Hi,
I have a question concerning my latest project. I’ve decided my next project will be a Tower bookcase. After pricing the cost of the materials I’ve decided to build it out of Knotty pine rather than cherry plywood. Much too expensive for me. $112 Canadian dollars for 1 sheet of Cherry lumber.
I’d love to build it out of cherry but it’s out of my price range. If it turns out nice I might consider saving my pennies and building another one out of the more expensive cherry plywood. But for now I’ll go with the pine which is $1.49 a linear foot. (knotty pine)
While reading the materials list I noticed that it called for ,Top Molding (1 piece) 3/4 X 3 1/2 – 50 rough. What in the world does that mean??? I’ve never come across that before in any woodworking plans I’ve looked at. Other than that the directions are straight forward. This looks like a challenging new project. Now all I have to do is set up a router table so I can cut the grooves for the shelves.These shelves are really neat. The adjustable shelves are held in place by four support pins. The shelves dont’ rest on top of the suport pins. Rather they wrap around the pins. All done with a simple groove in teh ends of the shelves. Shelf edging covers the exposed edges of the shelves. Can you use a table saw rather than a router table to cut the groove? Unfortunately I don’t have a dado blade for my table saw. Is it possible to cut a 1/4 inch groove using a crosscut blade on the table saw? Using two passes with the 1/8 inch crosscut blade? That probably woudn’t be very accurate though.
One last question. The plans call for attaching a 1/4 inch plywood back. Since I’m making the tower bookcase out of pine rather than plywood could I use pine panelling instead? I believe they come in 4 inch widths (actual..3.5 inches in width. The origional plans call for the 2 case backs to be cut from a 1/2 sheet of plywood. (1/4 inch 15 1/2 X 36 3/8ths) I figure I would need 5 pine panels. I could trim off 3/4 of an inch off each end panel and that would give me the right width..15 1/2 Would that look ok? I know that 1 X 8 X 10(nominal)board of knotty pine actually measures..3/4 X 7 1/4 X 10.(actual) Does the 12 inch width board = 11 3/4? if not I’m going to have to rethink this project. The case sides measure exactly 11 3/4 wide.
Wanda
Edited 10/7/2002 7:27:38 PM ET by WANDA20011
Replies
Hi,
What's with the giant font? Your message would be easier to read in small font.
50 rough probably means 50 inches long before being trimmed to final length.
12 inch nominal boards are actually 11 1/4 inches wide. Looks like you may have to do some glue ups to get the width you need. Or it should be possible to find boards that wide at a lumberyard.
Paneling should be fine for the back. I think it would look better than plywood anyway.
Good luck and be sure to let us see the results!
Matt,
I saw only the regular font in Wanda's post. Are you sure about your browser settings?
I saw what Matt saw. Large text, most of it purple.
Large text, most of it purple.
Not to mention the View Image weird yellow polka dots rolling around.
". . .and only the stump or fishy part of him remained."
Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Township
"The adjustable shelves are held in place by four support pins. The shelves dont' rest on top of the suport pins. Rather they wrap around the pins. All done with a simple groove in teh ends of the shelves. Shelf edging covers the exposed edges of the shelves. Can you use a table saw rather than a router table to cut the groove?"
I'd go with the router. I guess the support pins are metal rods, 1/4in. diameter. So you need four short slots in the bottom of the shelf for them to sit in. If you cut that slot 1/4in deep with a table saw, you will have a long slot tapering down to zero depth from the circular blade. You can get a much neater result from the router, even without a table. Clamp a board to your shelf to guide the router and mark where the slot has to stop. Try it on scrap first - cut the shelf a couple of inches long and practice on one end, *then* cut it to length.
HTH,
Graeme
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