Thread: Tasmanian Blackwood Bookcase

Very nice work Scally. I love the tassie blackwood. I think I will try and source some for my next project.

Next the base moulding which is a simple routed shape on the top edge of a 70mm board. It is glued to the front. The sides are screwed front and back. The back screw hole is over sized to allow the differential wood movement of cross grain to long grain. I put some PVA glue on the mitres and the front 10cm to hold the mitre tight.

The top moulding is three boards, glued and screwed together. Then fitted to the top the same way the base moulding was fitted.

All the outside surfaces are final sanded then given three coats of Feast and Watson's Floorseal.
A light fabric sanding then the final coat of finish.

Looks good.

This is a beautiful bookcase. Well done sir.

Hey Scally, looks great mate. Nice looking Blackwood too, is that some of Mals?

Very nice wood love the colour!!

That is a beauty Scally!!!

I love it! A couple of questions if you don't mind.

1. What finish did you use?

2. Did you do anything special to join the mitred mouldings? The reason I ask is that it takes me a long time to get this right.

Also, I use a drum sander and found that you can avoid the long grooves by feeding the timber in on a slight angle, alternating each time. Of course cleaning the abrasive regularly helps as well, as does ensuring the alignment is spot on.

I like it.
Is the back solid wood?

Like blackwood, but can be a bugger to work with. Great looking bookcase.

very nice Scally! You're right, it is a pity to cover it with books but it sure makes the pine stuff around look crappy.

Thanks for the kind comments.
Blackwood is a good Aussie timber.

I just visited Bungendore Gallery. Spectacular blackwood and other timbers.

Mine was plain but it still looks good.
Is all solid timber from Boutique timbers.
It was very dry and did splinter badly when routing the dovetail slides. A new or sharp bit would have helped a lot.

The wavy grain can also chip put with a plane of thicknesser especially if you are lucky to have fiddleback boards. A thickness sander gets rid of the problem.
I used coarse grit on the Rotex to remove the sanding marks then the ROS down to #400.

My finish was Feast and Watson Floorseal. I wanted a hard finish for the books. It looks alright but nowhere near as smooth as an oil finish.

Mitre joints on the cornices can be tedious. The base moulding mitres were cut on the table saw. The front board was glued to the cabinet. I glued the mitres with tightbond and the first ~ 10cm of the side boards. This should keep the mitre tight. A screw near the back, in a slot, holds the board tight to the cabinet and allows for variable wood movement.
The top moulding is built up with 3 boards. It was more fiddly to get the joints right and I had to do some filing and sanding to get the joints neat.
I did consider reinforcing the mitre joints with dominoes but settled for glue and screws.

Sweet job Scally