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Craftsman Open Panel Shelf

6K views 16 replies 8 participants last post by  depictureboy 
#1 ·
Money is tight - Anniversary Present for the Wife

Well with the help of several people in the forum I have figured out how to make a really cool shelving system for my wife. We have a bare wall in our living room that is just screaming for something cool…so using a catalog that I get ideas from I decided I am going to try and build this:



The hard part about this was the 'free floating shelves'. This is where all the great LJ people come in to really help….using their thoughts and some late night magnifying glasses…I came up with how I think they did this…




I figured that once the shelves are in the notches, I can use keyholes from the back to really secure them to the frame. I havent figured out how to do the mullions yet, but I will. And I havent decided whether Iam gong to try and put a mirror in the panel or leave them open.

I have changed some of the design elements. To try and add some more support to the shelves. So I added a dado along the front to help suport the shelves a little bit more…but not a whole lot as its only about 1/4 inch deep.

 
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#2 ·
yup, thats how I think the original design was setup as… and should have plenty of holding strength for small/lighter items (lighter than books that is…but still heavier then feathers)

looks great! and a great idea for a present - something to look at and think of you every time she goes by it ;) keep us posted on progress… would love to see the result.
 
#4 ·
Heh thanks MsDebbieP…according to sketchup its only about 15 bdft of lumber, so depending on the final wood and wastage it could only be around 30-50 dollars to make….the magazine charges $200 for the shelf…
 
#8 ·
Partridge,
It looks like they were using oak, so I was going to go for oak or ash…I need a light wood because of where its going to be…all the furniture in there is like a honey oak color…do you think that would work?
 
#11 ·
I really like the design of these shelves. I have a lot of photos hanging on the wall going up the stairs to the second floor. With some modification and careful design these shelves could be used on that wall. I would break the shelves into three sections and raise up the second set of shelves so that the bottom shelf of the second section aligned with the middle shelf of the first section and the bottom shelf of the third section aligned with the middle shelf of the second section. (Stairstep concept) Of course, the shelves would have to be fairly narrow.

Thanks for posting.
 
#14 ·
Gathering the pieces

Well I have started on this project over the weekend. I have a friend who is a furniture craftsman as well as primitive flooring installer. Since I keep my eye out for him on craigslist for wood deals, he gave me 25 board feet of QS white oak that he has been air-drying for 2 years. I took them up to a local dealer to have them planed and jointed, and let me tell you what, they turned out beautifully. Even the owner commented on how beautiful the figuring from the rays are. It was definately a task trying to figure out which pieces to use for my shelves so that I could use the prettiest pieces for the stiles and rails..

Anyway I have all my pieces cut out to width, I wll be working on cutting the stiles to length tonite hopefully. After that I have to cut the dadoes in the sides, I am not sure if I am going to dado the front or not. I am afraid that it may be beyond my skill at the moment to get both the side dado and front dado lined up perfectly. We shall see.

I also dropped out the mullions. It may make the shelves a bit planer, but I am thinking about going ahead and rabbeting the inside to accept mirrors, since the whole frame is attached to the wall and not simply on hooks. I havent really decided which way to go on this. I could still rabbet the inside and use that for the mullions too, but I just think the mirrors will make it nicer.
 
#15 ·
Well good luck. If you want to come over we can talk about what you are proposing, so you don't have to make a decision,"I don't know if I can do that!" We could probably get it done.
 
#16 ·
My day off.

Well last week I was on-call at work and it was a hell week. So I got to take a full day off as a comp day. YAY!!

So I have the stiles and rails cut as well as the shelves(though they aren't cut to finished length yet.)

Today I focused on notching the stiles as needed and constructing the frames. Having gone through this process now, I have some thoughts to share with those who may be interested in trying this out themselves.

1. Lay out your stiles and rails and figure out which pieces go where. Then in order to insure accurate cutting during the gang operation, mark the fronts with chalk(I used 'F'). BUT dont gang them front to back along the frames. Take each frame individually and place the backs together. Do this for each frame, then slide all the pieces together into your gang. I didnt do this and getting the centers grooved was a pain. Doing it this way insures that the groves across pieces will match propertly along the whole length of the design.

2. When you are doing the halflaps for the stiles, PAY ATTENTION TO THE FACE. I wasnt doing this and almost had a disaster. Needless to say I have one frame whose rails are longer on the front than the others(imagine turning the frame back to the front). It wasnt until the last 2 stiles that I realized what I was doing.

Cutting the groves in the shelves I think is going to be the hardest. I have the pattern measured out on one shelf, but I realized that some of the receiving grooves are about 1/16" off. So I will have to sneak up on my grooves.

I worked a little bit on figuring out my finishing. At the moment I am going to sand to 220 grit, then apply a pre-staining sealer, over that I am going to put a coat of Boiled Linseed oil, then at least 2 coats of poly. I was originally going to go with BLO only, but my test piece was way dark and kind of splotchy. When I used the PSS, the blotches went away and th color wasnt as brown.

Let me know what you think.
 
#17 ·
One Shelf Down - Two to Go

Last night I worked on my first shelf. Let me tell you I was very nervous. First thing I did was working with some scap. I got it worked out so that I had a test piece that had the correct nosing depth and thickness to test my frame notches.

When I first created the notches on the frames, I went ahead and made them a little bit smaller than 3/4. I did this because I really want a tight fit between the frames and the shelves. So with my notch tester in hand I checked each notch and then sanded it down to the correct thickness. to do this I used a scrap of wood that was about 1/8 inch smaller than the notch, and wrapped it with sandpaper. This actually worked pretty well, and was a lot better than using a file I was originally working with. My only concern is to make sure the mating surfaces are not too tight to account for some wood movement. I may actually open up the nosing on the shelves just a bit so that if the frames expand it will be ok. But only a 1/16 or so on each side.

My initial fears about the solidness of the shelves in the notches was unfounded. Once the shelf was in the notches and tapped into place with a mallet the shelf was rock solid and took quite a bit of weight before flexing. So I am happy about that. My only dissappointment is in the look of the cutouts from the dado blade, but I think once everything is sanded it will be good. I just bought a cheap Mibro dado from lowes, and of course some of it could be my technique. It didnt chipout or anything, but the bottom is rough and needs a lot of sanding.

My main computer has been down and will be down for a while, but I will try and get some pictures interspersed through here for you guys to see.
 
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