Popular Woodworking 2002-04 № 127, страница 67
BOOKCASE Designed to travel, this slant-sided bookcase was the perfect early-1900s answer to buying furniture through the mail. The Arts & Crafts movement was part of an interesting social change in America — the advent of mail-order purchases. Catalogs from Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Montgomery Ward were all the rage, and many companies took their cue and offered their wares for sale through catalogs rather than set up expensive retail establishments throughout the country. While it was a great idea, it raised a difficult problem with furniture. The majority of space in any piece of furniture is air. While air is very light, it's also bulky and expensive to ship. So furniture makers perfected a style of furniture that continues today — knockdown furniture. Finished disassembled, the furniture could be shipped flat, then assembled by the owner. Through-tenons with tusks were the turn-of-the-20th-century answer, while hidden cam-locking hardware is the answer today. Slanted Construction This project is actually a very simple bookcase made challenging by slanting the sides. Many of the knockdown bookcases had straight sides, but why do things the easy way? Start construction by preparing the panels for the sides and four shelves. If you aren't fortunate enough to have oak that's wide enough to make your sides using a single board, glue up the shelves or sides using two boards, but make sure the joint falls in the center of the finished panel. This is less important on the shelves; but since the sides come to a peak at the center, the joint becomes obvious if you're off the mark. Also, you can cut the top and bottom shelves to length, but leave the two center shelves long at this time. When the through-tenons are cut and fit, you can measure for the exact length of the center shelves. Critical Pencil Lines With the sides prepared, lay out the shelf locations, mortise locations and the overall shape in pencil on one of them. To allow you to do a minimum of angled or beveled cutting on the pieces, the shelves all fit into 3/4"-wide by ^"-deep dados cut at a 5° angle in the sides using the table saw. Because of this, the location of the shelves actually falls at an angle on the sides. A 1/l6" difference in shelf height By David Thiel Questions or comments? You can contact David at 513-531-2690 ext.255 or at david.thiel@fwpubs.com. |
