Bookcase Help

ezra_

Hello,

I'm looking to make up a set of bookcases.

We have an old room that we are going to turn into an office / study, and we have a lot of books (herself is a historian).

Rather than go out and just buy some kallax units in Ikea, I'd like to have a shot at doing up some bookcases for the room.

I'm reasonably handy with DIY matters and am comfortable working with wood, but haven't a clue how to go about this.

Has anyone done this before / got any good recommendations?

Bonzo Delaney

It depends on what tools/ machinery you have acess to an what level of finish you or more importantly OH would be happy with

magicbastarder

simple enough to buy some 7x1 deal and just screw it together - won't look very classy from close up, but did the job for me:

you can tell the older ones from the newer ones by how much they've darkened with age.

Bonzo Delaney

magicbastarder wrote: »

simple enough to buy some 7x1 deal and just screw it together - won't look very classy from close up, but did the job for me:

you can tell the older ones from the newer ones by how much they've darkened with age.

Nice
The simplest ideas are usally the best ones

recipio

Think about the material. Rough timber will attract dirt and even planed softwood will be pricey and need finishing. You could use the various panel boards but they look 'plastic' in appearance. Personally I like baltic ply sheets cut to size.
If ya havn't got one, buy a pocket hole jig - It saves having to do joinery and ties the shelves together. I now try to make shelves as 16" x 16" cubes - it looks nice and keeps the books from falling over ! Don't forget to put in a 5 cm toe kick in the base.

ezra_

Thanks Guys.

Tools; I have access to a good range of tools, but these aren't at home.
I've just the usual DIY kit.

Regarding the finish, planed timber would better, as I don't want to go down the route of having to finish it myself.

Design wise, I was hope to to have the edges sufficiently wide (I was think two boards with a spacer between, and then get some moulding or something to go over that.

For the shelves themselves, I like the idea of the 16" cubes.

magicbastarder

recipio wrote: »

Think about the material. Rough timber will attract dirt and even planed softwood will be pricey and need finishing.

re the the photo i posted above - IIRC it's about 60c a foot for the planed 7x1 deal, and i used acrylic (i.e. water based) floor varnish as a finish. usually three coats is adequate. easy to sand back between coats though.

recipio

Mmmm.........you are going to use planed softwood and leave it untreated.? That's fine but it will get a bit grubby with use. Tacking on some moulding will work but it tends to be made from some Far East hardwood and will stick out compared to 'white deal' The ideal way is to rout a moulding in the front edge but I appreciate restraints on equipment etc.
Shelves should be about 10 -12" deep to accomodate large books and don't forget they should not sag - search for www.sagulator.com to calculate the thickness in relation to span. There is more to this bookcase lark than you think

ezra_

recipio wrote: »

Mmmm.........you are going to use planed softwood and leave it untreated.? That's fine but it will get a bit grubby with use. Tacking on some moulding will work but it tends to be made from some Far East hardwood and will stick out compared to 'white deal' The ideal way is to rout a moulding in the front edge but I appreciate restraints on equipment etc.
Shelves should be about 10 -12" deep to accomodate large books and don't forget they should not sag - search for www.sagulator.com to calculate the thickness in relation to span. There is more to this bookcase lark than you think

Cheers - I didn't mean untreated, I just meant that I didn't want the hassle of planing them!

Stain and varnish was the expected finish.

recipio

ezra_ wrote: »

Cheers - I didn't mean untreated, I just meant that I didn't want the hassle of planing them!

Stain and varnish was the expected finish.

Well, you can buy 8 x4 sheets of 'pineboard' which are slats of pine glued together and planed on both sides. I think it is a bit thin at around 16 mm. If you do find 10" wide planed softwood it is likely to have some 'cupping' ( convex/concave) and that makes fitting difficult.Lastly, staining and varnishing is hard work and with white deal might be a bit patchy. When I use baltic ply I simply finish with a few cans of spray lacquer - much easier.
PS The sagulator site seems to be gone but I see alternatives on searching.

Ravenerabnorm

I'd recommend a veneered ply wood if you're not in the mood for dealing with hardwoods and want to keep costs down. Throw some edge banding on the end grain if aesthetics are an issue.

My personal preference is to make 2 sides and a back panel, use a router to make a slot equal to half the panels thickness in all three panels and slide the shelf into the slot. That is a somewhat more permanent solution than people would like so you could use screws like mentioned above. If you want versatility you could drill partial holes in the side panels and use dowels to support the shelves at either side.

Do you have rough dimensions of the size of bookcases you want to build?

RobAMerc

I built this from MDF.

Construction itself was simple then paid 200 to have it sprayed ( just the book case ) as you can see the hand painted bits Ifire surround and corner) to the right dont look as good though.

The Book shelf is basically 3 boxes of various sizes put on top of each other with a fluted trim to hide the sections.

MDF is cheap and easy to work with, get it finished by a pro and it will look like a pro job.