Tips for Woodworking with Maple

Along with cherry, walnut and oak, maple is considered to be among the favorite hardwood choices for furniture building. Maple is generally considered to be strong, durable and very pretty when properly finished.

Maple does have it's drawbacks. It can be temperamental, particularly when finishing, and is susceptible to shrinkage. Making sure that your maple is well-seasoned and properly acclimatized to your environment will make a big difference in how your maple  woodworking projects turn out, and how they hold up over time.

Varieties of Maple:

When buying maple from your lumber supplier, you may hear plenty of names for the wood: tiger maple, curly maple, birds-eye maple, fiddleback maple, red maple, soft maple, hard maple - the list goes on.

First of all, soft maple and red maple are typically the same thing. And the term soft maple is a bit of a comparative misnomer, as soft maple is harder than many other hardwoods (such as cherry). Soft maple is also often referred to as "tiger maple" for the tiger-like stripes in the wood, or curly maple, if the stripes are a bit more of the curly nature.

Hard maple varieties often will have more small knots that appear along the grain. This is often referred to as "birds-eye maple."

For years, maple was the wood of choice for building musical instruments. The term "fiddleback maple" came from this industry, as properly matched boards would be used to make the large back panels of guitars and fiddles.

Woodworking with Maple:

Part of the beauty of a properly built piece of maple furniture comes from proper matching of corresponding boards. Care should be taken to ensure that grain colors and patterns between neighboring boards should match as closely as possible. Many woodworkers will go as far as to buy thick maple stock and resaw it on a band saw, aligning the cut sides together for a perfectly matched pair of panels. This is particularly effective with tiger-striped maple used on drawer fronts and cabinet doors.

Because maple is such a hard wood, be certain that your tools, blades and bits are particularly clean and sharp. Working with sharp tools on hard woods is not only going to product better results, but it is actually safer than if they are a bit dull, simply because the tools will cut cleaner (and be less prone to tearing through the wood).

Finishing Maple:

As with other hard woods such as cherry, maple can be a bit temperamental to finish, particularly when staining. When applying a stain, be sure to use a pre-stain conditioner to try and even out the "blotchy" patches that tend to appear. This won't completely solve the problem though.

Stains tend to fill pores, cracks and crevices in wood. If the stain cannot find a pore to fill, it will be cleared away when the excess stain is wiped away.

The key to evening out the stain is to sand the project thoroughly, using progressively finer sandpaper grits. Start with 120 grit before moving up to 180, and finally 220. Try to evenly sand the entire project with this final sanding. Then, using some 320 grit paper, sand exposed end grain, which will tends to stain more heavily (sanding the end grain with finer grit will fill the pores of the end grain a bit more). Lightly wipe down the entire project before applying a pre-stain conditioner, followed shortly thereafter by the stain of your choice.

Another commonly used finishing technique on maple is to apply tung oil or linseed oil after the final sanding. These oils tend to bring out the curly or tiger looks of the maple. Follow the oil with a coat or two of shellac. For a more durable finish, top-coat over the shellac with a clear lacquer or polyurethane.

How to Build a Bookcase: Step-by-Step Woodworking Plans

On permanent display: mahogany, solid biscuit joints--and a whole lot of class.

I built my first bookcase in middle school. A multitiered assemblage of wooden planks laid across stacks of bricks, it was reminiscent of pieces from the early Flintstone Period--and I was proud to have made it myself. Since that masterpiece, I've built 50 or 60 more, most while working as a cabinetmaker for an interior design firm, where I learned the carpentry skills, design guidelines and construction techniques used in the bookcase shown here. Basically consisting of three plywood boxes fitted with a hardwood face frame, this piece looks built-in because it spans from wall to wall, and is trimmed with molding at the ceiling and floor. I used 3/4-in. birch plywood for the cases, 4/4 sustainably harvested African mahogany for the face frames and 3/4-in. mahogany plywood for the sides surrounding the doorway. With moderate skills and some patience, it wouldn't be hard to make this project fit any space.

Making Choices

Two pieces of plywood form each side of the cases. I separated them with 1/2-in.-thick plywood strips, so that when I attached the 2-in.-wide mahogany stiles, they'd align flush with the plywood sides. (In contrast, the horizontal mahogany apron attached to the front of each shelf overhangs the plywood.)

The shelves fit into dado joints routed into the case sides. Since the shelves were going to be glued and screwed into the dadoes, they couldn't be adjusted later. So I measured my books before I decided how tall the shelves should be. As a rule, a bookcase with shelves between 7 in. and 14 in. apart accommodates most everything. While books generally fit on 8- to 9-in.-deep shelves, I prefer deeper bookcases, so I ripped the plywood to a width of 11 7/8 in.

