# Greene & Greene Magazine Rack - my "own" design



## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Basic design layout*

My wife has some books, magazines and a few other things she uses often and they tend to sit on the table or off to the side of where she normally sits to read. She asked me to build her a magazine stand in a similar style to the Aurora night stand I recently finished.

So I took up the challenge to do something in a similar style which would have obvious visual ties to the Aurora table, but not a copy. I spent some time looking through my reference books and gathering my ideas. Then I did a few rough pencil sketches until came up with one that started to look about right. Then I moved to Sketchup and did a layout to really get a feel for the proportions and how the different design elements flowed together.

The basic proportion is based on a specific book with hard sided storage sleeve she wants to keep on the bottom shelf. The book with the sleeve is 15" wide and 11 inches deep. so that set the basic parameters that the shelves would be 16" wide and 12 inches deep. So adding 2" legs gave me a base width of 20" and going with a bit of golden mean, that put the height at about 32.5 inches. I fudged a bit and went to 32 7/8" high so the actual carcass could be 32 and adding the top would keep it close. Then I decided to breadboard the top, so adding a bit on both sides and then the breadboards, and the top is 26.5".

Having the basic size roughed out, I then proceeded to the design elements I wanted to incorporate. I gathered much of my inspiration from the Tichenor dresser, drawing the side panel layout and cloud lift elements from there. I originally thought to do the legs with a waterfall like the Aurora table as one of the unifying elements, but due to the relatively short leg exposed beneath the front rail, I changed my mind and decided to go with the tapered leg indent (Gamble house table?).

Though the shelves won't carry significant weight, I wanted to try my hand at the lofted design used in some of the G&G bookcases where the shelf is thick at the back and then has a sort of lift pattern cut into it so the front face of the shelf is thinner, looking lighter overall.

The last thing was the top and here I decided on using the same basic layout and style of the Aurora table top, so in addition to the breadboards, I also added ebony accents on the sides and front/back. I have not yet decided whether to add some small ebony plugs on the legs at the rails, but I may still do so.

After getting that all laid out in sketchup I'm pretty happy with it. The proportions are reasonably harmonious and the overall look is attractive I think. Most importantly, it got the OSSoA (Official Spousal Seal of Approval), so I'll let it stew a bit and then get started. The drawings below show the current state of things.

I'd appreciate any comments on the design and input on the joinery, assembly techniques. At the moment, the leg indents are definitely overstated in the current drawing with a 1/4" indent, but I'm already thinking I'll soften them a bit by using less indent and then extend them vertically another inch or so.

For construction, I'll go with mortise and tenon for the rail to leg joints. For the back and side panels, I'm still deciding on whether to use Mahogany ply or go with a ship-lapped back and then glued up panels for the sides. The latter is definitely more period, but ply would be soo easy.

Appreciate any comments.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Basic design layout*
> 
> My wife has some books, magazines and a few other things she uses often and they tend to sit on the table or off to the side of where she normally sits to read. She asked me to build her a magazine stand in a similar style to the Aurora night stand I recently finished.
> 
> ...


I really like the design. So if I catch your drift, your going to build it out of Mahogany? You mentioned Mahogany plywood. Sounds like it should be really beautiful.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Basic design layout*
> 
> My wife has some books, magazines and a few other things she uses often and they tend to sit on the table or off to the side of where she normally sits to read. She asked me to build her a magazine stand in a similar style to the Aurora night stand I recently finished.
> 
> ...


I like the overall design. I feel like the cloud lifts on the side panels seem like there are too many lifts in a short length. If it were me, I would simplify the sides somehow. Either make the top rail straight and the bottom rail as pictured… or perhaps less cloud lifts on both. If you are trying to match existing furniture, by all means stick with your design.

As far as plywood vs. solid, I am always happier when I use solid wood sides and back. If you need to buy 2 sheets of mahogany plywood, say 1/2" for the sides, and 1/4" for the back it may actually be cheaper to use hardwood.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Basic design layout*
> 
> My wife has some books, magazines and a few other things she uses often and they tend to sit on the table or off to the side of where she normally sits to read. She asked me to build her a magazine stand in a similar style to the Aurora night stand I recently finished.
> 
> ...


Hi Mike,

I really like the design and the G&G elements you have chosen. I agree with Willie on the number of cloud lifts on the sides. The concept is sound, but the number of lifts make it look a little busy for the length. Or use a simpler arched cloud lift like on your nightstand.

My other comment is the thickness of the top front rail seems a little thin. The side rails look better, maybe match that thickness on the front and back.

As far as the back, maybe you could add a center divider like on the sides. This could be done with two 7" wide boards and lets you match the side panels better. I'm not sure what the grain pattern on Mahogany plywood looks like. Will it match the rest of the solid wood?

My $0.02, you asked.

Either way it will be a fine looking piece. I look forward to following along.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Basic design layout*
> 
> My wife has some books, magazines and a few other things she uses often and they tend to sit on the table or off to the side of where she normally sits to read. She asked me to build her a magazine stand in a similar style to the Aurora night stand I recently finished.
> 
> ...


Well I forgot to actually say, but yes it will be Mahogany.

I know what you guys mean about the cloud lifts on the side. There is just too much lift and not enough cloud. I did new lower rail with a wider set to the lifts. I think its better and more proportional. More cloud lift and less step pyramid.

I left my other machine at the office, so I can't insert it into the model at the moment, but here is a shot of the redesigned lift. I'll later the upper rail to match the top of the lower rail.










The front upper rail may be too thin. But I sort of like the delicate look of it. On the other hand, I also think the front upper rail should be visible under the lip of the top from a fairly close distance. So if you're standing 2 or 3 feet from the piece and looking down, I sort of feel like the upper rail should be visible. So I may have to make a mockup out of cardboard and see what I think.

For the back and sides, I think I've settled on solid wood. I'll make a small rail for the top and bottom with a rabbit in both to mount the shiplapped back pieces to fit into. for the side, I'm thinking to make the center divider basically a stile with two panels more of less floating in dados all the way around.


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## htl (Mar 24, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Basic design layout*
> 
> My wife has some books, magazines and a few other things she uses often and they tend to sit on the table or off to the side of where she normally sits to read. She asked me to build her a magazine stand in a similar style to the Aurora night stand I recently finished.
> 
> ...


I love the style and will be watching this build.
Great start to a fine finish.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Tweaking the side panels for better flow*

So taking the input from the first post, I went back and looked at the piece again. This is where I really like sketchup as a design tool. Being able to rotate and spin the piece let's you get a real feel for the flow from the sides to the front, etc that you wouldn't get with a more traditional 2D layout approach.

So I spent some time looking at the rack with eye level being about the middle of the piece, trying to see how I felt about the flow from side to front and then again with eye level set about 3 feet above the piece to see how a person would see it if they were standing next to it.

