3 Bookshelves Completed

I gave both sets of parents a tilt top table this year.  One as parts  for my Dad's birthday.  The other (completed) as a Christmas gift to the in-laws (a 2013 project I forgot last post).  Since we were going to Salt Lake City for Thanksgiving I decided to save on shipping, and pack the table in my luggage.  Luckily all the parts are small, and only the three legs need to be glued, and not necessarily clamped since they are sliding dovetails.  So I packed the parts, some glue, and a screwdriver.  20 minutes of work, and a couple hours to dry, and the table was complete.

Cherry Tilt-Top at the in-laws

The bookshelves for my sisters while portable, would not fit in luggage, and since each set( 2 uprights, 4 shelves, 8 pegs) weighs about 35 lbs, that doesn't leave much room for protection from baggage handlers or clothes.  On top of that they weren't finished when my family had to leave.    They each got a slightly modified version of my A&C finish that I used on our dining table.  Preraise the grain then sand with 220.  Apply a waterbased dye, then a seal coat of Seal-a-cell or shellac.  On top of the seal coat is an oil stain, I prefer using a gel stain, but the liquid stain works well too.  Here is where I switched it up a bit, in the past I have used Arm-R-Seal with great success, but with so many surfaces, and now that I own a compressor I wanted to try spraying.  These shelves got 3 coats of Zinnser Sealcoat.  Once cured for a couple days I applied a furniture wax with synthetic steel wool.

Spraying Carly's shelves

Completed Shelves

To ship them I used some 2-ply corrugated cardboard I saved from replacing the fridge, and some 1/2" insulating foam and constructed a fairly rigid box that didn't allow the shelves to move at all.  They seemed to make it just fine, and Carly already has hers setup.

With the girls bookshelves finished and out of the shop it was time to get back to my bookshelf.  After finessing the joinery it was time to fit the wedges and then chamfer all the edges

Ready for sanding, finish, and cookbooks

After that its on to sanding, and finishing.  I am using the finishing schedule as above.

After the first coat of dye

Completed bookshelf

Already full of cookbooks