*sounds of wood hitting wood* welcome to make something with me, david picciuto and today we're gonna make this collapsible bookcase. how cool is that? let's make this!
woodworking bench vise hardware, today's video is sponsored by brusso hardware. *music and tool noises* he knows his stuff!
i'd like to take a moment to talk about today's video sponsor, and that is brusso hardware. all the hinges that i'm using in today's project comes from brusso. they are precision machined to aerospace tolerance. these are not the type of hinges that you're gonna get at your local hardware store. they are high quality hinges there is no slop or play after install. it is is a smooth fit. very high quality standards. why spend hours on a project and buy cheap hardware at the end? there's no frustration or adjustment after the install. the hinges perform as expected every single time.
think about this: how long did it take to make your last cabinet or box? why not finish it with hardware equal to your efforts? brusso has been making high precision hardware for over 20 years in the usa. their entire line comes in solid brass or stainless steel at brusso.com. brusso hardware provides high quality, american made woodworking hardware for furniture, cabinets, boxes and more. learn more about their hardware at brusso.com. alright guys, let's get back to this project and finish it up. man, is that not one of the coolest projects we have done on this channel?
that is so cool. this is a really simple project. it could easily be done in a day i spread it out over two days. very, very happy with the way it came out. i made this using the plans from christopher schwarz's book "campaign furniture." this is a really awesome book. if you're not familiar with campaign furniture, it's british furniture that is made to be mobile for military and travelers it's a very old style.
christopher schwarz goes into great detail on the history of campaign furniture and how it evolved and where it's at today. really, really good book. i highly suggest you check this out. also lots of great projects in this book as well. i like a lot of the look of campaign furniture because it's very simply. it's very square. maybe not this project in particular, but i really like the squareness. uh, and the shapes of the campaign furniture style. let's talk about the hinges. all the hinges come from brusso like i mentioned earlier.
there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve hinges total. that is a lot of hinges. as long as you install all the hinges in square and this top set and this bottom set are the same distance from the middle here it should collapse and go back together with ease. i used the brusso hinges and i cut all the mortises by hand. brusso also makes router templates just for these hinges. and they make router templates for their other hinges as well. but i really wanted to up my hand tool game
and cut them all out by hand. it was a good learning experience. i got a lot faster at making the hinges and i got a lot better. a couple later ones i got a little sloppy just 'cause i was in a hurry. but as long as you take your time, i got excellent fits. the router plane that i used made this so much easier. this is the lie-nielsen router plane. i believe they come in two sizes. i have the smaller of the two. and so there's this little blade on the bottom here
and you use this screw to set your depth. and then you can get a nice clean bottom. this made mortising out the hinges so much easier than just using a chisel alone. so i set up a timer and timed how long it took mortise out one hinge. and it was just under 5 minutes. the one that you're looking at now, this is the third one that i've done. after i did two, i was like "okay, i've got down. i know what i'm doing now. i think i can do it in less than 5 minutes." i would imagine a more skilled hand tools person could probably get that down to 2 minutes.
but woodworking isn't about being fast, it's about having fun. it's about the enjoyment and the happiness that you get from making these pieces. so the brusso hinges come with brass screws, of course. and all the sets also come with one steel screw. and that is so that you can set the screw in without breakin' it, 'cause brass is really soft and you could easily strip out the head or break the screw off. so you get 'em started with the steel screw and then you use the brass screw later.
yes, there is just a little bit of wobble to it but this would easily hold a bunch of books. the weak point with this definitely is the hinges 'cause the hinges are used for the joinery. the top shelf and the bottom shelf are only held in by the hinges. this middle shelf could hold tons of weight. this could easily hold books. you're not gonna park a car on top of it. will flip it around to the back here and this middle shelf here has this piece which kinda stabilizes everything pretty darned good. the better you cut your mortises, the less wobble that you're going to get later on.
i used three coats of shellac on here; just the normal shellac that you would get at your local hardware store with steel wool in between the coats which makes it real smooth. what am i gonna use this for? i'm not going to use this as a book case i'm thinking about taking this to the craft shows and using this as a display. because since it collapses nice and easy it makes it mobile. which is the purpose of this, right?
so i though i could set up my table and then use this at the craft show next year. maybe make another one too. i'd like to thank brusso for sponsoring this video. i love working with those guys. this project would not be possible without them. also, check out lost art press. that is the publishing company of christopher schwarz he is one of my favorite wood workers. so christopher schwarz is really into the history of woodworking.
he travels the world finding all the documents and trying to find out the history of the different styles of woodworking and i always relate it to going back to my music background. like you cannot be in a rock band without knowing about the rolling stones. the rolling stones shaped rock and roll. if you... you have to know your history to know where you're going. right? and so christopher schwarz teaches the history of woodworking whether it's campaign furniture or other styles of furniture. he also has a really great attitude about it too. yes, he does hand tool stuff, but he also uses modern machines; planers and table saws. and he's not afraid to stand up to the woodworking snobs. and i just love his whole attitude
on life and woodworking. so check out his company, lost art press. he's a good dude. he's one of my favorite wood workers of all time. even if i don't do a lot of the stuff that he does, i still get a lot of inspiration from chris. so chris, thank you. check out lost art press. all right guys. this project was super fun. igotta go. i'm taking my book case with me. takin' my coffee with me.