Back in March 2020 my office closed and told everyone we were working from home for the indefinite future. Now four and a half years later I am permanently working from home.
Two years ago I built a quick-and-dirty desk for my wife's home office. She really needed a nicer desk more than me. I've been using an old steel office desk I bought used at a metal salvage. It worked fine for holding things off the ground and had enough space for my monitors and computer. My wife had been working on a 2ft x 4ft student desk that didn't have space for her monitors and a keyboard.
Once I had my wife situated with a temporary desk made from a butcher block and some poplar legs I put on it my plan was to build myself a bookshelf to replace the old Sauder one I had been using to hold extra stuff.
I found plans in my Woodsmith magazine that I liked. I was going to use some free soft maple I have sitting on my lumber rack but I couldn't find enough clear maple to make the bookshelves. Since I ad enough leftover 12/4 maple from a prior project that would be appropriate for the legs I decided to go buy enough maple for the carcase.
This was to be my 2021/2022 winter project. I got as far as milling and gluing up the sides and shelves before tragedy struck.
Between multiple deaths in the family over the next two years I didn't have the bandwidth or energy to get into my shop. At least until this last summer (2024).
Step one was checking my shelves and sides to see if they'd warped, twisted, bowed, or done other unspeakable things over the years they were in storage. Fortunately before "shelving" the project I had stickered everything and it all stayed dead flat.
Step two was cutting the joinery on the parts. I made a quick and dirty jig for my Dewalt 2HP router. It's a horrible jig and I did a horrible job cutting the dados. I'm going to blame being rusty from 2 years of little or no woodworking. Living, learning, and growing.
The long groove on the back on on the shelf is for a captured 1/4" plywood back.
The next step was cutting all the tongues on the shelves. I a dado blade in my table saw to get close then used a shoulder plane to fine tune them until they fit the dados snuggly.
Unfortunately on my first dry fit I found out that my shelves fit one side but not the other. My plan was to cut the taper on both shelf sides using my circular saw and a straight edge. The "second" side I cut a little wide of the lines so I could use my router and a flush trim bit to make them identical.
Unfortunately I think I forgot the second step. I admit there was a brief panic. Then some overnight thinking. Then I checked and fortunately I had kept my stopped dados well enough short of the front that I could just trim the side side back. Then it was trimming the shelves to fit... again...
It made me glad that I've matured in my woodworking hobby past the point where I just throw glue on everything and figure out fitment problems on the fly with wet glue.
Anyway, after dry fitting I took it apart again, added glue and put it all back together.
I have to admit, I thought I wanted to hand chop the mortises. I failed. I did one or two. They were pretty ugly. I don't actually have a mortising chisel so I was trying to use a bench chisel. It probably wasn't sharp enough either. Failure can be a learning experience. I keep telling myself that and hope it's true.
Anyway, I "cheated" and drilled out the bulk of the waste using my drill press and Forstner bits. I then went back with the bench chisel to flatten the sides. Regardless of the technique no one can tell after it is all glues up.
In the above picture you can see the template used to shape the front rail. I think the instructions said to shape the front and the back rail. I didn't bother because no one is ever going to see the back rail. I tapered the legs, made the riser blocks, rounded over the corners, sanded and then it was done.
I finished the carcass, the back, and the legs separately with water based General Finishes polyurethane.
I was a little nervous about the back sliding in. Dry fitting it before finish it was really tight. Fortunately the finish actually made sliding it in place easier. It was a nice firm fit.
If you try this project I found adding the stand to the carcass a little tricky. Personally I prefer joinery to align parts but in these plans it's just "line them up and screw them together. I found I needed a straight edge to make sure everything was aligned properly and then a few shims to get everything aligned.
I guess I didn't get any photos of building the drawer. It's a 1/2" baltic birch plywood drawer with a maple false front. I did use side mount metal drawer slides. I'd considered options: no slides, wooden slides, undermount drawer slides.
I went with the side-mount metal drawer slides because I had them and I wanted to be done with the project. This unfortunately is one of my weaknesses. Knowing the mistakes I'd made on other parts of the project I just wanted it to be done.
All that said, it's a nice bookshelf. It looks good and holds things off the ground. Only woodworkers who look closely will see my mistakes. I would recommend these plans and the project to anyone who likes the looks of the bookshelf.
https://www.woodsmithplans.com/plan/slant-front-bookcase/
