A collapsible bookshelf modeled after a teak unique.
That is an excerpt from “Marketing campaign Furnishings” by Christopher Schwarz.
Bookshelves that fold at or disassemble are frequent objects amongst surviving items of marketing campaign furnishings. These ingenious models had been typically fairly small. In any case, it’s not as if you happen to had been touring abroad with a Carnegie library, and books of the nineteenth century had been often compact objects.
How small? A typical marketing campaign shelf unit is 3′ huge, 2′ excessive and eight″ to 10″ deep. That’s not quite a lot of shelf area.
Many of those shelving models had been designed to sit down on high of one other piece of furnishings, reminiscent of a marketing campaign chest or desktop. Or they had been meant to hold on the wall, which was particularly useful throughout a sea voyage.
Screwed collectively. The steel uprights screw along with the cabinets to supply a reasonably sturdy set of cabinets.
Widespread Sorts of Moveable Cabinets
The most typical kind of transportable shelf isn’t one you’d anticipate to see in a e book on woodworking as a result of it’s largely steel. These cabinets are tubular steel uprights that screw along with two, or often three, wood cabinets between.
These cabinets look spindly however are sturdy sufficient for the job.
A less-common variant on these cabinets replaces the steel with wood uprights – often turned spindles – that screw along with the wood cabinets to supply the completed piece.
One other kind of shelving unit is a folding e book rack. The best type of e book rack has a at shelf with two “bookends” that fold flat whereas touring. These easy racks will not be unique to the marketing campaign model; you’ll discover variants throughout each furnishings interval the place books had been frequent.
The ends of the three boards are mitered and hinged. Typically the ends have handles so you’ll be able to elevate and transfer the loaded rack.
There are extra advanced mechanical e book racks that additionally broaden in size in addition to having folding ends. These often require some difficult {hardware} to make them operate nicely, so I made a decision to not construct one for this e book.
For hanging. These giant folding cabinets had been designed to hold on the wall. Word that the barrels of the hinges on the uprights are equidistant from each the highest and backside of the case. This element permits the unit to fold flat.
The third frequent kind of collapsible shelving unit folds like an accordion. You often take away a middle shelf (or two), and the uprights fold in on themselves, turning your shelf unit right into a flat pile of lumber. The primary time you see it in motion, it’s really a little bit bewildering. However it’s fairly cool.
This sort of shelf unit requires no particular {hardware} – only a small pile of butt hinges. And there’s nearly no actual joinery to talk of. So it’s a really perfect challenge for the woodworker with out entry to a forge or a steel store.
These accordion-style cabinets got here in a number of dierent sizes and configurations that had been embellished or plain. Some variations had been designed to hold on a wall; others sat on high of a chest or desk.
The unique. That is the unique model of those cabinets in teak. I altered the highest profile barely, however in any other case mine is sort of related. (Courtesy of Christopher Clarke Antiques)
The cabinets I constructed for this e book are based mostly on a unit I admired in one of many Christopher Clarke Antiques catalogs. The unique was made out of teak; mine is mahogany. Whereas the one joinery in the entire challenge is chopping two dados, you’ll turn into fairly an skilled at putting in butt hinges. It takes 12 hinges to get the entire thing to work. And putting in the hinges exactly makes the shelf unit sturdier and makes it collapse extra easily.
— MB
