Not A Build Thread

I thought I’d post a few pictures – and it really is a few – of the progress of the CD rack I am throwing together. Not really a build thread, just the odd picture or three.

After I had cut the joints, I did a partial trial assembly to make sure everything was lining up and to see how the Black Cherry and Lacewood were looking together:

At this point, the shelf boards are a hair oversize and do not insert into the housings cut on the inside of the Lacewood stiles, so the joints are about 1/8″ (3mm) from closing up:

Everything seems to be connecting as it should:

From past experience I have learned that Lacewood is not a wood that can successfully be put together with PVA glue (it will fail to adhere to the Lacewood), so I will use epoxy for the case’s dovetail connections. Since there are no good glue surfaces in the connection between the shelves and the stiles, except the sidewalls of the tenons, I’m planning to only apply glue to the wedges and their kerfs. It will make for a stress-free glue up, of which I’m all in favor! The joints fit tightly, so that is the key, the glue only acts as an insurance/back up.

The next step in this project is to plane all the boards to finish, cut the wedges for the through mortise and tenon joints, and work on putting the back panel together.

The back of this piece is of frame and panel construction, with a Jatoba frame and a Cherry panel. The whole affair is quite slim, with the frame only 3/8″ (9.52mm) thick and the panel about 5/16″ (8mm). The frame members of the back will join with very skinny haunched mortise and tenons. The case is designed so that it may stand on the floor, or upon a desk, or be mounted on a wall. The initial installation will be hung on a wall, so I’m intending to hang the case from its back panel. The contents are fairly light in weight so I think it should all work out to hang everything off the back even though it is a slender assembly. The back panel will be made so as to be removable, and I’m still deciding how I will connect it to the rest of the unit. I might use screws, as after all, this is a ‘quick and dirty’ project making use of some scraps. We’ll see….

Thanks for visiting!