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Monday 6 February 2017

A bookcase for Peggy Sue

Reuben received a letter from his friend Peggy Sue.

Dear Reuben, Please would you be able to help me build a bookcase?  Or maybe you are cleverer enough to build one yourself.  My biggest book is 8.5 cm tall by 7 cm and my smallest book is 5.5 cm tall by 4.5 cm.  I was thinking about three shelves, perhaps with a smaller shelf for the littler books on top and a larger shelf for the taller ones at the bottom... about 25cm tall and about 20cm wide. Many thanks Peggy Sue
Reuben went out to the workshop to see what timber was available for a bookcase
He started drawing up some plans
He used his steel rule and a pencil to draw the lines straight
He had a spare pencil behind his ear, just in case he lost the big pencil
In the workshop he marked out the timber to get the grooves in the right place for the shelves
Reuben very carefully used the table saw to cut the timber to the right width, he kept his hands away from the spinning saw blade
Soon Reuben had all the pieces cut to size.  He checked that everything fitted by clamping it all together, then stacked the pieces, sandpaper, some glue and the big clamps ready to take to Peggy Sue.

Laura, Timothy, Edmund and Isabel decided to come with Reuben as they wanted to see Peggy Sue too.
"Hello Henry and Peggy Sue, I've brought the bookcase parts" said Reuben
"Wow, such a lot of pieces" said Peggy Sue
"Did you cut these all yourself?" asked Henry?
"Yes, and we need to do a bit more sanding before we glue it all together" said Reuben
Soon they were sanding the pieces with some garnet paper
Isabel insisted on helping with the sanding too, so they could start gluing the pieces as soon as possible
"It fits together like this, we need to make sure it is all securely clamped so the shelves fit into the grooves properly" said Reuben as Edmund, Henry and Peggy Sue helped assemble all the pieces into a bookcase.
"please tighten those clamps gently and firmly so the joins meet up but the wood doesn't get distorted" said Reuben
Later, the boys helped Reuben glue the back panel onto the bookcase when the glue had dried.  They also helped clean off some of the excess glue which had squeezed out of the corners.  Then they put it upright and called Peggy Sue.
"Hi Peggy Sue, here is your bookcase" said Reuben as Timothy, Edmund, Henry and Rory watched Peggy Sue's reaction.
"Oh my word, it just what I hoped it would look like" cried Peggy Sue with a gasp as Everlee, Laura and Isabel looked on.
"It is perfect and my books fit, I can't wait to fill it up with more of my books" exclaimed Peggy Sue in delight.
"Thank you so much Reuben" said Peggy Sue as she hugged him
"Aw, no problem Peggy Sue" said Reuben, feeling a bit embarrassed.
When Peggy Sue was tidying her bedroom before Christmas and wishing for a bookcase for her collection, I knew Reuben the family carpenter would want to help realise her wish.  He is a practical boy and it was fun to take him out to the workshop for bookcase building. It was made from a piece of laminate floorboard, 3mm ply for shelves and 10mm ply for the base.  It could be varnished or painted, though the laminate floorboard top surface may not take paint or vanish unless sanded down a bit to give the surface a 'key'.

My younger daughter and I enjoyed visiting Lorraine and her lovely collection of dolls on a dull Sunday afternoon.

Update: Lorraine has blogged about Peggy Sue admiring her bookcase.

9 comments:

Serenata said...

Thank you for a really lovely and special afternoon. Peggy Sue still can't believe her dream has come true and is so very grateful to Reuben for helping to make it possible and of course your delightful family!

treefrogdemon said...

That's brilliant, Reuben - I bet you could go into business making those! - Jocelyn

Gregor Daddies said...

Great job Reuben! You could be on "This Old House". I love the little wood clamps!

World Costume Dolls said...

A brilliant Post. I love it!

NeverUschi said...

Well done Reuben! Such a nicely made bookcase. I can see you made Peggy Sue very happy.

twizel said...

Very clever Reuben and how nice of yo to help Peggy Sue x

Angelo's Papa said...

What a clever and generous group of children! Thanks to Ruben's cleverness, Peggy Sue received a fantastic present. This is a very lovely post.

Ginger said...

Reuben is so talented and what a perfect bookcase he has made for Peggy Sue. It is so nice he had help from his friends and it looks like a lovely visit for all. 😊 xxx

Kendal said...

Congratulations and well done Reuben. How very talented and kind you all are.
I'm most impressed and would have loved one for My Sasha Brood over the last few years...(though sadly it's now too late as I'm starting to drastically downsize my huge Sasha Doll collection due to having far less time to enjoy, play and photograph them nowadays.)