blueman wrote:
"George E. Cawthon" writes:
You should have said the sides would be plywood!
Sleeves would have to be metal at least an inch long which would be a
pita.

Forget the pins and move to a different system if you stay with
plywood.

More generally, what type of wood would you recommend for the sides
that would give good shear strength for the pins at an affordable
price?
I assume that I only would need the hardwood for the hole tearout so
that 3/4" stock would be sufficienct since I could get additional
stiffness by backing up the hardwood with a parallel piece of plywood
side.

I am going to be painting the wood so I just need a wood that takes
paint well. Also, I assume that since I am painting, it still makes
sense to use 1.5" of doubled up plywood for the shelves (with poplar
facing) and for other elements other than the sides holding the pins
and the face frames.

Almost any solid wood would do since you are going
to paint it. Stay away from the very softest
woods such as western redwood and cedar which you
wouldn't normally consider. I've used ponderosa
pine with no problems and that is probably as soft
as any available to you. Any hardwood, including
softer varieties such as Philippine mahogany would
be fine but if you paint you probably want a tight
grain. Personally, I would use solid wood of 1.5"
thickness for the shelves. An alternative is to
face (back and front) a 3/4" thick board with 3/4"
x 1.5" or 2" strips (wide measurement would be
vertical). The latter would provide about as much
stiffness at the former and would essentially hide
the pins.

I'm not a fan of painting book shelves. Just be
sure that you use a paint that hardens well and
has a high blocking rating (low blocking would
mean that books will stick to the shelf).