Entertainment Center Build

[John Loftis]

Thought I'd get this started before I got too deep into the project. This is my fourth woodworking project, and, as always, I've bitten off more than I can chew. Patient (long-suffering?) help has come from John Keeton (design) and from Steve Jenkins (construction). Previous versions of the design are in the Design forum.

To get things started, here's the most recent iteration of the design. I'm pretty settled on everything at this point except for the inlay. More on that later, but if you have some design expertise in inlay, consider yourself enlisted.

Top, side-panels, and front are nogal (a.k.a. Peruvian walnut). Innards are maple plywood. Inlay will be birdseye maple.

[John Loftis]

Bought this wood 6 or 12 months ago from Austin Hardwoods. I'd never heard of it, but they were selling it on special for $3.50 a foot. So I quickly tried to figure out how much I'd need for the TV stand, added 50%, and bought it. They subsequently went out of business in Dallas, which eliminated my future supply of nogal.

With that in mind, my first step was to mill the lumber. Had several boards wider than 8", so went to a friend's shop who has a jointer bigger than my car. Milled the rest in my garage. Had some sapwood show up on one side when I jointed, but thought I'd be ok on the other face.

Set aside the three best boards, did my best to grain match them, and glued them up for the table top (pic 1). Drops on the wood are sweat.

My first significant case of cerebral flatulence came when I planed the narrower boards to thickness. Rather than taking off just enough on the opposing face to get a smooth surface, I kept planing the 'good' face until I hit sapwood (picture 2).

So... I went from having more than enough wood to maybe not having enough.

(pic 3). I made a detailed cut list, measured, measured, and measured. I probably spent 8 hours on this. There's at least one other source for nogal in the D/FW area, but they want $9.50 a board foot. So it was worth my time to try to make it work. I am having to use a little sap-wood, but tried to put it in the least visible places.

[Matt Campbell]

Oh, how I miss working with Peruvian walnut. The sapwood will darken quite quickly, especially if you use a coat or two of amber shellac. That was my experience at least. Beautiful wood and easily machinable.

[John Loftis]

Started to work on the end panels. Bought and used a Whiteside cope and stick router bit set with a bead profile. As a novice on the router, these bits are pretty intimidating, particularly when cutting the coping for the rails. Created an extremely fancy sled to help stabilize things... wish I'd used made a miter track in the sled for my little router table, since I had a hard time keeping the rails against the router guide bearing.

Glued up and sanded the raised panels. Steve helped me cut the raised panels in his shop.

You can see in the picture that the sticking on the stiles extends all the way down. I had an earlier thread/question about doing a stop-cut using the stile and rail bits. Since my stiles continue on and ultimately become 'feet' for the entertainment center, I didn't want all of that sticking exposed. Best solution for me was to cut some narrow pieces of coping which I will subsequently glue on to the exposed sticking.

[John Loftis]

I wanted to get a first coat of stain on the raised panels before gluing up the end panels of the EC. Got input some time ago on staining nogal (thanks Patel and Padilla!) Decided to go with Watco Danish oil. Since this wood has large, open pores (like normal walnut), Steve suggested I wet sand while applying the Watco. I found another finisher who had detailed thoughts on this (hopefully it's ok to post...) http://www.woodworking.com/wwtimes_oilfinish.cfm

Worked my way through the grits to 220, blowing compressed air on the panels between grits. Then I basically doused the raised panels with Watco (light walnut stain) and immediately began sanding with 320 grit. A slurry of sawdust and danish oil formed and it really seemed to fill the pores nicely. Probably took 30 minutes of dousing and sanding to get things really smooth on the two panels.

Tomorrow I'll need to go over the panels lightly with 320 before applying coat 2 of watco. There's still a dull film of sawdust residue on the surface, I think.

The panels ended up being comprised of my worst wood. In particular, I had to use a narrow strip of sapwood. It looks terrible and I'm trying not to obsess about it. The stain muted the zebra stripes a bit, and the tongue of the panel will be buried in the stile... but it's still very frustrating that it's in the panel at all.

[John Keeton]

John, I think it is coming along great!! The wood has a beautiful color to it, and if Matt is correct, then what little sapwood you have will darken and blend. Actually it isn't bad the way it is.

Great progress, and looking forward to the next round. Don't get dehydrated!!! And, sweating on wood while one is in "finish mode" is not a good plan!

