The Mammoth Bookshelf

The Mammoth Bookshelf

Along with one or two other projects, this one has been taking up the majority of my time. Originally it wasn't going to be anywhere near as big but as with the majority of things, minds were changed along the way and a behemoth was born.

The initial idea was a simplistic bookshelf with staggered shelves to make it slightly more quirky with DVD and CD sections. It then became a bookshelf to house cats as well. Then it had to fit floor to ceiling and around coving. I had a job on my hands.

The first thing I had to do was get the materials in and then some more. Standing at 2.34m high and 1.5m wide, a lot of wood was needed for this one. That and the shelves were doubly thick on 7 sections added to the number needed.

The first major task was to get all of the wood cut, which was a feat on its own. 10 sections at 25cm, 21 sections at 47.5cm and 5 sections at 2.34m meant a lot of work for the chop saw.

47.5cms

The first lot of the 25cm sections

Once I had the cuts made, I needed to grind away a lot of the damaged wood to get back to the grain and create curves on the front face. This took quite a substantial amount of time, but the end result was worth in my eyes. The next step was to start assembling the first of the 4 sections. Measure twice and drill once was the plan, but that went out the window straight. There was a lot of test and adjust with this one but it all got there in the end.

The first section assembly

Once the first section was pieced together, I stood it up outside the garage to take a look at it. It wasn't too bad to start and just needed 1 or 2 tweeks to get it right. Then it was on to the second part.

First section complete

The second part took slightly longer than the first as I couldn't use the drill to drive the screws in due to the size of the space. Had I thought about it I would have rejigged the construction to make it simpler. This section incorporated 3 of the 'Cat Shelves' which I managed to make by joining 2 of the 47.5cm sections together with a dowel joint and some wood glue. I then used the chop saw to take off the ends to try and make it cat friendly. I also wanted to try and retain some of the original features of the boards, so I grinded down some of the metal work and blended it back in to the shelves.

Second section complete

With the 'Cat shelf'

Cat Shelf detail

Frame Detail

Metalwork

As you would expect, the next task was to put together the third section which was a mirror copy of the first and it went on with relatively little fuss and the result of that venture can be seen below. At present, this is the bookshelf's state, but the fourth and final section will be on in the next few days. Unfortunately I suffered a casualty in the making of this one, as my trusty drill has packed in due to extensive use over the last 4 years. Off to get a new one in the sales me thinks! As for the finish, that has yet to be decided and is out of my hands. I would love for it to stay like this but as it isn't for me, it will be decided by the soon to be new owners. Check back in the next few days for the final result. This has been a labour or love so far and to be honest I now cannot wait for it to be finished as I have absolutely no room in my garage now for the other projects.

Third section complete

 Finally, the beast is complete with wax on top. As you can see it has taken up the majority of my garage space which has made it a bit of a nightmare to work on and check as I went through but thankfully it has all come together at last. As much as I would like to keep it, I'll be glad to see it go. I've learnt a lot of lessons on this one. Namely, I need better tools and I shall be getting some quality pieces over the next few months to hopefully make light work of future jobs. That and the fact that an angle grinder can do almost anything. I love that thing. Anyway, that's it for now. The next project won't start itself so I best get back to the garage. Many thanks for looking and check back soon for the next project as well as some pictures of this beast in its new home!

It's been a while!

Progress

It's been a while since my last post, which has been mainly due to work and several projects on the go at once. But thankfully I'm getting through them now and should have them all completed relatively shortly.

So the first one I've managed to complete is a wine rack I decided to make just for the hell of it.

I had a bunch of Oak left over from my coffee table so decided I needed an Oak wine rack in my life and thus a project was born. Now I had seen a few racks knocking about the bazaars and decided on a style I liked after much deliberation. The first thing I had to decide was just how many bottles of wine I wanted it to hold. Initially I was thinking around the 100 mark, but settled on 6 due to the fact my house couldn't accommodate that many.

So Once I had that sorted, I needed to go to the local DIY place of bits and bobs to get myself an 82mm hole-saw in order to get rid of the Oak for the bottles. A few careful measurements later and I had the six sections I needed to remove for the bottles. Then it was a case of using the hole-saw for the first time. This took several attempts and eventually I had the thing working as it should have been.

