Mission White Oak Cases w/Drawers
Posted January 15 2010
I settled on a design for two Mission Style Oak Bookcases, to replace a couple of smaller cases that flank the hearth in our great room. Wanting
something more than just simple bookcases, I incorporated a row of drawers at the top of the case. This is a large piece -about 5' wide by 5' tall.
These will all be built of white oak, unitizing quarter sawn pieces where I can put them for the most effect. As the quarter sawn costs about 3
times the plain sawn, I am somewhat stingy with the use of them. Sides are of 8-quarter, the stiles are 4-quarter, and the rails are roughly 5-quarter.
All of the pieces are mortised and tenoned together.
Drawer dividers have a quarter-sawn piece of 5-quarter biscuited to the front, that is tenoned to accept mortises in the
bottom shelf and top stretcher. Kickers are also biscuited to the sides of the dividers, along with some maple spacers. The top stretcher is joined to
the front legs and side aprons with dovetails. The botton shelf is attached to the front lower rail with biscuts to ensure a strong support for heavy books.
I like to build solid wood drawers, forgoing the convenience of plywood and gaining the feel of a heavier, natural product. For this project, I will be
using white oak scraps for the sides, quarter sawn white oak pieces for the fronts (all cut to length from the same board), and some red oak scraps
glued together for the bottoms. For the front, I've chosen hand cut through-dovetails on these drawers, feeling that the contrasting oak end grain can sometimes
enhance the Arts and Craftvlook of the piece.
A detail showing the white oak figure in the drawer fronts.
The top and shelves are solid glued together plain sawn white oak. The top has the edges beveled at about 15 degrees on the
front and about 5 degrees on the ends. The shelves are sitting on shelf pins and are adjustable.
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