Traveling bookcases in elm 2, one bookcase completed.

This is not an example of me turning out a complete traveling bookcase in a matter of days.
I just never blogged much about the build because it was going to be a gift for Laura's birthday. I have shown the bookcases to her already, so it is safe to blog about them.

The shells for both sets were completed a couple of weeks ago, just prior to the DCBE.
I had prepared stock for the drawers and the shelves for one of the units, and with the new beautiful dovetail saw that Pedder gave me, my fingers practically itched to start dovetailing.
My plan was to line the drawers with green felt, this meant that I could safely cross the baseline on the half blind dovetails. Something that I normally never do. I didn't even do it for those on the carcase itself.
The dovetailing went easy, and I had made a template for marking out the place to make a recession for the flush mounted handles. This recession was made using a Forstner drill.
Basically I just followed the excellent instructions for mounting hardware that can be found in the book Campaign Furniture by Christopher Schwarz.

Before finishing I also made ready for installing the brass corners. I did all of the chiseling and routing, so it would just be a matter of putting the corner guards in place and then drill a couple of pilot holes before mounting the screws.

I applied two coats of "Superior" shellac, using an old piece of a T-shirt instead of a brush. I find that I can get a more even coat that way. After each coat I very lightly sanded the surface using some grit 320 sandpaper, just to remove any nibs from the surface.
After the shellac, I applied a coat of my home made paste wax from beeswax, orange oil and a bit of turpentine.

After the wax, I installed the flush drawer pulls and corner guards.

The two shells were brought inside, and I used some thinned hot hide glue to attach the felt.
Attaching the felt took a bit longer than I expected, but I wanted it to look good, so I took my time. I first glued on the piece covering the back and the top, then each side got their piece attached.
When the glue had dried, I trimmed the excess using a blade from a hobby knife which I had honed a bit extra. Felt is hard to cut if the blade isn't really sharp. The dados for the shelves were the last thing that I trimmed.

The final thing was to install the hinges and admire the first completed bookcase.
I have timed the build, but since the timing is for two bookcases, I haven't added it all up yet. So I'll wait with that till I complete the second unit. Hopefully that will be done before Christmas.

Traveling bookcase in elm, green felt lining.

Closed traveling bookcase next to Roorkee chair.

Opened traveling bookcase.

Using flash to show the green felt.

Felt lined drawers.

Half blind dovetails.

Brass corner guard.

Brass corner guard and half blind dovetails.

DCBE 2016, Conclusion

After one week of a shop that feels a lot emptier and quieter, I have gathered some thoughts about the DCBE this year.

I am able to fit 5 people in my workshop, but in order to do so, I need to borrow yet another workbench from Olav, or I could make an extra one myself.
This time we had three workbenches for four people, but since there was always someone busy at the lathe it was fine that way.

We spent a lot more time than anticipated doing noisy stock preparation, but that was mostly due to our very ambitious goals of making a lot of chairs.
Once the turning had also stopped, the workshop was fairly quiet save for the pounding on the copper rivets.
Compared to the last DCBE, where we made Welsh stick chairs, there was a lot more machine work involved this time. But I think the results are well worth it.
We skipped lunch some days, but the daily intake of cake and tea or coffee plus beer made up for that. Having the supper supplied by a catering company was a great success. It meant that there was one thing less to concentrate on, and instead of making supper, Mette baked rolls for breakfast every day, and kept a steady supply of cakes coming our way.

Hosting an event like this is no trouble at all with such nice attendees. Pedder and Brian brought beer and Alex brought some softdrinks called Almdudler that our kids really liked,
Asger proclaimed at the end of the DCBE, that he had not been sick since he started drinking Almdudler. When we said that he had just had them for 6 days, he quickly responded that he knew that, and he had felt great all those days, so he suggested that we should continue like that. But we are back to drinking milk again for the everyday meals, and the soft drinks are reserved for Friday evening.

Everyone also had some gifts for me, and something for Mette as well, so I feel almost ashamed that I could only supply a meagre selection of wood and some beds to sleep in.
Alex and Pedder brought some nice homemade marmalade and a type of pickles, wine and some syrup.

