Part 4: Putting It Together
September 11, 2007
Introduction
Hopefully, no one is sat around with a bunch of MDF planks in their garage waiting for the next installment, because it has been a silly long time between the previous one and this. I can only apologise and blame the same previous excuses plus the addition of my broken and now wired back together finger slowing me down.
As usual, here are the links to the previous steps, please pay attention to the Health and Safety disclaimer in part one.
8. Clear Up
Now we need to clear some room. You’ll need enough space to easily lay out all the shelves and sides etc. We’re going to dry fit them togther, take it apart and then glue/screw it back together again.
Aside: Word to the wise
Now might be a good idea to paint your pieces. When I made mine I didn’t paint it until it was assembled. Laying on the floor with your head on a shelf trying to paint the underside of the one above is not fun. When I make the next one I will definitely be painting it before assembly. Of course, the choice is yours!
I painted the inside of the case gloss white, apart from the top and front of the shelves which is custard yellow. The outside of the case if the same custard yellow. The roof I painted a light grey, because I didn’t have any slate or tile-orange paint handy.
9. Dry Fit
The first step when assembling furniture is always to do a dry-fit first. With the dry fit it very easy to take it apart again, trim/true up anything that needs it without feeling any pressure about the glue curing (or indeed, getting covered in glue).
Lay one of the sides on the ground face side out – so the rebates are pointing up. You might want to lay it on something to avoid damaging the face side. Now carefully insert the shelves into the rebates taking care to line them up on the front of the bookcase. Check that you have the correct amount of clearance on the back of your shelves to take the backboard. Remove any shelves that you’re not happy with and trim them down to the correct size if necessary. Or, worst case, make new ones if they’re too short.
Advice: Clamping Up
If, like me, you don’t have enough (or long enough) clamps to hold the piece together then I suggest you drill some pilot holes and use screws to hold the piece together until the glue is fully dry. Make sure you only drill the hole when the shelves are at the perfect 90deg angle to the side and that you drill straight and true. If you drill the hole when the shelf is at the wrong angle, then the screw is going to keep trying to force the shelf into that bad angle.
Once the glue is dry you have the option of removing the screws and filling the holes prior to painting (or repainting) or countersinking the screws and filling over them. I left the screws in thinking that any addition strength they offered could only be a good thing.
Once you’re happy with the shelves on the first side you can dry-fit the other side. If the fit is good you should be able to carefully lift up the unsecured book case and stand it upright. It’s at this point that I checked the whole thing for square (using a framing square) and drilled the pilot holes to take the screws.
10. Glueing Up
Depending on how well your dry fit went, it’s now time to glue the piece together. Take it apart, put a generous amount of glue in the rebates and put it back together again. You need to work as quickly as possible to keep the glue from curing prematurely, also on unfnished MDF glue seems to be absorbed and dry much more quickly than on “proper” wood. Don’t forget to wipe off any excess glue before it dries and it’s much easier to do that now than scrape dry glue off a (possibly painted) MDF surface.
Advice: Glueing MDF
Because MDF seems to absorb the glue which makes it cure much more quickly there is a trick you can pull which involves “sealing” the MDF prior to properly glueing up. To do this on this project is very easy, just apply some glue to the rebates and spread it thinly across the entire rebate surface. This will leave a thin smear of glue on the MDF. When this dries, and it should dry quickly, you’ve effectively plugged the pores of the MDF with glue, so now apply the generous amount of glue and follow the instructions above. Because of the first layer of glue, the second will not be absorbed so quickly and will therefore give you more time to get your clamps on/screws in.
If you’re using clamps, leave the piece for a good few hours (or over night depending on which glue you have used) than begin the next stage. If you used screws and not clamps then you can carry on as long as you’re a bit careful.
11. Putting the Back On
The back of the cupboard is pretty easy to put on. The only difficulty comes from if you’re making it out of two pieces of board. I used two pieces of hardboard for mine. In this instance, make sure that the seam between the two pieces runs horizontally across one of the shelves. This way you can nail both pieces to that shelf, they will both be supported by it and it won’t show from the front that two pieces have been used.
The easiest way to mark out the cuts you need to make is to put the back against the book case and then mark out where the hardboard overlaps the book case itself. I didn’t bother using any kind of tape or measuring device for this stage. Remember to overcut slightly, so you can plane down the back to a perfect fit.
If you’re painting before assembly, once you have cut the back piece(s) paint them before nailing them on. Otherwise just nail them on now. Be careful when nailing MDF, it’s not as forgiving as real wood. Use thin nails with round heads, using thicker nails will just result in the MDF splitting, which weakens the board and obviously greatly reduces it’s grip on the nail. Obviously, you want to make sure you’re nailing through the back and into the shelf, so do some careful measuring. The good thing about using MDF is that we’re going to paint it, so if you make a mistake it’s not a problem. A bit of sandpaper, filler and paint and no one will be the wiser.
