drawer is next......

Another day where I made good progress on the bookcase. I got all of the woodworking done on the main carcass. The only part to fit and glue in place is the back apron. I'll do that tomorrow after what I have glued now has finished cooking. The last operation involves making the drawer and that I can't do now. There are two many clamps in the way for me to get any fitting or marking done.

working the top

Before I glued the top on I wanted to get as much of the finish work on it done that I could. It will be much easier for me to do that now rather then after it's glued in place. I decided to keep the overhang on the ends longer than the front. The front overhang is 1" and I made the overhang on the ends 1 3/4".  I wanted to make the overhang longer but the left side overhung only a little more than 1 3/4" (the other end was 2 1/2"). I couldn't stretch it so I settled for this.

square off the planing

Of all the planes I have my Lee Valley bevel up jack seems to be the one that I don't have problems planing square with. And it is doubly so when I use it to plane end grain. My #7 is another plane that I can usually plane square with. The rest of the herd, 99% of the time, I will plane a slanted edge.

The ends of the this top don't have to be dead nuts square as they don't butt against anything nor will anything be referenced off of them. I tried and got it square nonetheless. Paul Sellers talks about this frequently in his video classes and I agree with him. By planing this square and true, I get practice for when it counts. But more importantly it says something about me as a woodworker.

back apron

I have no idea if this is the correct term for this so I'm calling it the 'back apron'.  This will be slightly arched with a beveled edge.

laying out the curve

I didn't have a thin piece of wood long enough to layout the whole curve I wanted in one step. I did it in two steps.

curve done

I band sawed the curve and planed it to the line with a spokeshave. I smoothed and faired the bevel on the curve with a block plane.

one worked and one was toast

This is one hand tool that I have not gotten familiar with yet. I try to use it every time the opportunity presents itself. I used the back one to work the curve but fore front one did nothing.

found one problem

I had the iron in backwards in the spokeshave and that is why it wouldn't work. The labeling on the iron faces out and bevel faces down. I changed that but it made no difference. I still couldn't get it make any shavings. The iron is sharp so I knew that wasn't the problem. Figuring this out may be the next batter after the bookcase is done.

cleaned up the back and front

it's toast now

I was so intent on trying to make a lamb's tongue detail on the ends of the apron that I went past my layout line. That mark was my line in the sand and I stepped over it. I could have glued a strip of wood onto the bottom of the apron but you could see that from the sides. I decided to make another back apron.

the original drawer parts

I already used one of these for the first apron and I'll use another one for the second one.

going with simple this time

No bevel this time and I'm just doing a round over on the ends. I marked a 3/4" radius first but it ended too close to the top so I switched to a half inch radius.

popped it off with a chisel

This is something that I have only tried a couple of times. It is easy to do but like anything else, it'll take practice to get a smoother curve than facets I made here. I finished this with a rasp and a file.

simple and clean

I have some bookends that I can finally use on the top of this.

ugly blowouts from the saw cut

"It is elementary, Dr Watson. He sawed on the wrong side of the knife line", said Mr Sherlock Holmes. Another hiccup to fix. I would have bet the ranch I had sawed on the waste side of the line.

hogged most of the waste off with a #3

This bevel is shallow at 1/8" deep on the edge and 3/8" into the face. It's deeper on the face because I had to go that far to remove the blowout.

final trimming was done with a block plane

Paul Sellers does this entire operation with a #4. I prefer to finesse down to the line with a block plane. I feel that I have better control with a block plane and that I get a cleaner look and the bevel comes out more even with it.

done

I didn't want a bevel or any other edge treatment because the back apron doesn't have any. Now that the bevel is done I like it. It is still a simple and clean look.

almost forgot this

I caught this when I flipped it to apply glue in the dadoes. That's when I saw the pencil marks and a few smudges. Most of this will be covered by the drawer but the outside edges will be visible.

my main glue now

I read a link that the Brokeoff Mountain Lutherie posted about hide glue here. It cleared up a few things that I had been wondering about and few tidbits of info that I didn't know.  After reading that I am moving hide glue to the #1 spot. I'll put up with a 24 hour wait for it to set. If I need to to play with anything in an hour or so, I'll use yellow glue. So far the bookcase has been glued only with hide glue.

right side needed help

This is the front of the bookcase and everything reversed from the dry clamp. The right side was out of square and the left side was a puff of air shy of dead nuts. I fudged, nudged, cussed, levered, and canted these two clamps for 20 minutes before I got it close to square. It's off by 3 hairs and I couldn't get it any closer so I settled. I'll be fitting a drawer in a slightly out of square opening instead of one that is OTL.

the back side of the bookcase

The back clamps are canted in the opposite direction of the front ones. The out of square was about the same at the front and the back. Trying to adjust for something like that would have been a nightmare from Hell.

the right side back

It's hard to see in this pic but there is a slight gap at the top at the corner. The bow I had in the dry clamp is still there but that seems to have decreased a little. All in all, I am ok with how this turned out. It's not perfectly square but I'll be able to put this to use as a bookcase.

I forgot the drawer rail

I didn't have any problems getting the rail in. Sometimes the woodworking gods smile down on you. It is stuck here and few taps with a mallet and I had it seated at the front. I also put a spot of hide glue at the front of this just in case.

$3.21

A new Ace hardware opened up by my house on friday. I went there today and I bought four brass #8x1 1/4 round head screws and four #8 brass washers. The screws were 55¢ each and washers 19¢ each, with tax $3.21. Ridiculous prices for a screw and washer. I bought a 100 of  these screws from LV for less then $9.   But when you are impatient and your order hasn't come yet, you pay the piper and smile.

I glued and screwed the front of each drawer guide and slotted the hole for the rear one. I used washers because of the slotted hole. The head of screw barely covered it. With the washer it will ride on top of the slot as the side expands and contracts.

operational check

These are just 5 of the 322 bazillion books that will be vying for a spot on these two shelves. The bottom shelf is 12" high and 9 1/2" deep. The middle shelf has the same depth but it is only 11" high.

half time

The Pats were winning at half time and I was winning here too. I got both back stops glued in place.  I had a nice snug side to side fit with both backstops - the middle one is still snug but the bottom one isn't. I have yet to learn to not take just one more swipe.

accidental woodworker

trivia corner
Whose last words were, "I shall hear in Heaven"?
answer - Ludwig Von Beethoven

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