Built in bookcases

[Don Scott]

I'm a little apprehensive about starting a new thread since I've been a member for so long without being active, but I need some advice from fellow woodworkers/cabinetmakers on a project that involves some built in book cases in a high end home.

I have 4 units to build for a library room. Each unit is 48" by 120" tall by 12" deep. What is throwing me for a loop is that the units must match the trim that will be going in the rest of the room. That consists of 5 1/4" by 12" high plinth blocks at the bottom, a 5" fluted casing, and 5 1/4" rosettes at the top corners. The entire cabinet and trim will be painted white to match the rest of the trim in the house.

My lumber supplier has 3/4" maple plywood in a 4 x 10 foot size. My concern is that I need to leave a 1/4" to 5/16" reveal on the face of the cabinet to match an adjacent door and that will expose the edge of the plywood. I'm normally a face-frame kind of guy so I really haven't had to deal with this situation before. Another option would be to make the carcass out of poplar or maple and alleviate that reveal issue, but I'm not sure about the stability of the wood in that situation.

One other issue that I wanted an opinion on is shelf pin holes. I normally use 5mm pins and on this one I'm going to space them at 2 or 2.5 inches apart. At 1 1/4" it starts looking like swiss cheese so I want to keep the spacing larger but still give a good bit of flexibility on adjustments. Any advice on minimizing the look of the holes? Dress them up with inserts or fill the unused ones with plastic plugs?

Many thanks for any advice!

Don Scott

[Jamie Buxton]

I'm not sure I understand, but can't you edgeband the plywood before you put on the trim on the front that leaves the reveal?

[Jim Becker]

I'll also suggest edge banding that area, either with iron on thin edge banding or a thicker solid wood strip that covers the full reveal plus a little more.

[Jamie Buxton]

For the shelf-pin holes, how are you boring them? If you bore them one at a time using a 32 mm template, you can just skip every other one. That would give you the 2 1/2" spacing you want. If you do happen to lose track and put a hole where you didn't intend, plug it with wood. The paint will cover. ("Plastic plugs" ?! )

It sounds like your shelves are going to span nearly 48". If they're going to be loaded with books, they can't be just 3/4" plywood. I'd make them 1 1/2" thick -- two layers of plywood -- banded along the front.

[Floyd Mah]

On one occasion, I dealt with the column of holes by routing a shallow (1/16") groove to recess the holes. This had the benefit of dealing with the ragged edges of the holes (I had used the wrong type of drill to cut the holes) and gave a recess that accommodated the flange on the shelf pin. You can use edge banding material or you can cut a thin strip of wood to hide the holes as well, creating a detail in the shelving that would have appeared decorative. Some double sided tape can work to make the strips easy to reposition. Anyway, another way to have the holes but keep them hidden.

[Wayne Lomman]

Don, glue a 1/4" thick solid timber edgestrip on the exposed edge of the ply. This will solve that problem. It is more work than a veneer edgestrip but far superior in performance to work with.

When jobs like this painted white, you can't hide adjustable shelf pin holes. They just stand out. Does your client absolutely want them? Maybe they can work with you and plan the shelf layout so that you can fix the shelves.

Last year I fitted out an entire library in a similar style. The client agreed that the adjustable shelves would only be adjusted once and so made the call to have a few less shelves and high enough spacing to accommodate everything. Cheers

[Sam Murdoch]

You might consider just adding a face frame to the entire installation and then add your trim to that. At the base the face frame stiles could run nearly to the bottom - leave about 1/2" off the floor and span between with a 1X4 rail set flush to the top of the bottom shelf. Yes, adding a full FF is more work but will hide all your ply edges, provide secure nailing for any moldings and allow a logical way to incorporate shelf edges (in plane with the FF) to blend in with the entire assembly.

As for shelf pin holes - in this case I would use the sleeves and pin style. These really (to my mind) formalize built ins - as separate from kitchen cupboards. My typical preference is to set each shelf to have a row of 3 holes only. Those space about 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" apart and then a logical space away - say 12" - center another group of 3 holes etc. as needed. This looks more clean and custom.

[Don Scott]

Many thanks for the replies - I was thinking about edge banding too, but it just so happens that I just did a job that had me matching some frameless cabinets for a client and it was tedious! I trimmed them on the router station after banding them with 1/4" strips of maple (it was maple plywood). I do have a trim router and flush bit that I could use to trim the banding flush or ather than clamping the banding I could use my pin nailer to attach it - the holes would be covered by the casing. I haven't had much luck with thinner edge banding so I'm going to avoid that. Also the faceframe idea and then the casing on top is an idea that didn't occur to me. I'll do a mock up of that tomorrow and see what that looks like.

I agree about the 2.5" spacing on the shelf pins. The architect and I butted heads over the 3/4" plywood shelves and fortunately the homeowner and contractor both told me to use my discretion on shelf material and thickness. I'm going with 6/4 maple glue ups and run them through the planer down to 1 1/4".

I have seen metal inserts for shelf pins but I think they draw more attention than just plain 5 mm holes. I do each one with a Kreg jig and keep a sharp bit on hand. Its tedious but I'll throw on some Pat Metheny or an old Zepellin album just zone out. I'd love to have a line boring machine but I don't want to grow in that direction - high production. I did see a guy on Youtube that made a jig with a piece of pegboard and a trim router that was really a great idea but I haven't had time to try and build it.

Did anyone have any thoughts on casework made from solid maple or poplar? Am I asking for problems?

Thanks to all of you that chimed in - I really appreciate it!

Don

[Bruce Wrenn]

Go in a public library and see what kind of shelf support system they use. Most likely KV standards and clips, instead of holes and pins. They have met the "test of time." How high is the ceiling in the room into which they are going. Hope it's at least 10-6, so you can stand completed cases up, without having to remove some of the floor.