Expert: Jamie Yocono - 11/2/2005

Question
Hi Jamie-First let me thank you for your fast responce to my query.Also I really appreciated the info on woods, spans etc.
As you might have noted from my last question I am in no way, shape or form a wood worker,but as you said,the project I have in mind will essentially be just a number of boxes. I think I can do that. Since joinery, real cabinet work, is beyond my expertise I plan to go about building in the following manner...Butt joints glued and screwed...the screws will be replacing wooden dowels and I will countersink them and cover with plugs. That should take care of the basic box then as you suggested I will frame it with one by twos all around including the shelves. Along the bottom front I will use a one x three or four. That
should strengthen it and dress it up a little at the same time. I anticipate hearing from you and what you think also any hints you can give me. Don't worry about my feelings. I live in an aligator skin!
Followup To
Question -
My wife wants me to build some cabinets-bookcases to display her doll collection. I have a limited income so am looking for something reasonably priced but still attractive to build with. Could you advise me on spruce or pine as a material?
Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks, Walt
Answer -
Hi Walt,

Your question is a little broad, so this answer might include some information that you don't need.

Wood is classified as either a softwood or a hardwood. The difference is whether or not the trees lose their leaves. If a tree loses it's leaves, it's a hardwood. Examples would be Cherry, Oak, Maple or Walnut trees.  Trees that don't lose their leaves are classified as soft woods, and those include Pine, Fir, Spruce, and so on.

Hardwoods are what is most commonly used to build quality furniture. Although more expensive, these woods hold up better to wear, and look better over time. The softwoods are undesirable for a few reasons- they damage (dings and dents) easily, they often take a finish in an unattractive way, and worst of all- it's sometimes difficult to machine crisp joinery in softwoods. So even though they're initially cheaper, they're tougher to work with in the long run.

That said- I'm not so sure there is that big of a savings in using a soft wood. I'm assuming that you're probably buying it at your local Lowes or Home Depot. I think their prices are very high for softwoods, and if you look around, you could probably find a small (independent) lumberyard that might sell hardwoods just as inexpensively as Lowes sells Pine. Oak is fairly reasonable and MUCH better to work with. And- at least at my local lumberyard, Oak is cheaper than Pine.

A different material to consider might be a cabinet grade plywood.  There is plywood available that is quite reasonably priced, and the veneer choices are usually Oak or Birch. Or-  if your home is a little more modern, you could even use a white melamine covered MDF (medium density fiberboard) or particle board. Melamine panels get a bad rap, I think. If used properly, they can make great looking furniture, even for an old purist like me. All you have to do is cut them to size, no worrying about gluing up narrow boards to make wider panels for bookcase shelves. And Melamine is CHEAP!

If you use plywood, you will need to deal with 2 things- concealing the edges of the plywood, and dealing with the spans of your shelves. As far as shelf spans- it really sort of depends on the material you're using. Solid wood is much more stiff than plywood, and you could probably get away with having a 3' wide shelf if it's solid wood.

But- if you use plywood, there are ways of stiffening up the shelves, so you could make you shelves 3' wide. You'll just need to beef them up with some sort of solid wood edging applied to the boards. If the load is going to be especially heavy, you could apply a solid wood edging to both the front and the back of the plywood shelf, thereby making it really strong. I usually use 1 x 2 for my shelf edging if the load is going to be heavy, like albums, or big hard bound books.

There is a book that might help you- it's simply called Bookcases by Niall Barrett. There are designs for 11 different bookcases, and it also has some fairly valuable information like drilling for shelf pins, shelf spans, etc. You can probably find it on eBay, but frankly- you might just want to browse through it at your local bookstore.

Good luck, I hope this helps. This is sort of a big project, but basically quite simple, since bookcases/display cases are just a series of boxes. If you have tools and skills, you can probably make this without too much difficulty.  Feel free to write back with any other questions you might have after reading this.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
www.wooditis.com
Las Vegas, NV


Answer
Hi Walt,

Glad my answer was helpful to you. I think you're very much on the right track with your project, gluing and screwing your butt joints, and edging everything with solid stock. That sort of construction is surprisingly strong.

A couple of areas of concern would be the type of screws you'll be using, and what the panel material will be. If you're using MDF, you might want to find screws with a coarse thread. There is a specialty screw company (I know, that sounds like a bad joke) called McFeelys and their catalog is one of the best fastener catalogs I've ever seen. Check out www.mcfeelys.com to see the type of screws I mean.

Fine threads will strip out in MDF, but coarse threads won't. So you want to find something coarse, that will hold in the relatively weak MDF.

If you're using plywood, I recommend predrilling for any screw that you're putting in the edge of the plywood. If you don't predrill, the plies will split apart. And generally, I use a pretty long screw in plywood, as I want it to have good penetration into the plywood edge. A 2" screw is good for a 3/4" panel.

When you plug those screw holes, make sure you don't sand through thru the veneer on the panel face. It's usually only 1/20 of an inch thick, so it's easy to sand right through it. And it looks horrible when you do that!

That's about it- you sound like you've done some homework on this, so you should be fine. Write back if you come across something that puzzles you and I'll try to help.

Jamie Yocono
Wood It Is! Custom Cabinetry
www.wooditis.com
Las Vegas, NV