# bookshelves, mafell duo doweller and mistakes



## engineer one (31 Jul 2007)

i have what is known as a condition. a heart complaint. i am not as ill or disabled as many so i am lucky. however i do seem to be tired a lot of the time. so when i feel fitter, i have to get off my ass, and do things.

i can't blame the following on being unwell, but it does remind me never to take things for granted with what i think i know.  

some time ago. JFC had some oak veneered mdf to dispose of. so i got bunches of it. it has been lying around for some time, but have finally gotten round to producing things.

like everybody, i need storage. :roll: in this case, some more bookshelves. so the mdf was about the width that i needed.

so on yesterday, i cut a number of lengths to size to allow me to make 
2x 1200 high units 550 wide and 275 deep, with to have up to 3 moveable shelves. 2x 700 high 550 wide and also 275 deep, to have 1-2 moveable shelves. also i have cut enough to make a laser printer stand which is 
380 high by 550 wide and also 275 deep. no additional shelves.

i started out sanding the edges, but in the end to save my lungs, i used my LN low angle block plane tp shave off the splinters.

one picture shows the cut stock.

i have a mafell duo doweller and decided to use that to make the holes for the brass shelf supports. having done it before, i thought i would remove one of the drills and a spacer jig to go up one side, and then change drills and go up the other. however i made a major boo-boo.

on the doweller, there is a stop but it is smaller than the drill. what you do is locate the stop in the hole, but of course if you drill just inside the edge, and use the fence to set the distance, then you end up doing what i have, which is get some of the holes out of line with each other. DOH (homer) :-k . having used a stop on my 708 i had thought that all the boards were the same length. but guess what when i checked, after of course, i discovered that one board was slightly longer than the other. so the error was compounded.

you do have to wonder why you never find these things out until you have done it :?  

so i learnt, well sort of, and made sure the next bits i did were the same lengths, and then i sorted the first smaller unit. i had bought the doweller support, but last time i used it i was a little disappointed. it is only about 900 long, and quite narrow. so if you want your shelf supports close to the edge, you would need to move the support. i decided this time to set it in the middle, and do both sides off the same dimension. means the supports are not at the extent of the wood, but simplifies ensuring everything lines up. and putting it horizontally is not an option because you have to keep changing the drills :roll: 

got that sorted, and then used the doweller for the joining the top and bottom to the sides. to ensure better rigidity, i put the them on top not inside. of course the first time, i forgot to drill from the outside of the sides, but got that sorted too.

then i did the first large one. used the stick again, got what i wanted.
i chose to do it with both drills this time and only drilled a few holes around the mean shelf dimensions.

so what you have is the photos of todays' work.






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now the important thing to understand is that these are what i call basic bookshelves. they are not works of art, they are only designed to be the receptacles. at a later stage when i get some more real oak, i will finish them off with a face frame etc.

the backs are 12mm oak veneered mdf, which i screw on to increase racking strength. these units will stay in one position. and it is easier than cutting away the sides to miss the skirting board :? 

finally i will put them on a pedestal when i have go all i need done.

at this time i have no need for shelves of the type marc has made so wonderfully, what i need is storage :lol: and frankly they would look out of place here.  

anyway when i have produced more i'll let you know.

so some more thoughts about the duo doweller. it does have a place, but requires a great deal of accuracy, and therefore you need to ensure that the wood you use is all the same width. i have discovered that often when we have multiple sheets to cut, to get the most out of the sheet, we tend
to move the cutting points, rather than the boards. memo to self, ensure that all long widths are cut at the same time to the same setting. :roll: 

unlike a biscuit jointer which i also have, the duo doweller has a deep skirt under the drills, and that can cause some problems until you get to grips with it. sadly it seems to have taken me too long  

what is good though is the dust extraction. works well when connected to my trend vac. 

not sure whether it replaces a biscuit jointer, and it was before the domino from festool, so like many mafell tools it is good quality, but not as well marketed. :? 

anyway, the good news is that i am making things again, the bad news is i have to learn about not making mistakes. however, these at least i have been able to cover them up.

paul :wink: 
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## DomValente (1 Aug 2007)

And that's what working wood is all about.

Paul have you thought of making a simple jig and using the router for shelf support holes, it's very quick and accurate.


Dom


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## motownmartin (1 Aug 2007)

Nice one Paul, it's good to see you practicing your skills, the more you do the better you will feel  

ccasion5: Martin


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## engineer one (1 Aug 2007)

thanks dom, i have both seen and thought of using the router and a jig, but since i have the mafell, i sought to use it. also having just made a shooting board, i don't really want too many jigs, also at this time that requires a possibly a different guide bush for the hitachi, and so i'm trying to use the things i have already got, rather than sliding even further down the slope :roll: 

anyway after gluing up the first two overnight, i will put their backs on today, and get them cleaned up and clear varnished.

then i will get round to putting some dowel off cuts into the waste holes, and re-cut the other long sides to the same length. i must remember to check every thing i cut, even if i have set up the stop :? 

and as your tag line says dom, if you don't try you don't do anything.
and since this particular bookshelf can be in the corner and once covered in books apart from me, and all you lot, who will know :twisted: 

paul :wink:


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## Alan Smith (4 Aug 2007)

Engineer one,

I've got a Duo doweller too. I love it! But I agree with you about the spring loaded indexing pins, they can catch you out. I find i really have to have my wits about me using this machine as it can be so easy to make a mistake. But, with a pocket hole jig and the doweller I feel I can do anything!!

