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Newbie question about bookcase design
I'm building a bookcase with four fixed shelves (plus the top). It
will be a total of 50" high and 30" wide. The shelves will be sliding "half-dovetails." I've _tried_ to illustrate below what I mean, but basically think of a dovetail with only one angle cut in. I got the idea out of a design plan I bought, but the plan was more of a Craftsman-style bookcase with slatted sides, and I want solid sides. The bookcase is being built out of flatsawn cherry (YOU try finding rift/quarter-sawn!), and the sides will be a total of 12" wide. So here are my two questions: 1. Because the wood is flatsawn, the grain patterns are harder to match-up, so I would like to glue-up two 6" boards, rather than three 4" boards. I am doing this for the sides and the shelves. Because this is flatsawn, am I setting myself up for problems with cupping/etc? 2. The reason I'm doing the half-dovetails, instead of simply dadoes, is that I want the sides of the bookcase to be held together by the shelves themselves. I am NOT gluing the dovetails, but rather pinning them in the front to allow them to expand freely toward the back of the case. However, am I running the risk that, because I'm using flatsawn boards, that this whole thing is literally going to pull itself apart over time? Thanks for any help you guys can give...illustration is below. | | | | Shelf | _|_________ | | | |/|_________ | | | | |
#2
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You should be fine. Cherry is pretty stable. You identified and fixed
the one big problem by pinning the dove tail, even though it is actually not an opposed grain situiation so the side and shelf should expand together. One help for cuppng is to try and get boards that have the grain lines running as close to perpendicular to the face as possible, ie close to quarter sawn. Also, glue up the boards and let them settle for a few days. If any of them cup, just rip them down and re-glue. Another somewhat radical idea, but it could be a nice effect, would be to bread board all of the pieces, sides and shelves. One advantage of this would be on the shelves you would be cutting your modified dovetail groove with the grain as opposed to cross grain. However, I would use and extra deep tennon to ensure you get good structural conformance from the shelf. Sounds like a cool project. BW |
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