As I finished the text for “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” in 2011, I had a bad thought.
Shouldn’t I build multiple kinds of tool chests for the book? A traveling one? A Dutch example? A Japanese one? Some 20th-century suitcase types (which I am not fond of)?
In the end, I decided that no one was going to build the tool chest anyway. The chest was, after all, just a literary conceit. It was the mental place where you put your limited set of tools.
As the last two years and hundreds of tools chests have shown, I was wrong about one part of my rationalization. But what about the rest?
As I close in on the last bits of writing for “Campaign Furniture,” I am entering the “second guessing” phase of the project. Today I drew up some folding shelves that work using the same mechanism as the folding table I’ve built. As my pencil sketched in the hinges, I thought: I should build this. It’s just too cool.
These shelves fold flat after you pull out the center shelf, which is fit firmly into a groove/dado/rabbets in each side of the case. It is a crazy-cool use of 12 butt hinges.
So I’m trying to figure out if I have the time to build the shelves and still make my Dec. 31 deadline. I won’t extend the deadline. I can’t. But can I fit in this last piece?
— Christopher Schwarz
Chris,
I think this bookcase would be a fabulous idea, and I can see myself making several. So I think YOU SHOULD!!!!!!!!
FR
My first “for real” woodworking project is a set of shelves for my middle kids Lego creations. It’s from a Glen H. article. It is taking me forever, but I’m learning plenty and it’s very forgiving of my mistakes. This design would also rock… and give us noob’s something to try early on.
Magic shoehorn time.
And whatever slippery stuff you need to get these shelves in. I vote yes!
I vote yes, definitely yes (but then I’m not the one facing the deadline).
The drawing should be sufficient. After all, its just flat boards. Is sketchup good enough to animate the thing collapsing?
Having relocated many times over the years, and with the prospect of another move possibly looming, I think this piece might be the one that gets me to scrap most of my furniture and go ragin’ full-on Campaign style.
But I think wb8nbs* is correct that a full build is unnecessary–maybe an appendix, or a ” more projects” section?
I am willing to drive up and make it happen. save time by not clocking the screws. use “L” brackets and left over door hinges.
Nice offer!
Check your wife’s purse, first.
Now that’s just mean. (OK, it’s also funny.)
Respect!
I’m guessing the middle shelf slides out and is what holds the shelves’ shape? Please build it.
I think you should do it. Adding a project to the last six weeks of the year, when nothing really big happens anyways, is certain to give you plenty of material for the blog. Think of it as your xmas/chanukah/kwanzaa/festivus gift to us.
What’s the comment from Star Trek? “The more you over think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.” I would save it for last. Unless Ty wants to build it.
Go for it! What’s a project if it’s not completely unrealistic you’ll finish on schedule?
You should.
It’s heartwarming to see how everyone here is so generous with your time.
Do it. You know you want to. Talk about peer pressure. Of course you could have a section of cool drawings that didn’t quite make the build list. It wouldn’t be the easy way out if there were several.
Of course, since the subject is so extensive and interesting, you could just keep on going after this volume comes out, and do a second volume much like you did with your Workbench book/s.
As Ben St. John has observed, the need for Campaign furniture is coming back due to the often nomadic lifestyle demanded by modern living. That even suggests a theme/title for the project – ‘Campaign Furniture for 21st Century Living’.
What is your estimate of how long this would take? Recessing the hinges looks to be the most time consuming step. I would hope I could take this from rough lumber to finished photos in, I dunno, 16 hours at most. Or am I missing some complicated joint (maybe the middle locking shelf is finicky sliding dovetails or something?). I’m very aware that everything tends to take longer than you think at the outset, but this looks pretty straightforward. Or maybe you’re saying that you don’t have 16 hours in the next six weeks?
I think you should have Katy build it from your rough drawing. You lose no time, she gets new bookshelves, and she helps you figure out the stuff you’re overlooking. If you really want to live on the edge, she could do it over the holiday break, applying the final coat of finish on New Year’s Eve!
Chris,
Here’s my take. If I were to ever write a book, and that is a huge if, I would want it to be as complete as I felt it should be. Let’s face it, once you release this book, half of the woodworkers in the country are going to start building campaign furniture. This topic will be around for some time.
Three years from now, when you look back at this book will you say “I wish that I had included a few more projects” or “I wish that I had finished that book by Dec. 31 and not Jan. 31”? Only you can answer that. In my case, if I felt that adding another project was needed to complete my book, I’d add it. Even if it meant delaying the book by a few weeks. I would regret it if I felt it was incomplete, but I doubt I’d remember the date it was completed.
Keep up the hard work. I’m looking forward to reading this one especially and will be sure to pre-order it when it becomes available.
Regards,
Jonathan
I think you can, I think you can, I think you can…
I prefer the clam shell style book cases simply because they both display and transport the contents.
But, the picture looks to be a quick build and the piece is perfectly applicable to college dorms and similar transient situations. Campaign furniture in the modern context type of thing, I guess.
You know the saying “if you have to ask, you already know the answer”.
You should audition to be Chris’s inner voice. It appears his current one isn’t speaking loudly enough.
(I concur with pereqa; I just wanted to start a sentence with” “You should…” Honestly, it doesn’t sound near as bad as, “I need for you to…” which is how my mom began every other sentence to me when I was a kid.)
If this is a shelve without back it will probably be wobbly, even with thick and heavy hinges as only one hinge set of three works under a sideway pressure. I would at least make a stiffness control with a setup of the hinges.
Don’t do it. Concentrate on the book deadline.
I insist that you do so. Some how. Some way.
Otherwise, it should be your next project article for Popular Woodworking.
I vote yes on any project that uses a lot of hinges. But I might have an ulterior motive.
If you don’t build it, I will. If you want to do the piece justis, maybe YOU should build it first.
Remember, ALL of the LAP books will end up in that shelf, leather bound or otherwise.
I believe that shelf alone will sell an extra few hundred copies of the book not to mentions the possibility for 2day classes, just have someone else cook the turkey this year:)
Deadlines can sometimes have a strangle hold on our ability to relax and go the extra mile, so just forget about them and get building, I bet you end up with time to spare. Besides January first is a holiday, there is an extra day for you. Now, teak or mahogany ?
I believe this http://www.acquiremag.com/life/home/stephen-kenn-clothing-rack.php is all you need to complete a campaign style home.
You should!