Alan


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## engineer one (10 Aug 2007)

well a week later and all the shooting board problems finally solved.
oh how i love late night sharpening :roll: 

finished three of the bookshelves, and the printer stand.
well to be honest finished the structures. now i have to start on the being pretty part of it. 

you may remember that i mucked up the first one a little, by putting holes in the wrong place for the shelf support. so i filled all the holes with dowels, not oak, but it is in a corner and quite dark there :lol: 
used my veritas saw which has the set on only one side. very nice flexible item, works well and quickly. quick sand up, and they look ok.

so i made the holes again using the guide and the doweller. worked ok, but then in checking i noticed that one side was longer than the other.

so i recut them all, clamped the two long sides together and cut a little off the bottoms, and then again off the top to get them level. i also chose to slim down the sides too, and also "error message :roll: :? " when i designed the units, the room was very clogged with furniture, and i did not measure as well as i should have, so when i fitted the first long case, i noticed that the gap to the wall was narrower than i had thought, because of a plug socket in the wrong place  :lol: 

so the two long units are not the same width, but one of the advantages of putting things in a corner is that you can hide it a bit.

next step is to arrange to make a plinth for them all. that will be about 2000 long by 225 deep and about 100 high. will paint it black to make it look like the cases are kind of floating.

then will put face frames on the 4 items, and not sure about doors yet.
on the top, i will do a little disguising to overcome the slight difference in height. some kind of crown and a separate top i think. not yet sure whether to go any higher than the 1200 it is at the moment. that would mean another two units which would be about another 1000 high. 

will see what my next storage demands are. 

few more thoughts about the doweller, and dowels in general.

the mafell is a dual unit,it has two drills, which can be changed to drill 6, 8 or 10mm diameter, they are set at the standard euro spacing. 35mm apart.
the design is kind of like a biscuit jointer, it has a decent fence that can be angled down to 90 degrees, there are thickness settings as well as a decent depth stop.

the biggest problem for me is that beneath where the drills are, the skirt is deeper than that on a biscuit jointer. so you can't rest the doweller on the bottom of a piece of wood, or on the workbench in the same way.

you need to develop new techniques. one is to use the guide, which has serrations along its length of almost a metre. you can set it across the wood for instance for setting middle shelves. or like me if there is a narrow board, for instance for bookshelves, you can fix it vertically in the centre of the board, and cut shelf support holes.

i think the real question is is it better than a biscuit joiner, well i can't really comment on the technical strengths of the biscuit compared to a dowel. obviously it is not the same as a festo domino. but you certainly need to be more accurate with dowels, since they cannot slide sideways in their holes, unlike biscuits.

then the question is how do you ensure that the holes are properly lined up. with the biscuit joiner, you can always massage a little from side to side. with dowellers you need to either run from one side only, or make sure that all the boards are the same width. this might seem obvious, but if in fact you get boards cut at your shed, and you change the dimensions when you change boards you cannot be sure all are the same width.

so two things to remember, when designing something that is going to use solid boards in particular, remember to layout the cuts so that you do not change the cutting lines until you have made all the cuts to one specific size before moving to the next cuts. but even then you have to be sure that the two boards are cutting from the same edge :? 

know this sound obvious but if you don't have a way of ensuring that all your cuts are the same width then you have to check and make sure you use the same reference edge always. i actually mark with chalk.

mind you getting dowels except from screwfix is kind of difficult.

anyway, will sort some photos soon just to show.

paul :wink:


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## engineer one (11 Aug 2007)

mea culpa time

as scrit has kindly reminded me, the mafell is actually designed with the proper euro standard 32mm spacing between the dowels.

the other valuable dimensions are that from the c/l of the dowels to the bottom of the front face is 70mm, and 65 to the bottom of the crenalation
which fits the guide.

the angled face has the same dimensions between it and the dowels.

however as said, does not allow the bottom of the doweller to sit flush on the bench.

paul :wink:


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## engineer one (11 Aug 2007)

so more progress. final of the fourth bookshelves glued up, just needs to dry and then fit the back, and adapt the shelves.

must get some more brass mounts and sleeves. high wycombe beckons :? 

you can also see the cleanliness of the holes now i have sorted out my usage of the doweller :roll: 




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next step is to organise the pedestal and then the tops, but tempus fugit
so now more tidying up.

what amazes me more than anything is how the dust manages to find places i did not still know i had?????

mind you although the dust levels are lower, with hand work you still end up with a bunch of waste :? 

paul  [/img]


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