it's my birthday......

Today I turned 61 years old at 07:22 AM. The girls and my wife took me out to dinner at Caraba's which is what I usually get as a birthday present. Having a birthday so close to xmas means I get screwed and I've been screwed for the past 55 years. I was six when I first realized I wasn't getting any presents for my birthday.

That aside, I did have a good day in the shop. I thought I was quitting several times but I kept on going like the Energizer Bunny. I made a big dent in the bookcase project and I should be doing the final glue up on that tomorrow hopefully.  I'll have to wait to see what shakes out.

Tangram Puzzle

I am done with the puzzle and I won't be doing anymore with it. I rounded off all of the sharp points to see what it looked like and I didn't like what I saw. It didn't effect how the puzzle went together but I can't get past all the gaps. I learned a few things in making this puzzle so I don't consider it a total loss. I'll toss the unused blanks into the black hole for now. I can always come back to this if I want to.

the last 3

Before I went to bed last night I came back to the shop and finished these. I didn't want to fit and glue them up today. I now have all 9 of them glued and ready to be trued up and squared. I used hide glue on all of the clamp aids.

the A clamp guide

This was the first one I did and it almost didn't get done. I was concerned about this turning into toast on me but in the end I didn't have to worry about that.

this leg is bowed

And the other leg is full of pitch. It is a usable clamp but I wasn't sure how thin this leg would be after I removed the bow.

flat, straight, and twist free

The bow removed leg isn't any more noticeably thinner then the pitch leg. I'm glad the pitch filled leg didn't need much work. It's PITA cleaning the plane after it's been used on it.

dead nuts square according to Big Red

the only ones I had to saw any excess off

2  hours later

Only two of the nine were square coming out of the clamps. One small one was OTL and the others were iffy. Trying to square these up wasn't the cake walk I expected it to be. I spent most of my time correcting for a slanted leg edge. Once I got that fixed, I had to re-square the jig because fixing the slant threw the square off. I did this dance step a lot but I got all nine to read square all possible ways in Big Red.

front drawer rail

I decided to go with one drawer but I wanted more support for it at the front (it's about 27" wide). I don't think I'll have any problems with the drawer guides I'm using but the side to side needed help. I had to trim this 4 times before I got it to fit in the drawer guide dadoes and have the bookcase sides square too.

it's a loose fit

I thought that I would have had to cut one end at an angle to get this to fit. I was able to spread the sides apart enough to get this in. And I didn't have to spread the sides apart that much neither.

had to shorten the drawer guides

I cut the front portion of the drawer guides off equal to the width of the drawer rail.

same idea as before

I will still glue and screw the first 2 inches of the drawer guide at the front. The rear of the drawer guide will be secured with a screw in a slotted hole. The rail will be held in place by the drawer guides with no glue. I may toe nail a 4 penny nail through the bottom into the sides if the drawer guide does secure it.

top dry laid in place

back apron

I don't want to glue a small board onto the top to give me a width that will overhang the front. The top is a little wider than the sides and with the apron at the back it gives me almost an inch overhang at the front.

wild overhang on the ends

The ends will overhang the sides the same amount as the front. I sawed the top so that it was 4 inches longer than the OD of the sides. Once I have the dadoes chopped and fitted, I can then mark and saw the overhang to it's finished size.

 knife mark

I thought I had knifed both the in and outside of the sides but this is the only one that I could see. I had already taken all the clamps off the bookcase too. I had to clamp it again, square it, and knife the position of the dadoes again. This time I made sure I could see the knife lines before I broke it down again.

doesn't quite fit

I marked both sides of the dadoes at once. I thought it would be too difficult to try and get the second wall of the dado directly off the sides. On the second wall I made it a few hairs inside of the knife line I got from the dry lay of the top. My reasoning was if the dado came out to small I could plane the side to fit or use the Stanley 71 side rabbet plane and make the dado wider.

I planed the sides to fit because the sides are slightly bowed and they fit in the front of the dadoes. The back of the sides didn't fit and that is what I planed to get the sides to fit. I planed only on the inside so if I planed too much any gaps would be in the interior and not seen.

back apron

Once the top is glued and cured I'll glue the apron on. I plan on making two dadoes for the sides in the bottom of the apron. This will make the bottom of the apron and the bottom of the top the flush there. It's at the back and won't be see but it will be a stronger glue connection if I do it this way I think.

top right back is square

top left back is square too

It looks like I nailed getting the dadoes so that the sides are square. This is where the drawer is going and it is more important that this be square.

left side has a bow in it

I can live with this hiccup as long as the top is square.

story changes

I got the the top dry clamped and it appears that it pulled the right side out of square. The left side is about the same.

bow is gone

There was a small bow in the top that is gone now. I put two cauls on the top that I planed one shaving off each end. This will apply pressure across the whole top including the middle. It worked as the bow is gone now.

left side is dead square

The right side isn't quite dead nuts square but I think I can get that to come in if I play with the clamps by moving them L/R off the dado line at the front and back.

back stops fitted

too thick

These stops are not structural. Their function is to keep books from falling out the back.  As such there is not any need for them to be 3/4" neither. If I make them a 1/2" wide I'll gain a 1/4" for the width of a book.

1/2" thick

I did this on the tablesaw because I wanted the 1/8" thick off cut. I used something similar to this on the bookstand I made for Ellie.

cutout detail done

ready to be glued in place

Once this is filled with books this back stop won't be seen. I was going to leave it as a flat stretcher but I like this better. I have to plane and scrape the interior of the bookcase before I can do the glue up. I should be able to do that tomorrow and start on the drawer on monday. It won't be done for xmas but the guy who is getting it doesn't mind.

accidental woodworker

trivia corner
Which US State was the first to outlaw slavery?
answer - Rhode Island in 1774

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