I have I don't know how many boxes of books mostly paperbacks in a storage container left from the first floor remodel of my house to help my wifes breathing problem. I decided to make a bookcase for the north wall of my Dining Room to hopefully hold my library. Because the tops of books and the shelves they reside on are natural dust collectors, I decided to make a Barrister Bookcase with doors that lift up and slide back to access the volumes.

And as a Dining table takes up a lot of room. I plan to have a 4 ft wide and 4 ft tall alcove in the lower center of my 8 ft by 8 ft bookcase, with an approx 72 by 40 shaker style gateleg table that is 16 inches deep when folded up.

I did a rough drawing and have made 20, 14.5 by 23 doors using the rail and stile method and they will have thin plexiglass in them to avoid the possibility of having to clean up a large quantity of glass should some get broke.




I have copied more or less the plastic mechanism in a purchased set of Barrister book cases in wood, and I am using sliding dovetails to glue the catch/hanger tabs on the top of the doors.

I have 40+ a few spares of the catch/hangers cut out and about half finish sanded, but I ran out of spring clamps till the glue dries.

Wow, that is a big, honkin' bookcase. Looks like you have a good start on it.

Barrister bookcase update.

The uprights have all been drilled and the main case is in place and anchored to the wall.



I just put 2 sections in to see how if everything fit. No glass in the doors yet tho.

5-15-10 update.

Almost done, just got 2 drawers to make for the bottoms of the 2 outside rows of shelves. All the doors have glass except the bottom 2 on each side that are most suseptable to breakage and they have plexiglass panes.



Now comes the big job, finding all the boxes and boxes of books in storage and filling the shelves.

And, have a few doors that are not hanging straight, that I need to adjust.

Looking good. What finish have you used on the doors?

Cheers

Paul

my friend Kim did the finish on the doors. He used two coats of shellac and two lacquer. Did a twice-over of shellac, topped with one lac. Scuffed down with Skotchbright pads, and shot a final coat of lacquer.

I can't do any finishing that smells because of my wifes sensitivity to it, It could kill her.

Jr.

Bookcase update, 5-22-10.

It looks like I will be building another bookcase to take the overflow that won't fit in my new Barrister Bookcase, even with 2 rows of paperbacks in each of the compartments for paperbacks. The next set I think will be sectional much like Thomas Jeffersons, so they can be moved without removing the books and it also makes it easier to add sections as needed.

I did find my original hardbacks of Stevensons and others works. At least I think they are originals, they have no copyright dates or printing dates in them.