# Heavy duty shelf.



## Big Dave (Sep 16, 2006)

This is my latest project. I had a restaurant call and ask for this plus some other stuff that I have yet to do but I thought I would post this. The pictures aren't the best. I am going to get a better picture of it on monday when I deliver it.

The shelf unit is 8' long by 4' high. The lumber is white pine and the slabs are 3" thick and average 13" wide, to give you an idea of the scale. It probably weighs about 180 lbs.

Here's the lumber before I started the project.









I used all mortise and tennon joinery for a fastener free look.









Here is is assembled and finished.









Total time from start to finish was about 10 hours. My son helps me and he does most of the orbital sanding and helps move things around and helps with assembly.


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## nywoodwizard (Oct 31, 2006)

Nice stuff Dave,just wondering how do you do the mortise and tenon work on such heavy pieces.
:thumbsup:


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## Big Dave (Sep 16, 2006)

I got a little creative on the tennons this time. I usually use my table saw of course but trying to hold and run an 8' long board weighing about 40 lbs. just isn't safe and you could quickly screw it up. This time I took a peice of plywood about 10 inches wide and made an L that could be clamped to the face of the peice. This also gave me a square cut off of the back of the timber. I then took a skil saw and started at the outside and worked my way to my stop, knibbling the wood away. After doing that on the three flat sides I took a hand saw and made the top and bottom meet on the front where it is irregular. Clean it up with a chisel and your done.

As for the mortises, I marked them out on the board then had my son hold up one end and put the other on the drill press and drill most of it out and clean up the remainder with a chisel.


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## Big Dave (Sep 16, 2006)

The fits on the morites and tennons are pretty good but not perfect. Alot of it has to do with the fact that the lumber is not perfectly flat and some of it is even twisted slightly. My worst fit had a gap of maybe 1/8" but it was tight on the bottom. This tells me that the peice I was fitting it to was slightly bowed. No one has ever said anything about stuff like that and it kinda goes with the rustic look. Usually the rougher the peice looks the more they like it.


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## dwwright (Jan 15, 2007)

Nice job. Great that you have the kids involved. Mine are getting past the teenage years and starting to see more of them again.:thumbsup: It's amazing the stuff they learned when I didn't think they were listening, but never stopped me from trying.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

That is a nice shelf Dave. The resturaunt probably cooks great food if they are so discerning in the quality of a shelf they allow in their establishment.


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## BULLHART (Oct 30, 2006)

Beautiful Tennon. Shame some of the best work you do gets hidden, and no-one can appreciate it. I really like this piece. It looks like something Id be dragging into the house, and my wife would be trying to drag back out...lol


nice job


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