Learning from Past Projects
It seems most of the furniture I build leaves my home as a gift, sale, or something similar. I rarely get to see how those pieces hold up over time. I haven’t had any complaints so I guess everything is just fine. The pieces in my own home are still in great shape, but I also baby them so that may not be a good judge of their durability. Two years ago I build a low bookcase for my wife to put in her voice studio at school where she teaches voice lessons. My instructions were to build something quick and not spend a lot on the wood since the shelf would take a beating from hundreds of middle and high school students every day. It was meant to hold the volumes of music she has both in binders and bound compilations. These volumes would be pulled off and put on the shelves hundreds of times each day. This shelf was going to take a beating.
Like any weekend woodworker, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and my version of a “simple” piece became a bit more complex. French feet, sliding dovetails, and mitered cockbead moulding around the shelves was the end product. The finished piece was painted so I did stick to the low cost wood requirement and used big box store Pine for the whole thing. I visited her studio this week and was able to take stock of how the book shelf is holding up. It looks great really. The french feet are strong and the moulded details on the sides and the top are still crisp. The problem area is the cockbead moulding on the bottom of each shelf. All those heavy books and book bags dropped hastily in front of the piece along with the occasional bump from a vacuum cleaner have caused several areas to crack and break away. The moulding is still intact and I will be able to glue the cracked piece back in place but how long will that last.
This is a valuable lesson that is only learned after getting some time with your furniture after heavy use.
1) Don’t make cockbead moulding out of Pine. It is too fragile. The total footage needed to make these moulding is so small that the expense of using something more durable wouldn’t be notices. Plus with the whole piece getting painted, I don’t have to worry about blending the appearance.
2) Keep the reveal less than 1/8″. This moulding is about 3/16 proud. It looked great but it just leaves too much sticking out that can break off.
3) Sliding Dovetails can withstand a bomb. They are still tight as can be and the case sides are flat even though this home center lumber was probably not very dry during the build.
That being said, I’m really glad to see this little shelf standing up to the beating it takes each week. My wife still tells me that people compliment her on the shelf every day so something must still look good.
