Building a Box Joint Library Cupboard
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Book,
Magazines, Newspaper clippings, photocopies of wood working projects and pictures. That pretty much describes my woodworking library. Now let me describe where I keep it, in the book case in living room or next to my favorite chair, some in the bedside table, a few others in the workshop, and of course at least a couple of magazines in that place where we all go for a bit of quite time every day.
When it comes time to try and find something that I have bookmarked or need reference to, just finding the magazine, book or photo copy can be a challenge, so I decided it was high time to build a small Library Cupboard for the workshop so I can find things, when I need them. The first thing I did was stack up all by library items in one place to see how much space they take up, then allow for a bit of extra room that will surely be needed in the future.
Since this cabinet is going to be holding a fair bit of weight, I decided that instead of the standard rabbets, I would make the corners of this cabinet as box joints. That way The carcass will be strong enough to hold the books and can still be wall mounted and have doors attached to keep the dust out.
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There aren't many woodworking projects that are nice looking and useful that you can make in one day, but this is one of those exceptions. This little umbrella stand is easy to make and even finish in one day, provided you are using a pocket hole system, and in our case we used the Kreg unit. Of course the advantage of holding joints together with pocket screws is that you don't have to wait for glue to dry, which speeds things up immensely. We love the Kreg Pocket Hole System for other reasons too, there is no glue oozing our of joints, so you don't have to worry about white spots that the finish didn't penetrate because there was left over glue on the wood, and for some projects that need to be taken apart later on, the pocket hole screws are perfect, and they really do hold very well.
If you are one of the millions of people who watch programs like The Antiques Road Show, American Pickers, Canadian Pickers, Pawn Stars and other similar shows, or if you have ever been to an antique or collectibles show and sale, you have seen these little display boxes at various sellers tables. You may have even seen them in someone's home or business to display small, featured and valued items. They are called all sorts of things, slanted display boxes, pickers display boxes, collectible boxes and sellers show boxes and so on. 
There is something rewarding about taking rough lumber and turning it into fine furniture, especially if it is a design you love to make. Such is the case with this little side table, in the Arts and Crafts (A&C) style of furniture. I thought about all the furniture that I love to make and discovered that there are a number of types and styles, starting with the A&C style of furniture. I am a big fan of William Morris, designer of course of the Morris Chair, Gustav Stickely, Harvey Ellis, Greene and Greene and others, but I am also a big fan of Thomas Molesworth who made a very unique type of furniture in the mid-west. All of these people contributed greatly to styles and types of furniture we have today, and they influenced generations of woodworkers.
