JKM Woodworking

I brought all the pieces inside where it was warmer. My daughter helped with the gluing up and the finishing.

First the inner shelves and uprights were glued to each other. This was the type of clamping where if you crank down too much everything will sploosh out.

After that set all day or night we glued the sides, top, and bottom. The bottom also had pocket screws driven from underneath.

My daughter said she didn't want to paint it, she wanted it to look like wood. I offered her the options of no finish vs putting on something almost clear that might make it easier to clean or keep things from sticking to it. She opted for that so we got ready to apply shellac. I was preparing paintbrushes when she asked why we can't just roll it. She must remember helping to paint walls.

It didn't sound like a great idea but we went ahead and rolled on Zinnser sealcoat shellac. It went on pretty thick, and some areas were foamy or had ridges. I later went back and tried to smooth some of those areas out.

These shelves were heavy and large. It took several days to get around taking them up one set of stairs from the basement to the first floor. Then it took another 1-2 weeks and an appliance dolly to get them from there to the second floor. Maybe I should learn a lesson from that and assemble/finish larger projects closer to their destination.

Now it's gotten to be too cold to do much else.