Build a bookcase - Strong and Easy (how to)

hi Dale from my garage once again and this time my project is going to be a bookcase my son is starting his junior year in college and he got kind of tired of all the luxuries of dorm life but he staying off campus and he needs a place to put his books and binders and items like that being a college kid I know that he's probably not going to be the gentlest on a piece of furniture and he's going to be putting a lot of heavy items on these shelves so I could have went down to Target or Walmart and got a 45 or $50 particle board bookshelf that would have probably fallen apart before the first semester ended or I could have even gone to Ikea and gotten $100 particle board bookcase that would have fallen apart in the first semester so instead I decided to go ahead and go out and buy a sheet of plywood and build it myself so this way it will at least be strong enough to last him a few years I'm hoping maybe a whole lot longer but like I said I know that college kids can be pretty rough on furniture so I'm going to put in a few extra supports and let's get going I have a spare piece of 1/2 inch pine plywood that I'm going to use for the back and I wanted to keep this project down to a single sheet of plywood I bought a four by eight sheet of three-inch qurban plywood that's primed on one side my son wanted this bookshelf to be four foot tall four feet wide and 17 inches deep I've calculated that from a single sheet of plywood I'd be able to make this with two middle shelves a top and a bottom makes a breakdown cuts easier I'd back my truck halfway into the garage and I made my cuts right from my truck this way I didn't have to move around the full four by eight sheet this really made my work easy I'll probably do this on Later project five pieces and top are cut at the full 17 inch width the bottom and two middle shelves are cut at 15 and 3/4 inch width this is to accommodate a 3/4 inch brace for the shelf as well as a half inch back you'll see more on this later you may notice that I'm cutting these pieces cross-grain normally for a bookshelf you'd want to cut with the grain as that will make for a nicer looking end product I'm going to be painting this bookshelf so grain direction really doesn't matter I'm using pocket hole to assemble this bookshelf on all shelves including the top and bottom shelves drill pocket holes on both sides and in the front of the shelves these will be used to attach to the side pieces and to attach the space to the bookshelf both side pieces only need pocket holes in the front to attach to the face all pocket holes should be drilled on the bottom of each shelf and on the inside of the side pieces you will not be able to see the pocket holes on the bottom of the shelves and since I'm painting this bookcase black the pocket holes on the inside front of the side pieces basically disappear you can fill them if you want to I don't think it's needed so I'm not going to it's already time to start assembling we'll start by attaching the top to the side pieces I clamped a small board to my workbench to help with making sure the side and top stay flush I use a square to help line the pieces up but generally as long as you're close these pocket holes will pull things together squarely after the top bottom and side pieces are assembled you can tweak the box carcass back into square if it's not use glue and fasten the pocket hole screws before I attach the bottom I want to add a brace to the back from the remaining scrap plywood I cut a one and a half inch strip this matches the one and a half inch width of the face frame I'm using this is going to serve three purposes first since the bottom shelf will be raised one-and-a-half inches off the ground to give room for the face plate this will add support for the entire bookcase while it's sitting on the ground second and these are four foot wide shelves I thought they would need extra support so this will add a lot of stiffness to the shelf third it will add a bunch more glue up room for the back which will add even more strength to the entire bookcase once I have the back support strip cut to size I pre drill with a countersink bit add some glue and then attach with one of the quarter-inch screws this is going to leave a very strong shelf I just want to make this quick comments about my videos sometimes being longer than they need to be I realize this but I do it because I'm trying to help one major growing problem in this world my wife as a teacher will completely confirm all the studies that say that our attention span squirrel now I simply attach the bottom shelf to the bookcase with glue and pocket hole screws I take care to make sure that the bottom of the back support strip is flush with the bottom of the bookcase this way the bookcase will not rock when sitting on the floor now that the bookcase carcass is complete I do a final check for square I do this by measuring diagonally from corner to corner if the measurements are equal then you're all squared up if not you can adjust by pushing on one side to move it into square I'm pretty much a square all the time and no adjustment needed moving on to the two middle shelves just like the bottom shelf the two middle shelves will span a full four feet but I wanted to add some support I cut two strips two inches wide and cut them to size to match the shell just like the bottom shelf I attach these to the backs of each middle shelf this means pre drilling with a countersink that gluing and screwing for those of you wondering how this is going to look these will only hang about one and a quarter inches below the shelves remember these shelves are 14 inches deep so these braces would be hard to see anyways they'll basically disappear once the bookcase is painted black installing the middle shelves is pretty easy measure carefully and mark on both sides exactly where the shelves should go place a couple pieces of 1/2 inch scrap wood on the bench to take the space that the back piece will take use a square to make sure that not only are you Square to the sides but also square or level from front to back slide the shelves in and attach