Red Oak Bookcase

Completed red oak bookcase. Top and sides are solid oak, while the shelves themselves are 3/4” oak ply. Joinery is dado’es and rabbets. This was a fun and useful project. Got to use my Christmas rouetr to plunge dado’es in the middle of an oak board and for stopped dado’es on the top. I did’nt realize I could stop the dado close to the end until after I had cut the middle ones full width so I got out my Festool saw and ripped off some 3/4” x 3/4” stock to make some square plugs for the dado visible on the front, dont know if you can see them or not. Finished with 4 coats of pure tung oil and some steel wooling. Solid oak faces for the vertical dividers to hide the ply. Happy with the result and valuable lessons learned. I also had enough wood leftover to make a matching end table for the same room. Total cost for materials is around $80. What fun!!!!

Lessons learned on this project:

1. 3/4” plywood isnt actually 3/4”, which prompted me to buy a set of CMT undersized straight bits for dado’s in plywood. Good buy by BTW.

2. Homemade squaring braces are such a cheap and valuable tool.

3. Router speed control on a large rounding over bit is crucial to avoid tearout and burn marks on hardwood. If it’s over 1/2” turn the speed down.

Thanks for looking.

-- --Now we are surrounded sir. "Excellent private, now we can attack in any direction."