Gluing the back in unnecessary. The back is just to stop books falling off and to provide the frame with some diagonal rigidity. However, because it’s MDF there is going to be minimal (or no) movement with humidity, so there is nothing to stop you gluing it if you really want to.
12. Final Few Touches
On looking at the bare frame I decided that the top shelf, i.e. the “attic” of the dolls house, could do with a lip on the front and back. This is completely optional, you can only see it when the lid/roof is open but I felt it would help keep little fingers from reaching things on that shelf until those little fingers where on arms long enough to be trusted to get into it!
Depending on how much of a lip you want, cut some MDF however high you want the lip and as long as the inside measurement of the attic. Then just glue it in place. You can either glue it vertically or along the same angle as the roof. Since the lip provides no structural support choose whatever matches your design better. I stuck mine on in such a way that I needed to the plane the top leading edge of the MDF plank so that it was at the same angle at the roof. Gluing the lip futher inside the attic would have negated that need. I also put one on the back because I wasn’t happy with how the back board looked through the attic. Having the lip at the back effectivily hid that particular mess!
The final structural piece is the kick panel underneath the bottom shelf. Carefully lay the case on it’s back and measure the distance between the bottom of the bottom shelf and the bottom of the sides. You’ll need a plank that tall and as wide as the inside measurement of the book case.
For this piece, I used a thick piece of real wood that I had laying around. My thinking was that this step is going to get stood on by (short) people trying to reach the top shelf (recent experience proves me correct) and so a bit of extra strength would be good. As well as being of the dimensions mentioned above, this piece of wood is also about 3″ thick, so it’s pretty sturdy. Simply apply a good amount of glue and stick this piece on. I also applied some screws so I could carry on working while the glue was setting.
A further thing to mention is that I inset this piece by about 5mm simply for design reasons.
Advice: Shelf Strength
If you’re wondering how strong the MDF shelves are the top shelf of my daughters book case is completely filled with books and I haven’t noticed any sagging let along creaks or cracks. Also, when she empties the middle shelf, she’s found that she can quite easily climb onto it (by standing on the bottom shelf!) and roll into a ball in the middle of it. She’s an average 16 month old (however heavy they are) and although the shelf does sag a bit, there has yet to be any cracks or broken shelves. I think it’s strong enough.
13. Fitting the Roof
Fitting the roof can be a bit fiddily to get right. First of all, if you’re painting as you go, I really recommend getting up to date with the paint work before continuing. Even if you’re not painting as you go, consider painting the top shelf (the attic) now, as it’ll be much harder to do when the roof is on, and that includes the underside of the roof itself.
The first thing you need to do is cut some planks to make the roof, you’ll need two planks the same size. Use the straight-edge or a table saw as discussed in part 1 to cut two planks, roughly 2″ wider than the book case to create a roof overhang. Measure the length of your diagonals on the bookcase sides to work out how wide they should be. Don’t forget that if you want an overhang on the front/back of the bookcase then you’ll have to add a few inches here also.
Once you have the planks ready to go you will need to mitre a long edge on both pieces. Only do this if you want the top of the roof to form the correct ‘point’, if you are happy with the angle of the roof pieces not matching the top angle of the sides then you don’t need to bother.
The best way to measure the angle you need it to hold a piece of scrap agains the side of the cupboard as if it were one of the roof peices. Now draw a vertical line up from the very pinacle of the side, carry this line across your scrap piece and you now know what angle to mitre the real roof planks.
Once the roof pieces are mitres (or not) you need to fix them to the book case.The roof piece on the back of the case is fixed, so it’s a simple case to apply some glue and screw it down. Making sure to counter-sink the screws so you can apply filler to the holes later. (Or just remove the screws once the glue has fully dried.)
Now hold the front roof piece in place and mark where you want the hinges to go. (If I forgot to mention it before, go and buy some hinges.) Using a sharp chisel cut out enough of the roof to allow each hinge half to be set flush with the edge. Once you have done this for both front and back, you can screw the hinges onto the front of the roof. Next comes the tricky part. Holding the front of the roof with one hand, screw the other side of the hinge onto the back of the roof. I found that doing it this was, rather than back-and-then-front was slightly easier.
With that done, you can trim the overhang of the roof if necessary and continue applying the finish. Remembering to lightly sand around where your screw holes are before applying the filler. When the filler has dried another light sand and some paint and you’re done!
Advice: Word of Warning
I strongly recommend that once finished you leave the book case somewhere with lots of ventilation to allow all the paint fumes to fully disipate before moving it into a child’s bedroom. I personally left my daughter’s to air for a full two weeks before putting it in her room.
