After finally getting through all of the milling (about 2 full bags of woodchips), I began to make some decisions about what boards will be assigned to the various parts of the case as well as the shelves. Although I am still torn as to whether or not buying rough sawn lumber from a local source was the right choice. On the one hand, the cost per board foot was significantly less, the time spent milling everything down on my small shop equipment did take about twice as long as I had expected. Additionally, the wood certainly isn't the clearest grain, but it does have some nice character, and minor imperfections. I keep reminding myself, it's a bookcase, and most of the surfaces will be covered with books.
Pickey, pickey, pickey
Going through the best boards we pretty easy for the sides and top. I selected some fairly consistently colored boards for the sides and top, since those will probably be seen the most. The great thing with cherry is that within 6 months, a good portion of the grain evens out, even if it is from a different tree all together. And, at the end of the day, I don't think my 6 year old daughter will particularly care. ;) Selecting the boards for the shelves was a little more time consuming, but I landed with some matches and relatively even widths.
A couple of careful passes along the joiner got everything ready to glue up. I personally like using biscuits to aid in the glue-up process. They take the worry out of aligning the boards flat when the glue starts to set, and add a little additional strength. I added glue into the biscuit slots as well as along the edges of the board. Too little glue is never a good idea, and squeeze out is easily dealt with once the boards are joined and clamped.
I am woefully short on clamps, and because of the size of the boards, I can only clamp one side/shelf at a time. The whole process took 2 days of before and after work clamping sessions. I really do like the new Jorgensen "H" Clamps that have the extended feet. They keep everything off the ground, and allow you to tighten everything without scraping your knuckles on the shop floor. You can purchase the clamp hardware and then buy the galvenized 3/4" steel pipe in the plumbing section of your local DIY center. The pipe is also easily extended to help you contend with the really long glue up jobs.
Once the boards are clamped up and tightened, I give each one a quick check with a straight edge to ensure everything is laying flat across the glue joints. Even with bisquits, the boards can still tend to creep a little, so I just loosten the clamp, and bang everything flat with a rubber mallet. This is one of the ways I spend a little more time on the details to avoid more time consuming sanding later on.
The Cabinet Scraper - Unsung hero of the workshop
After the glue has dried, and before I take a sander to the surface, I'll hit all of the glue joints and high spots with a cabinet scraper. This is in my opinion, one of the most useful, under-rated finish tools available. A scraper with a good hook applied to it will give you a surface that rivals any 220 grit sandpaper. It also tackles any glue squeeze-out without tearing away any of the wood.
Once I have leveled out all of the boards, I'll then sand everything down with 80 and 150 grit on my random orbit sander. Definitely avoid cutting the boards to their final dimensions until getting everything nice and flat with the sanding. It makes ripping and cross-cutting large boards easier. It is amazing what a little glue "nub" will do to catch on your tool as you try to run it smoothly across the table saw.
Another problem rears it's head...
Because the case is going to be dovetailed on all four sides, having the boards cut perfectly square will be critical to keeping the case square after glue-up. At 52"x 14", a small error is magnified over the length of the case. I have a cabinet saw, with only a t-square and a small cross cut sled for cutting the ends square. The pieces I have for this bookcase are going to require a new, larger cross-cut sled to be built. I'm open to hearing from anyone on their recommendation on a no-frills cross cut sled I can make for my saw. Feel free to comment and point me in the right direction, otherwise, I'm on my own and that will be the topic for another blog entry.
Tool time
I'm heading to the Lie-Nielsen Tool Show here in Cincinnati this weekend hosted by the folks over at Popular Woodworking. If anyone is within a reasonable driving distance, you should check it out. The details are on Lie-Nielsen's website. Next week's blog will be all about the tools, techniques, demos, and how much money I can get away with spending without my wife noticing. ;)