Sellers Home Bookshelf: Episode 6
Posted 18 August 2021
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The last joinery section on the bookcase is to cap off the top with an overhanging piece parallel to the last cross-member and equidistant to the ends and sides. This piece relies on stopped housing dadoes to unite the top to the sides and the front, arched frieze which Paul screws and glues for added security and longevity. Paul uses wooden plugs to conceal the screw heads. This episode concludes all of the joinery elements of the project.
Nice to watch you work.
Thank you Paul,
When you cut the housing dados on the top of the cabinet, one side wall was done with the chisel 1/16 away from the knife wall (outside walls) and the inside was done with the slightly slanted chisel. Is there a reason for the different techniques of the interior vs exterior walls, or just demonstrating different techniques. Thanks for the great series.
The wooden plugs concealing the screws – how were they made please
Take any pre-made dowel or a square stock of about the same dimension and shape it conical with a chisel. It’s very easy.
Just noting the luxury of having two hand routers; the Veritas version has a depth stop so I often set this when marking the depth of the housing dado, and then I can adjust the router down to final depth as I work.
Cheers, Andy
I agree, multiple routers are very useful. So I make wooden body ones and make the blade from a large Allen key. (Other keys are available 🙂 )
Hej Flemming,
With a plug/dowel cutter, I believe.
Veritas offers a series that I’m pleased with. They deliver tapered plugs, which facilitates a very snug fit. There must be other brands as well, with products perhaps marketed as knot drill bits.
Believe there is a video where Mr. P. Sellers demonstrates how to use these cutters; but if not, the cutter is fitted to a pillar drill, bored down into the plug providing material, after which the plugs are freed by sawing that piece. (Remember now that there is a video where this is done on a bandsaw, but which video? It’s not episode 6 of the desk chair project)
You can use a plug cutter without a drill press( pillar drill) by finding a bushing that fits the outside of the cutter and cementing it into a hole in a scrsp of wood to start the cutter. Hold or clamp that to the wood you are making the plugs from.
Once you have started the hole you can use the cutter without the guide.
Will the top expand and contract with the seasons causing it to split since the screws are holding it in place?
I asked Paul and he said:
No, it is unlikely, most unlikely. The reason? There is enough play on the holes and the screws to take up the minor expansion or contraction that may or may not occur. This contrary grain direction would affect wood that was, say, twice as wide but over so short a distance and with so little moisture in the wood and the surrounding atmosphere there will be no issue.