Thread: Bookcase frame joint advice

"Previously I have rebated the ends of the upright panels and set the top panels into this rebate with glue and screws, but this time thought I'd pick the great brains in here and see what is suggested."

Oversized dovetails, protuding ones so they are visable!

Thanks for the rapid response Harry. What do you define as "oversize" dovetails? Is it possible to cut these with the router?

Sorry for the dumb questions, but I have done a lot of woodwork over the years (mainly large projects - house extensions, etc) but no fine furniture work. I have never cut a dovetail,so am nervous about this sort of work.

Thanks again

Cheers

A-Drain

I have also done a few and found that the Gifkin Dovetail jig is great

I know that it is costly to buy but you get so much value out of it .
Espically if you build a table to suit with a couple of cheep routers
mounted underneath . Cheep because you arn't running them for very long periods. Having two means that you don't have to change router bit to cut each end



Ham and eggs. A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.

Like Harry, I too use dovetails. I make them by hand.

The dovetails stop the sides springing apart and causing an avalance of shelves and books. This is normally followed by profane language - not a very nice scene!

I don't bother with the adjustable shelves. I think they are a nice idea for Ikea or Harvey Norman to sell to buyers who will different requirements but you want to make heaps of identical units. Normally the shelves are only adjusted once and left that way. The brass supports are a bit flimsy and the bookcase is not as sturdy. I'd measure up your books and design the bookcase to suit your books.

Attached is a photo of a bookcase showing the dovetails I made a few years back.

Sliding dovetails are ideal for bookshelves, and a jig is very basic and easy to make (there are umpteen variations, but what I use came from a very old FWW article, and works well).
And I'm with wood-borer about adjustable shelves. Fit a couple of shelves, at least, with sliding dovetails - adds greatly to the firmness of the thing. One or two adjustable shelves in a tall set is fine, just in case......
Cheers,

Originally Posted by Ashore

Espically if you build a table to suit with a couple of cheep routers
mounted underneath . .

Beware cheap routers, I went down that track and one had the bearing crap itself and we wound up with a ruined piece of walnut with a tapered set of pins.
Woodborer and others saw the results, the router has about 1/4" play up and down and of course it will climb up into the wood.
Just a word of warning to the unwary.
It was an Ozshito router now to become a canoe anchor..........if I can't offload it at a garage sale.

Iain's spoilt joint wasn't good but he makes it sound worse than it really was. The moral of the story is of course the finished job won't be better than the quality of the tool used. The difference being the skill and patience of the operator.

Try cutting them by hand, it isn't that difficult once you get your head around to trying them.

It seemed like a good idea at the time and I was unaware that the bearing was progressively developing more play over the last three pins.
I have since replaced bother routers with better quality units and have not had any problems since.

Originally Posted by A-Drain

The bookcase will be 2 1200mm X 1200mm frames on top of each other with Spotted Gum shelves and sliding glass doors.

1200mm is pretty wide for a single shelf unless you are using pretty thick timber (even spotted gum) for the shelves. Check out the sagulator www site. http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm

Qw

Just a quick question for Borer and the other fundi's on this forum.


Which is the correct orientation for the dovetails on a cascass? Borers' photo shows them with the tails on the vertical, which would resist lifting the b'case using the top, but having the pins on the "stiles" would better resist spreading forces.

Opinions please

(not a hijack, just a quest for more info)

The pic isn't all that clear to my chronologicall-challenged looking-gear, but I think they are the ends of the tails you can see, which means he's got them oriented to resist the rails pulling away from the shelves. This, as you suggest is the most logical way.
If those shelves are meant to be lifed by the top shelf, I don't want to pick any fights with that boyo.......

Bad photo Alastair.

The dovetails are oriented so they resist the sides moving apart.

If you were to suspend the bookcase from the roof then the dovetails would be as you suggested. Not that I know of many bookcases suspended from the roof!

In my shed most of my drawers (radiata pine) are suspended below existing shelves so I made the dovetails on the frames accordingly. They work well in that none of my tools have hit the deck since installing them starting 10 years ago.

If you want photos, please let me know if it would make this discussion more understandable not only to you but perhaps to others because it is a very important point you raised.

I would hate to think I had given someone a steer in the wrong direction.

Ian, I'm not that tall or strong. The bookcase was made to hold Meg's videos so for my own safety I had to make them strong. Any damage to the videos would multiplied several times onto me. :eek:

Phew - thanks for reassuring me, WB!
Yairs, I am estimating the size of the unit from the books, but it looks pretty big and solid to me. I wuz thinking - if he lifts that and carries it around, I'm going to be werry, werry, polite to you from now on....

Ok, looks like I'm going to have to learn to dovetail. A few more questions:

1. Can you dovetail with a router? If so is there some sort of instructions somewhere on the net that posters recommend?

2. If you have to rout (?) the ends of the frame panels, how do you hold 4' of timber verticle as you pass it over the router blade?

3. What are sliding dovetails and how do these differ from just plain old dovetails?

Sorry about all the questions, but don't want to waste this beautiful timber.

Cheers

A-Drain