The Infamous Bookcase

As the largest piece of furniture I've built so far, the bookcase was a very interesting project. I've been telling many people that I was building one for some time now and I have finally completed it. I started with some simple plans that I did not adhere too. This was okay but made for some fixes later on. First, I started with the panels for the carcass. The bottom and sides were 3/4" oak veneer plywood and the top was 1/2". The shelves are 1/2" plywood with oak fronts.

Using my panel sled for the carcass and shelves.

Shelves cut.

The sides have rabbets for the bottom and back. The top has rabbets for the sides and back. And finally the bottom has a single rabbet for the back. The trick with all of these is to cut all of the similar ones at the same time (e.g.: 1/4" rabbets on the top, sides, and bottom for the back panel). This makes it so you only have to set up the saw once and all of your cuts will be the same.

A sacrificial fence for rabbets.

Rabbet for 1/4" plywood back.

Rabbets galore!

After all of the plywood was cut I could start assembly. I started with the carcass and used glue and finish nails to hold it all together. I made sure to make it square by measuring the diagonals and verifying they were equal. This made cutting and attaching the back panel very easy. I just attached it with some pin nails.

Carcass coming together.

Fastened the back with pin nails.

The shelves were cut from 1/2" plywood and a 1" x 2" oak board was used to dress up the front as well as add some reinforcement. It is attached with glue and some nails.

One shelf at a time.

I also used the same oak boards as the face frame and trim for the carcass. This was one of the fixes I had to do for not following a plan. The trim was needed to simply cover the plywood ends that I probably would not have had if I had followed my plans. Lesson learned! It did turn out fine in the end though.

Trim and face frame for the carcass.

Complete!

I finished it in boiled linseed oil and this added a nice glow to the oak. I had a lot of sanding to do before I started with the finish but it made the BLO turn out that much nice. I did not fill in the nail holes and left them as 'shiners'. I'm not sure if I like this look but I didn't want to ruin the natural look of the wood with fill. This could be avoided if I get a biscuit joiner to attach the face frame to the carcass or by filling with a matching wood fill.

Some things I notices as I constructed this piece: The bottom frame isn't totally level, luckily our floor isn't either so they cancel each other out. I think I should I have found matching fill for the nail holes but the finish nails are small enough to barely notice. Also, I need more clamps. I could only build one shelf at a time as I ran out of clamps.