Ok, so I have been planning to build a bookshelf for a few years now. I have a lot of books and magazines that need a home. Right now, they are stashed all over the house in various piles, and that sucks, so I finally decided to get this done.

I should start off by declaring to the world that I am no carpenter. I aint making no Jesus tables or anything. I am handy with tools, and have a firm grasp of how to operate in a shop. I took wood shop class in junior high, drafting and metal fabrication in high school, advanced drafting and metal fabrication in college, and spent some time working in various manufacturing facilities in different capacities, so I know my way around.

I built the bed I currently sleep on. It is a monstrosity that weighs well over 300 pounds, not counting the box springs or the mattress! It is solid as a rock though, and will last forever. If you need a refresher of how that turned out, see: http://www.snotpocket.com/bed.htm

To me, function usually trumps fashion, but I think one can easily achieve a balance of both in a low cost package. Function in this case means a very sturdy piece that can carry the weigh of lots of books, and one that is large enough hold all the books I have. To achieve this, I decided to simply use a 4'x8' sheet of sanded pine plywood for the back, and then basically build the shelf around it. This would make a large shelf and minimize the amount of cutting I would have to do. Perfect.

The first problem I run into when building stuff is finding quality wood. I have no idea where to get quality wood, so I usually just go to Home Depot and buy whatever they have. Most of their wood is shitty and warped, but if you dig around a little while through there pile you can usually pull out a few pieces that are just OK. Also, since I am no superstar furniture builder, I do not want to invest a large sum of cash on wood, and I can usually work around the flaws in the lumber.

The first step was to design the layout, which I did using Google SketchUp. It was quick and easy and it came out roughly like this (click on it to see a larger version):



So to start the build, I had to use a router on the sides to make slots for the shelves. To do this, I had to purchase a 3/4" wide by 1/2" deep router bit. Then I simply measured and made a jig out of clamps and wood to guide the router. Here you can see how that turned out:







So I basically just dug a groove for the bottom, and the shelves, in the 8' 2x12s, that make the sides. The top will screw to the top of the 2x12s, which I will cover later. The side affect from all the routing was a massive pile of fresh pine sawdust shavings which looks like this:



I bagged it all up, so now I am trying to figure out a good way to repurpose it. Best idea so far is to use it as compost or mulch. It smells cool, so I guess I could also just leave it bagged up in the garage.

Ok, that is enough for today, more updates on the way soon.