would this work?

I like the form you’ve got here. Some thoughts on joinery and design:

For knickknacks, etc., it’s probably good enough regardess of joinery. If you want real strength, consider finger joints, or miters with floating L-shaped tenons. The latter requires either a router jig or a horizontal mortiser, but can make beautiful miters that are stronger (and easier) than secret mitered dovetails.

Random design idea – if you were to take the top of the middle section and make it “whole” instead of 2 pieces, you could run another pair of the vertical supports, and probably add a good deal of strength to the whole thing. Or you could do an X there or something else if you wanted to get a little wilder with your design.

Another thought, assuming this is floor standing – if you intend for it to be flush up against a wall, you need to make sure that the intended wall has no floor trim moulding (is that what it’s called?), or implement some sort of offset to account for it. Otherwise your back will be floating, and probably look quite different from what you intend.

Also, does 25 mean something particular? Because sometimes I look and that’s what I see :)

I see the 25 now, too.

-- Here I post the good, for the rest has become firewood.

hah, no i never thought of “25” and it sure doesnt mean a thing!

anyway, thanks for the comments, ben. I’m not sure exactly what you mean about the floating L shaped tenon – that is, i cant really see how that would be stronger than a simple splined miter. one leg of the L would have to be very weak, whereas the spline would be all cross-grained. anyway, i think i’d go for finger joints or dovetails for aesthetic reasons.

i think your idea of joining the top of the middle section is good (i tried to do it in sketchup just now, but ruined something else in the process, oh well). even without more vertical supports, it’d be much stronger that way.

also, good point about the flush mounting – i didn’t think of that at all, and yeah, it would make a difference. Maybe I’ll have the vertical supports protrude a 1/2” or so, with something to compensate for the small baseboard at the bottom.

thanks again!

Even though you’re sticking with finger/dovetail joints for aesthetics, I thought I should clarify one thing, in case you use it in the future:

The “L” tenon is usually made of plywood (baltic birch if available), stacked up into a long length of plies, then cut into L’s, or can be of your own tiny finger joint making. This gives you the strength of a good finger joint with the look of a miter.

These are the cutoffs from a batch of L tenons I recently used in a mitered case.

-b

wow, that’s really cool ben. i havent come across that anywhere yet, and it seems so easy to do. i think i will definitely be using these in the future. thanks!

You might also check out a kehoe jig

I’ve seen one of the chairs at a woodworking show and they do support the weight.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

also a good idea that I hadnt considered or even heard of before. thanks karson!