Popular Post JosephThomas Posted January 19, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 Made a pair of bookcases for my brother as a Christmas gift, since he had been asking us to help him find a decent used bookshelf...and I thought I could make him something a little better than ikea particle board. This would have been a super fun, nice way to give something I made as a gift without breaking the bank on materials or too much time...however I hurt my back a few weeks before Christmas which made the whole thing a big hassle Otherwise I would do it again in a heartbeat, haha. It's made of 3/4 maple ply, edge banded with maple iron-on banding, finished with minwax polycrylic. I only did a couple thin coats due to time constraints, perhaps I will learn a difficult lesson in a couple years if they need refinishing soon... I used dominos to assemble the carcass, which allowed me to put it together quickly, dry-fit, pre-finish, and then transport the parts flat-packed in my sedan. First shot is the only photo of them in place loaded up with stuff that he gave me, I added a few others of the parts during construction. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted January 19, 2017 Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 Nice gift JT. They should certainly last him longer then store bought. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat60 Posted January 19, 2017 Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 Very nice work. I see you have a fixed shelf in the center. Great move there. How wide are they and what did you use for the backs? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted January 19, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 8 minutes ago, mat60 said: Very nice work. I see you have a fixed shelf in the center. Great move there. How wide are they and what did you use for the backs? Yep, I fixed the middle shelf for extra strength against racking. Tried and true, simple design. I'm guessing it would be easy to make one without if the parts were beefier, and/or you have a thicker stock for the back set in grooves, and/or face frames...but I didn't see how I could make it half decent without a fixed shelf in the middle, unless I complicated the build. The back is just 1/4" maple ply, set in a rabbet, from the home center near his house ...too big to transport in my car with the family and all our luggage/presents for Christmas...I was pushing it as is I had to let the home center cut it for me and pray they knew how to measure...it turned out ok. The dimensions are: ~2 feet wide x ~6 feet tall x ~ 1 foot deep. Roughly I had exactly one and a half sheets of ply to do this, and I used ~99% of it. I really just had a small pile of tiny strips leftover from where I cut clean edges, I needed every bit of it to get it done, glad it worked out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted January 19, 2017 Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 Turned out great! How'd you like using the domino? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted January 19, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 11 minutes ago, shaneymack said: Turned out great! How'd you like using the domino? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk It was pretty slow at first, just getting the hang of it and having confidence took a little time. Had no problems in the end though, and I'm sure I'll get faster with it the more I use it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheperd80 Posted January 21, 2017 Report Share Posted January 21, 2017 Handling sheetgoods with a bad back sounds like all kinds of no fun at all! They came out great though nice work. . I had the same experience at first with the domino. Its a precise machine that requires equal precision from the user. After using it on several projects now ive gotten the hang of it and you will too. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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