Oak Bookcase

There’s always a story. My older brother was moving from his apartment with his family and his landlord asked him if he wanted to take along some “scrap” lumber that was in the basement. He took it and brought it to my Dad to burn or use as he saw fit. My Dad was not going to burn it after examining it, No Way! It was all White and Red Oak glue ups, apparently leftovers from someone’s handiwork, between 29” and 32” long, just under 6” wide, and mostly 3/4” thick. About a 100 of them. And there they sat. And sat. Awaiting some usefulness.
A few years passed, and my older brother called me and asked me if I could “knock him together” some kind of bookcase or shelving type of thing. I immediately thought of that pile of Oak (We all know how we sort of “Flag” caches of material like that!). My brother wanted it to be taller than these pieces would allow, so right from the outset I decided to make two and make them stackable. By the same line of reasoning, I wanted to make them deeper than 6”, so I made two shelf systems and “Keyed” them with horizontals, held together with pinned, through mortices.
My only regret, was that when I called my brother over to come and see them for the first time, I didn’t have a camera ready! I had put a bedsheet over the whole thing and done a regular unveiling, and I wish I could have captured the look on his face…..priceless!

-- Mike in Manchester, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.