I chose to attach the wooden face frames--stiles, rails, valance and aprons--to the plywood cases with a biscuit joiner so that fasteners wouldn't mar the mahogany. But the quickest, easiest approach would be to use a pneumatic finishing nailer--then fill the nail holes with putty.


+ Click to enlarge

Getting Started

The Right Wood: Birch veneer plywood is ideal for building bookcases, and it was affordable at $45 per 4 x 8-ft. sheet. The mahogany was $7 per board foot--and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Start by building a base out of 1x or 2x lumber. Make its depth 1 1/2 to 2 in. less than the depth of the bookcase itself. Its height must be 1/8 in. taller than the baseboard molding you plan to install to make sure the molding slips in easily. Set the base into position and check for level right to left and front to back. Fasten it to the wall studs using 3-in. drywall screws [ 1 ]. Also drive angled screws through the inside of the base and into the floor.

Rip the 3/4-in. plywood to width for the case sides and shelves using a table saw or circular saw and straightedge guide. Crosscut the case sides to length, making them 2 in. shorter than the distance from the top of the base to the ceiling. Then, cut all the shelves to length. The shelves should be no longer than 36 in. to keep them from sagging under heavy loads. Before proceeding, finish all the plywood pieces.

Routing the Dadoes

Clamp two opposing case sides edge-to-edge and mark each dado location with a pencil. Be sure and mark the location of the case tops far enough down on the case sides, so that the tops provide a joining surface for the valance. Next, clamp a straightedge guide across the two sides. Position the guide square with the plywood edge, install a 3/4-in. straight bit into the router and adjust it to cut 3/8 in. deep. Slowly push the router along the guide, crossing both plywood pieces. If you plan to use biscuits to attach the face pieces, cut the necessary slots with a biscuit joiner [ 2 ]. For the tall sides, space the slots about 12 to 14 in. apart. Cut three slots into shelves that are 18 in. long or less, and four into longer shelves. (I cut slots for No. 20-size biscuits.)

Assembling the Case

Apply carpenter's glue to the dadoes, set the plywood shelves in place and secure them with 1 5/8-in. drywall screws [ 3 ]. Since the bookcase has no back, you need to install a wood strip, or hanging rail, to screw each case to the wall. Cut the rail from a 1 x 3 or 1 x 4 to fit between the two case sides. Position it directly above the case top, and attach it to the case sides with glue and screws.



Set each assembled case on its base [ 4 ] and use a 4-ft. level to check for plumb. Next, secure the cases by driving 3-in. drywall screws through the hanging rails and into the wall studs.



Nail 1/2-in. plywood spacer strips to the case sides [ 5 ]. Use six strips total: two each at the bottom, center and top of the sides. Attach the neighboring case, if there is one. Otherwise, clamp a side panel to the plywood spacers, creating 2-in.-thick case sides.



Attach this panel by driving 1 5/8-in. trim-head screws from the inside [ 6 ].

With the plywood cases installed, cut the mahogany face-frame parts, which include: 2-in.-wide vertical stiles, 3-in.-wide horizontal base rails and valance and 1 1/2-in.-wide aprons that trim the shelves. Before installing each mahogany part, sand it smooth, then apply a finish.

Adding the Face Frame

Start with the horizontal base rail at the bottom of the bookcase. Hold the rail against the bottom shelf and mark onto the rail the center of each slot cut into the shelf. Then use the biscuit joiner to cut corresponding slots into the back of the base rail. Apply carpenter's glue to the front edge of the bottom shelf, and the rear of the base rail. Insert No. 20 biscuits into the shelf slots, then press the rail into place [ 7 ]. Use a rubber mallet to tap the rail tight. Wipe away any excess glue with a cloth. Attach the valance that runs across the top of the bookcase the same way. (Note: Its bottom edge aligns flush with the case top.)



Now install the vertical stiles. Hold each stile against the front edge of the bookcase sides, then transfer the biscuit­slot locations from the sides onto the stile. Cut slots using the biscuit joiner, apply glue to both surfaces, insert biscuits into the slots and press the stile home. Use a rubber mallet to tap it tight. Repeat the glue-and-­biscuit routine to attach the horizontal mahogany aprons to the shelves. Prior to installation, I routed a decorative profile along the bottom edge of each apron to create shadow lines that accentuate the shelves. The aprons are more than decorative, though. They stiffen the shelf to prevent sagging. Trim the top of the bookcase with crown molding [ 8 ] and the bottom with base molding [ 9 ]. Wait 8 to 10 hours for the glue to cure before filling the shelves.