How to Build a Barrister's BookcaseStackable cases with retractable overhead doors

by Jeff Greef

Jeff Greef's walnut lawyer's cabinet resembles a garage for books, complete withoverhead doors. A pair of carcase modules capped with a top unit (left) waits to bestacked onto another pair resting on a base unit (right). Greef waxes the back side ofone of the retractable doors, which is guided by a simple pulley mechanism that's pat-terned after the guide system used in the 1906 cabinet in the photo below.

Among the victims of California's 1989 Loma Prieta earth-quake was a sectional bookcase (also known as a lawyer'sor barrister's bookcase) belonging to a friend of mine.

When she asked me to rebuild it, I inspected the parts she had laidin her garage. Damage was minimal, mostly disassembled jointsrather than broken wood, so repairs would be easy. The bookcasewas composed of separate cases stacked together and aligned bytongues, grooves, dowels and holes. There were also pedestal andcrown units that attached to the bottom and top of the assembledcases. Each shelf module had a glazed door,which pivoted at its top, then slid into a pock-et above the opening.

I also saw something that mystified me—acurious system of metal bands, wooden chan-nels, and small wooden pulleys, around whichthe bands were wrapped. Closer investigationrevealed that the purpose of the mechanismwas to guide the doors, so they would slideparallel to the case sides and not turn askewand bind with the carcase when opened. I wasso intrigued by the guide system on this 80-year-old set, I resolved to build a stackingbookcase with a similar wood and metalmechanism for myself (see the photo above).

The refurbished bookcase, labeled "TheViking," was patented and built by Skandia

Furniture Co. of Rockford, Ill (see the photo below). Patent dateson the label, and the owner's recollection, put the time of the case'smanufacture around 1906.1 was disappointed at first to see the ba-sic construction for the carcase modules was rabbets and nails. Butpractical experience contradicted my negative judgment—all thenailed joints survived the thrashing of the earthquake, whereas halfthe hide-glued joints broke. After reconsidering, I decided to usethe same construction as Skandia with only minor changes. I brokethe project down into four assemblies: top and bottom units, car-

cases, doors and parallel mechanisms.

Materials and case constructionAll visible wood on the Skandia cabinet wasdarkly stained oak, and all the unexposedparts were made from either poplar or alder.For my case, I used air-dried California blackwalnut for the primary wood and poplar forthe secondary wood. I edge-glued walnut topoplar for the cabinet bottoms (bookshelves)and for the rear rail of the top unit. Instead ofgluing up the carcase sides, which hadcupped on the oak original, I used singlepieces of quartersawn walnut. I grain matchedthe sides to create a continuous pattern fromtop to bottom and did the same for the walnutend caps and door stiles. I used poplar for the

stretcher and back rail of the bottom unitand also for the carcase tops, which serveas the base for the door guides. I also usedpoplar for the pivot-post guide channelsand all the wooden pieces needed tomake the parallel mechanism.

Top and bottom units—The shapedfront rail (fascia) of the top and bottomunits adds a nice profile to an otherwiserectilinear construction (see the drawingon the facing page) I cut the coves on therails by clamping an angled fence on mytablesaw and running the workpiece overthe blade several times taking a -in.-deep cut with each pass. To make way forthe tops of doors as they are swung open,I also coved the bottom of each walnutshelf front and the underside of the capedge of the top unit. Using my mitergauge on the tablesaw, I crosscut the an-gled groove that receives the front rails inboth the top and bottom units' sides. Theinside grooves for the rails on the bottomunit's sides can go right across the pieceand not be seen, but not so on the topunit's sides. I stopped the top's groovesfor the front and rear rails and likewise forthe grooves that hold the raised panel top.Next, I cut the tenons on the ends of therails in two passes on the tablesaw: onewith the piece flat to define the shoulder;and the other with the piece upright to cut the tenons' cheeks.Then I fitted the rails' tenons into the grooves and scribed the railprofile onto the sides, I found that it was much easier to match theleading edge of the sides to the contour of the rails than vice ver-sa. After bandsawing the front edges of the sides, I scrapedand sanded them smooth. To complete the joinery for the topunit, I cut shallow, stopped rabbets in the sides to receive the capedge. To hide this joint from the front, I cut -in.-long tongues onthe ends of the cap edge to overlap the joint (see the drawing onthe facing page).

