Art Mulder
Member
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- 3,383
- Location
- London, Ontario
(haven't done an "in-progress" project thread in a while...)
I finally got some of my other round-tuits/honey-do's out of the way, so it was time to tackle the fishtank stand/cabinet that I'd started planning a while back. The design and background was posted over in the design sub-forum back in July and following.
This project is mostly a big cabinet, made with lots of sheet goods. But still, I'm pretty happy with the design, and I take plenty of pleasure in putting together a well designed piece of functional furniture.
I started on some of the parts last week... The carcass is from a sheet of 3/4" maple plywood. (This was the piece where I put the edge tape on the wrong sides)
There is a small toe-kick out of the lower-front corner. This is not 'regulation' kitchen cabinet size. I'm trying to maximize the cabinet volume. (greedy, I know) But we still want a toe-kick, mostly so we can slip our foot under the left-side drawer (where the trash can/recylcing bin will sit) and use it to pull it open. We do that on our under-sink cabinets now, and it is very handy -- and that is an understatement.
Some of the cross-members and other bits:
Today I put it all together -- at least all the bits I've built so far.
Here was another learning experience... Having just a single center divider can be a problem when you're building with pocket hole joinery. I didn't even think about this until I was getting ready to put it together. That was when I realized that anywhere that I had two cross-members touching the center divider at the same place, I was probably going to have trouble with the pocket screws hitting each other.
I was able to avoid that in a few hidden places by alternating the orientation of the cross-members. Some had the screws angled up, some angled down. But I still had a couple places where it just didn't work and I had to macgyver a solution. Oh well, once it's built no one but me will ever know about it. But I confess here, in the hopes that others will learn from my oops. (Though I'm more concerned that *I* learn from this...)
The top is loose right now, not going to be attached until the end. The carcass is getting a blue stain. And the top is just going to get a bit of shellac, to warm up the pale maple, and then the whole project will get a whole bunch of varathane topcoats --- remember; fishtank. (I bought myself an Earlex in the summer, and this will be my first chance to give it a shot.)
And yes, there is a hole in the back. (which is 1/4" BB by the way).
The top right drawer is going to be about 4" shorter than the others, from front to back. This is to give me room back there to hide a power bar for the various A/C adaptors and plugs as well as a room for one or two air pumps for the tank.
Next up will be drawer construction. And I haven't even started milling the maple that will make up the drawer fronts. But it's got to be done by Oct 16 (LOML's bday party) so I'm under the gun, a bit.
...art
I finally got some of my other round-tuits/honey-do's out of the way, so it was time to tackle the fishtank stand/cabinet that I'd started planning a while back. The design and background was posted over in the design sub-forum back in July and following.
This project is mostly a big cabinet, made with lots of sheet goods. But still, I'm pretty happy with the design, and I take plenty of pleasure in putting together a well designed piece of functional furniture.
I started on some of the parts last week... The carcass is from a sheet of 3/4" maple plywood. (This was the piece where I put the edge tape on the wrong sides)
There is a small toe-kick out of the lower-front corner. This is not 'regulation' kitchen cabinet size. I'm trying to maximize the cabinet volume. (greedy, I know) But we still want a toe-kick, mostly so we can slip our foot under the left-side drawer (where the trash can/recylcing bin will sit) and use it to pull it open. We do that on our under-sink cabinets now, and it is very handy -- and that is an understatement.
Some of the cross-members and other bits:
Today I put it all together -- at least all the bits I've built so far.
Here was another learning experience... Having just a single center divider can be a problem when you're building with pocket hole joinery. I didn't even think about this until I was getting ready to put it together. That was when I realized that anywhere that I had two cross-members touching the center divider at the same place, I was probably going to have trouble with the pocket screws hitting each other.
I was able to avoid that in a few hidden places by alternating the orientation of the cross-members. Some had the screws angled up, some angled down. But I still had a couple places where it just didn't work and I had to macgyver a solution. Oh well, once it's built no one but me will ever know about it. But I confess here, in the hopes that others will learn from my oops. (Though I'm more concerned that *I* learn from this...)
The top is loose right now, not going to be attached until the end. The carcass is getting a blue stain. And the top is just going to get a bit of shellac, to warm up the pale maple, and then the whole project will get a whole bunch of varathane topcoats --- remember; fishtank. (I bought myself an Earlex in the summer, and this will be my first chance to give it a shot.)
And yes, there is a hole in the back. (which is 1/4" BB by the way).
The top right drawer is going to be about 4" shorter than the others, from front to back. This is to give me room back there to hide a power bar for the various A/C adaptors and plugs as well as a room for one or two air pumps for the tank.
Next up will be drawer construction. And I haven't even started milling the maple that will make up the drawer fronts. But it's got to be done by Oct 16 (LOML's bday party) so I'm under the gun, a bit.
...art