guys!

The front of both troughs is glued at both sides with two dowels each. The back just rests on the stretcher. But it's not removable, so I was wondering if I should use a couple of miller dowels somewhere in the middle of the trough, just to strengthen the support. Maybe superfluous.

On hindsight, I think the plywood detracts severely from the looks only because I used available ply and did not pick and choose much; hardwood wood have been really good, and maybe it would have been worth it to buy hw from HD just to cover the shortfall. But yes, I realize that the books will completely cover that surface, so I might be over-agonizing...

Regular tenons, not floating. But this project did see me investigate MT jigs, and I am determined to shop-make something like the mortise-pal soon. I like the idea of spending serious time getting the jig right, but then the actual project could go much faster.

I did the mortises on the rectangular pieces of wood, joined them, and then cut the curves (following the nice instructions from Woodsmith). Easier than manipulating curves.

And yes, am so thankful for the So.FL weather; while we had some 'winter', it only made it better for working in the garage!

[lrogers]

That is fantastic. Those curved uprights REALLY set this project off.

[enorwood]

Looks great! Nice work, radhak!

[chopnhack]

Are you kidding, that looks great! Did you have any trouble leveling the strips you attached to the plywood? Did the grain running near vertical concern you on the curved pieces? What finish will you be using? Again very nice, can't wait to see the finish ++ on that weather, enjoying shop time now before it gets too hot!

[Pappy]

Nice work, Rad. The dado joint on the shelf should provide all the strength you will ever need.

[GPA61]

Very nice.

[SARGE..g-47]

You did an excellent job Rad.... I think you will find that once you stain it and get some actual books.. etc. onto those shelves it will calm down the tone and look of the radial cut ply. Frankly with wide (I have gotten red oak up to 17" wide), flat sawn red oak you can get cathederal grain in it that is about as wild as the radial cut ply faces so...

As stated they will get covered and I have definitely been in situations in the past I wanted to use what I had on hand when the budget was tight. You did an very nice job on those leg tapers BTW. I got a chuckle on the over-hang issue as I have been there and done that in the past. I sit down with a note-pad when I design and fortunately after all these years my mind-set remembers mistakes from the past as your cove cuts at the end and forgetting to allow for stub tenons as I have done that also.

So.. nice work and you should be proud. Post pics of it finished and if you have the opportunity another with books in it to allow others to see how adding objects tones down grain effects.

Well done....