When you take this approach, the comments from guys in the first post really start top make a lot of sense. So I did several things, all basically intended to smooth the flow from the sides to the front in the oblique view. First was to narrow the lower rail on the sides to 2 1/2" to match the height of the rail on the front. The second thing was to widen the cloud lifts on the lower rail and the matching lift on the upper rail to something more pleasing to the eye. The third thing was to increase the thickness of the front upper rail by 1/2" to match the top side rail thickness. Now the lines of the rails flow around the piece all at even levels. Just a more harmonious look.

The next step will be starting to flesh out the joinery. Which if you're using Sketchup and going for mortise and tenon, creating these in sketchup is a very straightforward process which I'll do an example in the next post.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Tweaking the side panels for better flow*
> 
> So taking the input from the first post, I went back and looked at the piece again. This is where I really like sketchup as a design tool. Being able to rotate and spin the piece let's you get a real feel for the flow from the sides to the front, etc that you wouldn't get with a more traditional 2D layout approach.
> 
> ...


Hi Mike,

I think you have nailed it. It will be fun to watch this piece come to life.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Adding joinery to the Sketchup model*

For design purposes where I often draw components and then remove them, I usually take the easy route and draw things as overlays rather than as a real part. But at some point you have to actually build something and that takes some type of joinery. I'm still an amateur, but I'm slowly learning. Doing the joinery in sketchup helps me see how things could fit together. So here is an example of how I do it (which I'm certain is not the easiest way).



















When I start thinking about joinery, I start by thinking about the materials I'm going to use. For this design, I originally considered using plywood for the sides and back. In this case, the joinery for the sides would be easier as I could simply extend the plywood panel to the sides by ½" on either side and then move on to drawing the dados on the legs. 
But since I want to use hardwood panels on the sides, then I need some more complex joinery and having a solid top and bottom rail is the first place to start. So the first thing I'll do is move the original side panel out of the way. Note I'm not simply going to delete it as I'll use it later as the base object for the two solid wood panels.










Once I've got the panel out of the way, I'll start by making the top rail the full thickness of the stock I'll use. I plan to use ¾" stock, so I'll edit the top rail and pull the back until the whole thing is ¾" thick.










The next step is to go ahead and add guide lines to both sides defining the tenon position, in this case I chose a ¾ tall tenon offset from the front of the rail by ¼". This will also define the bottom of the dado for the panels to sit in.










At this point, you have to make some decisions on how you want to build the part. In my case, I want the cloud lift visible on the outside of the piece, but I don't want it visible from the inside as I think it will be distracting and the curves will stand out compared to more rectangular look of the inside between the shelves, legs, etc. So I know I want the cloud lift on the front, a squared off interior look and a dado for the panels and the panel center divider. This gives me some initial guidance on what I want to do. 
I could have drawn the piece starting with small pieces and building the piece up from smaller sub-pieces until it looked like I wanted. But this is not what you do in reality, you normally start with a big piece and work by removing material, so when I do these modifications to the part, I'm going to always be thinking about how I would execute the removal on the saw. If I can't think of a way to make the cut, then I've probably done something bad with the drawing. 
So at this point, from an actual build perspective, I'm starting with the part at full thickness and the cloud lift on it. In reality, I'll actually start with a square piece of stock and cut all the tenons, dados, etc first, then finish by pattern routing the cloud lift in order to maintain stability on the piece while doing the shaping. 
So back to Sketchup. I want to confine the cloud lift to the front of the rail. On the back of the side rail, draw a line from one guide line to the other even with the tenon bottom guide lines. Then push that new face forward to be even with the guide line on the front of the tenon.



















Now I want to define the back of the dado for the panel to sit in, so I draw a line on the bottom I just exposed from tenon corner to tenon corner. Then I pull that new rectangle down ¼" to form the back of the dado.










Next step is to define the tenon shape on both sides and pull them out to the desired tenon depth (I'm using ½").










So at this point, I've got a top rail with tenons for attachment to the legs and a shallow dado. The dado provides a place to hold the hardwood side panels and a small tenon at the top of the center panel divider. 
From a machining view point, I can now think about exactly how I would make this part. Starting from the ¾" stock cut to length and width, I'd start with the dado and then move to the tenons. The next step would be to pattern route the cloud lift and then make a pass to square off the back of the rail dado, removing the loud lift. 
This is the basics of adding the joinery, from here it's just the same basic process for each piece.



















Continuing on, I also modified the center divider to hold the side panels. And here is the finished side assembled and then as an exploded view.



















One of the other things I like about Sketchup is the 3D warehouse. There are a lot or user submitted models and you can find just about anything you need in terms of hardware. In my case, I drew in the aprons to mount the table top to, but I wanted table top fasteners. A simple search through the 3d Warehouse online produces the fasteners you see in my model.



















So now we have all the joinery done and I've added a small beading detail to the ship lapped back panels. The look is slightly different inside the case, but overall I think everything looks good.


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## Mean_Dean (Oct 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Adding joinery to the Sketchup model*
> 
> For design purposes where I often draw components and then remove them, I usually take the easy route and draw things as overlays rather than as a real part. But at some point you have to actually build something and that takes some type of joinery. I'm still an amateur, but I'm slowly learning. Doing the joinery in sketchup helps me see how things could fit together. So here is an example of how I do it (which I'm certain is not the easiest way).
> 
> ...


Looks like the plans are coming along nicely, Mike!

One thing about the clips securing the top to the carcase: If you're going to use those Z clips to attach the top to the sides, you'll have to make a deeper groove in the upper side rails to allow the top to expand and contract. The way it is in the sketch, it looks as though the clips will hit the rails when the top expands.

(Of course, you may have already thought of this, and I'm not seeing it in the plans!)


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Adding joinery to the Sketchup model*
> 
> For design purposes where I often draw components and then remove them, I usually take the easy route and draw things as overlays rather than as a real part. But at some point you have to actually build something and that takes some type of joinery. I'm still an amateur, but I'm slowly learning. Doing the joinery in sketchup helps me see how things could fit together. So here is an example of how I do it (which I'm certain is not the easiest way).
> 
> ...


Well….. I hadn't thought about it, but the drawing was made just letting the clips snap to the corner of the rails. So the tight position is more accidental than intentional.

But always a good reminder to keep wood movement in mind.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Adding joinery to the Sketchup model*
> 
> For design purposes where I often draw components and then remove them, I usually take the easy route and draw things as overlays rather than as a real part. But at some point you have to actually build something and that takes some type of joinery. I'm still an amateur, but I'm slowly learning. Doing the joinery in sketchup helps me see how things could fit together. So here is an example of how I do it (which I'm certain is not the easiest way).
> 
> ...


Nice design.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Adding joinery to the Sketchup model*
> 
> For design purposes where I often draw components and then remove them, I usually take the easy route and draw things as overlays rather than as a real part. But at some point you have to actually build something and that takes some type of joinery. I'm still an amateur, but I'm slowly learning. Doing the joinery in sketchup helps me see how things could fit together. So here is an example of how I do it (which I'm certain is not the easiest way).
> 
> ...


