June, 2026
This is kind of the first 'real' project since finishing the joiner's bench and leg vise. WB was looking for a custom-sized open shelf for the bedroom, to stack clothes and such. Sounded like a nice easy project that wouldn't be under a ton of scrutinty in terms of fit and finish, so I looked around the shop to see what I had. Found some old shelf legs with dowel holes every two inches that were perfect for this. The plan became to use those, fix the top and bottom, and allow a moveable middle shelf (or shelves) in the middle. The dimensions were about 3 feet tall, 18-19 deep, 19 wide. There was flexibility there, but those ended up being the measurements to minimize cuts and still fit in the space.
I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a "project panel" for the shelves that was the right width, so I decided to get at 12" and 8" wide board (6 ft) and do an edge glue up. Great excuse to pick up a bunch of new clamps! In the end, the final width of the glued boards was 18.5" so pretty ideal sizing, in the end. I also was keen to try an edge glue and some techniques to keep the boards from buckling.
Not too bad a result. I then cut the 19" lengths (3 shelves). By hand. Again. Not sure why I keep doing this to myself when a "zip zip" with the circular saw would save me an hour or more. Maybe I like playing with my holdfasts and clamps too much.
Interestingly, the 12" and 8" boards were slightly different thicknesses, so after the glue-up and cut, I used the hand planes to bring the 8" side down to even with the 12" side, as well as trying to make the shelves as flat as I can. Not so much success with that, as the final product has some definite curve to the shelves, but again - rough shelf, all good.
The final day was pretty straight forward and not a lot of effort - notched out some corners for the legs on the bottom and floating middle shelves, and just a full-size top shelf. Glue and screw and done.
The final, wobbly result. I didn't futz about fit and finish, but definitely got some learnings from the project, AND I was really happy that the leg vise turned out to be really useable and useful. I will probably get more used to it as I use it, but would do something different if I were do it again.
