Sawdust on the Floor

I found an article in one of the many woodworking magazines detailing a mission style bookcase, somewhat like the one shown at the right. While I liked the design, I didn’t have a need for a book case that small. There are several book cases in our home and all are much larger then this. But what I did need was a case to store some of my DVD’s. So doing what a lot of woodworkers do, I modified the design to meet our needs.

The thing that got me interested in this particular design was actually the side details. The cut out design was something that I had not tried before, and it intrigued me. And because I figured this would be the area that caused me the most grief, that is where I started working on the case.

The sides are a solid oak that I milled down to a thickness of 1/4″, using my thickness planer. Because I wanted the two sides to be the same, I clamped both sides together and rough cut both at once. I transferred the pattern from the article to the sides, using some artistic license. I made the pattern look right to me, so mine doesn’t look exactly like the original. The pattern shown here is duplicated on the bottom of each side. I made sure that the pattern was centered both vertically, and horizontally on the sides. I cut the straight portion of the cut out using a circular saw and a straight edge guide. For the curved portions of the design I turned to my Scroll saw. The thin scroll blades are ideal for work like this. Once the scroll saw work was done, I turned to several small files and rifflers to clean up the corners.

My next operation was to make the remaining portions of the sides. The legs are made of 6/4 Oak, the tops and the bottoms of each leg were chamfered at 45 degrees to add interest. The rails and stiles of the side panels are joined together using traditional mortise and tenon joinery. The top and bottom rails are made from 4/4 Oak with a 1/4″ wide blind dado in both the top and bottom rail for the decorative 1/4″ panels. The tool of choice to cut the dados was my shaper with a 1/4″ straight bit.

Since the 1/4″ decorative panel is narrower than the width of the rails, I cut blind dados in both the top and bottom rails. To cut a blind dado, the stock is slowly lowered onto a spinning bit, at the starting point of the desired dado. The stock is then moved along to the end mark of the dado, where the stock is lifted off the spinning bit. One of the techniques I have learned over the years is to make several passes when doing a blind dado. If you try to take too large of a cut all at once, there is a tendency for the stock to bind or get caught where it can be thrown from the shaper. The other thing I have learned about this process is to use feather boards and push sticks.

Before I glued up the sides, I had a couple of more operations to perform on them. The back of the cabinet consists of a top and bottom rails, which are connected to the inside edge of the legs with mortise and tenon joinery. Between the two rails is a 1/4″ piece of Oak plywood. Instead of inserting the plywood into stiles, I elected to insert them directly into the legs. I used the same set up as i did on the side rails to cut blind dados, between the upper and lower rails on the inside of the rear legs only.

On the front legs, I cut mortises to accept the upper and lower rails of the front frame, again there are no stiles. Inside the cabinet I elected to use glass for the shelves, instead of solid wood that the original design had. I used my drill press with a 1/4″ Forstner Bit installed to cut holes for adjustable pegs to make sure that I cut the holes at the same place on each leg, I made a Jig.

The jig which consisted of a piece of scrap plywood, had two vertical pieces of lumber attached. These two vertical pieces were spaced so that the legs would fit snuggly inside of them. At the bottom of the jig, I installed another piece of scrap lumber, to act as a stop for the legs. Along the center line of the jig, I pre drilled a series of holes. To use the jig, I clamped it over the legs making sure that the inside edge of each legs was up. To use the jig, I lined up the desired hole in the jig, and then drilled through that hole into the individual legs.

The bottom of the cabinet has a wooden bottom shelve, that is made of 4/4 oak. To attach this I cut pocket screw holes into the bottom of the shelve and connected it to the upper edge of the bottom rails of the sides, front and rear. There is a top piece of 4/4 oak that is sized larger than the cabinet by an 1.5″ along the front and both sides. This is attached to the cabinet with pocket screws installed in the inside edges of the top rails.

Finally, it was time to glue up the entire project. I started by assembling the two side panels, then attaching them to the rails and plywood for the rear panel. I used the bottom shelf to help keep every thing square and aligned. I also used a number of clamps, actually I was surprised at how many it took to hold everything in place. Once the glue was set and I was able to give the entire project a complete sanding. It was off to be finished. For this project I used one of my favorite finishes, a combination of Tung oil, linseed and polyurethane. The finish is applied in three steps, the first a 50/50 mixture of Tung oil and Linseed oil, the second a 50/50 mixture of Tung oil and polyurethane, and the final coat of 100% polyurethane. The project is sanded in between coats with progressively finer wet sand paper, used with a Tung oil slurry.

I added a light designed for illuminating a picture inside the top of the cabinet and connected it to a timer. The combination of the dark finish and the light offers a nice balance.