Looks good. I would opt for figure 8 fasteners over Z clips to attach the top. They are more secure and still allow wood movement.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Stock choice and starting prep - discovered Peruvian Alder*

So I went to my local favorite place to get some African Mahogany to start the stock prep for the piece. While I was wandering around (I've never once walked in this place picked up a piece and walked out) I saw a piece of wood with a very striking ribbon grain pattern. It actually looked a bit like the African Mahogany, but more of a brown tone.

Turns out to be Peruvian Alder. Some of the boards have a pronounced ribbon grain with an iridescent sheen to the grain. So I'm thinking this stuff has to be pricey and pull out the sheet to find out it's $3.60/BF for the 4/4. So I make a command decision that I'm using the Peruvian Alder. I pick up enough of the ribbon grain for the panels and back and then some with a more straight grain pattern for some variety.

Get back home with the wood and break the news to the LOML that I didn't get the Afr. Mahogany and she gets a frowny face, but once she sees the grain on the alder it's all smiles again, so I'm in the clear.

Started the stock prep and just figured I'd post a pic of the grain that caught my eye. I did a search for Peruvian Alder (also called Pumaquiro it seems) and didn't find many posts. So either it's more commonly known by another name or just not a very common wood.

Anyway, I'm always excited at this stage of the project. The jointing, planing and rough dimensioning is pleasant repetitive work. The future is all sunshine and bright promise at this point and I'm managing to forget all the actual work to build the piece.


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## Demowen (Feb 5, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Stock choice and starting prep - discovered Peruvian Alder*
> 
> So I went to my local favorite place to get some African Mahogany to start the stock prep for the piece. While I was wandering around (I've never once walked in this place picked up a piece and walked out) I saw a piece of wood with a very striking ribbon grain pattern. It actually looked a bit like the African Mahogany, but more of a brown tone.
> 
> ...


Looks like sapele. Work with it all the time, the stuff is great!


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## Mean_Dean (Oct 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Stock choice and starting prep - discovered Peruvian Alder*
> 
> So I went to my local favorite place to get some African Mahogany to start the stock prep for the piece. While I was wandering around (I've never once walked in this place picked up a piece and walked out) I saw a piece of wood with a very striking ribbon grain pattern. It actually looked a bit like the African Mahogany, but more of a brown tone.
> 
> ...


Yeah, it does look like sapele, but whatever it is, it looks great!


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## htl (Mar 24, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Stock choice and starting prep - discovered Peruvian Alder*
> 
> So I went to my local favorite place to get some African Mahogany to start the stock prep for the piece. While I was wandering around (I've never once walked in this place picked up a piece and walked out) I saw a piece of wood with a very striking ribbon grain pattern. It actually looked a bit like the African Mahogany, but more of a brown tone.
> 
> ...


Some nice purdy wood will make one out standing project I'm thinking can't wait to see the progress.


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## Dark_Lightning (Nov 20, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Stock choice and starting prep - discovered Peruvian Alder*
> 
> So I went to my local favorite place to get some African Mahogany to start the stock prep for the piece. While I was wandering around (I've never once walked in this place picked up a piece and walked out) I saw a piece of wood with a very striking ribbon grain pattern. It actually looked a bit like the African Mahogany, but more of a brown tone.
> 
> ...


Yup, slightly different color from sapele that I am used to, but the figure looks the same. Very nice, and a good price!


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Stock prep done and joinery started*

So I spent most of yersterday morning jointing, planing and cutting. All the stock is now to the correct size. The Peruvian Alder has a pleasant smell when cutting. It's fairly easy to work. The biggest challenge was the planing as the ribbons have a tendency to tear out a bit and on the ends of the board, the tear out actually ends up being a chunk torn out. Though this was typically limited to the last 1/4 of the board which I'm going to cut off anyway.

So after a couple of hours I had a nice pile of jointed and thicknessed stock to use.










Overall the stock prep went smoothly. After planing, I cut everything to width on the saw with the fence and then cut to length using my sled and an offset block on my fence. The only exceptions being the top center pieces and the shelves. Instead of cutting them to final size, I planed and jointed these pieces and then went forward with the glue up instead to form the larger panels. then I'll cut the panels to final size. Often I leave this step until later in a build and I always seem to end up with some flat time as I have to wait for the panel glue ups, or I have to clear off the saw top to make some additional cuts after cleaning up. So starting a bit earlier will let me do the final panel shaping more in line with the other cutting.

On a side note, I know I only used one set of clamps for the shelves, but I took care during the jointing. So I only needed enough clamp pressure to bring them together tightly, so they aren't tightened enough to bow noticeable.










After getting the stock prepped, the first few things I decided to do was to work the back and side panels. Since the back panels will be screwed to a top and bottom rail and the side panels will float in a dado, these are some parts I can set aside until I get to final fitting and finishing.

I cut the shiplap in the back panel and then put a small chamfer on the edge to give it a little visual detail. the chamfer is hard to see in the pics. While it looks good up close, I'm starting to think this may be one of those details I'm the only one will know about as I think it's going to get a bit lost in the final piece.



















After doing the shiplap, I then moved to cutting the dadoes in the side panel center divider and in the top and bottom rails for the side. I did a test fit of the side panels into the center dividers and they are a little snug at the moment, but my plan is to give the side panels a very light sanding on the inside to thin the outside 3/4" of the panels on the back side by about 1/32" so the sit in the dadoes snugly but without binding.










So end of the first real day working on the piece and I've got my stock ready, the wide panels are glued up and I've got a good start on the joinery. The next step will be to switch to the legs and do the joinery work on the legs as I want to have the mortises cut first so I can size down the tenons to be a good fit.


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## htl (Mar 24, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Stock prep done and joinery started*
> 
> So I spent most of yersterday morning jointing, planing and cutting. All the stock is now to the correct size. The Peruvian Alder has a pleasant smell when cutting. It's fairly easy to work. The biggest challenge was the planing as the ribbons have a tendency to tear out a bit and on the ends of the board, the tear out actually ends up being a chunk torn out. Though this was typically limited to the last 1/4 of the board which I'm going to cut off anyway.
> 
> ...


Nicely done and all the little extras will come together to make one project.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Stock prep done and joinery started*
> 
> So I spent most of yersterday morning jointing, planing and cutting. All the stock is now to the correct size. The Peruvian Alder has a pleasant smell when cutting. It's fairly easy to work. The biggest challenge was the planing as the ribbons have a tendency to tear out a bit and on the ends of the board, the tear out actually ends up being a chunk torn out. Though this was typically limited to the last 1/4 of the board which I'm going to cut off anyway.
> 
> ...


Looking nice. The grain on the Alder is cool.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Joinery 90% done and a quick dry fit to get a quick look*

A good day in the shop today, made a lot of progress on the joinery.

I knew I needed to cut some very long slots for the side panels where they go in the legs, so I was thinking about putting together a jig for this. But I needed to run to Woodcraft to pick up a rabbeting bit and while I was there, I saw they have the MPower CRB7 router jig on sale. I don't know it's the best jig out there, but it does offset mortises among other things, so I decided to give it a try.