For me, Alex brought the most beautiful set of dowel plates that I have ever seen. They are made especially for him by the company BLUM in his hometown that produces hinges and other sort of brackets.
The company has their own training department for machinists, and they made a small production run of those dowel plates. Each plate is precision milled with a sharp entry side and tapering exit side of the holes for the dowels. The plates are 2.25" x 10" and a bit over ½" thick. I guess they are made out of tool steel.
These two plates cover the hole sizes from 11 mm to 20 mm in diameter (7/16" - 13/16")
Alex told me that the company will also make a plate with holes ranging from 6 to 10 mm, but they hadn't made it yet.
Given that I really like timberframing, a dowel plate with such large holes is really useful for me.
I think that I might make a recess in my workbench for them, and then I just need to make a bunch of dowels.

Pedder  gave me an absolutely magnificent dovetail saw.
The saws from Two Lawyers Tools don't just look good. They are incredible to use as well.
Mine has a rosewood handle and a heavy brass back. There is a very slight hang of the saw, and the saw feels just like an extension of my arm. I have used it for cutting some small dovetails in the drawers for the travelling bookcases, and it is just perfect. I can highly recommend their saws if you find yourself in the market for a custom made backsaw.

Brian had brought some old turning gouges and a new blade for my Ryoba saw.
So all in all it felt a lot like Christmas eve to me.

If you are considering organising an event like this, I suggest that you do it. It is a special experience to work together in a smallish shop, and learn from each other as you go along. This time we had the benefit of Brian actually being an expert in Roorkees, having made quite a few of them, but when we made the Welsh stick chairs, none of us had tried it before, That too was a fun experience.
My best advice is to have some of the food organised, and it is better to start with a small group of people, and then perhaps invite more if you find there is room for it.

Thanks to everyone reading and commenting on the posts from Danish Chairbuilding Extracaganza 2016 on this blog and on Toolerable and on Old Ladies.
I better start thinking about what to build for DCBE 2018.

The best looking dowel plates I have ever seen!

These plates from BLUM are amazing.

My new Sunday saw from Two Lawyers Tools.

A bit of progress on the travelling bookcases. Lining the drawers with felt.

Traveling bookcases in elm 1, start up of project.

I had the idea of making a set of traveling bookcases (from Campaign Furniture) for my daughter Laura, since she was going to attend a boarding type high school. I think that I originally had the plan to make them for the Christmas 2015, but I never got around to complete them.
Next chance was her birthday this year, but the building of the barn sort of got in the way - so I failed that too.. (I am kind of a shitty father in that respect).

But  with the upcoming DCBE (Danish Chair Building Extravaganza) I figured that I had to get the project in gear so I had something to show to the people coming up here.

I actually know pretty precise when the project halted to a stop. That was when I had to make the rabbets for the shelves, and I found out that it was quite a big job to do that with a backsaw.
I made the rabbets for one side of one bookcase, which meant that I had seven more sides to go.
By chance I invested in a hand held router of a decent quality, because I needed one for making the grooves in the floor boards for the barn. Suddenly it dawned upon me that theoretically I could cross over to the dark side and for once attempt to incorporate a router in one of my projects.
So that is what I did. Though it isn't handwork it sure was easy - and it got the project rolling again.

I already had the panels glued up and the dovetails cut (half blind) for the carcases, so once I had the dados routed out, the project took a great leap forward.

The glue up was remarkably easy, using liquid hide glue sure helps to give some extra time for clamping and making sure all is square.

After the glue up, I have made the recesses for the hinges on both sets and installed the half mortise chest lock on one of the bookcases. That bookcase has had the hinges temporarily installed to test how it looks, and also to help establish the positions for the strike plate for the lock.

My plan is to install the lock in the second bookcase next, and then I plan on moving on to the shelves and drawers etc.

Traveling bookcase in elm.

The two bookcases placed on the workbench.

Half blind dovetails for the carcases.