question #

1. I'd wait

2. Glue 'em

3. yes

looking forward to seeing it when finished.

 

Make a shiplap joint for each plank in the back panel. Do not glue it up. Attach each plank with one small brad in the center of each end and/or in a groove in the back frame. The large panel will expand/contract across whole width of panel while individual planks will move less individually and the shiplap will conceal the movement.

Herb

 

Mike, I've planed wood down to just a hair over 1/8" with my Ridgid planer. 1/4" has never been a problem.

 

Mike
I would use plywood it's much more stable as far as wood movement is concerned. If you feel you must use solid wood I would resaw and plane and assemble the panels all in one day ,if you can't, put the panels in a plastic bag to keep the moisture content equal until you can glue up the panels and install them in their frames. It seems like your talking about butt joints for the frames? I would use some dowels or biscuits or even better mortise an tenon joinery for the frames.
Make your panels 1/8"-3/16 smaller than the inside measurement of your grooves in the frames . A 1/4" should not be a problem for your planner.

 

Well Jim, I WAS going to complain about the price of these hardwood plywoods since I had seen at least one online site that wanted +$75/sh and higher. But then I thought I would check one more time locally and managed to find White Ash

 $25.50/sh, White Oak

$26.50, and Red Oak @ $18.97/sh.

Boy am I glad you brought this up! This will simplify things considerably. Jeff, Herb and Darrell all had my back though with some good info, but still not sure if my talents are quite there yet. I might give the ripping a try on the next one or so. I am wanting to build at least three or four of these 3-high bookcases eventually. Remember that WW magazine/book goldmine I ran into last summer? They need a good home in which to reside.

 

Mike,

If the wood is well aqclimated to your shop, I see no reason to wait. I just resawed sapele into 1/8" thick slices, and as they needed to be 10" wide instead of my saw's 6" capacity, I bookmatched and edge-glued them together. Out of 4 of sapele and 1 of red mahoe, in a unheated garage for 2 weeks, nary a warp or twist. As to making them longer (talking about glueing end-to-end?), I'd do a half-lap at the ends about 1/2" in from the ends, and glue up planks as long as you want. I stretched 12' baseboard to a single 40' piece for a church in my younger days. Worked fine. The half-lap gives a good bit of long grain glue area. Last, I didn't hesitate to take my stock right down to 1/8", so 1/4" is no problem. Stretch that wood.

Steve

 

OK here is where I stand today with the Barrister's Bookcase. Nice to leave the politics/religion out of the shop sometimes:

Steve, the wood I have used for this project, has been IN the shop for over a year. Just got another 50BF from the girl friend so things are looking up!

 

You've been a busy little beaver. I like ash. I have a piece 12/4×7" x 10 feet I biught 5 years ago green. I could barely get it out of the truck. It's beenb drying that long, but I can't get it off the rack. I guess I'm getting old.
Nice, organized work.
No politics or religion, how about sex and rock 'n roll or Norton 750's or KZ900's?

ASteve

 

Mike, I hope Jim convinced you to use the ply rather than solid. You will be much happier in the long run, not to mention the easier aspect. For the record I have planed to 7/64 with my Ridgid planer (no problems).

 

Mike, Lowes and HD will also carry oak plywood. It isn't always the best but you can look through for just the right piece and not worry about shipping.

 

Wow, can't wait to see it when it's done. Hope you post it on the project page!

 

Another QUESTION:
Can you get 2-sided 1/4in plywood at a reasonable price?

The back panels should not need this nor the flooring of the shelve, BUT the sides of the individual shelving units will have BOTH sides revealed inside and out. As small as each double/pair of side inserts are, would it be better to rip those to size from solid lumber?

 

Mike, i just bought 2 sided oak 1/4" plywood at home depot for a little less than $26 a sheet. I am using it now.

 

Mike,

Yes, you can. You just have to ne careful sanding the stuff because the top veneer is thinner than a politician's promise. I personally don't like plywood, except for speaker cabinets and utility cabinets and prefer hardwood. You're putting a lot of work into this so you have to be the judge. Consider that ash is a very stable wood, and I have never seen anything relating relative thickness of the material to warp, twist, cup tendancies. Maybe Lowe's furring stock, but not properly dried, acclimatized hardwood. Epecially a stable wood.

The advantage of plywood would rest in the fact that you can glue it into the dado or groove giving a lot of strength and stabilitty. However, if you are confident in your joinery, that added strength and torsional rigidity is unnecessary in a project like this. If it were something that had to be moved about a lot under a load, ply would be the choice. !/4" is not that thin or weak. Your call. No one will know either way unless you tell them.

Steve

 

Steve SAID Yes, you can. You just have to ne careful sanding the stuff because the top veneer is thinner than a politician's promise.

Wail Hayeck! In THAT case I could probably get by with 90-grit on my power sander huh… ;-)

But really, my plans call for a single 10 3/4in piece for each side end insert with NO vertical divider. I am wanting to put that additional 2in divider in (just like the image above), so that would mean that I will only need two much narrower pieces about 4 1/2in wide each. That seems easy enough to do for this rookie, PLUS I think that I could actually try to "book-match" these insert pairs on each unit. That would be cool.

Hey Don! I guess I was NOT paying much attention last time I was at HD. I will check that out, especially since they are just 10mi. away. My Hardwood source is 40mi. one-way, or ~$13-$15 in gas/trip. Hate to have to think of such things with that tight of a sphincter but when $$$ are tight… HD to the rescue!

 

Well, I was surprised it was there, and surprised at the price. The part about the thin veneer is true, and I am not going to guarantee the inside veneers are real wood. It looks a little like crushed cookie to me. Sugar, not chocolate chip. It did finish up like oak though and served the purpose.

 

Yeah, I have had a couple of sheets of 3/4in oak ply sitting in the garage for over a year and finally started using it to build my jigs. And geez… you are right about the thin veneer. It is so thin that I could NOT tell it was a separate layer with the naked eye, that is until I started cutting on it.

So that being said, I am going to relegate this HD 1/4in stuff (if mine carries it) to just the backs and flooring of the shelving units where books can hide the boo-boos…

 

Yee hah… made it to town today with the girlfriend and managed to pick up 2 sheets of White Ash 1/4in Plywood, PLUS I made it over to HF and picked up a 23-gage pin-nailer with a 20% OFF coupon and paid all of $21 for it after the discount! It normally takes ~$15 in gas R/T when we don't combine trips so this thing is basically going to be a consumable, but it sure beats $120 at HD for one.

I have tended to stay away from HF power tools, but this was too good to pass on. Time to get crackin' on my project again. Have a Happy New Year, Happy Hogmanay, etc…

 

Mike,
if you are looking for a presentable surface I think it was Rockler's has a backed veneer thats like .030" or so.
Use the best side of the HD for the back and the veneer for the facing side.
Just an Idea.
tom