TV Stand Part IX - And that's a wrap...

The TV Stand is finally complete. I am pleased with how it turned out and want to thank all those who gave me design and construction advice.  In particular Chris Wong, Matt Gradwohl and Scott Meek from Woodchat as well as Mark Spagnuolo.  Thanks also to everyone who has spent the time to create great woodworking instruction and content online.

Now for the good stuff.  This is an original design and is constructed from solid cherry and maple with a few walnut accents. Everything is finished with shellac and a wee bit of paste wax.

100+ individual parts.

60+ mortise and tenon joints

~50bf of Cherry and Maple

The same board was used for the drawer fronts as well as the panels on the sides and back, with the best bits used for the drawers.

The top is split to allow cables from the TV to pass through into the case.  I trimmed the sapwood, following the grain, to mimic a live edge and provide clearance for plugs. The amount of figure in the top was a pleasant surprise.

Breadboard end worked well as the two boards are not connected to each other.  

The entire case is frame and panel construction.  I like the way this looks but it certainly made this a much more complex piece.

The top is held on with screws through the top blade at the front and a dozen shopmade wooden cleats.

I made the drawer pulls from some scrap walnut. They are a simple design but I didn't want anything that would distract from the figure of the drawer fronts.

The drawers are a dowel reinforced rabbet construction and ride on a center guide made of maple. All of the drawer sides and backs were re-sawn from 6/4 maple stock. (Note- It is possible to re-saw just over 7" on a std jet 14" bandsaw)

The back is of the same construction as the rest of the case and I tried to use as nice a wood as possible as the location that this piece will be in leaves the back visible.

The back panel for the center shelf is vented, as is the shelf above it.  This is to prevent the receiver from overheating.

Wiring is accommodated by the split top and by oval holes through the back edge of all the shelves/dust frames.

All set up and ready to go.

TV Stand Part VIII - Almost There.

Hopefully the next post about this project will be the last. This has been my most ambitious project to date.  The final count is just over 100 individual parts and several new techniques for me. Another milestone is that I think I actually spent more on wood for this project than on project specific tools.

I am pleased with the way the drawers came out.  They all operate smoothly enough and the figure on the fronts really looks nice with some finish on it.

The end that gets a bit of sun through the shop window is already starting to darken.  I am looking forward to seeing the colors develop in this piece over the next year or two.

The dowel reinforced rabbet construction for the drawers worked out well.  I think the look fits the piece better than dovetails would have and they are rock solid.

The breadboard ends for the top went smoothly.  I ended up with a full width 1/4" long tenon with two narrower 1" long tenons on each end of the two top boards.  The outer tenon on each is glued and pinned and the inner one is pinned with the hole in the tenon slotted to allow for movement.  

 Any movement should be toward the center which makes makes mounting a bit easier as there should be minimal movement at the mounting points.

I've started working on designs for several new projects.  I think the highest priority is probably a side table to go with the TV stand.  Also on the list are a sideboard to go with the whiskey cabinet I made last year and possibly a Morris arm-chair.  

TV Stand Part VII - Drawers

After finishing off a hardwood floor installation at my father in law's place...

..and in between taking advantage of the new snow,  I have been getting some time in the shop.

With the case complete, I've moved on to the drawers.  First thing on my list was to fit the drawer fronts to the openings in the case. 

Christmas gift cards were well spent on a Veritas Low-Angle Jack with 25 deg blade which worked wonderfully well on the shooting board. The tenon saw has a nice balance to it.

The drawers are a simple rabbet construction and will have dowels to reinforce them.

I can't wait to get some finish on the lower drawers.

Tonight the first of the drawers was fit to the case, so far so good.

Tonight the second drawer was fit. I really like the look of the dowels in the rabbets.

Two more drawers and it's time to move on to the top.

TV Stand Part VI - Slow and Steady

The last month has been as busy as usual with Christmas parties and skiing.  I have managed to get some time in the down in the shop.

I finally got all of the parts pre-finished and the sub-assemblies glued together.  This was the last dry fit of the inner shelf assy before I finished the front edges.

The glue-up went pretty well, a couple rehearsals were key.  Using a glue that sets pretty slow (Old Brown Glue) certainly didn't hurt either.

In preparation for  a Christmas hut trip I picked up a fisheye (15mm equivalent) lens for the camera.  Here is the TV stand case all glued up and just about ready to go.  There are just a couple more details to wrap up on the case.

