Woodworker's Journal 2009-33-6, страница 44

Gluing and clamping the long, narrow blanks from which the shelves and uprights are cut is time-consuming. The author applied his glue with a water-moistened paint applicator (above) and allowed at least four hours (but preferred overnight) for the glue to cure.

Machine Accurately

Cut the shelves and uprights to length. They must be dead-square and exact in length.

The author used a plunge router guided by a shop-made jig to cut the dadoes and rabbets into the shelves. A plunge router makes it easy to take multiple passes on the 3/4" by 3/4" cuts.

As I found out the hard way, a moment's lapse in concentration can necessitate a complete "do-over" on an individual component.^

— Rob Johnstone

Glue-Up Tip

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These are really large pieces to handle during a glue-up, so here's how I did it. Grabbing a large glue bottle, I swizzled a wiggly line of glue onto each piece. Then I borrowed a paint-pad usually used for wall painting, and dampened it with water. Using the painting pad, I spread the

use a handheld plunge router to cut this joinery. These rabbets and dadoes could be formed on a table saw with a dado head just as easily. After I set up my router and made a few test joints using cutoffs from the actual stock (see photo at left), I continued to test the fit of the joints randomly throughout the routing process. Once the joints were all cut, it was time to assemble the bookcases.

I used a foam paintbrush to apply a thin coat of glue to the faces of each joint. I built up one compartment at a time, checked them rigorously for

44 December 2009 Woodworker's Journal

Careful fitting of the bookcases' exposed joints is the key to building this project. It is a good idea to continue to test your machining as you proceed through the building process.

glue into a thin, smooth layer on each piece of plywood (see photo, upper left). Assembling the glue-blank sandwich, I clamped them together and to my assembly table using square-head clamps with additional Jorgensen woodscrew clamps on either end. Clamping to the assembly table ensured that the glue-up would remain flat (see photo, left). Due to the extra moisture content in the glue and the large surface area, I allowed a minimum of four hours for the glue to cure. Most of the blanks I left in clamps overnight.

Square and True

When the glue cured, I returned to my table saw and squared up the edges of the long blanks. With the second slice of the process, I ripped them to their final width. Then I used my power miter saw to crosscut the shelves and uprights (pieces 1 and 2) and even the TV shelf (pieces 3 and 4) to length. I cannot overemphasize how much trouble you will save yourself if these cuts are exactly square and true, so double-check your saw settings for each new cut.

With the components prepared, it was time to start machining the joints. These are straightfor-d dadoes and rabbets, but since they're exposed, they need to fit snugly to look good. I decided to