mdoan's Blog at LumberJocks.com

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #12: Time to make a router table

mdoan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:28:57 GMT

Had to take a timeout to make this router table extension. It’s a torsion box design with router lift and fence.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #11: 3 drawers ready to go

mdoan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:13:18 GMT

Three drawers made. Dovetails cut for the face and back using the porter cable dovetail jig. I hadn’t intended to dovetail the back but it was good practice.

The face is 3/4” black walnut, sides are 1/2” quarter sawn red oak, and the drawer bottom is a the same 3/4” quartersawn red oak that I resawed on the bandsaw and then sanded to 1/4” on the drum sander.

A new experience on this entry was Carter bearing guides for the bandsaw. Resawing was very accurate and smooth enough to make 1/16 veneers finished under the drum sander (for a later project). Resawing stock is much more efficient use of wood than jointing/planing.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #10: Base with Horse hoof legs

mdoan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:34:11 GMT

It took me a weekend to make the leg stock. I mortised the legs and cut integral tenons for the rails. This was the first time I’ve made integral tenons (used the festool domino on the first project). The mortises were machined with a bench mortiser. Pretty straight forward to setup and operate. I cut the tenons on the tablesaw with a tenon jig.

The next weekend I formed the horse hoof feet and cut the arch in the front rail. I used the Rigid bench top RO drum/belt sander to form the feet. It worked like a charm. Sweet machine.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #9: Grooves for the door slide hardware

mdoan — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:37:14 GMT

I removed the top and middle panels to cut grooves for the door slide hardware. The grooves are 7mm wide by 9mm deep. I cut the grooves 7/16” from the edge with a 1” seperation.

The pictures show details of the groove, hardware for the doors, and the track insert. The hardware is 2 upper and 2 lower, 35mm euro-hinge style, inserts. The upper hardware have an adjustable tab while the lower hardware have an adjustable tab+roller. All pieces are made of plastic so we’ll see how well they stand up in use. I haven’t pushed the track insert all the way in. It has ridges running the length of the track which grip the sides of the groove very tightly.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #8: Sliding doors

mdoan — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:31:58 GMT

Here are the two sliding door frames with dominos cut in and assembled for the dry fit. I’ve placed them in the case behind the face frame to make sure that they do actually fit in there. Tomorrow I’ll glue everthing up and then cut the tracks in the top and bottom case pieces for the door slide hardware. The clamps are there so the frames don’t decide to fall forward and scratch 2 nights worth of sanding.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #7: Face frame dry fit

mdoan — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:24:59 GMT

I used domino loose tenon joinery to form the face frame. This is the dry fit to check that all is square with the middle and bottome rails in the proper position for the drawer opening. Looks good. I’ll add solid edge bands to the shelves. Once their square, I’ll go back and measure the two vertical face frame pieces for the drawer dividers.

I’ll glue and clamp it up tomorrow when construct the doors.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #6: Glue up the top

mdoan — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:46:18 GMT

The top pieces have been chosen and in the clamps for glue-up as we speak. The domino tenons helped keep everything aligned and flat for the clamping. I cleaned up the squeeze out and will let it set while i work on the face frame and doors.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #5: Pieces for the top piece

mdoan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:52:09 GMT

Here are the pieces i milled up for the top. I tried to go light on the jointer/planar because i need the top to be as thick as possible. I think I ended up with all pieces being 7/8”.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #4: Milled stock square 4 sides

mdoan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:47:31 GMT

Here’s all the stock milled s4s, marked, and semi-stickered ready for ripping and cutting to length. I read somewhere to let milled wood rest couple days before working it.

Stickered and weighted.

Bookcase with Sliding Doors #3: Building the case

mdoan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:36:51 GMT

I marked layout lines for the dadoes. The plans suggested cutting the dadoes for the sides and middle sections BEFORE ripping the pieces apart… this made sense in theory but was a chore to do because I had to offset the router from the marked line using a straight edge. So I measured out 2” from the line and made the first cut, then moved the fence 1/4” inward to make the final dado cut.

I think I’ll invest some thinking into making a dado jig and using a pattern bit instead. There’s a good example in later pages of the same American Woodworker #130 issue which I didn’t think I would need… oh well, now I’ve learn one way NOT to cut dadoes using a router.

Here are some shots of the process and the dry fit case:

Marking layout lines for routing

I ripped then routed for the bottom and middle sections... don't remember why... but it turned out well.

The pieces dry fitted together.. all nice and square... thank goodness.

Now onto the hardwood sections.