My home office isn’t “exactly” cluttered, and I recently rearranged it to let a lot more natural light in. So, in keeping with the improvements theme, I tackled a build that’s been in the Future Projects folder for quite awhile. Four bookcase units will be ganged together in the closet to replace the commercial wire shelving units that only utilize about half the volume of storage space available. The sliding bypass doors on the closet, which I don’t want to remove and reinstall, presented the minor design challenge of coming up with units that would slide through the door openings and still use most of the storage volume available.
The four units I came up with will slide straight into the existing door openings and take up the majority of the closet volume, both from side to side and from bottom to top. The upper units will be partially behind the closet door header, but at only twelve inches deep, those top shelves will be for seldom accessed but un-tossable kit! Rather than breaking out my shelf pin drilling jig and drilling a bunch of holes, I ordered brass plated shelf standards that will install quickly in shallow dadoes I cut in each of the carcass sides before assembly.
I always appreciate a project that gives rise to adding new tools or equipment to the workshop. Anticipating all that surface area (seven sheets of plywood!) of the carcasses and shelving, I’ve re-acquired an HVLP spray system, the single-stage turbine Earlex 5500. After quite a bit of research and some test samples, I’m going to spray a water-borne clear finish, MinWax Oil-Modified Poly. The water-borne finish brings much lower VOCs and soap-and-water cleanup to the party, and the oil-modified variation still adds some of the amber hue of solvent-based polyurethanes.
- Every cabinetry project starts with a trip to Chelsea Lumber
- Design done and plywood in the shop
- Using my Festool track saw to break down the sheet goods according to the cutting diagrams in my design
- Ripping plywood sections to final widths on the table saw
- Using my shop made cross cut sled to break the long plywood sections into individual components
- Most of the plywood components sized and ready for next operations
- My new Earlex 5500 HVLP spray system
- For a light duty HVLP system, the spray gun is high quality
- Setting up the dado blade stack on the table saw
- A set of these Kreg setup jigs, from 1/8″ to 1/2″ make quick and accurate work of setting cutting depths on the table saw
- Another Kreg jig assists in adding pocket screw holes to cabinet components for attaching face frames
- After making samples of both MinWax Polycrylic and Oil-Modified Polyurethane, the OMP product was much closer to the finish I was looking for
- The slight amber hue from the OMP finish is evident
- This birch plywood finishes well with one sanding at 150 grit
- Carcass assembly with Titebond III and two-inch drywall screws
- Test fit of the brass shelf standards that arrived the day I was assembling carcasses
- The Rockler spec for these brass shelf standards was 3/16″ x 5/8″ but since I cut the dadoes before I had them in hand, I made the dadoes 3/16″ deep by 11/16″ wide, just in case
- Assembling one of the bookcase carcass sides, top and bottom
- The stacked units will be 92 inches tall, with just enough ceiling clearance to allow the top units to slide up and onto the bottom units at the required angle
- Cross cutting the 1/2″ blywood backs a little long, to be match trimmed to the top of each cabinet
- Lower units with backs installed
- All four units with backs installed, ready for face frames
- Maple stock rough sized for face frames and shelf edging
- Shelf edging profile
- Attaching shelf edging
- A seven degree block guides a long drill bit to open the bottom of each pocket screw hole
- Face frame vise grips hold rail and stile in perfect alignment for pocket screw connections
- Assembling one of the face frames with pocket screws
- Attaching a face frame to a cabinet carcass with glue and pocket screws
- Blocks and quick clamps help straighten slightly bowed plywood sides
- Using a self-centering DowlIt drill jig and drill bushings to add connection holes in face frame stiles
- Cutting four shelf standards to length clamped between two pieces of 1/2″ plywood
- Built up “T” section spacers will position bookcases directly in line with closet door openings
- Lower cabinets with spacer and shelf dry fit in place
- Four cabinets ready for finishing
- MinWax Water-based Oil Modified Polyurethane (Satin) was the finish of choice to be applied with my new HVLP sprayer
- Workshop ready for spray tent deployment
- A 10′ x 10′ popup tent with three canvas sides provides a spray area and protects the rest of the workshop from overspray
- Each cabinet received two coats of poly, with a 220 grit sanding in between
- With the cabinets complete, saw horses provided support for all twelve shelves
- Soap and water cleanup of the water-based (borne) polyurethane was really nice
- An extra-duty lower shelf in place for spraying
- Shelving laid out to dry and harden up for installation
- Before shot of one side of my office closet, with wire shelving and a hodge podge of items
- Office closet contents and wire shelving emptied out of the closet
- Left side of new bookcases installed and partially filled
- Right side of new bookcases installed and pretty full already
- Everything reorganized and out of sight
- Every large project finishes with scraps on the burning pile. This burn included some of the original office cabinetry that I don’t need anymore!