Shelf Unit Build Process
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Posted 4th May 2024
The afternoon was spent planing & sawing. I decided to shoot the outside pieces to length: they don't really need to be square-ended and the same length as they'll get sorted out post-dovetailing, but it means I can reference off the end if I decide I need to and it's very quick and easy to do. The inner pieces will probably also get shot to length, but I'll do that later.
With all that done, I laid the boards out for inspection:
One of the long side pieces has a bit of a notch in it, but with careful planning that should get removed when I cut the rebate for the back:
It was at this point that I realised that there weren't enough boards! The design went through a few iterations around the time that I was preparing the boards and putting them in storage on top of the wardrobe, so that might be the reason (or it might be that I just couldn't count). Anyway, the upright near the bottom was missing, but I had some leftover ash in the garage, so I chopped a bit off that and planed it down:
Like a lot of the other boards, it's got some hard (knotty?) bits and the grain changes direction half-way along, but I've cut it in such a way that the dovetail housing (aka sliding dovetail) joint won't be over the knot. This ash has been quite hard work to plane compared to the sweet chestnut I used to make the tool chest and there were a few times I was dreaming of a surface planer! The heat today hasn't helped and I'm definitely ready for a flop and a glass of Brittany Cider now!
First job tomorrow will be to sweep up the mess...
... and then I'll start marking up the dovetails. I'm umm-ing and ah-ing over whether to do mitred dovetails on the corners. They're a bit more work, but would make ploughing the rebate on the back easier. I don't need to decide until tomorrow anyway!
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