6 foot TV cabinet

allen levine

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Wasnt sure if this is worth posting about or not.
Alot of plywood guts, after clamping the box, and measuring up square, measuring all the sides diagonally, to see if I got square, after putting some slices of maple in a joint or two, just to tweak it ever so slightly, I guess clamping pressure decided the final outcome.
The diagonal sides top to bottom are off 1/8, so I figure 1/64 here, 1/64 there, nearly impossible for me to see on my tape measure, all adds up if it goes in one way, a reason I dont like to build big cabinets.
I made a solid wood base, since I dont trust the weight of this unit when filled to depend on the four legs, besides my main concern is sagging in the middle.
I have to run out and disconnect the base, its all wrong, sorry, will be back later.
 
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ok, corrected the base, heres the starting pics.

the side walls on the base are now set 5 inches or so inside, like the front, so when the bottom rails are one inch off the floor, the base inside wont be seen.
The pictures still have the outside wall of the base on the outside flush, I changed that.
I used a piece of white oak I was using for testing some finishes, but Ill probably paint it black so it cant be seen when bottom rail has curve in it.
Not going to get much more done this week, maybe glue up the outside side panels, which was scrapped, but now they are decided on again, so Ill get to work on that and milling up the legs tomorrow.
The unit gets very hard to move by myself, so Ill try to not attach anything till right near the end.
I find it easier to build boxes from the inside out, so if I have to tweak any measurements last minute, its easier to do.
I want the style and look to resemble the coffee table I just finished, walnut with raised panels, but these panels will be white oak.(Larry was right, it was quartersawn. I pulled some of the other boards, the shorter ones I purchased this day, and some have red magic marker on the end grain marked Q, some say WO Q , some dont have any markings, or any flecking. I remember now when I was buying ash he told me he had some white oak if I wanted it, I believe he charged me 3 or 3.50 a board foot, I didnt remember why there were 3.00 bf marked on my original sheet, I had so much wood)

dan did a sketch up of it, its floating around here somewhere, sorry about the mix up in threads.
The top two shelves will remain open, a walnut border put on the outsides to cover ply wood edges.
The bottom will be four shaded glass(tempered for sure) doors framed with white oak. Inset doors.
 

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My walnut runs around 80 inches by 5 inches wide.
I originally planned to have all the bottom rails 3 inches wide, the top rails aournd 2 inches wide, and the side rails(including face frames) around 2.5 inches, but 5 inch wide walnut presents me with problems.
I want to leave a tad on each width so I can edge joint each piece straight, so Im going to have to reduce the side rails to 2.25 inch, and the top rails to 1.75 inch, to have no waste and use what I have.
If not, Im going to have to use 2 more pieces of walnut,, and Id prefer not to do that since its 8 dollars a bf.
I dont think it will effect the overall look of the piece.

If I make the door frames all 1.5 inches width, I can cut 3 strips from each piece of walnut I have, without must waste at all.
IM not sure what ratio a door frame should be vs. the size of the glass panel, nor do I know if it matters.
I want the wood frame to be strong enough to support the glass, max of 1/4 inch glass, I might go thinner if the glazier has it.The cheapest guy so far said hed charge me 12 dollars(per panel) for approx 15 inch x 15 inch, (I need a drop smaller, but needed some ballpark figures for glass), of grey tempered glass, but he only had 1/4 inch.

all new to me, dont know if thats good or bad, but Im trying to keep the overall cost of this unit down, since its already running quite expensive. with the plywood guts and walnut frames.

The unit is running around 200 for ply, glass and hardware without the cost of the hardwoods.

btw, the unit will not tip foward, there will be legs running full length of the cabinet, and this will add all the balance support the unit would ever need, since the bulk of the load will fall on the base.I like to build and play with wood, my designs, well, 5th or 6th piece of furniture, I hope Ill get better with experience.
 
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made 2 wrong cuts through one maple leg, and spent the last 2 hours trying to make a slice of maple thin enough to fit into the saw kerf space.
Hard maple does not handplane easily, at least Im struggling with it.
I think Im going to size it appropiately on the belt sander, so I can sand off just enough.
I also got the boards to make the side panels with, more quartersawn white oak, and its just wide enough so I dont have to glue up.
Im going to try to get some of the walnut cut to size today.
Ill be shutting down for a week, so no more progress will be made after this afternoon.
 
This is how the sides would look without raised panels, the walnut rails and stiles, and the maple ply, ofcourse it would be stained a light color.wood stuff 912 (Medium).jpg
I still have to trim a tiny bit away on the base so it cant be seen from any angle.wood stuff 913 (Medium).jpg
I measured up short with the walnut, forgot if I need 64 inches, having 3 pieces that added up to 90 inches isnt going to help me much if I want one solid piece, especially since its trim up front.
Could not get to my jointer to start edge jointing and face jointing another board of walnut, the garage just ran out of space, had to shut it down, didnt have much room to even drag out the router table and round over the edges on the legs.
I put in a piece of maple, hammered it in, trimmed it down, sanded, to cover up the saw kerf width cuts I made. Its the bottom back of leg, so Im not that concerned.wood stuff 914 (Medium).jpg

I had bought those router bit holders from Lee Valley. Ofcourse, a hole in a board is fine, but they keep the bits out visible and neat for me.
(Im up to 20 bits or so)wood stuff 915 (Medium).jpg
 
Allen you can't even see the repair on the leg. I had to keep relooking and couldn't find it. As far as the router bit holder goes you are doing the right thing cause thats what works for you and the bits aren't banging against each other in a drawer. I just laid out 1/4" and 1/2" holes in a piece of 3/4" ply and have that sitting in a drawer with all my bits that aren't in some kind of case of their own.
 
Allen, I agree with Alan - I can't see any issue with the leg closeup. Did you take a pic of the right leg facing the camera correctly? :rofl: (Joking with ya here - you're doing a fine job! :thumb: )
 
not that theres any time limits on me, but correcting that little saw error took me more time to repair than did cutting and milling the legs themselves.

I gathered a bunch of shorts and scraps, I have to put together a couple of cutting boards for gifts, so I guess Ill be cutting tomorrow night after work, and glueing up right till I head off to the shore.
 
hands are too shaky to take pics tonight.

Its nice to have a few things going on at once, or different stages being built at one time.

Keeps it fresh, can work on assembly, panels, sanding, tapering.....always something, or just cut up the spare parts and scraps and glue up some cutting boards.

I really need to go out and buy a cheap mini table top lathe so I can practice spinning legs and bun feet on it, with all this extra wood. Harbor freight opened a new store 7 minutes from the beach near Atlantic City, and theres a good chance this weekend/week I might just wander by it while my wife is in a casino, and maybe, just maybe, ah...sorry Larry, I have to give it a shot.(besides, I want to go in there and get that bracket hookup for the truck to extend the bed so when I buy wood I can take the full 12 footers, I think it was 39 bucks.)
 

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an entire day, just to get two side panels done.
The raised panel jig I made, did not fit the long 30 inch length.
I did not want to break them into 2 panels.
I had to build a long shorter jig, and although same wood for jig, it was off somewhere between 1/16 and 1/32? Not a big deal, the panels were glued up, and stained they dont look too bad, but when I pushed the last cut through the long jig, the panel fell off the end of the table, and cracked off the end of the side. Again, not a big disaster, but I wasnt thrilled either.
I will push the panel up against the cracked side so no space is visible.
I dont want to reglue and do the panel over.( if I dont like the way it looks, Ill glue a small piece to the cracked part and stain it)
 

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