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Well, if you're still with me,
we'll move on to some of the processes involved in building the upper unit
that would eventually be attached to the lower unit completing the entire
library. The photo immediately below is what this upper unit looked
like after all work was done and it was attached to the base.
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We think the dark walnut over
TransTint® orange dye looks great with our new 5" figured hickory flooring
in the room. I had wanted to add a library to our family room as
soon as we built it onto our home and that was over 30 years ago!
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And
Now To Continue....
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I began
the upper shelving unit by jointing the edges of the upright, top and bottom
panel boards so that I could edge glue them. I would also do this
to the boards that would eventually be the shelves but I wanted to wait
until the first pieces were assembled in order to get the exact measurements
of the shelving boards required.
The upper
case would consist of two upright end panels, two center panels, a top
panel and a bottom panel. In the left picture below, you can see
one of the glued up panels being clamped. In the right photo is the
beginning of the upper case after adding the two center panels and center
shelves. I added dados to all the upright pieces to support the shelving
throughout.
Glued and clamped upright
panel.
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Beginning stages of
assembly.
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After the initial assembly with
the center shelving and all uprights in place, I then had enough of the
upper case completed to get the outer shelf measurements. Once these
were obtained, I installed my panel sled on the table saw and began cutting
the shelving into the proper overall lengths as shown here in the photo
on the left side of the page.
Various
Assembly Stages Of Upper Unit....
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The next step was to install
the final cut shelving into the main case. The unit looked like the
left photo below after these shelves were installed. In the right
photo below is a view of the unit after I had made and installed contoured
header pieces and the face frame. Note that the face frame was made
with extended top & bottom rails on the left side where I would eventually
install the half round side shelves.
Upper case after all
the
shelving had been installed.
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Upper case after face
frame and
contoured headers were in
place.
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 As
I said earlier, I wanted to make half round shelves on the left side of
the upper case to emulate what had been done on the lower unit. After
adding an upright panel to the back of the section where these half round
shelves were to be placed, I also made extended bottom and top pieces for
this area. You can see in the photo here on the right side of the
page how this section looked laying on my workbench before installing it
onto the main upper case.
 The
next thing that I did was to make some mouldings to fit on the upright
sections of the face frame and to fit around the base of the upper unit
after it was installed onto the lower unit. I thought that this would
add a little more detail to the finished look. You can see the face
frame upright mouldings being clamped to the upper case here on the left
and the base mouldings in the finished photo at the top of this page.
Well, at this point I was about done
with the upper case unit. I only had to apply the finish to it.
I of course, used the same finish as the lower unit by dying the case with
the TransTint® orange dye, using fine steel wool on it after it had
dried and then applied the Varathane dark walnut gel stain. As with
the lower case, I applied two coats of clear urethane to finish it off.
The photo here on the left below shows how everything looked just prior
to the finishing and the one on the right is how the case looked after
all the finishing was completed (less the back panel.)
Upper case just prior
to applying the finish.
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The completed unit after
finish
was applied and before back
panel was installed.
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The last thing I had to do
was prepare and install the back. I used 1/4" thick veneered white
oak plywood using the same finishing scheme as all the rest. When
this had been completed and after drafting my son-in-law to help me get
this beast into my family room and onto the top of the lower unit, this
is how it all looked.
I
definitely had fun building this library even though it set me back a really
good chunk of change for all the quarter sawn white oak, but it really
helped the appearance of our family room and is a long awaited place for
us to more attractively store our books.
Dave
dave@oldaveswoodshop.com
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