tv stand/entertainment unit

allen levine

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new york city burbs
I was told by my family to keep this one standard, so my ideas were crushed again.
They are suppressing my artistic flair and this might be the last piece I listen to anyone on.
Its my woodworking, its my labor, its my wood, its my sweat, its my fingers and splinters and cuts and blood.
But my wife reminded me its going in her den, and I need her to be happy since shes going to be supporting me from now on.
Sycamore, eh. Just using the sycamore for the frames, not thrilled with the grain all over the place.
Hard maple for the top and legs.
Maple plywood interior, 3 center shelves, fixed, and a door on each side with an adjustable shelf in each cabinet. Standard stuff.
The sidewalls and door panels will be beautiful spalted silver maple.
Not sure if Im making raised panels or flat panel. Its like the other units I made, shaker design.
Dont have much time to devote to it until after Im retired, but while Im working phones and taking care of final business stuff, Im cutting wood and making sawdust.
Usual pics.
too many different grain patterns in the sycamore, driving me nuts to match up some, and too busy for face frames, but feh. I cut it all up, wasted alot.bed 710 (Medium).jpg

my extremely scientific method of getting an arch for the front lower rail of the face frame. 3 nails in the back, a thin piece of wood, and a sharpie.[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]bed 713 (Medium).jpgbed 715 (Medium).jpg
that maple on the back of the work bench is the top of the unit, before I cut it up to joint and plane.



and one more picture. My buddy was over visiting for a minute, noticed a piece of wood and said, hey, you sell this wood to people? I asked why, he said, well, you have a piece marked hold.
I still got ya chestnut larry.bed 719 (Medium).jpg
 
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Looks like you have quarter sawn sycamore. To me thats some beautiful wood! I've got two pieces about 10" wide that are book matched. Now I just have to figure out what to make with them.:dunno:
 
spent some time last night recalculating measurments, so I can go with pocket screws for alot of the frame and assembly.
Unit will be more than secure, since inner cabinet will be secured all the way around.

I managed to get the legs, the sidewalls and framework all cut out and mostly routed. Glad I got this far.
the sycamore frame and spalted silver maple and hard maple legs look like together, no finish applied yet.
My wife wants me to search through the other boards and find another heart (lower right side of spalted maple)for the other side wall.

The legs were originally 3.5 inches wide square, but it was a task to taper the ends, so I had to think them up to 2 and 7/8 so my saws could handle them.

I tried to use the highly figured sycamore for the side wall frames, so it doesnt look as busy on the face frame of the unit. The spalted maple is busy enough.
 

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cruddy day

alot of rain, alot of humidity.
Thought Id get in 6-8 hours today, didnt happen. Didnt get out there till 2.
Wasnt even sure if I wanted to put all the lights on at that point and get busy, but Im addicted. (like I am to posting here)
I managed to get the side walls together, and attached to the legs.
I was paying full attention this time before I tapered the legs, as to the orientation of the seam of the glueup, not wanting a seam on the front of the front legs, or the sides of the back legs. Got it right, but not paying too much attention to much else.
I used the wrong size pocket screw the first screw, and it came through the frame. (bottom right of panel on the left in picture)
Feels like Im in quicksand with this build, just getting a tiny bit done each day

so how do you taper legs that are over 3.5 inches thick and you cant raise your blade high enough even using an 1/8 of an inch for a jig base?
 

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make two cuts allen one half thick plus alittle.. then just smooth out transition with a PLANE :) that screw problem take it out put in right one glue and clamp the bad spot back flat.. touch sanded you wont see it..
 
making small progress

just clamping it up to see how its going to look.
Yeah, I liked my sons buffet so much I made this similar.
I will use the same pull handles or very similar.
I wanted my flat screen 36 inches high, so with a 1.5 inch thick maple top, this will be 36 inches in height.There will be 3 set shelves in center to hold dvd player, cablebox, and home dvd theatre player.
 

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i agree,, this is gonna turn out well allen:D:thumb::thumb:

ok for the cuts in thick wood,, take a piece of scrap thinner is fine set your saw miter gauge for what angle you want.. then cut half the thickness of your sample piece,, either clamp in position or hold it you can.. then flip it over and use the same angle for the other cut to finish the total thickness your gonna cut from the right and the left of the saw blade allen.:D:thumb:
 
Man all I got to say is AWESOME!:thumb: I think you nailed it with the arches.

I remember the first arch I tried to cut, and then larry explained it to me about flush trim bits and templates.(he knew I had no clue but didnt embarrass me)
I think after my new work space rearrangement Im going to cut several templates Id use on doors and things and save them to cut down time making them each time I want one.
Thanx larry. may be simple to some, but when its a first time thing, a bit of advice goes a long way.

on the legs, I ended up trimming them down, after setting up a jig and using my roller support and cut with the mitre at an angle.Did one leg, had enough.
It didnt feel right, so I trimmed the legs down and used the TS.
 
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Boy there aint no flys on you. This is awesome. Those side panels should come out real nice with the spalting in them. I presume that is solid wood panels? Great curves.:thumb:

Larry thanks for that tip.
 
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