2009-02-13
Friday, I started routing my
first time with a round-over bit. I'm new to routers. I
used the straight bit for the first time yesterday cutting the dado
slots.
I was gonna use the round-over bit anyway but after I boogered the edges with my homemade fence (the one with the nails), I had to dress up the board edges somehow.
The round-over bit did a dandy job. It made all the edges look clean and cut away nearly ever mark.
I was gonna use the round-over bit anyway but after I boogered the edges with my homemade fence (the one with the nails), I had to dress up the board edges somehow.
The round-over bit did a dandy job. It made all the edges look clean and cut away nearly ever mark.
I rounded both sides of all the uprights in the middle of the
bookcase. For the uprights on the ends I only rounded over the
inside edge.
I had already anchored the upright closest to the corner. I had to
unscrew the two dry wall screws so I could carry it outside to rout it
with a round-over bit like others. After mounting it back with
the two screws, I anchored the top of each free-standing upright.
I used a small angle bracket to anchor each upright. That should
keep someone from accidently pulling the bookcase down.
They looked great once they were in place! Fantastic. It was beginning to take shape.
It took me all day to custom cut each of the 28 remaining
shelves. I had to cut and rout each one with the round-over bit
then see if it fit the slots. As I mentioned earlier, some of the
slots were just too tight and had to be adjusted.
To keep from swapping out bits in my router, I used my Roto-zip with a 1/4" collet and a small 1/4" straight bit to widen the tight dado slots slightly. It only took one pass and the Roto-zip fit the task well.
After dry-fitting each shelf, I glued the ends with Tightbond III waterproof wood glue. Thanks to my friend Rick for tipping me to use this glue. It's much stronger than Elmer's.
To keep from swapping out bits in my router, I used my Roto-zip with a 1/4" collet and a small 1/4" straight bit to widen the tight dado slots slightly. It only took one pass and the Roto-zip fit the task well.
After dry-fitting each shelf, I glued the ends with Tightbond III waterproof wood glue. Thanks to my friend Rick for tipping me to use this glue. It's much stronger than Elmer's.
The guy on the New Yankee Workshop always spreads his glue with a
brush. That looked like a good idea so I tried it. Not a
bad idea. The sponge brush was all we had but, after it filled up
the tip with glue it worked fine.
Here's what the job looked like at the end of the day. Sure there
have been tons of mistakes. You don't have to look very close to
see them. But I'm proud of the thing. It's strong and
functional. Linda was going for an old,
rustic look in her choice of paint which you'll see on another page.
The bookcase is nearly 10 feet long and rises more than 6 feet above the window seat box. It will house over 65 feet of shelf space for books. I'll need more than that but what can you do? I really love books.
The bookcase is nearly 10 feet long and rises more than 6 feet above the window seat box. It will house over 65 feet of shelf space for books. I'll need more than that but what can you do? I really love books.
