Bookcases are a great project especially if youre a beginner woodworker as they are very basic and practical piece of furniture for the house. When I say they are very basic I mean that the construction is not complicated as they are just 2 sides, a top, bottom, back and some shelves.
Of course bookcase plans can be as easy as that, or you can find bookcase plans with a lot more detail and a higher degree of difficulty, you can choose based on your own skill level.A good tip is to take any easy construction design and dress it up with some timber moulding, VJ grooves or cabriole legs to give it some elegant detail.
I was sitting around bored out of my brain on holidays the other day and my wife said Why dont you build a bookcase for the living room. So I downloaded a plan that would suit the area and our tastes, my wife has a thing for modern white painted furniture at the moment.
MDF was my material of choice for this particular project so off to the hardware to get a couple of sheets of craftwood. I like to use MDF when making painted furniture because it is easy to machine and sand.
If you dont have machinery like sliding table saws and 3 phase routers you can still do a great job with standard electric woodworking tools like:
Circular saw
Electric planer
Router Jigsaw
Biscuit joiner
Drills
You can also use basic woodworking hand tools like:
Hand saw
Chisels
Hand plane
MDf comes in large range of thicknesses and sheet sizes:
4mm
6mm
9mm
12mm
16mm
18mm
25mm
32mm
The sheets are quite large:
2400x1200
3600x1200
Some hardware stores and suppliers break them down to more manageable sizes:
1800x1200
2400x600
1200x1200
My wife likes shopping so she usually lets me know what she would like, then I make the furniture item from her inspiration. If you have the inspiration to build a bookcase but dont have the hundreds or thousands of dollars to spend on new timber or maybe mdf is not available in your area there are other alternatives.
More material for your Bookcase Budget.:
Other manmade products
Pine Floor boards
You could try some demolition companies and check out their stock of recycled timbers from floorboards, floor joists, bearers, rafters to fence palings. Basically if its wood and gets used to build a house you will find it at the demo yard.
So where can you get some BOOKCASE plans?
The Internet is a very good source with websites that provide access to thousands of woodworking plans. You could try your favourite bookstore and purchase woodworking magazines or woodworking books. Get involved with a local woodworking club and share plans and knowledge face to face. Internet forum are another great way to get in touch with the woodwork community.
If youre interested in woodworking you should check out [http://timberfurnitureplans.com/]timberfurnitureplans.com and get some [http://timberfurnitureplans.com/]free plans.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Affordable-Materials-for-Bookcase-Plans&id=6703970] Affordable Materials for Bookcase Plans
