Welcome back for Part 2 of the Bookshelf Project.
As you may remember in the last episode we forged a lot of scrolls.
These scrolls will be attached to a larger piece of flat bar.
We bent one of them already into the right shape essentially what you see on the ground
here.
However, the second bar still needs to be shaped and as you will see in a moment, we
are using a slightly different process for that.
If you did not watch the first episode, one may want to go back so that this video makes
sense.
As you can see here we are using the first bar as a guide to shape the second one.
Scrolling wrenches will come in handy again.
They can be used both for making a curve tigher or in this case for opening a curve up.
It takes a little bit to get used to the mechanics of these wrenches and because we have the
guide underneath our work piece, I can only use them from above which is a little bit
awkward.
We will take multiple heats and slowly work along the guide till we have matched the curves
as closely as possible.
The vise grips allow us to fix the upper bar to the lower one but a second pair of hands
is still quite useful.
Now that we have made all the parts for the bookshelf sides, we finally assemble them
together.
Lots of small clamps fix the scrolls to the center bar until I can tag weld them in place.
Our original plan was much more ambitious, we wanted to join the scrolls with collars
or rivets but realized that given our time constraints we had to get results much much
faster.
Since the frame needs to be reasonably level, we can adjust the scrolls after they have
been clamped with light hammer blows.
The first welding part will just be small tag welds.
This allows to remove the clamps and then apply another welding pass to all scrolls
that is much sturdier.
Since this is pretty repetitive, you get to see it in time lapse.
However, one lesson learned is that welding is hot, and I managed to burn my arm in a
couple of places.
After all the welding and clean up is done, we now have both frames.
Clearly, now is a good time to test how much weight they can take.
As I mentioned before, the actual shelves will be wood.
However, we need to make frames to hold them.
These frames will be open on one side so that when looking at the bookshelf from the front,
we only see the wood.
We plan to use small wood screws to prevent the wood from sliding out of the frame.
Tony is just counter sinking the holes.
To ensure that the frames are flat and have square corners, we need to use a little bit
of scaffolding.
Just wait till you see the construction to make sure they are level.
Small pieces of square tube together with clamps allow me to align the angle iron at
a square corner.
However, it's always better to double check and fine tune the fit.
Again, light taps with a hammer allow me to square things up.
For welding, it's also important that the pieces don't match perfectly, we need a little
groove for welding.
As you can see here, I managed to get the square tube stuck.
I'll deal with that ones all the welding is done.
At this point, I have finished welding all the shelf frames and cleaned them up.
Now, I am attaching them to the sides of the bookshelf.
Although, difficult to see here, I created quite an elaborate construction to check that
each shelf is level to the ground.
This required a lot of extra clamps and straight square steel tube.
One of the steps I a not showing is the blackening of the steel frame under heat with wax.
Blending in the weld spots can be achieved by liberal application of heat, too.
All the metal manipulation is finished.
For the wood, I found planks of one inch thick eucalyptus with a very nice pattern.
A round over bit on the router allows me to establish a round profile on the visible side
of the wood.
A challenge with eucalyptus is that it tears when drying, so there are a lot of tears in
these pieces while not perfect add to the character.
Each piece of wood needs to be invidiually fitted into the steel frame so I will do a
rough cut on the bandsaw and then plane it on the router to make the surface as smooth
as possible.
As I fit the pieces of wood into the bookshelf, you may notice that it is not very rigid.
This could be fixed by attaching a cross brace that introduces a rigid element diagonally.
However, it is my conscious choice to try to get away without doing that.
Before I can permanently attach the wood, it needs to be finished first.
I am using boiled linseed oil for this purpose.
Linseed oil has been used historically in a slow drying form but the preparation here
can dry in just a few hours.
In between coats, I am removing any raised grain with very fine steel wool.
For these shelves, I applied just a couple of coats and as you can see I am not really
set up for drying these, so I am doing each side individually.
Even after just one coat, the pattern in the eucalyptus has really started to show.
I think the contrast with the black steel will long very appealing.
To prevent the wooden shelves from sliding, I am attaching each with four small wood screws
to the steel frame.
I need to be careful that the pilot hole is not going to come out on the other side since
the planks are only 1 inch thick.
While not obvious in time lapse, I am trying to be careful.
Here is the final result with some decorative books thrown in.
I hope you enjoyed watching us finish the project.
If you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel.
As always I appreciate your comments on the videos, please let me know if you would like
to see more of this or any other suggestions.
Alright, this is it for now.
I'll see you next time.