With the fisheye I can finally get  a decent shot of the shop.  It's cozy but I am settling into some routines and find it a rather pleasant place to be.  Last year I was running a propane heater while I was down there, but found it to be loud and smelly.  This year I have been trying out a small electric heater that I leave on with the thermostat set around 55.  This seems to work much better as it keeps the shop from getting so cold in the first place and things stay a much more constant temperature.  With the cost of Propane I think running the electric heater on low might even be cheaper than blasting the shop while I'm working.

I've started milling the boards for the drawer fronts, saved the best for last.  These have some really nice curl and should be a nice touch.

The top is also in its early stages. With a little cleanup the boards for the top are looking quite nice, they even have a bit of curl as well.  I am still trying to decide on how wide to make the breadboard ends.

And a couple pictures of my shop helper.

I had to run to the lumber dealer for some baltic birch to make drawer bottoms and this little guy snuck into my car.  It is a beautiful 10' long by 14in wide piece of walnut.  There were a couple big knots right in the middle so I had it cut down to fit in the car.  The other half isn't nearly as nice as the one top, but is still quite usable.  For the price it was worth it for just the one shown.  I've managed to collect a bit of a stash walnut at this point so I think my next project might have to make use of it.  I just need to figure out what that is.

We are off to the Opus hut for some christmas skiing.  Pictures will surely follow.  

Merry Christmas 

The end is in sight ?

With a few evenings here and there I have been making progress on the TV stand.  Checking things off the list always feels good.

Most of my time lately has been putting finish on parts and beginning to glue up sub-assemblies.  So far I am really happy with how much easier it is to finish the individual parts.

Blue tape does a good job keeping the shellac off of the tenons.  I have been applying the shellac with a brush and then wet sanding with 320 and progressively finer scotch brite pads.  I have found that the pads resist clogging much better than sand paper does, but the 320 does the initial leveling a bit faster. As long as I keep the 320 grit lubricated with mineral spirits its seems to work ok. 

The end assemblies are finished and glued up. I am pleased with the overall look.

The back frame is glued up and I am in the process of getting finish on that.  Luckily, 4 of the 5 panels can be removed for that process.

I finally got around to buying a spoke shave.  Found one on Ebay for $20.  A few minutes of tuning on a diamond plate and it was ready to go.  The XX Coarse DMT Dia-Sharp plate is awesome.  It cuts much faster than the X Coarse Duo-Sharp.

I have also made and fitted the drawer guides into the shelf assemblies. I ended up just cutting the mortises for those by hand with a chisel and router plane. It was probably faster than setting up a jig for the router and I had a lot more control over the results.

Dry fit and ready to go.  I am thinking about just attaching them with two screws so that they could be removed/replaced in the future if needed.

Now that the TV stand is really starting to come together and most of the details have been worked out, I have been starting to think about the next project... next furniture project anyway.  There are a few house projects that are higher on the list.  The pictures above are of a Birdseye maple dresser that my wife would like a matching side table for.  I don't plan on trying to duplicate the carved details but I think that the leg profile and some of the trim details will be included.  I need to get a good picture of the top, it has pretty heavy figure that looks terrific.  Whenever I get far enough along on this design to need lumber I think I will probably be calling the guys at Bell Forest Products as they seem to know there way around Birdseye maple.

Curves and Resawing

Cut some templates to experiment with curves for the rails.  

I'm pretty happy with the curve for the long rail. subtle yet effective.

The curve on the sides has the same rise to the center but is much more pronounced.  Not sure about this one yet.

Finally got around to cutting down the board for the top to see what the two halves look like side be side.  I like it.  I think I am going to go with my original plan of trimming the inner sapwood band to a consistent width to leave space for cords.

It's starting to look like something.

I also got the drawer parts re-sawn.  These were cut from 6/4 stock so I can get two 1/2" thick parts from each blank.  The amount of tension in the wood seems to be less than for the blanks I used for the shelves.

The larger drawer sides pushed my bandsaw to its limit.  I need 6 7/8" drawer sides and was able to just squeeze a 7 1/8" blank through.  I am impressed at how well the saw did, new woodslicer certainly helps. It would have been nice to have a taller face on the fence, but I really didn't have any issues with getting a pretty consistent cut.  

Drawer parts stacked and stickered.  It will probably be a few weeks before I get to the point where I need to mill them to thickness.   I will probably send them through the planer for a couple passes sometime soon and then take them to final thickness when its time to build drawers.