Latest Project - link to pics

Thomas Smith

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Hi folks,

I just finished off this bookcase for my wife's office. I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

IMG_1504.JPG


Tom

http://picasaweb.google.com/kandtwoodworking/ValerieSBookcase
 
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That's a very nice bookcase, Tom. :thumb: Clean lines and I really like the contemporary hardware you used. :clap: Details, man! :) What kind of wood? Finish? Construction methods?
 
Thanks guys. Sorry no progress pics on this one. It came into the shop as 3 sheets of oak ply, some crown moulding, a few bf of s2s red oak and left the shop in a matter of a few days. I was stuck trying to match colors with a faux mahogany desk in my wife's office. I don't have any experience with dyes so I went to Totem and looked at what might be close off the shelf. I ended up trying (with little delight) a polyshades in Bombay Mahogany. I got the color very close, but gave myself fits. I'm used to finishing where the stain is actually staining the wood. This stuff just builds up on itself like a film. When I went to go over it with #0000 steel wool (as I typically do between layers) I almost knocked it down to bare wood again.

The doors are flat panel. I did some raised panels for my father's wall unit and I wanted a little different look for this. The hardware is a match for the other fixtures in my wife's clinic. I was feeling quite lucky as the local hardware store had an exact match at a clearance price.

This is a bit of a utility piece so the joinery is somewhat different than I would normally undertake. She needed it quick and my shop is really small so I wanted to fast track it a bit. That being said, there is an abundance of pocket screws in this particular piece. The face frame is joined with biscuit joints and some "norm's." Frankly, as much as I don't mind using the pocket screws for shop fixtures, I was happy at how the cabinets came out and how they were perfectly square on assembly. All the pieces were cut, then finished, then assembled. It was a bit of a lego process, but I've been monkeying around with pre-finishing parts lately, rather than trying to get color into every nook and cranny. I was pretty happy with the process except for one thing that threw me off. I didn't get to see it assembled until it was totally done. There was no dry fit process, and I sort of missed looking at the progress of the components, assembling the components, then finishing.

As for the polyshades, I just put on a coat before the family woke up in the morning, then another after everyone went to bed. All coats were wiped on with a tiny wisp of a breath of a sanding between because I was having so much trouble with it. I did this for 3 days. It's finished with wiped on satin poly. So it was a day of cutting, three days of finishing, a day of assembly and doors, and three hours to install it. The three hours was comprised of using cabinet hardware to fasten all the pieces to their neighbor, then fasten the entire thing to the wall. It's secured to the wall because it's in an office and I couln't risk some rogue rugrat climbing it and potentially pulling it over. Unlikely, but now impossible.

It was a fun project.

Tom
 
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