Thread: WIP - Tallow and Maple Book / Display Shelf

Great looking slabs Scott, I look forward to seeing the end result.

Looking good Scott. Love the colour of the tallowwood, it should come up really nice when finished. Looks like your design by available resources has been successful, well done.
Following with interest. Ian

Good job Scott, with your borers, keep an eye out for any small piles of sawdust building up in a cone shape as they push it out of the holes, if evident you can drizzle a bit of turps or metho or white spirit into the holes, they don't like that too much and soon turn up there toes.


Pete

Coming along nicely so far.

Some progress to report.

Spent most of Saturday morning dressing the timber to straighten and smooth the sides. Fired up the old jointer (unknown maker) that had been sitting in the garage unused since it was given to me around 3 years ago. The old girl needed a new V belt for the drive and I wasnt motivated to get it working until I had a project that needed it. Turns out it works just fine, and did an admirable job of straightening the timber and made a massive mess in the process. Half filled the wheelie bin with shavings.

Timber all dressed up and nowhere to go:


Then the massive process of marking the posts and double checking the dimensions before making any cuts. This revealed a couple of calculation errors I made when planning the job, and revealed I had cut the long posts approx 30mm short! Ah bugger. Anyway, this only mattered as the overall height of the finished unit would be approx 30mm shorter. Not significant.

Started the cutting and worked my way from top to bottom of the longest uprights to give the overall shelf some shape. Managed to complete the 6 joints today before I ran out of motivation and time. Did a dry fit test run to see how it would go, and to my surprise, it all went together without too much force and cursing.

The progress so far:




I have realised that there are a couple of gaps that will need a small piece of maple to inlay into them due to the natural curve on the bottom of the slabs. It is visible in one of the photos but structurally this thing is rock solid without even having all of the posts installed. Cant wait to see it glued and finished.

Will be back at it next weekend.

Cheers,

-Scott

Friday night progress update.

All bar 6 of the joints are cut and dry fitted. A couple of oops moments where stuff didnt fit as it should. No worries, we can fix that!

A couple of teaser photos for those following.





These photos show the final mortice / tenon joint where the top shelf meets the second top shelf. This was an easy one, with a bit of drilling, and then some rough mallet and chisel work.

Still having fun with this one, and hoping to have the cutting and structural parts of this done by the end of the weekend. Then begins the filling of the borer holes, and the final finishing etc.

Cheers,

-Scott

Almost complete!

This was the first time I had a completely dry fit test run to see if the whole thing fit together as it should. The thing is complicated to put together with basically only one sequence that allows it to go together. This process showed me a couple of things, firstly that my joints were mostly nice and tight, and secondly, that I had made a couple of mistakes (due to the natural shape of the timber slabs - visible in the photos).

Here is how it looks so far:





Next the big glue up, filling the borer holes and 'gaps', and the sanding frenzy. But this is what it will look like.

More next weekend.

-Scott

lookin good

Nice.

Been at it a few times since the last update, basically filling in holes, completing the inlay work to make up for my haste in cutting a couple of notches (and not checking if the natural profile of the bottom of the slabs was right). So there will be some more photos this weekend.

My aim is to have the first coat of Clear Polyeurethane on it by Saturday afternoon. Nothing like a bit of optimism

A couple of comments.
1. I love 5 minute Araldite. That stuff is magic. Bit of sanding dust for colour and instant bog. Just got to be careful not to mix up too much of it. You literally get 3 mins before its as good as solid.
2. This shelf is bloody heavy... (2 man lift for sure)

Still having fun with this, but itching to see it with a finish applied.

-Scott

Some photos. I have finished plugging borer holes and tear-outs etc. But there is still some more work to do to fill in the gaps between the shoulders of the rebates and the slabs.





Example of the inlay work I was forced to do because of a little cockup! Once its coated in clear it will barely be noticeable.



A more appropriate example. Excuse the horribly loose joint at the end grain that I had to fill with resin.



More on the weekend.

-Scott

Hi all,


Been a bit quiet the last week because I have been busy as hell at work, but here is the finished product:











There are mistakes still all over it. But who cares. My wife loves it, and made short work of loading it up with books and other goodies.


Another happy customer.


-Scott

Looks great Scott. Love the Tallowwood.

personally,i love it,so much so that i'll copy it. great use of small slabs with natural edge.great work