Project Information
This is the latest in my series of home organization projects. It arose out of a need to do something about the constantly-growing pile of magazines and catalogs beside my bed (don't tell me you don't have one!). I wanted an open design that would show the covers of the magazines, and allow the wall behind to show through if the slot was empty (ha!). This required a rethinking of my joinery to make up for the loss of strength from the lack of a continuous back.
The horizontal strips are all 1/4" oak resawn from the same stock as the 3/4" sides and slot bottoms. The front pieces are grain-matched and glued in mortises. The back pieces run continuously across the back, and are screwed into rabbets to resist racking (stopped rabbets on the ends). Further strength is derived from the sliding dovetails used to attach the slot bottoms to the sides.
As you can imagine, the repeating angled slots and sliding dovetails required the use of multiple templates and router guide bushings. A further complication was caused by the sharp cutbacks on the vertical pieces. I wanted a bullnosed edge to echo a nearby shelf, but was afraid that the roundover bit might tear off a chunk of the oak (which is prone to such things). To prevent this, I bullnosed the edges by hand with rasp & file. On reflection, I probably could have used the router for most, and just done the cutbacks by hand. Oh well, hindsight's 20-20.
The finish is golden brown Transtint dye followed by a coat of thinned BLO. After curing, this was topped with two coats of 1lb shellac, and then cut back with steel wool and Black Bison paste wax. I needed to match the other oak furniture in the room, all of which had a rather flat finish. The color match is actually much closer than the second photo would indicate. Darned flash!
The horizontal strips are all 1/4" oak resawn from the same stock as the 3/4" sides and slot bottoms. The front pieces are grain-matched and glued in mortises. The back pieces run continuously across the back, and are screwed into rabbets to resist racking (stopped rabbets on the ends). Further strength is derived from the sliding dovetails used to attach the slot bottoms to the sides.
As you can imagine, the repeating angled slots and sliding dovetails required the use of multiple templates and router guide bushings. A further complication was caused by the sharp cutbacks on the vertical pieces. I wanted a bullnosed edge to echo a nearby shelf, but was afraid that the roundover bit might tear off a chunk of the oak (which is prone to such things). To prevent this, I bullnosed the edges by hand with rasp & file. On reflection, I probably could have used the router for most, and just done the cutbacks by hand. Oh well, hindsight's 20-20.
The finish is golden brown Transtint dye followed by a coat of thinned BLO. After curing, this was topped with two coats of 1lb shellac, and then cut back with steel wool and Black Bison paste wax. I needed to match the other oak furniture in the room, all of which had a rather flat finish. The color match is actually much closer than the second photo would indicate. Darned flash!