Ric's A/V Cabinet Build

[My_Two_Cents]

I've been wanting a new A/V cabinet for awhile, but have yet to find one that meets all of my criteria (wood type, color, style, functionality, size and price). I thought I found the perfect cabinet last week at Costco, but after getting it home I quickly realized it was 1) too big, and 2) too dark. As this was the closest I've ever seen to my "perfect cabinet", I decided to use it as a model for my current build.

As I enjoy browsing through other members' build thread and getting ideas, I decided to start my own to document how this thing progresses from start to finish. While I'm not even close to being any sort of professional carpenter or cabinet maker, I have built various pieces over the past 20 years or so. Some have turned-out well, others not so much, so here's hoping this project falls into the former category.

After taking pictures and measurements from cabinet I "borrowed" from Costco, I drew-up some rough plans for mine to have a better understanding of the sizes of the major pieces (base, supports, top, etc.). Most of this will be designed and built on the fly, which is not the ideal way to things, but in this case I have a pretty good idea in my head how all of this will come together.

Enough rambling, time to start. I went to Lowes yesterday and bought a couple 4'x8'x3/4" pieces oak plywood for the large surfaces and several lengths of 1"x2" and 1'x3" oak solids for trim and facings along with some oak crown molding and other shaped decorative oak pieces. I'll show how all of this comes together through the course of this project.

We'll start with the first sheet of oak plywood:

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Time to cut out the base first. I've found the best way to cut 4'x8' sheets is to first make yourself a circular saw jig out of plywood and MDF. Once built, all you do is clamp the jig onto the plywood sheet, aligning the cutting edge on the line you wish to cut. You'll end-up with a perfectly straight cut, which is virtually impossible to do freehand. Once the sheet is cut-up into smaller pieces, these can be handled easier on my table saw.

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Out of the first sheet of plywood, I was able to cut the base, both side supports and both center supports, with a piece remaining big enough for a shelf. Next I connected the side and center supports using screws through pocket holes. This photo shows how the holes are drilled using a Kreg pocket hole jig. This is probably the best $100 I ever spent on a tool, and I've used it for many projects in the past year or two.

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Once the main supports were attached to the base, I began cutting and dry-fitting the solid oak front facing pieces. These pieces serve two purposes. First, they cover the ugly edge of the plywood. Second, they frame-out the front of the cabinet, giving it a more professional look and allowing doors and drawers to fit better.

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Another shot of a pocket hole joint, which is hidden inside the cabinet.

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Continued in next post.

[My_Two_Cents]

Here's a shot of what I got done today. Note that for now, all of the main vertical supports are simply screwed to the base. The front frame pieces have been glued and finish-nailed in their respective positions so they will remain in position when I take everything apart for finishing prior to the final assembly. I've learned it's much easier to finish cabinets in pieces rather than trying to finish the final project.

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That's all until next weekend when I hope to get the remainder of the cabinet (without the top/trim, doors/drawers and shelves) assembled and/or dry fit. After that, it's lots of sanding and finishing.

[sk33tr]

lookin' good, Ric.

keep us updated on the progress and the pics.

[victorvondoom88]

Looking good so far I subscribed as I would like to see the outcome keep the pics coming.

[Aerodude73]

Very nice so far!

Now, if our friend Lawrence ("LdGibson") could only see this thread, maybe he'd be able to save some $$$$$ as well with trying to find the (seemingly) impossible A/V Cabinet himself.

[crazyBLUE]

Looks great so far Ricshoe. I like how you have the center section forward some from the 2 sides. Looking forward to seeing the finished stand.

Edit ~ Or are my eyes playing tricks on me with the center of the stand ?

[Blu-Benny]

very cool ric!!

[My_Two_Cents]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

Looks great so far Ricshoe. I like how you have the center section forward some from the 2 sides. Looking forward to seeing the finished stand.

Edit ~ Or are my eyes playing tricks on me with the center of the stand ?

