Bookcase Progress

 

You may recall that between Christmas and New Years we drove down to the panhandle of Florida for a small vacation that was pretty cold. One of those days we ended up going from one pawn shop to another looking at nothing in particular just to stay out of the cold wind. At one of those pawn shops, my eldest daughter saw the bookcase above and said that would be perfect for her apartment she will move into later this summer. It wasn't in the best shape and we had 700 or 800 miles to haul the thing in a vehicle with not enough room and so I just took a picture of it and we went on our way.

Before our spring break trip, I had a post on starting to build my version of this bookcase and created a post with pictures of the various parts cut out and my starting to cut the joinery in everything. Upon returning from our spring break trip, we had a spate of good weather allowing me to start assembling things. Above, I started assembling what will comprise the two sides of the bookcase. The clamps I use are very nice clamps but are also pretty expensive clamps and so I only have six of them requiring me to do many rounds of gluing up to get all the sections together and then gluing those sections to other sections.

But eventually I got all the sections glued together to form the middle of the side panels of the bookcase. 

Then I glued (and used dominoes for tenons) the middle parts to the four legs forming the completed two sides. Now I just need to attach the two sides together with the shelves, top and decorative bits and it will be together. However, I still don't know exactly how I am going to attach the shelves to the sides. The one we saw in Florida was made from pressed wood that is very stable with temperature and humidity changes. I however am making this out of solid oak and walnut which does expand and contract with humidity and temperature changes. So in order to make sure the shelves don't split into kindling, they have to "float" a bit in relation to the sides and I have waffled back and forth on the best way to do that. I haven't made a final decision on that yet but will need to soon so that I can proceed with the rest of the build. My goal is that providing my daughter or one of her descendants don't toss it in the landfill or swap it for cash at a pawnshop, that it will still be in the family 100 years from now... if not longer.