I rigged it up on my PC690 and cut all the mortises and slots. It worked pretty well and the micro-adjust made it easy to dial in. It's a little finicky to initially setup to get your router mounted, but once setup, I was able to basically move from leg to leg pretty rapidly. I then cleaned up the routed mortises and chopped out the inset mortise for the back rails that the shiplap panels screw to with a chisel and mallet.

After that I marked out all the cloud lifts on the front and side rails. But before moving to the cloud lifts, I went ahead and cut the tenons while the stock still had square edges. I cut the tenons using my dado stack set up for 1/4" width and cut all the tenons just a little oversize. I then cleaned up the tenons using a chisel to get a good fit.

Once the tenons were cut, I moved to the bandsaw and rough cut all the cloud lifts. Then a pass onthe spindle sander to clean things up and I'm more of less ready for finish sanding on the cloud lifts. They aren't perfect, but the differences due to the freehand spindle sanding are not noticeable unless you put the pieces on top of teach other.

So here is a shot with all the rails cut and ready to go.









Then at that point, I decided to wrap it up for the night, but before I did, I did a quick dry fit to get a feel for the whole thing to this point.



















The only thing left to do is do the joinery for the center divider for the side panels. That joinery is a little more complex and requires some careful fitting to make sure everything fits without gaps, so I'm saving that until last. I was getting sort of tired with the heat and all today, so decided to hold off starting to them until I'm fresher.

But overall, I feel I got a bunch done and it's actually starting to look like a piece to furniture now.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Joinery 90% done and a quick dry fit to get a quick look*
> 
> A good day in the shop today, made a lot of progress on the joinery.
> 
> ...


Boy, you're moving fast on this one.


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## htl (Mar 24, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Joinery 90% done and a quick dry fit to get a quick look*
> 
> A good day in the shop today, made a lot of progress on the joinery.
> 
> ...


Going to look a sight when it's done I would think.


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Joinery 90% done and a quick dry fit to get a quick look*
> 
> A good day in the shop today, made a lot of progress on the joinery.
> 
> ...


Very nice piece! I love a good dry fit at the end of the day so I can obsess about it all night…


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## Mean_Dean (Oct 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Joinery 90% done and a quick dry fit to get a quick look*
> 
> A good day in the shop today, made a lot of progress on the joinery.
> 
> ...


Looks like she's coming along nicely!

With all those cloudlifts, I'm surprised you didn't make templates, and then bang 'em out with a pattern bit. Then again, making the templates and flush trimming may have taken more time more time than using the spindle sander.

Anyway, looking forward to the next installment!


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Joinery 90% done and a quick dry fit to get a quick look*
> 
> A good day in the shop today, made a lot of progress on the joinery.
> 
> ...


Dean,

Yeah, I kind of agonized over making templates. If I end up making a second one, I'll be kicking myself, but each lift is only repeated once. so I would have made 4 patterns to cut 8 lifts. So I decided to just knock it out.

But with that being said, my buddy has the X-Carve CNC, so if I do want patterns I can can just give him the sketchup model and he can cut the patterns out of 1/4 MDF for me. On Monday, the 2 hours round trip to his house would take longer than just sanding them out, but if I need to make more I'll probably take that route.

Mike


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Making the Blacker style leg indents and fitting the center panel dividers.*

So yesterday was mostly detail work. I started out by making up a jig to help cut the Blacker style leg indents. The jig is simple and pretty close to other ones I've seen to do the same thing. I'm not sure how much I'll re-use the jig, but the jig is sized for 1.75" legs and I added a few accessory pieces. One of them is 1/4" insert that can slide in the side of the jig allowing me to use it for 1.5" legs. The insert is basically just a 1/4" x 1 1/2" hardwood strip that I notched the top to ride on the jig top cross bars and then trimmed down with my block plane so that the top is flush with the jig.

The second thing I did was cut a couple of small spacer pieces about 4" long and 1 1/4" wide. On each end, I cut rabbets to various depths. By slipping the different spacers under the top of the jig, I can adjust the angle of the jig to increase and decrease the length of the indent for the same bit depth setting. This also made it very repeatable to set the jig when moving it as I just slide the jig up where it bottoms out on the leg bottom, then lift the top and insert the desired spacer, then clamp everything down. Once I was done with it, I just screwed the spacers and 1/4" insert to the side of the jig for storage so I don't lose them.

Here' a couple of shots of the jig in use, a freshly cut indent and then another shot of a couple of the legs after cleanup and sanding.



















On a side note, I'm using Peruvian Alder for the bulk of the case, but they didn't have any Peruvian Alder in 8/4, so I went with a piece of regular Alder that had similar grain to some of the P. Alder. But the regular Alder is very light colored compared to the P. Alder. So you'll notice in the pic above, I gave the normal Alder a wash of thinned brown transtint dye in order to bring it closer to the base P. Alder.

After finishing the leg indents and cleaning up the legs, I started on the vertical divider for the side panels. I cut the side rails with cloud lifts on the outside and square shoulders on the inside as I thought the cloud lifts on the inside wouldn't fit well with all the square corners from the shelf intersections and other pieces. So in order to fit the vertical dividers on the side panels, I needed to cut the tenons with different height shoulders on the front and back.

I did this work with a handsaw, chisel and shoulder plane and it turned out pretty good. After I did the initial fitting, I took the pieces and gave them all a pass over the router table to round over the visible edges and then did a test fit.










Following completion of the sides, I then did some prep work on the shelf and top glue ups. Mostly it involved getting out the card scraper, giving it a quick sharpening and then cleaning up the glue lines in preparation for running then through the drum sander to get the surfacing mostly done. Tomorrow I'll run them through the drum sander and then cut them to final length and width before starting the work to attach the breadboard ends on the top and starting on the ebony splines and plugs.

So that was it for Saturday.


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## htl (Mar 24, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Making the Blacker style leg indents and fitting the center panel dividers.*
> 
> So yesterday was mostly detail work. I started out by making up a jig to help cut the Blacker style leg indents. The jig is simple and pretty close to other ones I've seen to do the same thing. I'm not sure how much I'll re-use the jig, but the jig is sized for 1.75" legs and I added a few accessory pieces. One of them is 1/4" insert that can slide in the side of the jig allowing me to use it for 1.5" legs. The insert is basically just a 1/4" x 1 1/2" hardwood strip that I notched the top to ride on the jig top cross bars and then trimmed down with my block plane so that the top is flush with the jig.
> 
> ...


Going to be one *nice* Magazine Rack for sure!!!


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## CaptainSkully (Aug 28, 2008)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Making the Blacker style leg indents and fitting the center panel dividers.*
> 
> So yesterday was mostly detail work. I started out by making up a jig to help cut the Blacker style leg indents. The jig is simple and pretty close to other ones I've seen to do the same thing. I'm not sure how much I'll re-use the jig, but the jig is sized for 1.75" legs and I added a few accessory pieces. One of them is 1/4" insert that can slide in the side of the jig allowing me to use it for 1.5" legs. The insert is basically just a 1/4" x 1 1/2" hardwood strip that I notched the top to ride on the jig top cross bars and then trimmed down with my block plane so that the top is flush with the jig.
> 
> ...


