Google Analytics Alternative

RWW 193 Display Shelf Part 1

8 comments
10 years ago
Maple Display Shelf     Projects     Videos

This shelf is a very simply designed and built project for a customer. When I started it I’ll be honest that I thought it to be an easy one that I could just knock out quickly and I have allotted 5 hours total to build it. What I discovered was that it wasn’t difficult to build but the simplicity of it allows me to really focus on getting it done perfectly and that has been a whole new exciting learning experience.

In this first part I focus on the legs. Milling, sizing, dado joinery, and finishing touches like tapers and chamfers. I also bring out my adjustable dado plane technique that I wrote about several years ago.

Here is the SketchUp model of this design for anyone who is interested

Leave a Comment:

All fields with “*” are required

Jonathan Szczepanski

Nicely done sir. Fun simple projects like this sure are a nice break from large complex pieces. Have you thought about gluing on a 1/16″ strip around the back edge instead of hollowing it out? I think I would have broke that middle piece in between the outlet holes trying to hollow it out.

    Shannon

    That would work, though it would be 10x longer than hollowing it out. With the grain running vertically I think you will find it really tough to break that center piece. This is where the Travisher or a convex spokeshave is best since you can more accurately control the depth over just using a gouge.

Chet Kloss

A definite must for my shop. Now that you’ve done a few, do you see any benefit from doing the hollowing out first?

    Shannon

    Absolutely not. If you hollow first then you won’t have the material supported underneath while chiseling it out. At best you will get a lot of vibration and it will make chopping difficult. At worst, you will break the piece as it flexes.

      Andy G.

      When you were applying the roundover to the show face edge, I was thinking that I would probably have done that before hollowing out the back. You can see the flex in that plate as your off hand applied pressure to hold the plate in place. Excellent post, but I have to it on the QT. If my wife sees it, I’m dead ’cause we’ve got about 75 plates in our house.

Rob Horton

Fun stuff. Did you buy new black screws to hold the face plate on? Could you have torched off the paint and dipped the original screws in gun blue?

    Shannon

    Yes, but I was at the big box store anyway and the $1.50 for the box of screws was too good to pass up. Plus they are longer which I will need for a few of the other outlets that aren’t flush with the boxes. Also I’m out of gun blue and the screws are cheaper. 😉

Tim Charles

I really like how these turned out. It’s a good project to do just to get something done and feel accomplishment. These are on my to do list now.

Bill Rainford

Nice work. Our current house had some commercially made wood switch plates that I recently changed out (I put in the decora (aka rectangle) style plugs with built in child safety stuff — way better than the old plastic plugs they had back in the ’80s that were hard to get out even for grown ups)
Anyways on the backs of plates I removed they all had some thin sheet metal to ground them and be a potential spark arrester — something you may want to add especially if working with older switches etc.

Paul Roebuck

Please tell me you used something between the workpiece and the workbench to chop out the waste.