My first wordworking project was an 8' tall plywood case with four
shelves to hold canvases (Im a painter). I made the dadoes with a
circular saw on a gravel driveway (!) I couldnt walk afterwords and I
was hooked on woodworking after that. Now I have better tools: a
table saw, router, etc.

Here's what I want to do: I want to get rid of one of the shelves
(glued and nailed in) and also divide the shelves in half using some
more dadoes and pieces of hardboard. I need to make the individual
shelves narrower, they dont hold the canvases upright enough because
they are too wide. Also, I need to get rid of a shelf to accomodate
larger paintings.

Here are my questions:

1. What is the best way to get rid of that shelf thats glued and
nailed in? Its 3/4" thick plywood and the dadoes are about 1/2". If
the dadoes and shelves were a nice snug fit, I guess I would use a
sawsall to cut the shelf out and then plane it down. However, since I
did such a sloppy job with a cir saw, and not knowing what I was
doing, the shelf and dadoes are very, very ugly and badly matched. So
if I just cut it out, it wont look good and -- more importantly, may
very weak at that spot. Should I cut it out and then add putty to fill
the gaps or is there a way to unglue it and get the brads out? What
should I do here?

2. To add in the new shelves, I can use a router, but I cant get it
all the way to the back because there is a plywood back on it with
about 100 brads in it. Is there a better way to divide the shelves?

Thank you very much for putting up with this long post. Any help would
be appreciated. The cabinet is made from oak plywood so I wouldnt want
to just start over...

Bob