Pine Bookcase

My first paying project (woodworking) was a pine bunk bed. It turned out blotchy, so I took it apart and ran it through the planer, bought some pre-stain and redid it. Turned out much better and taught me a lesson.

Looks like a very good b”build”.

-- jstegall

Todd,
Nice work. I interpret your post to suggest you’re asking for tips staining pine, so here goes.
I used to work with pine much more than I do these days but still use pine for certain projects.
First off, there are many varieties and grades of pine. From the generic `White woods’ sold by BORGs such as HD and Lowe’s—which could be anything—and are real soft to the real nice pines such as Heart pine, southern yellow pine (often longleaf or loblolly pine), Caribbean pine, and numerous others.
The white woods are almost always best painted.
Any pine that’s going to be stained is best washcoated first with a sealcoat of dewaxed Shellac.
It’s actually very easy to do that [However—note the BIG Caveat here] IF you mix your own shellac.
And, as it turns out, that’s also very easy to do. Order DeWaxed Shellac Flakes from Shellac.net, and to those flakes add the appropriate amount of Denatured Alcohol. There will be a formula to achieve a 1.5# cut and that’s what you’re after. Make a pad for applying the shellac and wipe it on. You don’t need a fine finish at this point. Just a nice, rather smooth seal coat to prevent splotching when you apply the stain.
Hope that’s useful to you.
Cheers,
Gary

-- Gary, Florida

Very nice design for a bookcase with plenty of storage space.
Sharad

-- patanjali

Ditto on what Gary said. Another treatment for pine that works well is milk paints, which you can topcoat with any poly. Really opens up a whole new color scheme, and are easy to use. I would still washcoat with the dewaxed shellac first. Nice bookcase by the way!

-- Rich in Richmond

Very nice job looks Great

-- Jim, Kentucky

Just out of curiosity, why did you inset carcasses holding the boards in the back rather than just setting the boards into uprights and shelves?

-- Derek, Bremerton WA --

Thanks for your helpful information….very helpful as I’m am new to woodworking, having a hard time not “building with 16 penny nails” as I do in the remodeling part of my life…....Gary/PetVet, you are right I’m looking for helpful information like you shared to make me a woodworker not a builder….thanks for the information I will put it to good use..Derek..I took the picture she gave me from the Crate & Barrel Magazine and copied the design as they had it, only made it bigger to fit the space she wanted to fill…..didn’t think about it just copied what they had but added the smaller shelves for her CD’s
Thanks for your help

-- Todd, Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †

Gel stain and pine work real well together. Try it on a piece of scrap and I don’t think you will be disapointed.

-- Jim, SE PA

Good job on the bookcase, I really like the proportions. The smaller CD shelves that you added do a great job of breaking up the piece and making it more interesting.

-- Blair

Waterborn dyes can turn out nice too, even color. Can buy these at woodcraft. I like the dark mission brown, and medium brown, but they have all different colors. The difference in light and dark grain gets muddied, instead of stark contrast. Nice work, all the same.

-- Search out the Kavanah in occupation, acheive peace in life.

I could give a view pointers to staining if you like, actually any type of spray finish too which it looks like you may be heading towards. Just shoot me a message. I do very similar work all year long and have gained some insight on efficient finishing techniques.

This is a great looking bookcase. Thanks for sharing all of your projects. All of them are very nice!

-- Brad, Oregon- Wood, it's what's for dinner.

Been building anything else lately?
It’s been a while… :-)
Oh and the unit looks good too. How did that turn out?

-- "Even small steps makes a distance." (Shawn Phillips, musician)

notottman it turned out nice, not great but the client thought it was “wonderful” I’ve got a couple more items mantels and some built in units I’ll have to get up…..I’ve been very busy working and building a house for the wife and I see the blog at the homerefurbers site
http://homerefurbers.com/members/TThomas/blog/196

will try to post something new soon….......

-- Todd, Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †