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Display shelf unit

This is where we don't want anything but evidence of your finest wood butchering in all its glorious, and photograph laden glory. Bring your finished products or WIP's, we love them all, so long as there's pictures, and plenty of 'em!

Display shelf unit

Postby Stargazer » 10 Jun 2016, 15:03

Now that I have access to my flickr account I thought that I had better write up something that I worked on last year. Not really fine cabinet making though!

Rather late in the day I realised that work were getting rid of a lot of wooden drawers, approx 470mm square and about 60mm deep, like these:

Image together with a single positive contact print that remains from the thousands of all sky survey copies that we used to use. No need for them anymore as these are now available in digital formats.

I managed to save 8 or so and thought that paired up and hung on the wall they might make display cases for some of the model trains that I have (both mine and my late fathers childhood toys) in boxes in the attic.
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Re: Display shelf unit

Postby Stargazer » 10 Jun 2016, 15:10

First job was to source glass shelves, 465mm*50mm by 6mm thick toughened and polished edges. Once I had these in hand I started on the units themselves.

Image

Cutting a 1/4inch wide groove into the sides about 8mm deep and as far as the plywood backing. I forgot to mention that the drawer unit frames are of tulip wood and the backs are thin plywood, all nicely dovetailed, grooved and glued so not possible to dismantle easily.

Cutting 3 pairs of grooves into each drawer unit will give 3 shelves and the base.

Image

At this point I test fitted the glass.
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Re: Display shelf unit

Postby Stargazer » 10 Jun 2016, 15:25

To join the two drawer units side by side and provide a means to hang it on a wall I decided to use a french cleat system. Firstly I cut rebate in a piece of 4*1 so that it would lie flush across the backs of the two units. In the pictures I laid them flat on a wide work surface in the kitchen to ensure flatness of the front face (I only have a very small workshop!)

Image

Once it fitted I then cut the 4*1 into the two parts of a french cleat and a spacer for the bottom of the unit.

Image

And used screws to fix the upper french cleat and the spacer to the sides of the drawer units.

To keep the dust out I wanted glass doors, but to keep the cost down (this was all very much an experiment)
I used a sliding door system With oak planed down to 19mm by 19mm and then a rebate cut using a plough plane to hide some E shaped aluminium extrusion from B&Q. I reduced the height of the lower extrusion by asking a machinist at work to run it through a milling machine.

Image

before assembling into a face frame and attaching to the front of the drawer units.

Image

You can see the two units together here, I have also painted the plywood white. The oak and tulipwood are just waxed.
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Re: Display shelf unit

Postby Stargazer » 10 Jun 2016, 15:31

Once the front was finished off with a couple of doors....I ended up using thick polycarbonate sheet carefully cut to size before removing the protective plastic cover and a couple of oak door handles....it could be hung on the wall ready to be used.

Image

And on the wall in the study

Image
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Re: Display shelf unit

Postby Reclaimer » 10 Jun 2016, 20:17

Top job!

Re-using and reclaiming acquired items and incorporating them into new builds is perhaps my favourite aspect of woodwork.

I like what you've done there, like it indeed. I look forward to seeing more.

Tim
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Re: Display shelf unit

Postby Phil » 11 Jun 2016, 09:27

Excellent project! :eusa-clap:

Some close ups of the contents please.

Cheers
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Re: Display shelf unit

Postby Andyp » 11 Jun 2016, 10:07

Looks like a fine cabinet to me. Thanks for sharing. What are the contents?
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cheers
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Re: Display shelf unit

Postby Stargazer » 11 Jun 2016, 11:11

Andyp wrote:Looks like a fine cabinet to me. Thanks for sharing. What are the contents?


The contents have updated very slightly since the picture, but currently

LHS Flying Scotsman, GWR 0-6-0 Pannier plus wagons, Hornby QE2 80th 0-4-0 and my daughters Thomas and Percy engines

RHS GWR 2-6-2 Prairie tank plus wagons, Dock Authority 0-4-0 diesel shunter plus wagons, Evening Star 2-10-0 plus wagons and Duchess of Atholl.

The diesel shunter was my very first engine from the early 70s, the Duchess is my fathers Hornby Dublo 3 rail engine from his childhood.

All the wagons are weathered sign written models collected by my father because the company was located in the area we lived or where he worked.
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Re: Display shelf unit

Postby Wizard9999 » 12 Jun 2016, 10:12

Very nice, I for one would never have guessed the origin of the unit :eusa-clap:

Terry.
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