Project Mission Creep: Use leftover materials make something simple challenging

[Vtshopdog]

About 20 years ago we had an addition built that added a 14x12'  room to our master bedroom.  There has been a poorly utilized desk in the corner of the room for last decade and in back of my mind for last 5 years was a mini project to build some sort of bookcase/cubbie/shelving unit that would be more useful.

The longer I procrastinated the more grandiose my plans became and the simple bookcase became built in dresser.  I like building audio speakers and there is a fairly good selection of leftover sheet stock and veneers kicking around so one goal was to use some of these up.  Using scrap stock always seems to lead to on the fly design revision when one finds available stock comes up short.

First up, my contractors really made a mess of the corner I was building in.  The wall was about 7/8" out of plumb over 20" rise, wall itself was curvy and the corner was not even close to 90 degrees:
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Out the window went planned French Cleat to hang cabinet replaced by a ledger of sorts. More mess as the framing was covered by the sheetrock and a layer of 1" foam board over ripped 2x stock nailed to the 2x6" framing.  Bottom line is the ledger needs 6" lag bolts to catch solid framing - MESSY!!

 

[Vtshopdog]

Next up was reassembling leftover stranded Bamboo plywood.  I had a scrap sheet just long enough to make the dresser top with strands running lengthwise.  This piece suddenly did not make the grade as the wonked out wall required a scribed dimension about 3/4" deeper in corner and lengthwise strands would emphasize the diving wall.  Would look bad!

On to plan B which is cut and reassemble scrap bamboo so strands are perpendicular to the wonky wall:

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This jointed up pretty good, used track saw to set kerf right at edge of both joined strands so they align just as in the full sheet.
(there is something that feels wrong about gluing plywood back together, but I do it all the time....)

More work arounds as available dimensions of leftover bamboo for doors and some black Valchromat for side panel weren't quite big enough.

 

[Vtshopdog]

McBeath's had Sapele on sale for $6/BF and found one really unusual figured piece for the drawer fronts

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Fronted the Bamboo top edge with an old offcut scrap of Sapele.  After attaching with Domino I had planned to simply rip it straight, but the offcut had a gentile curve and my all too small brain thought "hey, lets build it with a curved front". I tried to make a trammel, but the longest flat surface I could come up with was about 30'.  Desired arc was probably closer to 45' so ended up free handing my template, cutting with jigsaw and free handing the finished curve with a block plane.  Turned out great

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[tsmi243]

Outstanding!

Can't wait to see the rest

 

[Vtshopdog]

Turned out great in the end but took a few detours that only a homeowner/hobby wood nerd could take as considerable time and effort were added over course of project.  If I hired a contractor who billed me a fair rate for the revisions I would be kind of cranky about the cost.

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Spliced Valchromat end panel with scrap Sapele rib.  Can't get enough gluing plywood together!
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[rvieceli]

Outstanding work. Love the final results.

Ron

 

[Crazyraceguy]

All of the work we go through to make things straight square and nice, then you have to deal with the worst installation conditions.
That's a good looking combination of both colors and textures, plus the floating mount. Nice project, seems like it was worth the wait.

 

[Vtshopdog]

All of the work we go through to make things straight square and nice, then you have to deal with the worst installation conditions.

Props to those of you dealing with this type of stuff on regular basis, has to be frustrating.  You pros know all the tricks while guys like me have to reinvent the wheel so to speak.

One midstream detour (I like to call these "taking the scenic route") was after seeing how messed up my corner was I spent a few extra minutes and installed 4x EZ-lock 1/4-20 threaded inserts in corners of each of the outside carcasses along with alignment Dominos.  I had planned to just use wood screws + Dominos to hold the cab sections together. 

The threaded inserts with matching truss head stainless screws made multiple assembly and disassembly easy as I wrestled to find proper shim thickness in areas under the sheet rock that had accessible framing to screw the cab properly to the wall.  In the end I mounted the boxes one at a time after screwing shim stock to the wall.

Seemed like stupid overkill but in the end was super handy.

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[Crazyraceguy]

Props to those of you dealing with this type of stuff on regular basis, has to be frustrating.  You pros know all the tricks while guys like me have to reinvent the wheel so to speak.

That is one of the first considerations of nearly every project. Most of the things I build have to be disassembled enough to fit into a truck, then through a doorway of some sort, sometimes an elevator, etc. We have job-site drawings with measurements for things like this, including elevators.
Things do happen once in a while, where something gets changed or done out of order. These can be pretty frustrating, fortunately is has been less frequent over the years.

I just had one a few weeks ago where it had to be modified in the field to deal with sprinklers. This was never considered by the architect in the first place, where it could have been designed around, or in a different order during install, where it could be addressed in the field.

 

[Sparktrician]

[member=68668]Vtshopdog[/member], if you ever have a messed up wall to try to follow again, you might want to use some Space-Plugs.  I bought some several years ago from the owner (in the UK), and have never regretted the purchase.  They're wonderful for getting a secure mounting for cabinets to wavy walls.  I wouldn't use them for hanging cabinets, but for base cabinets, they're great.  As for french cleats, I prefer to use Douglas fir or solid maple, both as straight as I can find it, then shim as needed to keep the cleats straight, true and level.  Just a thought...  [smile]

 

[Vtshopdog]

[member=68668]Vtshopdog[/member], if you ever have a messed up wall to try to follow again, you might want to use some Space-Plugs.  I bought some several years ago from the owner (in the UK), and have never regretted the purchase.  They're wonderful for getting a secure mounting for cabinets to wavy walls.  I wouldn't use them for hanging cabinets, but for base cabinets, they're great.  As for french cleats, I prefer to use Douglas fir or solid maple, both as straight as I can find it, then shim as needed to keep the cleats straight, true and level.  Just a thought...  [smile]

Those are cool, I can think of quite a few places they could be handy.  Would have been too tall to work on this project but very happy to know about them, thanks.

 

[Spandex]

I can vouch for Space Plugs, having used a few of them fitting a kitchen in my extremely wonky Victorian house, where there isn’t a single square corner and most walls are out of plumb or bowed to some degree. I now keep a selection of them just in case.