Nice! Now you just need to subscribe to American Bungalow magazine!


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Making the Blacker style leg indents and fitting the center panel dividers.*
> 
> So yesterday was mostly detail work. I started out by making up a jig to help cut the Blacker style leg indents. The jig is simple and pretty close to other ones I've seen to do the same thing. I'm not sure how much I'll re-use the jig, but the jig is sized for 1.75" legs and I added a few accessory pieces. One of them is 1/4" insert that can slide in the side of the jig allowing me to use it for 1.5" legs. The insert is basically just a 1/4" x 1 1/2" hardwood strip that I notched the top to ride on the jig top cross bars and then trimmed down with my block plane so that the top is flush with the jig.
> 
> ...


Hi Mike,
I've been lurking here watching your process. I like the way you modify things on the fly without having to start over!

I've made the leg indents before and also researched the jigs to do it. One thing that struck me was they all used a router bushing. Nothing wrong with that, just that I had a hinge mortice bit (shallow straight-cut bit with a bearing guide on the shaft) that ended up being so much simpler to use.
I'm curious, do you use a router bushing with your jig?


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## GR8HUNTER (Jun 13, 2016)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Making the Blacker style leg indents and fitting the center panel dividers.*
> 
> So yesterday was mostly detail work. I started out by making up a jig to help cut the Blacker style leg indents. The jig is simple and pretty close to other ones I've seen to do the same thing. I'm not sure how much I'll re-use the jig, but the jig is sized for 1.75" legs and I added a few accessory pieces. One of them is 1/4" insert that can slide in the side of the jig allowing me to use it for 1.5" legs. The insert is basically just a 1/4" x 1 1/2" hardwood strip that I notched the top to ride on the jig top cross bars and then trimmed down with my block plane so that the top is flush with the jig.
> 
> ...


them legs are fancy looking hope its holding woodworking magazines LOL


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Making the Blacker style leg indents and fitting the center panel dividers.*
> 
> So yesterday was mostly detail work. I started out by making up a jig to help cut the Blacker style leg indents. The jig is simple and pretty close to other ones I've seen to do the same thing. I'm not sure how much I'll re-use the jig, but the jig is sized for 1.75" legs and I added a few accessory pieces. One of them is 1/4" insert that can slide in the side of the jig allowing me to use it for 1.5" legs. The insert is basically just a 1/4" x 1 1/2" hardwood strip that I notched the top to ride on the jig top cross bars and then trimmed down with my block plane so that the top is flush with the jig.
> 
> ...


@splintergroup

I did the indents with a bushing. I have used bushings for jig work and setting offsets before so it's just how I think about the problem. While using a bearing guided straight bit will obviously work as well, I see some pros and cons for both methods. If I put my logical reasoning hat on, I can see the following advantages of both.

Bushings:
1. Provides ability to set multiple offsets from the edge of the piece by mixing bushing sizes and bit sizes for the same jig.
2. Easier (for me at least) to build a jig with the sides lined up with the edge of the piece and design the offset with the bushing rather than trying to center a template with the offset built into the template.

Guided bit:
1. Capable of larger radius corners and requires fewer passes potentially as you could use a larger bit.
2. Capable of unlimited size adjustment as you can cut a new template to make whatever size indent you wanted rather than be restricted to the bushing/bit combinations.

I don't think either method really probably produces a better end result. But when I build jigs I like to think about reusability and this is where the bushing approach helps. With the insert in place I can use this same jig to cut indents on 1 1/2" legs as well and the insert is easy to use. If you use a guided bit, then you could use a small strip to narrow the template for a smaller leg, but attaching that strip could be more difficult .

But to be fair, I plan to use the indent detail again as my wife has the Thorsen sideboard on the list of "honey build's", so I had an ulterior motive to make a reusable jig.

Mike


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Making the Blacker style leg indents and fitting the center panel dividers.*
> 
> So yesterday was mostly detail work. I started out by making up a jig to help cut the Blacker style leg indents. The jig is simple and pretty close to other ones I've seen to do the same thing. I'm not sure how much I'll re-use the jig, but the jig is sized for 1.75" legs and I added a few accessory pieces. One of them is 1/4" insert that can slide in the side of the jig allowing me to use it for 1.5" legs. The insert is basically just a 1/4" x 1 1/2" hardwood strip that I notched the top to ride on the jig top cross bars and then trimmed down with my block plane so that the top is flush with the jig.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the lowdown Mike!

The 'multiple offsets' is interesting.

The jig I ended up using looks like yours except the end pieces are screwed on after the side pieces are in clamped to the leg. The overlapping top/bottom guides are then screwed to the side guides.

A guided bit then cuts the recess. Any desire to change the offset requires moving/re-aligining the side guides.
The side guides need to overlap the leg as a way to set the slope of the recess and of course provide the offset as the guided bit only has 1/8" between the bearing O.D. and bit O.D.

A bushing guided bit only requires swapping in a different bushing.

It looks like I'm in the same boat as you, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed has ordered up a table that will require the same jig I used before, unfortunately I wasn't as forward looking as you and committed the old jig to the wood stove 8^(


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*

So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.

I also did a dry fit prior to putting on the dye stain and found my first real issue. Due to stock widths, the inset panels are actually 3/8" narrower than planned. Originally, the plans called for a 1/2 dado in the sides to hold the panels and provide plenty of glue area for the tenons for the top and bottom rails on the side. But because I'm a genius and forgot the inset panels were about 3/8" narrower, instead of cutting the dados in two passes, one 3/8" deep and then deepening the top and bottoms to the full 1/2" for the tenons, the inset panels can actually slide over enough to allow a small gap on one side. So I ripped some small strips and glued them into the dados with a few pin nails to hold them. Nobody will every know but me (and all of you I guess) but the fit is now perfect and the panels have just a tiny bit of wiggle room for expansion.

So here is a couple of shots of the parts with the dye stain on them. Sorry for the dark shot, but it was late.



















Once the initial poly coats on the inset panels dried, I went ahead and did the glue ups on the case sides.




























They are starting to look nice. You can't really tell from the pics, but the small round over on the edges really makes a nice look. After letting the glue dry on the sides, I then went ahead and glued up the front and rear rails, being careful to keep the case straight and as square as I could get it.



















Once I set that aside I started on the shelves. I had previously glued the shelves up, so I cut the to final length and width, then I notched the corners to sit in the case. I don't have a pic, but previously I had drilled a few shelf pin holes in the leg interior for shelf supports.