[Ed Sallee]

John....excellent!

I love these kind of posts and the project you are presenting looks like a challenge. You have solicited the help from what I consider "the experts"...

Great work so far.... can't wait to see future posts.

Nice representation on the drawing....

Thanks for posting!

[John Thompson]

I have never seen Peruvian walnut before but... I will say it looks about 1000 times better than most Peruvian women I have seen. :D That's pretty nice stuff. Keep your project cranking and I will catch the results. I finished a project last week and started another yesterday so... when I get on a roll I generally stay on a roll. If I tried to document it a 2-3 week project would become a 2-3 month project and the Queen would be looking for a new Cabana Boy to fulfill her wishes.. :)

Great start...

[John Loftis]

Today was mostly spent fixing stuff I'd messed up. I visited Mr. Jenkins and brought my table top with me in the hopes of borrowing his drum sander.

I'd read previously that before edge gluing boards, it's important to do a final pass with each edge on the jointer or tablesaw, alternating directions with each board. I'd read that, but the rules didn't apply to me. I knew that because my jointer fence was square, my edges would glue up perfectly.

So Steve eyeballed my top before we loaded it into the drum sander. "Umm... John. You've got about an eight of an inch bow here." So he graciously re-ripped my table-top along the glue lines so I could start over and do it right. On this glue up, I did two boards, let them dry for an hour, then added the third board. A lot less panic and frustration that way.

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Before gluing up my end-panels, I needed to cut the arch on the bottom rail. I spent a bunch of time trying to draw the arc on graph paper and trace that on the board. Should have just bent a thin board in the right arc and gone from there. Tried cutting the board with my sabre saw and ended up mangling it pretty badly. Steve introduced me to his spindle sander to clean up the mess. Then I used a flush trim bit to copy that arc on the other rail.

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Finally got to glue up a panel, which was nice. It's the first time that I have something to show for the work other than a bunch of loose boards.

I'm out of clamps, so I'll glue up the other panel tomorrow. I think it's going to be a ton of sanding to get these panels stain-worthy.

[John Keeton]

John, progress is progress - take whatever of it you can!! Looks like the first end panel setup came out great. The second will go much quicker. This has to be exciting for you with all the planning that went into this project!

Looking forward to the next installment!

[Steve Jenkins]

Looking good John. I'm glad the copying of the bottom rail came out ok. Don't worry about having to cut the top apart, as I said it's not the first time I have done that. It's always better to correct problems as they arise than to forge ahead and at the end say " I wish I had..." Been there too.

[John Loftis]

Sorry I've been away for a while. My PC decided to die, so I didn't have my Sketchup renderings. Took me a while to buy the computer components and build a new machine.

Now I'm back at it...

I sanded and stained the stiles and rails of the end panels using the slurry/350 grit method. In hindsight, this was silly. I had a lot of major work left to do and the panels have subsequently gotten pretty banged up. I think if I were doing it over again, I'd sand it to 180 or so and refrain from final staining on the end panels until the construction was complete.

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Once I got the end panels done, I pulled out my sheet of maple plywood. This thing's been leaning against the garage wall for the last 8 months. Unfortunately, I learned that plywood warps if not stored correctly. Maybe should have scrapped it and bought a new sheet. Instead, I decided to make do with what I have. Managed to rip and crosscut the thing and cut dadoes in the top and bottom panels. The veneer seems to chip off pretty easily, so I'm having to treat this stuff with kid gloves.

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I did a dumb thing with the dadoes. I got away with it, but I think it was dangerous. The top and bottom panels are about 49" long by 20" deep. I needed to crosscut dadoes down the middle of the panels and don't have a huge crosscut dado sled. So I used the rip fence, pushing the panels across the table with only 20" of support across the fence. Would have been safer if I'd tacked a temporary extension to the side of the plywood for extra stability against the fence. Mea culpa.

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Made a big (24") crosscut sled. I already have a little one, but needed something bigger to trim my table top. Made the miter slides out of red oak, MDF for the base, doubled up 3/4 plywood for the back fence. Glued and nailed the slides to the mdf, raised the blade through the mdf, used that cut line to square my fence. Left the back fence off so the tabletop would fit in the jig, then added the back fence later. Cutting without the back fence was a little tricky.