Carcases—Though the basic construction of the carcases is sim-ple rabbet joints (which I screwed together rather than nailed), thealignment of the numerous rabbets is involved. I scrutinized theSkandia cabinets and dimensioned my carcase to make assemblyas easy as possible (see the drawing). The solid-wood sides haveface-frame-like front end caps that have a rabbet onto which thedoors overlap. This overlap inhibits dust intrusion, hides the doorguides and stops the door from swinging inward. Another rabbetcrosses the top of the end caps to make way for the doors to slideby. The end caps run the full height on the front of the sides, mi-nus in. at the top. This in. equals the length of the tongue at thetop of the sides that joins each carcase module to the case aboveit or to the top unit. The bottom of the top unit's and cases' sidesmust, therefore, have a corresponding groove.

The carcase bottoms fit into rabbets in the sides and are notched tofit around the front caps, as shown in the drawing. The -in. tongueat the front of each bottom (edge-glued walnut piece) overhangs theend cap much like the cap edge on the top unit. I also rabbeted the in-side of the carcase sides for the poplar tops and for the -in. plywoodbacks. Finally, I installed a dowel in the top of each front end cap and

To make the bookcase door frames, theauthor used his router table and a set ofreversible cope-and-stick cutters, and thenhe strengthened the joints with solid loosetenons. The stiles and the rails are alsorabbeted for the glass.

By spring-loading one of the -in.-dia.brass pivot posts in each door, theauthor can install or remove the doorswith ease. A brass setscrew, which threadsinto each spring-loaded post, retains thepost in the frame. To avoid weakeningthe door's stiles, he chiseled the setscrew'sbeveled access slots in the top rail.

drilled a mating hole in their bottoms tokeep the stacked components aligned.

Doors—Although the Skandia door-framemoldings -were probably shaper cut, I cutthe sticking on my router table. To makethe recess for the glass, I rabbeted the backof my door frames with a set of reversiblecope-and-stick router cutters. Because Idon't like to rely on a stub tenon alone, Idadoed out the mating frame parts and in-serted solid loose tenons (see the top pho-to). I sized the door's width, leaving about

in. clearance on each side and rabbetedthe back of the door stiles to mate with therabbet on the end caps. Just before instal-lation, I trimmed the door's top and bot-tom to fit the case opening. To retain theglass, I nailed a -in. darkly stained poplarmolding around the inside of the frame.

One of the two pivot posts on each doormust be retractable to install the doors intheir guide channels. On one side of eachdoor, I bored a -in. hole for the fixedpost, which fits tightly with no adhesive.For the spring-loaded post, I bored ain. hole 2 in. deep and then bored two

-in. holes right next to each other in therear face of the door frame directly overthe long hole. I then chiseled the twoholes to form a beveled slot (see the bot-tom photo at left). Next, I inserted a spring

in the pivot-post hole, followed by a 2 in. length of -in.-dia.brass rod. I pushed the rod in until the spring was fully com-pressed, and then I scribed a mark on the rod through the beveledslot. I removed the brass rod, bored a hole at the scribe andtapped threads to accept a brass machine screw, which acts as astop to retain the spring-loaded pin.

Making the parallel mechanismAs shown in the drawing on p. 54, the parallel mechanism consistsof three pans: guide channels along the carcase sides, a pulley anda track at the back, and two steel bands. Both pivot posts protrudethrough holes in the front end of the bands. Each band follows itsown guide channel, wraps around a pulley, and meets in a com-mon track in the rear where the ends of the two bands are con-nected. When one band moves, the other moves an equal amount,thus the door stays parallel. And since the bands slide inside theguide channels and the rear track, they can't buckle.