Following the basic shelf sizing, I then was ready to do the waterfall on the shelf sides for the top two shelves. One of the things some of the bigger Greene and Greene bookcases have is a shelf where the front edge is thinned by cutting a waterfall detail on the bottom of the shelf front. This allows the use of a thick shelf for structural support, but provides a lighter more delicate look from the front of a thinner shelf. I rigged up my router table (see my other blog for my DIY table saw router extension which i recently finished) with a 1/4 round nose bit and cut two slots, one 1/8" deep about 2 1/2" back from the front and then a second 1/4" deep about 1 1/4" from the front. Then I installed a 1/2" spiral upcut bit and took out the wood to level out each part of the waterfall detail to the deepest part of the slots I made. This left a nice rounded detail at the transition and I broke the sharp edge with a sanding block by hand.

It's not my best work, but it does have the desired effect of making the shelf look thinner and more delicate from the front. It's kind of had to see in the front edge shot, but you can sort of tell the difference between the front of the shelf and the back of the shelf off to the side.




























So after getting all this done, I started applying coats of poly. I'm planning on 4 coats of wipe on for the case and shelves, then I'll give them a couple coats of lacquer to finish up. The two upper shelfs are supported by shelf pins and the lower shelf will sit on some ply runners for support. I'll also install a couple of small rails for the top attachment using Z clips.

The next task is to finish up the top. I have the top glued up, but haven't done the final sizing and fitting of the breadboard ends. Then I have to install the ebony details on the top and do the final finish. I'm hoping to be done this weekend.

Thanks for looking and the nice comments.
Mike


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## abie (Jan 28, 2008)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*
> 
> So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.
> 
> ...


Nice
I Especially like the photo details to show us how its done..

I've done G&G before but alway appreciate new details

This is why I view LJ's work almost daily
many thanks.


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## GR8HUNTER (Jun 13, 2016)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*
> 
> So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.
> 
> ...


very smart staining panels first I have already seen stained panels shrink and no stain there GREAT JOB looks very nice


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## Mean_Dean (Oct 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*
> 
> So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.
> 
> ...


Looks like she's coming along very nicely! You're really doing some fine work on this project, and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished magazine rack!

By the way, I'm curious why the lacquer over the wiping varnish? I've always thought that a nice semi-gloss varnish looks great, so I'm curious if you just like the look of lacquer better.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*
> 
> So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.
> 
> ...


Dean,

Well a few reasons. First, I find it difficult to get a nice smooth finish with the wiping varnish, so I always have to do some final light smoothing of the wipe on poly. Then when I top coat with spray lacquer, I find it easier to get a really nice final coat with the spray lacquer.

Secondly, I find it easier to build the finish on these really open pore woods with the wipe-on poly. I've recently stopped doing grain raising and going straight to the water base dye stain then two coats of poly before I do my first real smoothing. With the penetration of the dye and two coats of poly, I can moderately aggressively sand back the poly to get a nice smooth finish without any worry about getting down into the wood. I can build a decent finish with the spray lacquer, but I'm still working on my spray technique, so if I make any mistakes, it's more of a disaster with the heavier coats. If go poly first and then top coat with the lacquer I can go lighter with the lacquer and my final look is much more consistent. I also like that the lacquer dries fast, so my final coats are less likely to pick up dust, etc.

I also think the lacquer is a little more water resistant and in Houston condensation on glasses can create a fairly decent puddle. While this piece is not intended to be an end table, it will be close to the couch, so I'm assuming someone will put a glass on it sooner or later.

On the gloss, I also like semi-gloss. I usually use a satin wipe on and then top coat with semi-gloss or gloss to bring the shine up. In this case, I had a can of Arm-R-Seal in semi-gloss, so I'm using that. At the end I may actually tone it down a bit depending on how it looks at the end.

But, with all that being said, finishing is by far my worst skill. I'm just smart enough to get a decent color if staining and open a can and wipe on a finish, but not much more. Moving to HVLP lacquer spraying was a big change for me and I'm still getting used to it. When I find something that works I tend to stick to it slavishly.

Mike


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## rhybeka (Nov 8, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*
> 
> So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.
> 
> ...


Neat looking rack, Mike! it's coming along nicely! I'm with you on the finishing - it's one of my most in need of improvement skills!


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## Mean_Dean (Oct 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*
> 
> So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.
> 
> ...


Mike, thanks again for a very informative reply!

So, continuing on:

Interesting that you gave up pre-raising the grain before applying the dye. I learned to raise the grain, knock it back, raise it again, knock it back again-then apply the dye. And it's true that doing this will prevent quite a bit of grain raising by the dye (but not all.) Then I read an article by Bob Flexner in one of the magazines, (a true guru of finishing, by the way!), and he wrote that he no longer bothers with raising the grain. He just finish sands, applies the dye, and then applies a couple of coats of wiping varnish, then sands smooth, before topcoating-almost exactly what you're doing. Did you read his article and got the idea?

To me, this sounds like a hell of a lot less work! So between him and you, I'll going to try this on my next project. It'll be with shellac rather than wiping varnish, but the principle should still apply.

By the way, if you are getting dust nibs with wiping varnish (and by wiping varnish, I mean full-strength oil-based poly, thinned 50% with mineral spirits) try applying the varnish, let it sit for 2-3 minutes, then wipe off the excess. It's a slower build, but it just about eliminates the dust nibs. I still sand slightly between coats, and then after the final coat, polish it with a brown paper bag (Flexner again), to get a silky-smooth finish.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*
> 
> So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.
> 
> ...


Dean,

The no grain raise strategy is not my own invention, I definitely read it somewhere and it could very possibly have been in Flexner's book, which I do have.

I don't get too many dust nibs (though the occasional mosquito is still a joy), but my poly surface is not glass smooth either. The wipe on levels out pretty well, so I shouldn't make it seem like it's terrible, but I tend to have high expectations of myself. So anything less than glass smooth gets a low rating. I try to keep things moderately level and lightly sand between coats if I get a ridge or serious imperfection. But after the last coat of poly I focus on getting it nice and smooth then going over the top with the lacquer produces a nice level finish usually.

The reality is I'll spend 50% of my finishing time getting the shelves, case and any other pieces to a level of pretty good and then spend the last 50% getting the top to a really nice finish. I follow the lazy man's logic that it's likely no one will ever examine the shelves all that closely and they won't get raking light, so I don't obsess too much. But the top however will be seen from many angles, have all kinds of light directions and be touched by many fingertips. So if I can get an A+ finish on the top, then the rest of the piece just has to be B+.

I find I always have to fight the "it could be better" impulse. Early on I scrapped a few pieces and had to do some major refinishing on a couple due to trying to get to the "perfect" color or finish level. So I would sand back a little too aggressively or make some other mistake and end up way worse off than if I had just accepted the minor imperfection. As I do more and more pieces and even when I've asked for direct critiques, I've come to the realization that the things that can drive me insane about a piece are just not going to matter to 99% of people.

Mike


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## finns (Nov 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Doing the finish on the case and shelves, case assembly*
> 
> So I got busy, but have been doing some work in bits and pieces. The first thing was normally I assemble and then stain, but with all the small ledges and the inset panels on the side, I decided to do some of the finish work first and then assemble. I stained all the pieces and put on two coats of wipe on poly on the inset panels. This way, if the panels shift a little at some point, there won't be any unstained wood peaking out.
> 
> ...