Next, I made the front arch for the faceframe. Cut a template of 1/4 plywood, rough cut the nogal with a jigsaw, then used a borrowed flush trim bit and followed the template. I'll probably use the same template later for the shorter top arch.

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[John Loftis]

For both the front arch and the back rail, I didn't plane them down to 3/4". Instead, I left them oversized and dadoed a groove where the plywood goes. This leaves a little lip for the warped plywood bottom to sit on and will hopefully make the piece stronger and more stable. I'll add support blocks in the corners later.

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I disguised my hand-cut mortise and tenon joinery to look like pocket hole screws. ;)

For the back rail, I'm not planning on cutting an arch. My thinking is it shouldn't be visible and it should give a lot of extra support this way, serving as a kind of 'extended foot' all the way across the back of the unit. If this is a bad idea, let me know.
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Next steps, cutting the vertical plywood supports, adding edge veneer, testing the watco light walnut stain on a test piece of maple ply, sanding to 220, and then glue-up of carcass.

[John Keeton]

Movin' right along!! I know you are anxious to get it done, but take your time. Redo is not a good word! And, you have precious little nougal!!!

[John Loftis]

Lots of fixing and figuring tonight.

My plwood base was 1/4" too long, so when I dry fit it, one of my end panels was out of square with the carcass. Since the carcass was already glued up, couldn't trim it on the table saw. Ended up cutting the dado in the end panel about 1/8" deeper, and then "trimming" the remaining 1/8" of the plywood using a belt sander. Used painter's tape on both sides of the plywood, and then just sanded down to the top of the tape. Seemed to work ok. Of course, would have been better if I'd just gotten the measurement right in the first place...

Also clamped, glued, and pocket hole screwed the warped plywood into the new rabbetted base. Pretty sure the plywood is flat now, but I'm not at all sure that saving $70 by not buying a new sheet of maple plywood was worth the hassle of trying to work with what I've got.

Sanded the carcass with 220, sanded the front and back support rails to 220. In the process of gluing and clamping and moving, everything got banged up. So I'll get to sand it again later. I'm really not sure that sanding before glue up makes any sense. Maybe I'm just a klutz, I dunno. Going to have to refinish the end panels as well.

On a positive note, I'm learning a ton. I'm starting to catch all sorts of things that I would have missed six months ago.

John

[John Loftis]

Sorry about the pictures. Just turn your monitor sideways. :)

Pretty good progress last weekend, by my snail pace standards. Glued the end panels to the carcass. Glued and nailed support brackets in the corners of the feet. Cut the center channel plywood pieces and glued them in the dadoes. Ironed on maple veneer tape. Sanded everything to 220. Applied 2 coats of Watco light walnut danish oil.

No major mess-ups other than a kick-back I'm not going to talk about. A couple observations.

1) I find veneer tape really difficult to trim. I know you can buy veneer trimmers and maybe that's what I need to do. I tried using scissors, an exacto knife, and sanding. Was unbelievably tedious. I'd love to hear about a better method for future reference.

2) I stained the ceiling of the carcass first, which resulted in a couple of drops hitting the 'floor' of the unit. Three of the drops sat on the wood for about 30-60 seconds. When I wiped the stain on the floor, those spots didn't blend in, creating a splotch of darker stain. That surprised me. In retrospect, I guess I should have gotten stain on the 'floor' first; then, if stain fell onto the already stained part, it would have blotched less. I don't think I'm going to try to sand out the splotches. I think the risks outweigh the benefits, particularly since there will be a stereo component covering it.

3) I was very worried about the Watco on the maple ply. I've heard many stories that maple doesn't stain well, that it can look very blotchy. Overall, I'm really pleased with how it came out (the couple of drip spots notwithstanding). The stain seems to have brought out a little figure in the wood, and I don't think the light walnut color is too dark.

4) I've never bought custom glass before. I called a local store called Barco and they sell 1/4" tempered glass in my dimensions for around $14 each. That was a lot less money than I was expecting, so was relieved about that. If my 2 year old can break 1/4" glass, he's definitely doing something he shouldn't be. But if he does, at least he shouldn't get badly cut.

Next steps, working on the glass cabinet doors, drawer fronts, and top arch.

[John Loftis]

First the progress.

