I designed this keeping in mind possibly minimal access to power tools and what is generally available at the BORG and B-Cubed stores (private pejoratives for the big orange and blue box stores . . . resistance is futile). If you are not so limited, you can probably really go to town on this; it should be much easier and faster.

Now for the interesting parts. If my imagination is working properly, the necessary tools should be (keeping in mind that these are only suggestions; if you have such outré technology as router tables and chop saws, you will, of course, make appropriate adjustments – my shop is my eighth-floor balcony, so I am somewhat limited):

Power Tools (based on what I have; you may have something better):

Circular saw with plywood and regular blades
Saber saw
Router with three-quarter and one-quarter inch bits
Finishing sander

Hand Tools (ditto):

One-quarter inch, three-eighths inch, three-quarter inch, and one-and-a-half-inch SHARP chisels
Japanese-style pull saw, fine “crosscut” teeth, or a dovetail saw (of course, if you have a dovetail jig, you can skip this)
Coping saw
Adjustable miter saw (I just can’t get those boxes to work accurately; getting the adjustable saw has really paid off, although it takes up too much space)
Screwdriver (probably Phillips head; depends on what you have or can get for screws; I find using the screwhead attachment on my power drill just doesn’t do it for me, I keep stripping heads, threads, and everything else to pieces.)
Hand drill and bits for screw lead holes
Jack knife
“J roller” (this is used for laminating. After going to all the hardware stores in the DC area and being reassured over and over again they didn’t have them, I found one in Lancaster, PA, while visiting my aunt. Then I found a whole raft of them in every store I had asked down here; they just didn’t know what the heck they were. They had them in their kitchen remodeling departments, not in with the tools or even with the contact cement)
T-square
Pencils
Something to bend, like a piece of cheap beading or old band saw blade to get a good, regular curve, should be at least six feet long
Heavy twine or string
Four or six 96-inch 2×4s (if you need them to rest a sheet of plywood on for cutting)
Lots of pipe clamps, bar clamps, and c-clamps
Goggles
Earmuffs
Dust mask
Plastic gloves

Jigs (if you need them; I don’t have space for tables):

Circular saw, router

Supplies

Contact cement
Polyurethane glue
Wood glue
White glue
(Sticky wicket, what?)
Three-quarter inch No. 6 wood screws (I haven’t figured out how many yet)
Half-inch No. 4 wood screws (ditto)
Two “arts and crafts” drawer pulls
Ebony stain (I’ve had good results with Minwax)
Red Oak stain (ditto)
Rags for applying stain (one operation as opposed to using a brush and wiping it off)
Pre-stain conditioner
Wood filler
Disposable foam brushes
Polyurethane varnish (I prefer satin or whatever they call their non-gloss)
Sandpaper, coarse and fine (both for the finishing sander and for sanding blocks)
Cotton swabs (very handy for touching up stained areas)

I think that’s everything I envision using. Watch me be wrong.

The WOOD (finally!) I think I worked this out pretty close:

One 4×8 half-inch (or close) plywood. One side MUST be good, the other will be covered with a plywood laminate of:

One 4×8 quarter-inch hardwood plywood, may be lauan (Philippine mahogany), but anything that takes stain well should be fine.

Both the half-inch and the quarter-inch plywood can be slightly short of the full half- and quarter-inches. I developed my technique (which somebody else probably figured out ages ago) to take into account the fact that most of what I could find was not exact, or even in the neighborhood.

Three-eighth-inch SQUARE hardwood dowels, probably no more than 36 inches, if that.

Three-quarter-inch SQUARE hardwood dowel (for drawer runner, so you can substitute your preferred system, with adjustments)

Two 96-inch finished 1×6s, wood of your choice. I’ve had some really good luck with radiate pine from New Zealand, which is sold as “select pine” in the BORG and B-Cube. Poplar should probably do well also. Since the plan calls for staining, I don’t want to “waste” white or red oak or some more expensive wood.

One 96-inch finished 1×4, same wood as above.

One 48-inch finished 1×3, same wood as above.

Four (this is a guestimate) 96-inch 1×2s, same wood as above. I use a lot of these, so I sometimes get a little vague about how much to get as I try to keep them in stock.

Again, I think that’s everything. The first of the two weird techniques I’ve worked out to accommodate what’s available, my skill level, and equipment and space restrictions involves “painting” the good side of the half-inch plywood with heavily-diluted wood filler, sanding with the finishing sander between coats, then staining BEFORE assembly, but after shaping. The second is to cut out half-inch plywood for (say) a shelf, making it three-quarter inch smaller on both sides and the front. I then laminate quarter-inch hardwood plywood of the same size onto this. When set and cured, I router a three-quarter-inch wide, three-eighth-inch deep “lip” around the sides and front, then stain the hardwood (I’ve already stained the half-inch plywood, being careful to keep the good side on the underside of the shelf) ebony or some dark color. I then router a three-quarter-inch wide, three-eighths-inch deep rabbet in some finished 1×2 stock, miter it to fit the lipped shelf leaving a three-quarter-inch overhang, sand it, stain it (usually red oak), then glue ‘n screw the rim pieces to the shelf, covering the screw holes with “ebony” plugs made from three-eighths-inch square dowels. Attaching a top with this technique is similar, except you stain the underside of the half-inch plywood, then screw it to the top of whatever you’re making, then laminate the quarter-inch plywood, stain it, router it, and attach the rim.

Laminating only sounds scary. It’s actually pretty easy. Just do it outside whenever possible.

It sounds tedious, I suppose, but so far the results seem to have been worth it. I haven’t used it on a bookcase shelf yet, or for the carcass, but I’ve had some good results with tables.

This is a “dry run” to see if I can make the entry properly for the bookcase competition. The photograph (carefully selected, of course) is the Great Day when the throne was turned over to His Majesty, Joseph I, Emperor of Courland. Let’s see how well this works, or if I have to go through the tutorial again.

Oh, crud. NOW I get it. Let’s try again.

I will be sworn-hoggled. It worked. Now if I can just get my hand-drawn picture of the bookcase I designed into JPG, I should be okay.