Your eyes are good, Brent! Here's a picture showing what the finished cabinet will sort-of look like (only a little smaller and lighter color).

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[My_Two_Cents]

Okay, I spent several hours on both Saturday and Sunday, but don't have much to show for my work. It was a lot of measuring, cutting and fitting of the remaining support pieces and back panels. Thankfully, everything has remained square and true so far, which makes things go together much easier.

This photo shows all of the cross supports installed with the exception of the bottom back panel supports.
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Next I worked on the center speaker compartment. I allowed some space in the back to allow for wiring to pass within the cabinet from one side to the other without showing from the front.
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The only thing left in the main cabinet (aside from the shelves and shelve supports) was to install the vertical supports in front of the doors to allow the hinges to seat properly. Since they were out of the correct hinges at Lowes the other day, I need to try Home Depot later this week.

[My_Two_Cents]

Rather than attack another 4'x8' sheet today, I decided to start on the door frames. First, I needed to decide on what type of shape the inside frame would have. After looking at several different cabinet doors throughout the house, I decided on a simple rounded-step design (that I happened to have a router bit for). When you work with a router shaping wood, it sometimes takes trial and error to get the look you want. In the picture below you'll see the corner piece in front that has a very deep shape to it. I found this looked more like a picture frame than a door frame, so I reduce the depth of cut to eliminate the top "step". The piece in back shows the adjusted cut after sanding.

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A router table makes shaping wood a lot more convenient!
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Lengths completed with finished outside shaping.
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Now that the decorative shaping is complete, I needed to cut the inside notch where either the glass or perforated metal panel will sit (haven't decided that route yet). I cut this on the table saw using 2 offset cuts.

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Here is a shot showing the finished contours from the end of the boards.
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I was going to start cutting these to fit, however I realized the stock blade on my miter saw had a tendency to burn and splinter the solid oak lengths. Since I needed nice clean cuts on these door frame pieces, I decided to hold-off any further work until I can get a new blade. That's it for this weekend!

[MaCruz]

Ohhh!! This is going to look nice whenever you get done with it ! When you get done making yours, go ahead and make me one too. I'll pay for shipping.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Very, very nice Ricshoe!

[guitarist155]

looking great, the fit on those pieces is

[ZIPPO]

NICE idea using Kreg joints( strong & simple ) for your cabinet build!

[My_Two_Cents]

Another weekend sweating my @$$ off in 95+ degree temperatures working on this labor of love. I figure once I'm ready to move on to the finishing part of this (inside in the cool basement), temperatures will have finally dropped to reasonable levels. What can you do?

I picked-up some self-closing hinges for inset doors (which is what this design has), which require a larger fastening area than what I currently have built, so I had to attach fastening strips to the face frames in each of the three areas where the hinges will be. I knew I was going to have to do this, but needed to wait for the hinges to know the size of the piece that needed to be installed. These pieces were glued and finish nailed into place.
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After calculating how many feet of shaped boards I needed to frame the three doors of the cabinet, I realized I needed another 8' 1"x3". I picked this up on Saturday after we saw Captain America (awesome!), ripped it 2 1/8" wide and cut the front inside shape and backside notch as I did last weekend. Now that I had enough door frame material, I spent much of the rest of the afternoon measuring and cutting all pieces to length.

Now the "fun" of assembling the door frames begins. I began by laying the pieces interior side up in order to assure the exterior sides were all flush with each other. Rather than assume my miter cuts were precisely 45 degrees (they never are), I assembled the pieces against a framing square.
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Working quickly, I glued the joints, assured they were 90 degree and then tightened-up the joint with picture frame clamps. Finally, I added a finishing nail through each side of each joint for added strength.
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As I only had 6 picture frame clamps, I decided to move onto something else while the glue dried. I knew I wanted decorative molding at the top of the cabinet, but wasn't sure how I was going to do it. After playing around with some trim pieces I had purchased, I decided on the following design.
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This would allow for the edges of the plywood top to all be covered with solid oak trim, and that trim would continue stepping-down the crown molding to form (hopefully) a seamless transition. Building a small scale model like this also allowed me to measure the exact distance the top will extend all around the front and sides of the cabinet.

