Some recent work: AV Cabinet, small kitchen shelves

[dougshannon]

Thought I'd share some recent work I've been doing, first up is an AV cabinet to take a large flat screen and a high-end hifi system. Based on a design that Heal's sell, but larger and much better made, even if I do say so myself...

All the toys came out for the cabinet: TS55, Kapex, MFT, Rotex, Domino and Surfix..!

Five feet long, 20 inches wide, 27 inches tall. Mixture of ash, american black walnut and veneered mdf. Finished using Festool Surfix Heavy Duty Oil and Liberon finishing oil, Festool for the large flat bits and Finishing oil for the ash frame. I'm really coming round to the finishing oil, with careful application and polishing it leaves a lovely semi-gloss finish. Whilst I like the finish the Surfix oil leaves, it takes an elephant's pregnancy to cure off to a hard finish.

Mainly domino'ed, the frame is held to the cabinet using lengths of 8mm stud epoxied in. I felt that with the weight of kit that it would be loaded up with, to use only dominos would be pushing my luck. That's also the reason for the centre support on the frame, without it it would have sagged in seconds even though it looked much better without it.

Only one wip photo I'm afraid, will do more next time.



Choosing the grain for the door uprights



Finished. What, isn't everybody's workshop carpeted with a fine beige Axminster..?



Mitered ash frame



Solid walnut nosing rounded off on the router table for the door uprights, top, bottom and shelf. Got a really good grain match on the top, shelves and bottom were acceptable. Bog standard Blum hinges.



Just one picture of a set of kitchen shelves that I built to keep expensive stuff out of the reach of the one year old... Oak and oak-veneered mdf, and that mitre has been sanded smooth since this photo was taken.



Any comments or critique welcomed.

 

[Kev]

Very nice work!

Is there enough air flow at the rear for "high end gear" ?

I'm surprised at the level of gloss from the SURFIX HD oil. What grits to you sand to through the process?

Kev.

 

[dougshannon]

Hi Kev

The pre and power amps will be in the middle, open section for that very reason, also I like the way they look so don't want to hide them away. DVD, bluray, computer, etc, will be behind the doors.

I was surprised with the glossiness that I ended up with. That's with three coats, just the grits that are in the surfix kit, and a lot of buffing with the white Vlies pad to try and help the oil cure off as it stayed tacky for the best part of a week. Side effect seems to be an unprecedented amount of glossy...

 

[woodguy7]

Nice, I like it.  I'm holding off on the Surfix oil kit as I haven't heard anyone yet saying it can be used for anything other than flat surfaces.  I used hard wax oil on projects like this, do you think the white viles would work with h.w.o ?

If the blue ray player is behind the door, will you have to leave the door open for the remote to work ?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[dougshannon]

Hi WG7

I reckon the main purpose of the whole Surfix kit is to make large flat planes easier to do consistently. The pads work well for that, but you can rag brush and sponge the oils on as per normal. Using the green and white Vlies pads on the Rotex has been the main revelation for me with oil finishes, I use them for any and all oils now.

I reckon they would work fine with hard wax as I think the Festy heavy duty and one-step oils are both waxy. You could even refill the bulbs with any oil you like, which is what I do.

I'm going to be using IR repeaters so that the disk player remotes work with the door closed. Everything else I can control with my iPad over wifi so the doors can stay shut, I think that's going to be the future for all consumer electronics.

Doug

 

[Kev]

I'm hanging out to see what sort of gear you're putting in there ... doesn't look like a pair of Krell Monoblocks will fit  [big grin]

 

[Kev]

This'd look nice on top ...

http://www.highendpalace.com/C39600.jpg

[wink]

I should include the source site's page ...

http://www.highendpalace.com/2007%20CES%20show%20in%20Las%20Vegas%20II.htm