With the hole in place and only going about a third of the way through the wood, I needed to remove the section in any way I could. The easiest way to do this was with a chisel and a wack of a hammer. A few wacks later and the first third of the Oak was removed. I repeated this for the remainder and I had my first wine holder. I quick check with a bottle of plonk and all was good.

All I had to do then was repeat the process for the other 5 sections of the rack and I would have a lovely little wine holder. An hour or two later and I had all of the bits out and it was ready for a quick bit of finishing. I decided I wanted the rough and ready look and used an angle grinder to get rid of the straggly bits and pieces, followed by a quick bit of sanding to polish it all up. 

And here it is in all its
glory. It's a little bit rough around the edges but that's what I wanted in the finish for this one. My next attempts may see me sanding it down a lot more to get right into the grain beneath the surface. All it needs now is to finish it with a wax or oil and it's ready for extensive use!

Many thanks for looking!

The finished Shelves and Side-Tables

The finished Shelves and Side-Tables

So I finally managed to get the project for Anthony finished. And below you can see the results. I had the joy of installing the shelves in his old Victorian home and all I can say is, straight lines were non-existent. This presented several niggly issues, but they could all be sorted by a quick use of the circular saw or a bit of planing to get the shelves nice and snuggly fitted.


Below you can see the TV shelf just after its first coat of wax. It really helped to bring out the grain on the boards and has added a lovely depth to them. And beside it you can see the left hand side of the alcove with the TV shelf and the 2 above. Once the TV shelf was in, the next 2 were a doddle.

Next you can see the final 2 shelves for the right hand side of the alcove. Again these were very easy to install and thankfully only needed a small piece taken from the back of them to get them to sit flush against the front face of the fireplace.

I had tried to keep a lot of the features of the boards as mentioned in a previous post and once the wax was applied it really brought out the letter work on each of them.

And again, trying to retain some of the features I kept some of the metal-work as well. A quick buff with the angle grinder saw the rust fly of this and again I think it's a lovely little touch to help make it all that little bit more unique.

And finally on the right here you can see the two little side tables for Anthony's living room. Both have one coat of oil and a finishing wax on top to help protect them. Once in their rightful place I'm sure they will look fantastic.

Now that that one has been completed, the next project is already on the cards and I shall have the next post up in the coming week all going well.

Thanks for looking and be sure to check back soon!

A just because bed-side table

A just because bed-side table

I found myself bored one day and decided that our bedroom was in need of a bedside table. So off I popped to get some wood and I took it from there. 

I purchased some nice rustic looking softwood (I was going to opt for Oak but didn't have the extra pennies required) and decided to use some spare wood I had in the garage left over from a pergola project as the legs.

As the wood came in 1.2m sections I only had to make 2 cuts to get the 3 individual parts for the top. After that I had to make the 4 legs for the table. The main lesson I've learnt from this project is that I NEED a table saw. The circular saw just wasn't cutting it when it came to getting accurate right-angle cuts and therefore I had to spend a lot of time getting the whole thing levelled. As I was making it for myself, I wasn't too worried about the underside, but if this was for someone else, it would have been finished off and secured in a much neater way. I used 2 spare sections on the underside to act as a brace to hold it all together and whilst they do they job, they are not that nice to look at. But as I say, this one was for me.

To finish it all off, I decided to go for a lovely dark oil so that it tied in nicely to our bedroom. Below is the finished article. I didn't want to take away from the overall rustic look of it so I decided to only give it a fine level of sanding. This meant that it is still quite rough to the touch which I love.

Thanks for looking and apologies for the dark pictures.

My first Oak Table

My First Oak Coffee Table

So this is my first attempt at making an Oak Coffee Table. The wood was a bit of a bargain from the local sawmills as he had quoted me for a far inferior slab of wood and stuck to his word when I picked up this industrial grade seasoned oak. And what a lump it was.

So far I have planed and sanded it to within an inch of it's life and just need to get the whole lot levelled before finalising the table top itself. Once it's all together one of my mates should be taking it off my hands for his new abode. If I had the room in my living room it would most certainly be going in there.

So as you can see from the above pictures. This is roughly what it should look like once it's finished. A few grades of sanding and a pukka levelling job and it will be good to go. Just need to get some doweling to join it all up underneath and the job is a fish. I will get the finished article pics up here once it's done!