with pocket hole screws the bookcase and all cells are now assembled so I'm moving on to the face frame I'm using some select time boards that I had left on my dry erase board project these are one and a half inches wide and 3/4 inches thick I start by cutting the outside frame pieces to size that is the two side pieces the top and bottom pieces I use glue and pocket holes to connect these together not only will the face frame hide the plywood edges and make the bookcase look much much nicer it also helps in hiding the pocket holes on the inside front of the side piece as well as add strength to the overall bookcase clamp the face frame onto your bookcase so that the outside edges are flush with the bookcase side pieces and the top and bottom shelves place your two remaining face boards so that they are flush with the top of the two middle shelves carefully mark on the base frame side pieces where the two middle face frame pieces need to be attached transfer the marks you made on the face frame side pieces to the back of the face frame now using glue and pocket holes attach the two middle space frame pieces this is where you really really want to have measured twice and have as accurate as possible markings now that the face frame is complete it's time to attach it to the bookcase put a good bead of glue on all front edges of the bookcase make sure to cover the sides and all shelves this is what's going to add a lot of strength to your bookcase once you've applied the glue carefully place the face frame on the bookcase so that it's flush with all edges clamp it down so it doesn't move remember all those pocket holes we added to the Front's of the shelves and the side pieces now is when you finally get to use them grab a healthy handful of pocket screws and start screwing this will pull the face frames tight to the bookcase and each shelf this in conjunction with the support pieces that we added to the back of each shelf is what makes the shelves strong enough for a full four foot span and it also makes for a nice looking bookcase all that is left as far as construction goes is the back piece like I mentioned earlier I have a spare piece of one-half inch plywood that I'll be using for the back I just need to cut it to size hey friends last night online I read an incredibly interesting article it's all around marketing and advertising it's something that I don't think I would ever really do myself but I would love to get your input on what you think it's all around the use of subliminal messages a do you think they work and B do you think they should be illegal let me know in your comments below before I attach the back piece to the bookcase I'm going to paint around the inside edges of the bookcase it's easier to do this now before the back is attached I'm also going to paint the inside of the back piece before attaching it as way easier to do this now I first tape over the areas that I'm going to be gluing to the bookcase since wood glue will not bind well to painted surfaces don't do what I did and forget to tape off the area to glue the bottom shelf a bra epic fail I don't feel like sanding off the paint so I'll only be gluing the back to two of the three shelves I originally planned I'll be attaching the left right and top of the back with pocket holes don't forget to adjust your pocket hole tool from 3/4 inch to 1/2 inch sock place the back on the bookcase and pre-drill with a countersink bit into the back support of the bottom and two middle shelves the top shelf didn't get a back support as that one would have been the most visible and the back itself will be the support for the top shelf now for the final assembly of the back piece put some glue on the two middle shelf back supports remember I made a mistake and paint it over the back where it comes in contact with the bottom shelf back support otherwise I'd be putting glue there as well place the back on the bookcase and make sure it is snug to the top shelf start with the pocket holes at the top flush the back panel with the back of the top shelf and screw the pocket holes in this will pull the back piece nice and tight under the top shelf then move to the pocket hole on the left and right side pieces once all the pocket holes are in use three quarter inch screws to attach the back panel to the two middle and bottom back shelf support once this is done the bookcase construction is complete two coats of black paint and this project is done my son wanted all black so that's what he got it's very very sturdy here in about the middle on this one and this and that shelf I put easily 40 or 50 pounds of weights on there there was no depression at all it didn't Bend and also it's very very sturdy it's going to last for years and years unlike that Target or Walmart stuff you would have bought or the name-brand Target and Walmart called IKEA that particleboard wouldn't have lasted a semester and a college room so this was in the last four years I'm happy with the way it turned out I think it looks great if it was for me maybe I wouldn't have chosen all black but it's not for me it's for him I'm not sure he'll even have enough books to fill this up it's got plenty of items for magazines and nice magazines that I like to read nice very nice okay if you liked what you saw give it a thumbs up please and if you want to follow along go ahead and subscribe hit the button if you have any comments or questions maybe you saw something you didn't quite understand why I did it this way or maybe you have ideas on how I could have done something better leave a comment below and I will be sure to reply until next time see ya

Channel: BronkBuilt

Views: 140,375

Keywords: how to make really strong bookcase, Strong bookcase, build a bookcase, make stronger bookshelf, strong, How to build a bookcase, bookcase build, bookcase, Bronk Built, bronkbuilt, how to, build, bookshelf, College furniture, Woodworking, DIY, Pocket Holes, drill press stand, dale bronk, Kreg, wood, College furnature, dorm bookcase, strong bookcase, kreg pocket holes, BB, shelves, book shelf, book shelves

Id: JZEiXctcqxo

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 22 2017