Guide channels—The channels along the carcase sides serve twofunctions, as shown in the drawing detail on p. 54. They supportthe pivot posts as the door slides as well as guide the bands. Al-though each Skandia channel was made from one solid piece, Imade mine in two parts, as shown in the detail. I routed track forthe bands with the thinnest (0.050-in.) slot cutter my tool mancould find. To use his three-winged cutter, I needed a special ar-bor as well. (Arbors and cutters are available from Steve Cash, San-ta Cruz Saw and Tool, 1115 No. 9 Thompson Ave., Santa Cruz, Calif.95062; 408-462-6936.) I crosscut the channels just shorter than theside width (to allow for shrinkage of the case's sides) and boredand countersunk oversized screw holes within the guide channels.I set the channels in place and used the holes to guide pilot holes

into the sides before I screwed the channelsto the case, as shown in the photo at right.

Pulleys, corner block and rear track—At the rear of the guide channels, there aretwo different blocks to guide the bands. Inthe left corner, there's a wooden pulleyblock; in the right corner, a curved guideblock. For the curved guide, I just band-sawed a quarter of a l-in.-radius circle in a2x2 block. I cut the pulley from a 2x2block using a standard hole saw. I foundthat the plug from a -in. hole saw fitsnugly within the hole cut by a -in. holesaw. To trim the pulley down for a looserfit, I put a bolt through the pulley's centerhole, chucked the bolt in the drill press,and on low speed, took a file to theperimeter of the pulley. For the rear track piece, I first tapered theleading edge on the jointer from 2 in. wide at one end to in. wideat the other. Next, I set up the slot cutter in my router table and cutslots to house the bands. I carefully adjusted the height of the cut-ter to make the slots tangent to the pulley hole. Then I cut thetracks in the pulley corner block. To center the pulley in its hole, Iused the hole-saw arbor bit and a pulley as a center punch. Final-ly, I screwed a pulley block, curved guide block and track piece toeach case top.

Bands—After experimenting with a variety of banding materials, Iended up using -in.-wide spring banding from an old Stanley -in. by 12-ft. measuring tape (not the tape measure itself, but thespring steel at the end of the tape). The springs are thin and strong,and their cupped cross section keeps them rigid when straight. Icut two bands slightly longer than needed for each mechanism.Then, after I scuffed the paint off the ends and cleaned the matingsurfaces with solvent, I epoxied the band ends together. Next, I fedthe band assembly into the guide systems and extended the twobands beyond the front of the channels to mark the pivot-post holelocations. Then I removed the bands to drill the holes.

Boring holes through brittle spring steel is difficult. My first at-tempts using the drill press yielded shattered metal. But, by placing

the band between two blocks of wood andtaping the end of the band over a guidehole bored in one of the blocks, I was ableto clamp the pieces in my vise and borethrough the guide hole. Once the bandswere bored and back in place, I trimmedthe ends with tin snips, so they would notprotrude beyond the closed doors.

To allow for wood movement in theside of his case, Greef fastens a guidechannel by first drilling oversized holesin the guide. Then he installs three screwswithin the channel using needle-nosepliers and a tiny screwdriver. To completethe door-guide system, he glues a pair ofwalnut skids at the front of the case and apair of cork bumpers at the rear.

Installation—After chiseling slots in theback of the end caps in line with the sidechannels to allow clearance for the pivotposts, I trimmed the posts to length and fit-ted the door in place. Then I inserted thefixed post in a band hole, retracted the oth-er spring post and released it into its hole.The door slid smoothly, quietly and paral-lel along the guides. Out of the corner of

my eye, I saw the Viking smiling from the Skandia cabinet's label.