Yesterday, I dimensioned the lumber for the cabinet doors, drawers, and top arch. Top arch took forever: template out of 1/4" mdf, tweak, sand, etc. Rough cut arch, flush tim with template.

Today, I made two jigs, one for coping and one for sticking. Then I proceeded to cope and stick everything. The stiles (sticking) went smoothly. Featherboard and new hold-down were great. The rails (coping) were a real challenge. Went through about a dozen scrap cuts before I got the height close to flush. Unclip the PC router clamp, twist the router a hair up or down, test cut... rinse, wash, repeat. Never got it perfect. This set up just isn't made for minute adjustments, I think.

Here's the sticking jig: 126835

Next two pictures are of everything loosely assembled. Felt like I was playing Jenga, getting all that to balance.

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Ok, here are the questions:

You can see from the first picture that I made about a 1/8" gap between the bottom three cabinets. I'm assuming that the three cabinets can't butt up against each other, otherwise they would rub when they open and close.

1) Is 1/8" about right? If not, what should th gap be?
2) I have Blum hinges for the outer cabinets. I haven't bought hinges for the center cabinet yet because I don't know what to buy. Cabinet material is 3/4" thick. A traditional hinge would cause both stiles to hit the left and right cabinets as the center door opens. So what should I do/get?
3) Do you anticipate any problems with the blum hinges on the left and right doors? Packages are unopened, so I can take them back if need be.

Other than making the gap smaller, I can still make changes if I need to.

Final question is an aesthetic one. For the drawer panels and the center panel, I can either:
1) go with 1/4" birdseye maple
2) go with 1/4" peruvian walnut
3) try to do some sort of maple inlay in the walnut (reference first post in the thread, original rendering)

What do you think would look the best?

Thanks folks!

John

[Steve Jenkins]

John, the way a european hinge works is it will "kick" the door a bit when it opens so you can have almost zero gap between the door edge and whatever is next to it, be it another door or cabinet wall. If the door will be covering the front edge of the cabinet with 1/8 reveal between the doors then you want a full overlay hinge.
This is accomplished by either a thin baseplate and the correct hinge or a different hinge with a thicker baseplate. If you want I can fix you up with the hinges and plates that you need unless you are attaching them to a face frame. I can't remember if that's the case.
1/8 inch reveal works well as it gives you a little fudge room if things aren't perfectly square. A smaller reveal will magnify any slight changes in the gap width.

[John Loftis]

A couple updates.

Got the glass yesterday. The panels are a hair too big, so I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to cut the grooves in 1 stile and 1 rail a little deeper. Could use the 1/4" dado, could use a 1/4" straight bit. Would prefer to use a 1/4" slot cutter, but I don't have one.

Other main issue is with the center cabinet. Looks like the Blum hinges will work great on the left and center cabinets, but the stiles and rails on the center panel are too narrow for that. According to Blum's instructions, you have to drill a 1 3/8" hole with a forstner bit. And the hole has to be between 1/16 and 1/4" from the edge of the stile, depending on the amount of reveal desired. So I would need the stiles to be a minimum of 1 7/8" wide (1 4/8" + 3/8" for the groove and profile). I'm about 1/4" shy of that right now.

So I played with my design a bit. Steve had some beautiful fiddleback maple that he is allowing me to use. And I have some 1/4" medium density birdseye for drawer fronts and center panel. Here's an option that would allow me to make the center stiles and rails a little wider:

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I'm just not sure about it. I'm completely out of 'good' nogal. I have maybe 2 bd ft left, but it has heavy sapwood in it. I do have 2 good pieces of 1/4" nogal that could be used for the center panels and/or drawer fronts. I guess my goal is for the maple to cause some visual interest without being too jarring.

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Any thoughts? Goal is to get this thing near completion by the end of labor day.

[John Loftis]

The all-nogal option with maple edging.

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[John Keeton]

John, for my tastes, I do not like the edging. I think it is distracting. And, from an overall perspective, I think putting the maple in the drawer fronts and center panel tends to leave the piece with an "opera mask" look. I immediately think eyes and nose, or eyes and mouth. It may be that with the glass, enough of the maple interior would subdue that appearance. The SU pic obviously doesn't give a fair rendering of that.

If the maple interior would show through enough to soften the impact, then I think you could get by with the maple panels in the drawers, and center panel. It is so hard to know from the SU pic.

