Bookcase and Lower Cabinet

[Herb Stoops]

The guy at the mill asked me to make him a bookcase, and a liqueur cabinet for his office.
He gave me a jag of miscellaneous Redwood rough sawn boards he had.
So I made a combination set up where if he wanted to break them down to separate pieces, the lower cabinet had a finished top that nestled into the bottom of the book case.
I planed and surface sanded all the lumber and made 1X4 X3/8" thick T&G boards for the back. Some of the back boards were kind of marginal, but once the books are on the shelves they will not show much. It took every stick I had to make it.
Herb

[Nickp]

Using the sticks was definitely SLICK...! Came out nice...

[old55]

Beautiful.

[Stick486]

I need to bring something to your attention Herb...
Damn dude... you are good!!!!

[Cherryville Chuck]

It's surprising how much lumber goes into something like that. Redwood and red cedar are cousins and both really look nice shined up like that. The other advantage to going modular is when you need to move it.

[DaninVan]

I love the colour and feel of WR Cedar. It's unfortunate that it's so soft and easily damaged. Several coats of polyurethane goes a long way towards toughening it up.

[Herb Stoops]

Dan another nice thing about it is it is so nice to work with. This though is from redwood tree that was on on a school yard they had to remove to add onto the building. He had milled a couple of huge logs and sold the lumber, this was from the scraps laying around the yard. It is very similar to cedar,but no fragrance.
Herb

[HandyDan]

Nice Herb. The backs really catch the eye. Nice detail. I like it better than the plywood backs we usually see.

[Herb Stoops]

Nice Herb. The backs really catch the eye. Nice detail. I like it better than the plywood backs we usually see.

The backs were 3/8" thick made from the scraps, they are sort of rustic, can even see the original saw kerf on the face on some. I couldn't sand them any thinner to get it out.
HErb

[Cherryville Chuck]

The backs were 3/8" thick made from the scraps, they are sort of rustic, can even see the original saw kerf on the face on some. I couldn't sand them any thinner to get it out.
HErb

I sometimes do roughly the same thing but I do shiplap instead of T & G. Then you can go down to about 1/4" . I add a little chamfer on the mating edges by just hand sanding them. I used that as an insert in a drawer front once too for a rustic look. They sat in channels and I glued the center one in place to the drawer and then glued the laps together so that they formed a panel that could expand or contract towards the ends of the assembly.

[Herb Stoops]

I like that idea installing the center one first, that way you end up with the same width on both edges. I will remember that.
Herb

[Stick486]

roughly the same thing but I do shiplap

try no glue floating splines...still bust the edges...
a lot less waste and all the movement you'll ever need...

[Cherryville Chuck]

I like that idea installing the center one first, that way you end up with the same width on both edges. I will remember that.
Herb

I got that from Norm Abrahms on the NYW show on PBS. He glues the center inch of his raised panels and, as he said, that keeps them from rattling and slopping around in the grooves if the wood dries out. He probably started doing that before anyone got the idea to use rubber screen spline or the rubber balls or any of the other methods to keep panels where they are supposed to be but allow for contraction and expansion.

The spline idea is good too although I think you'd be back up around 3/8 material to make that work. Even a thin kerf blade for making the grooves would leave only a little more than 1/16" on either side of material 1/4" thick. If I was making a panel out of the them for a rustic looking front I'd glue the splines in and allow the panel to float in grooves. If you are using them as a cabinet back then I'd probably brad nail each piece to the carcass. Where glue has no give, brad nails seem to have enough to keep small pieces like those slats from cracking.