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Display Shelves
Thursday 20 November 2008
Alan Holtham uses clever dowelling in this storage unit
1.The finished shelves
Storage is always at a premium in the living room and this makes a fantastic display unit for ornaments or books, and the open backis a real feature, particularly if you stand it against a dark wall.
There are several options for jointing up a project like this, the obvious ones being dowels or biscuits, but because the pattern of shelves and supports repeats on every piece, it seemed easier and quicker to make up a simple dowelling jig.
Veneered blockboard is very much stronger than MDF and also considerably lighter in weight, but it is more expensive and it also seems more difficult to cut across the grain without ragging. Because the 8 x 4 sheets are large and awkward to handle I lay them on the floor outside and then cut them up roughly to size using a portable electric saw.