[John Loftis]

John, I agree with you. I've been saying to myself, 'it looks like a face,' but I wasn't sure if that was the product of my staring at the rendering for too long or if others would think so too.

Sounds like the old mantra of, 'Keep It Simple, Stupid' might be the best way to go. I'll do the best I can with my last remaining scraps of nogal and opt for a solid nogal front.

Does this mean I have to give Steve the fiddleback maple back? Or do I have squatter's rights? :)

As long as I'm re-doing, I think I might make the center cabinet rails wider (...taller) so they are the same width (...height) as the rails of the left and right cabinet. Might draw the eyes more across the piece rather than having them stop at the gaping maw of a center cabinet.

I deepened the grooves on the left glass cabinet using a 1/4" dado. It came out a little sloppy, but the glass now fits. Lesson learned is I should have ordered the glass 1/16" undersized.

[Steve Jenkins]

John,
Sorry about the slot cutter. When we were talking about it I thought you had one or I would have let you take mine. At least you got it done. Keep the maple. Hopefully you will find something neat to do with it. If you want to look at the nogal that I have and think it will work for your panels I can fix you up. I know the color is a litlle different but we can put some finish on a piece and see how it looks with yours.

[John Loftis]

My weekend doin's:

Assembled and glued the cabinet doors (except for center door) and drawers.

Sanded and sanded and sanded. Put a couple coats of Watco and wet-sanded the doors and drawers. The slurry really does a good job of pore-filling in large-pored wood. If I were doing it over, I think I might do the slurry with 320 on the first application, then do it with 600 grit the next day. The single application with 320 didn't quite get all the pores filled.

Drawer front: 127404

Right cabinet door: 127405

Installed side brackets for the drawer pulls.
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Opened my Accuride instructions and stared blankly at them. From the directions, it seems they assume you already know what you are doing. I don't, so I searched SMC until I found archived advice on installing drawer slides (thanks Sean T.).

Installed slides into cabinet. Cut a stick the width of the gap between the installed slides. Goal was to make the drawers a tiny bit narrower than the stick.
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I'm learning that it's better to use actuals than my plans at this point. "I know what I wrote up in my plans and what I tried to do... but what is the real measurement?" Generally, they aren't the same.

Milled the soft maple for the drawer sides. Seems like awfully nice wood to be using for drawers. Decided to make the drawers 1/2" thick. The nogal will serve as a false front, so I made the drawers 4-sided out of maple. I really wanted to dovetail them, but decided that I've already learned plenty on this project, no need to try to pick up yet another technique on this one. Plus I don't have a router jig or the tools, time, or patience to hand-cut them right now. So I ended up using the dadoed rabbet joinery that Steve J. and Fine Woodworking (Nov/Dec '08) said was a good way to go for false-front drawers.
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Did my best to cut 1/4" dadoes and rabbets... got mostly kinda sorta close.

Used some left-over oak ply for the bottoms. Since the 1/4" ply measures .20 inches, I cut the grooves in the drawers by doing 3 overlapping passes with my 3/32 WWII blade on the table saw. If I had the right router bit, that would have been a little easier.

[John Loftis]

I cut some slots on the inside of the drawers to serve as drawer dividers for CD's and DVD's. My thought is to have removable dividers. I cut the grooves 1/4", so I could use some .20 ply if I'm lazy or I could mill some real wood slightly undersized if I'm feeling ambitious.
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Test fit the drawers. They were a little tight in places, so I hand sanded some of the grooves, dadoes, and rabbets. Contrary to my intentions, the unglued drawers were a little snug against the drawer slides. Hopefully they'll shrink a touch in clamp-up.

Glue-up was frantic and an ungodly mess. At one point I was wielding my rubber mallet like Norman Bates in the shower scene in Psycho. I'm going to have a lot of cleaning up to do, both on the drawers and in my shop.
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Got a lot of noodling and mock-upping to do on my hinges. Next steps:
1) install hinges, mount left and right cabinets
2) install drawers
3) install false front on drawers, lining them up with cabinets beneath them
4) drill shelving pin holes
5) cut movable shelves with maple moulding
6) re-make center door
7) finish top and install it
8) Buy knobs and install

[John Loftis]

Mildly discouraging post. Seems like it was just one of those days. I glued up the drawer boxes out of square. Not sure why I didn't think to check that. Options are to try to shim or sand or start over.