Looks great. I like the design… a nice balance with G&G. Looking forward to completion.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*

I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.

Tuesday seemed like a good day to give it a whirl and I got out and set up the ez up,hung the sidewalls and then set up the collection of portable benches and my lazy susan I use when I spray. I have previously had good luck spraying the DEFT brushing lacquer and it's available at the HD 3 minutes from my house. So I set up like always and gave a quick test pass spraying just thinner on a piece of spare board to check the pattern. A few tweaks and I add the lacquer to the gun. I start spraying on the bottoms of the shelves and did the three shelves and set them aside to dry, getting ready to spray the backs of the shiplap panels.

Now here is where it gets a bit pear shaped. I noticed that the lacquer is almost seizing up on the shelf bottoms. It's got a very rough texture and just generally looks like crud. Now it's pretty hot by this point and I'm thinking it's simply drying too fast to flow out, but this DEFT lacquer is supposed to be for brushing, so I'm guessing it has retarder in it already? So I've basically ruined the top coat on the bottoms of the shelves and I'm not in a super great mood. I clean the gun and decide to get professional advice.

I head out to Epic Paint which is a local shop that has been recommended to me by a full time cabinet maker I know. My wife is home, so I don't break everything down, I just jump in the car and take off (this will be important shortly). I get to Epic about 25 minutes later and talk to the guy there. I explain my problem, he tells me in a nice way don't spray brushing lacquer. I ask what he recommends and he suggests Gemini pre-cat which he says will be fine with the heat. So I buy the Gemini and head to the house.

So on the way home, I notice it's getting sort of dark towards my house. Pop up showers are not that unusual in Houston, so I don't think to much about it. But five minutes later it's getting really dark and now the wind is picking up a bit and I'm starting to get a little nervous about having to pack everything up in the rain. But it gets better, while I'm worried about the rain, the wind at the house is apparently gusting like crazy and it flips the dang ez up. This knocks over the workbenches and the shelves and the shiplap back panels all end up either in the grass or on the driveway. My wife calls to tell me this when I'm ten minutes from the house. She picks the pieces up off the ground for me, but by the time I get home I'm just flat out furious at myself for leaving everything set out. The case itself was also out under the ez up, but fortunately it didn't get damaged.

So I arrive at the house, collapse the ez up, pick up the scattered bits and pieces, put away the tools and try to find my happy place. After cooling down, I inspect the pieces and as you would expect from bouncing things along a concrete driveway, in addition to a bad lacquer job, several of the pieces now have major league scrapes. So I just put it all away and go inside to consider selling all my tools and picking a new hobby.

Wednesday morning dawns and I go out in the garage to survey the carnage. After looking at everything, I realize that through pure blind luck, all the major damage areas are in places that won't be visible. So I realized that I can save all the pieces with careful sanding and a little tweaking. So I put on the apron and about four hours later, I've sanded out all the scrapes, taken the bad lacquer off and touched up the dye as necessary. The bottoms of the shelves don't have the same deep luster the shelf tops have, but I decide I can live with that and that anybody who comes in my house and notices the shelf bottoms are not the same can just go home.

With all that done, this morning I decide to get back on the horse. First thing is I started earlier in the morning so it wouldn't be as hot. I setup the ez up and get everything ready. I stirred the Gemini and setup the gun and now it's the moment of truth. I spray the bottom of one of the shelves and put it aside for about 10 minutes. This time results are as expected and the lacquer flows out and dries just as expected. So I get busy and about an hour later I've got two coats of lacquer on all the pieces and the case.

I give the last coast of lacquer a bit to dry well and then go ahead and assemble the case. Despited all the trials and issues, the piece looks good and if you didn't know about the disasters, you wouldn't know it from looking at the case.

So the last thing to do is to finish the top, but the case itself is essentially done. So if you've read through this very long post, then here are the pics of the piece as it sits.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*
> 
> I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.
> 
> ...


That's real nice looking. I really like how you placed the grain pattern.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*
> 
> I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.
> 
> ...


Hi Mike,

I'm glad you were able to salvage the situation. Its amazing how little cooling off helps you refocus.

The piece is looking great.


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*
> 
> I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.
> 
> ...


Looks wonderful Mike! I really like pieces with the satin look. If it is glossy, it looks too 'plastic' for my tastes.
The grain orientation and leg/styles/shelf thicknesses all work together very nicely.

Kudos on the save (been there, done that 8^). Stepping back for a while is probably the #1 cure. I have successfully sprayed the Deft brushing lacquer after I discovered that it is really too thick to even consider brushing. Basically just a lot of added thinner until it sprays/settles nicely (helps to use temperature-specifc thinner). Of course the catalyzed lacquer will be a far more durable finish.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*
> 
> I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.
> 
> ...


I've had good luck spraying the Deft before and started using it after reading a lot of comments from people who have done the same. Because I can get it close to my house, I stuck with it, even though I know it's not necessarily the best choice.

I do have to say, the Gemini was nice to spray. As per the advice from the guy at Epic, no thinning was required and it was basically pour and go.

I like my finishes to be sort of shiny satin. A little bit of shine, but not glossy.

Today I'm getting out and finishing the top assembly up to dye ready state. I always struggle with shaping the ebony accents, so I ordered the William Ng custom 3/4" fingernail bit he uses with his jig for shaping the accents. So some of today will be spent assembling some jigs and testing. But with any luck I should be a long way towards finishing up today.


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## splintergroup (Jan 20, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*
> 
> I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.
> 
> ...


It's the right call to get the Ng bit. When I did my accents on my bedside tables, I used a template with a simple bearing guided roundover bit. It worked, but setup was touchy. Watching William's video and seeing how easy they are to make has motivated me to surrender the wallet and buy the bit for next time.


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## Mean_Dean (Oct 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*
> 
> I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.
> 
> ...


Well, that was an amazing save on those damaged parts, and the situation in general. I for one really hate screw-ups. And the bigger the screw-up, the more I hate it. I've learned, as you have, that the best thing in that situation (as much as you don't want to….....!) is to walk away, and do something else. Watch a movie, go to bed, whatever. And then, right in the middle of the movie, the solution comes to mind! Amazing how that happens.

And another thing I've learned is that no one else ever notices your screw-ups. And I mean no one. Generally not even your fellow woodworkers. So I'm learning (slowly…..) to be more tolerant of screw-ups.

You've reached woodworking Zen, when you can pass by the thing, and be perfectly at peace with it.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*
> 
> I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.
> 
> ...


I wanted to make a specific note that the G&G technique of cutting a waterfall profile in the front of the shelves really did give the shelves a delicate more balanced look. Over about 60% of their depth, they are 3/4, but in the front they are thinned out to 1/2 inch. It doesn't sound like much, but even in the pics the shelves have a lighter thinner look.

