Trivial project of the day (October edition)
A couple of months ago, Russell and I went pallet-diving for scrapwood and got a carful of pallet slats for furniture building. This morning I used some of that wood to build Silas a Tiny Special(™ Russell Hoban) Bookshelf so he can have a special place to store things that only he can touch (Russell has a store-bought kids bookshelf that's his Tiny Special Bookshelf, so of course Silas needed one too.)
It may not be visible (and it's nothing compared to the crooked legs on the workbench), but almost every plank on that bookshelf is slightly warped. I decided to use screws to fasten the pieces together, because I was worried that if I just glued the joints, they'd just rip out as soon as they were stressed.
Screws might not be quite so good for longevity, but they certainly made it easier to put the bookshelf together. It only took me a hour to measure, cut, sand, and screw the bookshelf together. I may add a back to it to make it a little bit more rigid, but that won't take longer than about 20 minutes at the worst.
Total cost? Maybe US$1.00 for screws, glue, electricity, and depreciation.