Cherry bookcase

hey i see my table saw in that pic. so your the one that i lent it to wonder lumber nice to great price!!!!!!!!!!

-- gagewestern

That’s the same price I get it for. Nice buy. Now what are you going to build?

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

A very tall bookcase. 7 shelves that will be dovetailed into the side with a blind dado behind. And it will have a frame and panel back. NO plywood in it. My customer is tired of cheapy store furniture. The final dimensions are 91×24x 12 deep.

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

BTw that was my first table saw and i hate it b/c the odd sized miter slots. thanks for the comments.

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

Alright 21 hours in and making good progress. The case sides are sized and have the rabbets for the solid back cut in them. The shelves are nearing completion. I have the dovetails cut on them.

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

Nice wood and good progress

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

Trying to get the color right! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

this is a sample with a shellac washcoat and general finishes gel stain Dark walnut in front of a sample of raw cherry. It’s crazy it doesn’t turn it that super dark brown of the gel stain! I guess that is the beauty of glazing.

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

Im still not happy with the color. Well not the color it is the clarity that i have the problem with. My new recipe is 1:1 dark walnut danish oil and boiled linseed oil. I like how the pores don’t fill up with that blackish brown color. The large board is the new recipe and the small one is from the last post.



I am trying to get a nice brown with nice clarity too.

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

Finished but not “finished”!

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy

Well the project is almost done. My very critically eyed wife came in the shop to see it and said it looked good. Then she saw the screws in the underside of the top and immediatly said to plug those so that is what i did today. I got a coat of BLO on it and let it dry and now I am waiting for the Watco wipe on poly to dry for the recommended 4 hours. So here i type. I am so happy with this project and the time it took me to complete it. I learned so much about new types of joinery that I had previously never tried. The dovetailed side were a complete adventure. I wanted the look of the dovetail and the strength but not the difficulty. I decided to make a hybrid sliding dovetail side and dado joint. I was inspired by the way I saw a chest of drawers made. The drawer blade was dovetailed into the side and the drawer runner was dadoed into the case side. The runner was only glued at the first 3 inches or so to allow for seasonal movement. I thought i could apply it to the bookshelf with not too much difficulty. I think it was a good method because of the mechanical strength and the ease of installation. My customer who keeps an eye on this blog wondered why I didn’t make the dovetail go the whole way through. My answer to him was that I wanted the joinery on the sides to be very distinct and if I made a dovetail at a half inch into the side it would only leave a 1/4 inch of material on the side. Not very safe huh?
I think this project has been very successful. The back is 5/8 inch to not take up too much room on the shelves. It has the same profile on the back as it does the bottom molding and the top profile. I think it lends to a homogenus design. I was going to make the top a flat panel but as soon as I held it up to the case I knew it needed the same cove profile. Thanks for reading. Skeeter

-- My philosophy: Somewhere between Norm and Roy