Mike


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## htl (Mar 24, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Double disasters.... and recovery ending with assembled case*
> 
> I've been busy with a few other tasks around the house and the weather has not been cooperating much, but i finally got a chance to spray the final lacquer top coats on Tuesday. I use a poor boy spray booth which is essentially an EZ-Up with 2 or 3 sidewalls (depending on the breeze). It works well for small projects and as my house is right in the middle of a fairly heavily treed neighborhood, the wind break effect lets me get away with it. But it does mean that I have to wait for right-ish conditions to spray.
> 
> ...


Out standing work!
Love the G&G


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Breadboard top assembly and dye, preparing the ebony accents*

I was derailed the other day, but I focused yesterday and today on getting the breadboard top for the magazine rack together.

To refresh, I had the top panel glued up and the BB ends cut to size from earlier, so I started by insuring the top panel was squared up and cut to size with my table saw sled. Next, I rigged up my router table with the slot cutter and slotted the panel ends and the inside of each breadboard end, making sure to raise the cutter for the BB ends to keep the slot centered. I went ahead and used a 1/8* round over but to soften the edges of the BB ends and the front and back of the top panel.

After cleaning up the router table, I ripped some spline strips out of some leftover alder and cut the spline strips down into the lengths I needed. In order to mount the BB ends and allow for motion of the top panel, I decided to use 3 screws in each end, one in the center in a fairly tight hole and one on each end in a small slot to allow for a little movement. Because the top panel is actually quartersawn, I probably could have just glued the BB ends on as the expansion/contraction of the panel probably won't be that big, but it's good practice.

I broke out the mortiser and cut 3 mortises on each BB end for the ebony accents. I made two 1" long 1/4" wide mortises about 3/8" deep about 1 1/2" in from the ends and then one 2" long mortise in the center. I used my drill press to drill out a recess for the screws in the mortise bottoms and worked the piece a little left and right to make slots on the outside screw positions.

At that point, I thought I was ready to install the BB ends on the top panel but I discovered why most of the plans I see call for a 5/16" or 3/8" wide ebony accents. The wood screws I have all have heads that are bigger than 1/4". So after thinking about either chopping the mortises wider with a chisel or pulling the mortiser back out, I decided on a more practical answer. I chucked the screws I had in the drill press and pulled out the trusty dremel with a grinding bit and simple ground them down until the heads were about .225". I was able to do the 6 screws in about 15 minutes, which is a loft faster than I could have recut the mortises.

But lesson learned, next time I'll use a bigger mortise if I want to drive a screw. The other thing to remember when using screws in a wide breadboard is drilling pilot holes. If you only have standard length drill bits, you'll have to dry fit the breadboard ends and use a awl or something similar to mark the pilot hole positions. then you can pop off the BB end and drill the pilot holes.

With the mortises but, screw holes prepared and pilot holes drilled, I went ahead and installed the BB ends. I cut two small pieces of the spline about 1" long and glued them in on either side of the center screw hole. the rest of the spline I left dry just to keep the BB end and panel aligned. Then I drove all the screws to finish up the BB end install.

With the ends installed, I next made up a jig like the one used by William Ng (there is a good video on his site) to use my router to cut the mortises for the front and back splines on the top. I cut the mortises and then squared the ends with chisels. This basically completed the machining for the top, so I went ahead and put on the first coat of the dye stain and that was it for Saturday.

Sunday, I got back out in the shop and put on one more quick coat of the dye stain and then set the top aside to focus on the ebony accents. As I mentioned earlier, I ordered the 3/4" fingernail bit from Wiliam Ng. I started today by building two jigs. One was a straight jig to use with the fingernail bit to make the accents for the BB ends. The other was a stepped jig for the accent splines for the front and back of the top. Both jigs are based on the one used by William to use with the bit.










I took some time building the jigs and made them in a way that I can use different size inserts to be able to cut ebony accents in different widths and depths. There is a 1/4" shelf glued and screwed to the back of the base and the inserts go in front of the shelf to set the depth of the accent. The jigs made quick work of making the accents and splines. It took me a couple of hours to make the jigs and then only about 30 minutes to make all the ebony accents. Here you can see a nice set of splines for the front and back of the top. The jigs make it a very controllable and repeatable process to make multiple splines.










I cut all the accents a little long and a little wide to make sure I can get a good fit. After cutting the profiles on the accents, I started marking and cutting the accents to nearly final length. Then I used my oscillating sander to sneak up on the length and width until I had good fits. Add a little glue to the mortises and I tapped in all the accents.

At this point, the top is nearly done. I'll do one more coat of dye to even out the color as there are a couple of lighter areas, then it'll be ready to finish. Here are some pics of the top as it sits. The pics aren't great, but it gets the point across.


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## Mean_Dean (Oct 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Breadboard top assembly and dye, preparing the ebony accents*
> 
> I was derailed the other day, but I focused yesterday and today on getting the breadboard top for the magazine rack together.
> 
> ...


Well, looks like you've got all the details down on the top! Looks like tedious work, trying to get the pillowing just right, and all the rest of it, but you've done a nice job!


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

*Finally done*

So I got the top finished and mounted it to the case using Z clips.

Here is a pic, but I'm going to create a project with all the pics.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Finally done*
> 
> So I got the top finished and mounted it to the case using Z clips.
> 
> Here is a pic, but I'm going to create a project with all the pics.


That turned out really nice.


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## ShaneA (Apr 15, 2011)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Finally done*
> 
> So I got the top finished and mounted it to the case using Z clips.
> 
> Here is a pic, but I'm going to create a project with all the pics.


Oh my, that is a nice looking piece.


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## Mike_D_S (May 3, 2012)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Finally done*
> 
> So I got the top finished and mounted it to the case using Z clips.
> 
> Here is a pic, but I'm going to create a project with all the pics.


I learned something new at the end. I was getting ready to build and install some rails to mount the top to when I ran across a post where the guy used his biscuit joiner to cut slots for the Z clips.

I realize that I should have just zipped a slot with the table saw during the initial parts shaping. But since i didn't do that I used my biscuit jointer to cut some slots. I touched the slots up with a little stain and installed the top. A very handy little trick to know.


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## htl (Mar 24, 2015)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Finally done*
> 
> So I got the top finished and mounted it to the case using Z clips.
> 
> Here is a pic, but I'm going to create a project with all the pics.


Very nicely done love the G&G styling, and enjoyed your blog.


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## Mean_Dean (Oct 13, 2009)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Finally done*
> 
> So I got the top finished and mounted it to the case using Z clips.
> 
> Here is a pic, but I'm going to create a project with all the pics.


Aha-the blog post I missed! (I hit the Projects page first, then blogs, then videos, when I visit LJs.)

As I mentioned before, this magazine rack turned out beautifully-thanks for posting!


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

Mike_D_S said:


> *Finally done*
> 
> So I got the top finished and mounted it to the case using Z clips.
> 
> Here is a pic, but I'm going to create a project with all the pics.


Awesome. Your magazines should be very grateful for their new home!


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