Flat Pack Album Cabinet Using my CNC

I'm making a record album cabinet that will be shipped several hundred miles to the customer. To ship it fully assembled would cost over $200, but if it can ship flat pack the cost is only about $50, so there was motivation to design it such that it can be shipped flat and easily assembled by the customer, and without sacrificing strength. Using knockdown fittings and dowel locators is not that easily done by hand, but lends itself perfectly to what a CNC does best.

I cut all the components in the conventional way, then used the CNC to cut the dowel holes, KD fittings holes, and also some jigs that I needed for drilling the holes in the ends of parts that couldn't be mounted on the CNC. Here's a photo of one of the shelves showing the dowel holes and screw pilot holes. Not shown are the KD barrel nut mortises on the bottom. The shelves were two sided jobs.

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The ends of the shelves have both dowel holes and holes for the knockdown fittings. I made a jig to aid in boring them.

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A little jig was made for boring holes in the tops and bottoms of the partitions for the dowel locators. Another jig, not shown, was used to bore the holes in the tops of the side frames for dowels and KD fittings.

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Here's a photo showing the KD fittings used to hold the top on and for bolting the side frame to the shelves.

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Some of the parts ready to assemble.

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And after assembly, minus those oh so attractive hairpin legs yet to be added.

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Just about ready for finishing with Osmo Polyox.

The CNC is a tool that has made it easier for me to build projects that otherwise would have been a lot more tedious. The downside is the time it takes to create the drawings and toolpaths makes one-off work less efficient than doing it by hand. Multiples, however, is where the CNC really shines. So I just need to get some additional orders for this.

John

Really nice job with that, John. You are correct that getting the knock down stuff dead-on accurate is right up the CNC's ally, whether you cut the panels manually or use the CNC for that when it's possible. I'm considering using this technique for something I'm soon to build for the shop as a first effort.

So you're competing with IKEA now? :D Looks really nice...post a picuture after you put the Osmo on. I would really love to get a CNC one day.

Very nicely done and a brilliant idea! All 3 of our kids will be wanting those. They insist on Vinyl. You could make a version for compact discs for all of us old timers.

("Compact Discs for old timers" quote credit to James McMurtry)

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Originally Posted by Christian Hawkshaw

So you're competing with IKEA now? :D Looks really nice...post a picuture after you put the Osmo on. I would really love to get a CNC one day.

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Seems that way, doesn't it. I got this job after building a stereo album and components cabinet for a local guy. Last year, he contacted me to ask if I would build a similar one for a friend who lives in NYC. That's where the knockdown journey began. Around the New Year, this guy contacted me again to ask if I would build a companion piece just for albums. I'm not sure if this will continue, but I decided it was time to more fully use the CNC to build these things. I've had it about 2 years now and it has changed the way I look at building projects. I have an interesting extension table build coming up that I plan to use the CNC on to tackle some challenging aspects of it.

I put a coat of Osmo on the parts only to find a big scratch on the top that I hadn't seen before. So now I'm going to find out how easy or difficult it is to sand out that scratch, after the Osmo cures enough not to gum up the sandpaper. Does anyone have experience sanding something with Osmo on it? Good thing I use pretty thick veneer.

John

I work on those "whoops, I missed that" scratches before the first coat of finish dries. Its yucky and a reason why I start with an oil base stain like natural or various color MinWax wood stain.

It wasn't as hard to get rid of the scratch as I had feared. Here's the before, after one coat of Osmo:

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And here it is after resanding. I had to go back to 80 grit to get rid of it, then work my way back to 180 grit.

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But now I see the seam in my veneer is not all that tight in that area (bottom of photo). I must not have gotten the edges jointed at a perfect 90 deg because it wasn't there before I resanded. There's no fixing that so I guess I'll try wet sanding the first coat of Osmo in to see if the slurry will fill it. Always something.

John

Good news. After I applied a new coat of Osmo, the veneer seam is very hard to see.

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John

That looks excellent!

Here's what it looks like after 2 coats of Osmo Polyox clear satin.

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The next photo does more justice to what it looks like for true color and sheen.

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The Baltic birch plywood comes out well with Osmo, too, as long as the end grain is sanded smooth.


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John

That looks really nice John. I assume that is cherry? Did you saw the veneer yourself?

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Originally Posted by Mark Rainey

That looks really nice John. I assume that is cherry? Did you saw the veneer yourself?

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It's black walnut I milled myself a few years ago. Low temperature solar drying helps preserve the colors and not give the bland brown color you see with steamed walnut.

John

Edit: Yes, I sawed the veneer myself on my awesome G0636X bandsaw with a Woodmaster CT. This was for a different project, but shows the cut quality it produces:

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What thickness are the walnut veneers?

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Originally Posted by Todd Zucker

What thickness are the walnut veneers?

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About 0.075".

John