Final assemblyAfter installing all the doors, I applied finish to the individualbookcase sections. To mount the bottom edge of the lowest case'ssides to the bottom unit, the Skandia cabinets had used separatetongues and arc-shaped slots, which resembled biscuits. In keep-ing with the original construction, I used my plate joiner to installtwo biscuits in each bottom side to align the carcase above. I thenstacked all the shelf cases on the base unit and placed the crownunit on top. With the bookcase put together, I noticed that wheneach door was opened, the rabbet on the door's edges bore downon the front end of the guide channel. The channel is about in.thick at this point, and I recalled several of the originals hadcracked there. To avoid this, I installed rubbing skids on the casetop where the back sides of the door stiles contact the guide chan-nels. I also added cork door bumpers at the rear of each case. Be-fore placing any books on the shelves, I waxed the guide chan-nels, pulleys, door edges and pivot posts. Because the originalViking bookcase survived this long, I figured that earthquakes notwithstanding, my bookcase should outlive me.

Jeff Greef of Santa Cruz, Calif, is a woodworker and journalist.

Simple guides align overhead doors by Alec Waters

Retractable overhead doors used in tradi-tional lawyer's bookcases are a handsomeway to keep your books dust free. But manywoodworkers are reluctant to make book-cases like this because they are intimidatedby complex door-alignment mechanisms.Over the years, several guide systems haveevolved for keeping doors straight and par-allel to their tracks. And fortunately, forthose who don't want to build exotic rack-and-gear or pulley-actuated retractors, acouple of these guides are very simple.

Jeff Greef of Santa Cruz, Calif., discovereda fairly common scissor-guide system inmany antique barrister's bookcases. Thescissors are amazingly simple; they are at-tached to the back side of the top of eachdoor, crisscross to form an "X" and thenconnect again to the rear of the case (seethe drawing at right). The curve at the endsof the bars is critical because the ends mustslip easily through the eyescrews when thedoor is opened and closed. A pair of pivotposts and guides enable the doors to swingopen and support the top of the door,when it's retracted. Of course, the bottomof the opened doors must be held up byguides or cleats on the case sides.

For his bookcase, Greg Moore of Comox,B.C. Canada, made a single carcase withshelves rather than individual stacking shelfunits. Instead of using dowel, biscuit ormortise-and-tenon joinery for the case,Moore cut finger-like ends in the shelves,bottom and top to penetrate the laminatedsides of the case. To create the spaces inthe case sides for the fingers, he staggeredthe lengths of adjacent oak strips beforegluing and splining them with plywood.

Moore chose a basic pin-and-slot arrange-ment to hang his doors. He routed stoppedgrooves along both edges of each door toreceive brass pins that project from thecase sides. When the doors are closed, theyhang on the pins, and when open, the endof the groove functions as a stop, so thedoors can't be pushed all the way into thecabinet. Tight clearances keep the doorfrom jamming (see the drawing at right).

So the door can be removed or installedon the case pins, Moore chiseled an escapeslot in each groove. He located the pins sothe distance from the top of each pin to thebottom of the shelf above it equals thethickness of the door frame plus in. Healso fastened a pair of horizontal cleats tothe case sides to help suspend each doorwhen opened. A screw-head slot superim-posed over a groove in one end of eachcleat lets the case sides move freely duringseasonal moisture changes. Moore also leftclearance between the rear end of thecleats and the back of the case to accom-modate side shrinkage. Although Moorefirst feared that without stops, the doors

would swing in and out of the cabinet likesaloon doors when closed, he discoveredthat when released from a horizontal posi-tion, each door automatically comes to restwhen it reaches a vertical state. A cushionof air that gets trapped inside the cabinetprovides the braking action.

With both the scissor guides and thepin-and-slot system (when the components

are precisely aligned and properly waxed)the doors slide smoothly and remain paral-lel. I suppose that there is one drawback,though; now that I know about these sim-ple guide systems, there's no excuse foromitting retractable doors in the next book-case I build.

Alec Waters is an assistant editor for FWW.