Continued in the next post.

[My_Two_Cents]

It was now one of the times I had been dreading, and that was cutting the top piece. Because the top had to fit precisely in order for the trim pieces to perfectly align, I decided start by cutting a simple rectangular piece that was over-sized by a couple inches all around. Next I aligned and squared this piece so it was positioned properly off the front extension portion of the cabinet and one side. I used a piece of trim to assure these areas were correct, and then marked the rear for final trimming. Next, I took the crown molding and working from underneath, used it to mark the side recessed areas and the other side of cabinet top that was not already fit properly. By doing this, I assured the top piece would now be cut and notched precisely so that all trim pieces align during final assemble.
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After checking three times that all measurements and marks were correct, I crossed the point of no return and cut the top to final dimensions. Too late now, if something was measured incorrectly!
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Now that the top was finished, I went back and glued-up the rest of the door frames and set them off to dry. Next, I cut the shelves (2 each side), then designed the cutouts for the back and sides of the shelves to allow air to flow freely. Once the cutouts were made on the first shelf, I used it as a pattern for the other three.
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To finish-off the fronts of the shelves, I applied solid oak veneer strips over the exposed plywood edges. This veneer had heat-activated glue already applied to the back, so all you needed to do was cut it to fit and use an iron to set the glue and a seam roller to make sure it was fully applied. After the glue set and cooled, I used a razor knife to rough trim the veneer and then finish-sanded it flush with the boards.
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To finish-off the afternoon, I cut a piece of pegboard , and used it as a template to mark the holes in each side section for the shelf supports.
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That's another weekend down, and I've got all of the pieces cut and fit with the exception of the finish trim, which will be assembled last. Next weekend will be spent sanding...and sanding...and sanding!

[rpatt]

Shaping up nicely Ric. Looking forward to seeing the finished cabinet.

[Canada]

Wow you built that yourself, I envy people who are good with their hands.

[Xtempo]

looks great, keep up the good work

[My_Two_Cents]

Okay, I only had Saturday free to work on my cabinet, and though I spent the entire day on it, there's not a lot to show. I started-off adding the edge trim to the top of the cabinet. This needed to be attached no so that it can all be sanded smooth and uniform prior to finishing. Adding trim like this really shows if your miter saw angle is off. I had to adjust mine by ~1/2 degree in order to get a nice, tight joint.
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Once I cut and fit all the trim I had (I still need another piece), I moved on to the doors. This is where the majority of my time was spent, because there was a lot of cutting and fitting to do. Once I had the doors sized to ~1/8"-3/16" smaller then the openings, I shim'd them in place and marked the locations for the hinges. Once the hinges were attached and the doors installed/adjusted, I confirmed fit and function with each. Only one door needed further trimming in order to fit, so I considered myself lucky.
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Next I needed to cut the ventilation slots in the back panels. After deciding the size and shape, I needed to make a template to use with my router. In making this template, my 20 year-old trusted jig saw final died on me. Sure, it was only a cheap Black & Decker, but this was bought back when they still made a decent product (as evidenced by its age).
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With my jig saw dead, I had to improvise and use my circular saw (combined with a hole saw blade for my drill) to cut my template. I then clamped the template in place on my back panels, drilled a hole through center of the cutout area and then used my router (clamped to my table) with a pattern bit to cut the holes. This bit has a ball-bearing wheel on the end of it that rides along the template, exactly matching it in whatever you are cutting.
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To finish-out the afternoon, I filled all nail holes in the doors and cabinet face with wood putty. I also got all of my shelves stained and lacquered, and the back panels finished in polyurethane. That's it until next weekend.