WOODWORKING PROJECT: PART 1.

I mentioned sometime ago that having almost completed my three armies, I now wanted to build a new display unit to take a fourth army , the construction of which would keep my hobby going for another 5 to 6 years at the least. The problem was , where to locate the new display unit having already exhausted the available wall space in both our spare rooms. Strangely my wife was not keen on having the new unit in either our bedroom, the dining room or even the lounge. 

After much consideration I concluded that the only practical place would be underneath my third display unit which currently sits on a bookcase. My idea was the remove the bookcase and use the space thus available. However, having so many books we could not afford to lose 15 feet of bookshelf. I therefore decided to build a free standing double sided bookcase which could sit in the middle of the room alongside the stereo tower.

The current arrangement is shown below.

The project involves three stages. First I need to build the new bookcase. Second I will build the new display unit and thirdly I will  carefully remove the old bookcase while supporting the existing display unit, fit the new unit underneath and securely attach both together and to the wall.

To build the new bookcase I am using manufactured pine boards that come in 8 by 2 foot panels. These are made up of small strips of timber glued together and planned smooth. Although expensive they save a lot of time in making and finishing my own panels. When building with hardwood I always make my own panels using "biscuit" joints. My first job was to cut all the component parts; a top and bottom, two side panels, two shelves complete with supporting rails and  top and bottom rails. I already had a set of bun feet in stock left over from a previous project. The photo below shows the various parts cut to size including the bun feet  just visible in the top left.

The next step was to attach the rails to the two central shelves. These rails are fixed to the top of the shelves. They serve three purposes. As the bookcase is double sided, they will stop books being pushed back onto the other shelf. They also provide some addition strength to the shelves and lastly, as the bookcase has no back as such, it needs some sideways bracing. The four rails altogether provide this bracing.

The photo below shows the top and bottom panels ready to have the corners and edges rounded over which I do with the router. After that all the pieces were sanded then wiped with a wet sponge and left to dry. This raises the grain so that after another sanding the wood is smooth enough not to require any addition sanding other than a light wipe over with "wet and dry" during final finishing.

The whole structure is assembled using "pocket screw joints" and glue. I find this method gives the strongest joints for units made of panels. I have a jig to make the pockets and use special screws to make the connections. The photo below shows the unit fully assembled with the bun feet also attached.

In order to hide the "pocket screw" holes, I glue lengths of pine doweling into the holes  as can be clearly seen below. I also used a piece of dowel to fill the holes for the screws that hold the feet to the base.

The unit will now be left for a couple of days to allow the glue to fully set up. My next report will show the finishing process.