G&G Inspired Bookcase

[glenn bradley]

I have a dresser in mind but wanted to try out some of the design elements together first. I have books stacked up on the floor here and there so . . . a bookcase; what a brilliant idea . I'll try to get through this one quick enough to not put everyone to sleep.

Here's the SketchUp:

1-GnG-Bookcase-1-9-2D.jpg

Marking out parts:

2-GnG-BC-1-marking-out-stock.jpg

Got most of it broken down, milled and a couple of the panel pieces glued up:

a-GnG BC-1-size-parts.jpg

Here's an x-ray of the joinery just for fun:

GnG-Bookcase-xray-detail.jpg

I hope to have the other panel in the clamps and the joinery started this weekend.

[Jacob Mac]

That's going to be really nice. Do you have the G&G punches from Lee Valley? If not, I highly recommend them, they make seating plugs so easy and fast. It takes a lot of drudgery out of the G&G style.

One question: how do you build the bottom detail? I have done lots of G&G furniture, but I never figured out how to do the bottom board you have on your design. I am working on a G&G dresser for my wife, and I would like to incorporate that into my design. Any help would be most appreciated.

[James Phillips]

That's going to be really nice. Do you have the G&G punches from Lee Valley? If not, I highly recommend them, they make seating plugs so easy and fast. It takes a lot of drudgery out of the G&G style.

One question: how do you build the bottom detail? I have done lots of G&G furniture, but I never figured out how to do the bottom board you have on your design. I am working on a G&G dresser for my wife, and I would like to incorporate that into my design. Any help would be most appreciated.

For that bottom board I see two ways. One is to start with a thick board and use a dado blade to hog away material and then smooth it. This means that the grain is perfectly matched. Two (which is how I would do it) is to build the raised sections with wood that is carefully grain matched. If you sue rift sawn lumber (or QS) you would never notice they were separate pieces

[gary Zimmel]

She's going to be a beauty when done Glenn.
I want to see how the vertical cloud lifts on the sides look in real life.

Good too see you do another build thread. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks all. The bottom trim features I think we are talking about are the "straps". These are attachments and purposely have the grain running perpendicular to the horizontal lower frame pieces. Like most of my stuff this is a design rendered down from many pieces from many sources.

The "straps" are a wonderful design element first brought to my attention through Darrell Peart's excellent book Greene & Greene : Design Elements for the Woodshop. Through research and discussions with other G&G fans I found that these are simply glued on as the large area of long grain surface acts as an adequate binding surface for these non-structural pieces.

Gary, I fussed with the cloud-lift/tsuba-ish proportions created by the shaping of the vertical members till I was dizzy. I too am anxious to see how they translate into the real world ;-)

[Jacob Mac]

How do you attach the straps? Sorry if that is a remedial question. I have the book you referenced, but I am just a little lost.

[glenn bradley]

How do you attach the straps? Sorry if that is a remedial question. I have the book you referenced, but I am just a little lost.

Not remedial at all. I struggled with this one too. I had come up with a sliding dovetail solution only to find out it is done without mechanical fastening. I guess I just sometimes over think things .

As stated above "Through research and discussions with other G&G fans I found that these are simply glued on as the large area of long grain surface acts as an adequate binding surface for these non-structural pieces."

[Bill Huber]

Ok, I know I am a newbie at woodworking but what is G&G?

Oh yes that does look like a neat bookcase.

[Jacob Mac]

Ok, I know I am a newbie at woodworking but what is G&G?

Oh yes that does look like a neat bookcase.

Greene and Greene. Here is a neat link that has a lot of info: http://furnituremaker.com/

[Jacob Mac]

Not remedial at all. I struggled with this one too. I had come up with a sliding dovetail solution only to find out it is done without mechanical fastening. I guess I just sometimes over think things .

As stated above "Through research and discussions with other G&G fans I found that these are simply glued on as the large area of long grain surface acts as an adequate binding surface for these non-structural pieces."

Doh, I totally missed that, sorry for the redundancy. I am looking forward to following along.

[glenn bradley]

No worries Jacob. I re-made a few pieces due to some unexpected stress release

b-GnG-BC-1-stress-released.jpg

and got the last panel glued up. Time to cut to length so off to the sled. I saw some guy use these clamps on a video and thought I would try them as they were on sale with free shipping (always a wallet opener) from somewhere(?). With my sled's fence dimensions they work great. Maybe you really can't ever have enough clamps. . . .

d-GnG BC-1-sled-cuts.jpg

I wanted to check the finger joint proportions on the base so I cut those parts to length and then switched the sled inserts over for dados. I keep saying I'll make another sled just for dados but, to be honest I don't know where I'd put it when not in use. (gratuitous shot of the height gauge; quite handy).

e-GnG BC-1-sled-cuts.jpg

I tested the finger joints on some scrap and did adjust the dimensions a bit. Now that I'm happy with these on the real base I can scale the rest of the piece off of these dimensions.

f-GnG BC-1-sled-cuts.jpg

I had the smaller fingers at 3/4" in the SketchUp but increased them to 7/8" thereby making them square and liked this better.

[Chip Lindley]

Mahogany Glenn? G&G employed lots of mahogany in their pieces. Not a North American wood, but always nice. (when affordable) Early European settlers in America deemed cherry is "poor-man's mahogany" because of it's wide availability and working characteristics. Little did they know...

Arts & Crafts QSWO is always appreciated. Being in the Qzarks makes me really love cheap white oak! But the more even-grained mahogany probably allows more details to be added without being overpowered by all that fleck.

[glenn bradley]

African mahogany in this case. I bought a load thinking I would like it for some stuff in the house. I find I'm enjoying walnut more (but not the part where you pay for it. . . . ouch). This little bookcase will just about take care of what I had left in the rack and make some room for more walnut ;-)

The material does work really well and is (in my limited experience) quite consistent. The stress release was really unexpected. I mean, it happens of course, but my prior work out of this batch gave me no such reactions. It did seem to be restricted to one board so maybe it was just an odd duck in the batch I picked up(?).

[glenn bradley]

Delays, delays . . . I had to make 9 parts to get 4 that would work. That one board of mahogany I had was really lively. Made a template for the sides and shaped those boards.

o-GnG BC-1-vert-template.jpg

Had my first experience with over-doing it on the cyclone bin:

Cyclone-overfill.jpg

So between re-making parts and cleaning up the DC, I have pretty well killed my day. With luck I will get the verticals glued up before bed .

[gary Zimmel]

Upside is you did get some shop time Glenn...