# Breakfront Bookcase with curved astral glazed doors WIP



## sawdust maker (28 Sep 2007)

Well I have been asking questions about how to do this and that in preparation to making a new beakfront Bookcase. And today I went out and blew about £300 on this lot. 8-[ . 





6 Cu' of South American Mahogany and one of American White Oak. Got it from John Boddy's. They even planed up the 17" board, that I couldn't manage on my 10" Record P/T. 

When finished it will stand 6' tall and 6' wide. The base unit will have a protruding section with four drawers, the top two made into a secratiere. The two side base sections will have a drawer above a cupboard. All doors and drawer fronts will be veneered in Mahogany flame veneer and edged with a 1.5mm boxwood string. The top will have four astral glazed doors. I hope to make the astral glazing bars curved to add more interest. On the corners of the base and top unit will have a quarter reeded satinwood collum on am Ebony base and top.

More pictures as things progress, but I think it will be big job and a long post.


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## Paul Chapman (28 Sep 2007)

Looking forward to it  

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## Philly (28 Sep 2007)

Sounds exciting! Any chance of a peek at your plan?
Philly


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## sawdust maker (28 Sep 2007)

Hi Philly

Just tried to scan my drawings, as there in pencil I cannot get an image good enough to post. Sorry.


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## ByronBlack (28 Sep 2007)

I best get a cozy blanket and thermos flask and settle myself for a marathon thread, i'm eagerly anticpating the progress of this one, that is some serious wood you have there!


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## tim (28 Sep 2007)

Loking forward to this.

BTW do you mean 'Astral' or do you mean 'Astragal'? I think you mean the latter.

Cheers

Tim


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## devonwoody (29 Sep 2007)

Best of luck with the project. Save any offcuts for me will yer?


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## brianhabby (29 Sep 2007)

Looking forward to seeing how this develops. I too wouldn't mind seeing your plans, can you not adjust the brightness/contrast on your scanning software so you can get darker lines? Just an idea.

regards

Brian


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## sawdust maker (29 Sep 2007)

This is a bit like i hope it will look like. Mine will have only drawers in the centre section and one drawer and a cupboard at the side. The astral glazing bars on the doors are curved and that is what I hope to make.





But its easy talking about it and not much harder buying the wood. The real hard bit starts now "making it" :roll: 
Paul


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## woodbloke (29 Sep 2007)

Paul - complex piece. Never made anything that large before but as I understand it, on a 'breakfront' pieces like this the whole thing is broken down into separate modules. The base unit(s) for example would be three separate modules linked by a common top and the same sort of construction for the display sections.
Apologies in advance if I've strayed into the 'egg sucking' area, but that's how I would start to think about the construction  - Rob


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## sawdust maker (29 Sep 2007)

Yes Rod. It will be in two section, top & bottom. I did toy with the idea of making the bottom in three sections but that led me into problems dead level for the top section and made construction more complicated. I have settled for a one pice base. The base board being 18mm Birch ply veneered where it will be exposed in the bottom of the side cupboards. Once the bottom plinth has been attached to the ply, after fitting the solid mahogany end panels, I will have a ridged base on which to construct the three base units.


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## orangetlh (29 Sep 2007)

Should be a intersting build. I wish you all the best with the glazing bars, i have recently built these http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/1459246598/ for a unit. Each opening is a seperate piece of glass and all the joints were cut by hand as they were too delicate for a machine. Took about 12 hours a door in total. Are you planning on making individual beads or form one big one and place it on a single piece of glass?


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## sawdust maker (29 Sep 2007)

Yes each piece of glass will be separate. I have made doors like yours on this cabinet I made about 20 years ago.




A part from the doors it was all made form Contiboard!


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## bobscarle (29 Sep 2007)

That is one heck of a piece of furniture! Looking forward to seeing this build. Please, lots of pictures.

I would like to ask one question, which may be stupid. Why make the doors with separate pieces of glass and not a single sheet as was suggested?

Bob


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## sawdust maker (29 Sep 2007)

Hi Bob
Have you seen doors with stuck on astral bars? On the inside they just look cheep. The reason I am getting rid of the first one is because its made from Contiboard and looks as if it is cheep. 

I hope to post lots of photos. Things will go slow at first because I'll be away on holiday for a few weeks. but I'm hoping to cut all the wood to rough size and leave it to acclimatize in the house before thicknessing it. It's surprising how difficult it is to work out just how to cut up all the various sizes of boards to get the most out of them. At £50 a cubic foot I cannot have too much waste.


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## sawdust maker (21 Nov 2007)

Hi All
Have managed to get a bit done at last. The base unit is well on the way and moved it into the house to give me room the start on the drawers and top unit.




The base is made from 18mm Birch ply, faced with Mahogany. The end section that will form the bottom of the cupboards in the side units has been veneered. I got it from a local firm that makes coffins! But at less than 10p a square foot, who’s complaining. I was not sure if the veneer would distort the ply so veneered the underside just to be on the safe side. The sides of the centre unit are made from veneered 18mm ply with a wide facing of Mahogany. However, the end side panels are solid Mahogany and I envisaged some problems with movement so it is only glued at the front and fixed with screws in slotted holes to the base board and the plinth. To get over the problem having a large part of bookcase’s weight on three or four screws I screwed and glued a batten the to the inside of the plinth. This batten takes the weight of the side. To prevent moisture changes during construction I has painted cellulose sanding sealer on all surfaces of these end panes. 




I had a problem with the drawer dividers. Originally the back and sides were going to be made from Oak and the font from Mahogany. With the drawers, in the centre unit being 3’ wide I couldn’t guarantee the fonts staying straight because of the grain not being straight. I found some straight grained Ramin and faced it with Mahogany.




This, up to now, has solved the problem.
Up the front edge of the side units and the centre unit will be a Satinwood column, or quarter if one. Originally they were to be made from solid wood, but I have now decided to veneer them. Each will rest on and be topped with a quadrant of Ebony. I made the columns from an unknown soft hardwood I had knocking about. I used the lathe jig I described in a previous posting to make a perfect 60mm column which was split to form the four quadrants.




To veneer them I have cut a groove the same circumference as the quadrant. I will line the mould with thin expanded polystyrene this will take up any discrepancies between the mould and the quadrant.








The veneer has been ordered and should come tomorrow so we will see if I can successfully veneer the quadrants.
I hope the columns will look something like this.


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## devonwoody (21 Nov 2007)

Looks a super start. keep posting

Also admire your tenacity with this weather


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## mailee (21 Nov 2007)

Now that is looking really good so far, keep us posted. :wink:


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## woodbloke (21 Nov 2007)

Good stuff so far...keep us in the frame with the build :wink: - Rob


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## lucky9cat (23 Nov 2007)

Thanks for that update Bob. I'd say that's very good progress so far! Looking forward to the next instalment.

Cheers, Ted


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