It seems like it’s taken forever to get this far. I was hoping to be almost completed in the grand Blackwood project by now, but from idea, to plan, to execution, to completion seems to take twice, sometimes triple the time you’d expect. As a process, the first one is often drawn out as you see what works, and as Pete says, it doesn’t take that much more time to make 6 than it does to make one.

I used some extra resin glue to make fill a few of the gaps from my finger join efforts – a drawback of using high speed tools on brittle/fine work.

I toyed with the idea of having the shelf unit as a hollowed backless one. The drawbacks being a reduction in strength and for its final position, the wall being the back with the possibility of unwanted marking.

Actual blackwood ply is available but over $250 a sheet. Not unaffordable, but extravagant for a structural and likely unseen component. So I settled on a sheet of regular construction ply at one tenth of the cost. Teacher Leon helped out with his air compressor bradder, and I learnt the art of fixing such a construction square. We used spacers for the shelves and bradded those from the ply also.

I’m very happy with the result. Now to sand.