Well my cabinet's finally finished! Its taken me absolutely ages to make but its definitely done now. Added the lights last night and its ready to come home tomorrow when my dad's free with the people carrier.
Looked absolutely gorgeous in natural pine
Crazy 'false' back to hide the wires and plugs, was a nightmare to do but I think its come up well
Decided to stain it the same colour as the new door we've had in the living room.
So there you go!
Its been good fun but I'm not in a hurry to build another one
Used my grandad's garage, he has loads of tools in there and i've made little things out of wood before but nothing like this.
Most trouble was probably just me being so picky! If a piece I cut wasn't quite right I just remade it. Made the back, bottom and middle shelf twice. I nearly had a fit last night because as I was finishing up I noticed the doors didn't quite line up and I spent a good hour and a half tweaking the hinges.
A lot of the wood had a natural twist or bend to it. The front right 'strip' was really bad and required some re-thinking to get it to stay in place at the bottom. You just assume all the wood is going to be straight and when it isn't it complicates it.
It also contributed (though this was my fault I guess) to the cabinet being about 3mm wider in the middle than it is at the bottom. You can't tell, but it required me to cut the doors at a slight angle to suit, otherwise it'd be obvious.
The back was an absolute nightmare to do. Because it sits inside the sides rather than just sitting proud at the back it had to be cut perfectly. Was a proper pain in the arse but the end result is very good.
Also was a pain making the shelves. They had to be cut slightly too big and sanded down rather than risk cutting them too short and then needing to buy more wood. Even though its a softwood its still a bloody nightmare trying to sand 2 mm off the edge of an already smooth panel of wood using only sandpaper. I did have an orbital sander which I used occasionally but couldn't really use it on edges because it rounded off the wood too much.
I also glued two strips of wood down which I then realised where too long and had to be removed, nearly ****ed it up good and proper. Used the glue very sparingly after that!
So there you go!
Also thanks to some clever design it doesn't use dowels anywhere... its all screwed together. No visible screw holes anywhere, they're all countersunk into the back, top and bottom.
Looked absolutely gorgeous in natural pine
Crazy 'false' back to hide the wires and plugs, was a nightmare to do but I think its come up well
Decided to stain it the same colour as the new door we've had in the living room.
So there you go!
Its been good fun but I'm not in a hurry to build another one
Used my grandad's garage, he has loads of tools in there and i've made little things out of wood before but nothing like this.
Most trouble was probably just me being so picky! If a piece I cut wasn't quite right I just remade it. Made the back, bottom and middle shelf twice. I nearly had a fit last night because as I was finishing up I noticed the doors didn't quite line up and I spent a good hour and a half tweaking the hinges.
A lot of the wood had a natural twist or bend to it. The front right 'strip' was really bad and required some re-thinking to get it to stay in place at the bottom. You just assume all the wood is going to be straight and when it isn't it complicates it.
It also contributed (though this was my fault I guess) to the cabinet being about 3mm wider in the middle than it is at the bottom. You can't tell, but it required me to cut the doors at a slight angle to suit, otherwise it'd be obvious.
The back was an absolute nightmare to do. Because it sits inside the sides rather than just sitting proud at the back it had to be cut perfectly. Was a proper pain in the arse but the end result is very good.
Also was a pain making the shelves. They had to be cut slightly too big and sanded down rather than risk cutting them too short and then needing to buy more wood. Even though its a softwood its still a bloody nightmare trying to sand 2 mm off the edge of an already smooth panel of wood using only sandpaper. I did have an orbital sander which I used occasionally but couldn't really use it on edges because it rounded off the wood too much.
I also glued two strips of wood down which I then realised where too long and had to be removed, nearly ****ed it up good and proper. Used the glue very sparingly after that!
So there you go!
Also thanks to some clever design it doesn't use dowels anywhere... its all screwed together. No visible screw holes anywhere, they're all countersunk into the back, top and bottom.