After hours of messing with the hinges, they aren't going to work unless I rout out about 1/8 of an inch on the inside of the entertainment center. I'm not that good with a router to begin with, and the idea of trying to lay that behemoth on its side while I do detailed routing is beyond my risk tolerance, both to me and to the piece. I can still attach the hinges; the doors just won't line up flush with the edge of the end panel. That will look a little goofy. The end panel is a little over 13/16 thick (.825").

I think maybe one of my cabinet doors bowed a little as well. Maybe I used too much clamping pressure; I dunno.

I guess I'm just at that stage in the project where I discover definitively what's square and true and right and what isn't. Unfortunately, there's a lot of stuff that's off.

I know it's the journey, not the destination. But this was my first project where I was really hoping to do things right and have a result that didn't have the kind of glaring mistakes that were going to nag at me every time I look at it.

Going to hang it up for a bit and recharge. Hopefully, I'll be able to get this stuff fixed up.

John

[John Keeton]

John, I feel for you, and I have been there many times!! My best advice is to tackle only one chore at a time. Too late to say this now, but I recently came to the conclusion that I often (most of the time) get caught up in the overall project, when in reality, each board in a project is a project in and of itself. Each drawer is a project, and should be approached as such. I think my quality will improve dramatically with this method.

I would recommend that you take each drawer, study it, and decide on the most appropriate fix for it. Since you are going to apply drawer fronts, I would think you could fix the lack of squareness by planing the front face of the drawer box so that it makes a 90* with the sides - the back won't matter. Then, true up the sides. Pull out the old handplanes!! This problem should be simple to resolve, and really won't show in the end.

Not sure what to tell you on the hinges, as I do not use that type.

Good luck, and look forward - looking backward usually results in busting your head on something!:D

[John Thompson]

As John K. said... you aren't covering any ground we all have not covered at some time. I agree that if you are using drawer fronts you should have no problems fixing that one. I won't comment on the hinges as I have to do some real thinking in advance when using them myself. I can't see physically exactly the situation you have so.. better I don't get involved as I have a hard time inter-rupting the words to the exact scenario.

And John is right about doing one phase at a time. You do have to think of these things in the advance design to insure there are no problems in the journey but.. once that is done you have to concentrate on each phase or there will be a mistake.

I bet next time you won't have a problem with anything mentioned as you now know what to expect and will plan in advance. I could build a house with all the trail and error wood I have burned as there was no inter-net help when I started my journey. Just slow down and think things through from the beginning is the best advice I can give.

I think re-grouping is a good thing but.. you will have to eventually face the problems which can most likely be corrected in some manner so.. get a good days rest and then stare at them and open you mind. The answers will come.

Good luck...

[John Loftis]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. This is a humbling hobby, and yesterday I was overwhelmed by my mistakes. Some of it was ignorance; some of it was imprecise craftsmanship. "Check for square" will become a mantra now.

The good news is I'll learn from this. Next time there will be different issues, but hopefully they will become more subtle over time as I get better.

I think I'm going to pull out the dreaded belt sander and try to sand a taper to the line. If it doesn't work, I'll go buy some wood and start over. The first attempt at drawers took me a full day. If I start over, I suspect it will only be a couple hours.

I got some advice on the hinges that might work. Someone suggested using a forstner bit rather than a router to inset the european plates. I'm going to give that a shot on my scrap and see how it works (and looks).

John

[John Keeton]

John, I have not used the Euro hinges, but I think they make a special bit for that size.

[John Loftis]

Right, it's a 35MM bit for the door side (1 3/8"). I was actually talking about the plate side inside the cabinet. I need the plate to be recessed into the end panel a bit so that I can get a full overlay . It would probably be a 2" or so forstner for that; won't know until I play with it.

The downside is the footprint of the plate is actually sort of a square cross (like the Red Cross). So a square cross fitting inside a circle... there would definitely be some gappage. Wouldn't be visible with the cabinet open, since the door stiles would cover it. Ahh, compromises...

I don't think I could use my router even if I wanted to. I suspect the base plate is too big and the floor and ceiling of the unit would get in the way.

[John Loftis]

I've been playing hookie from woodworking for a while, in part because I'm busy with the two little 'uns and in part because I was reaching a part of the project I was dreading.

After receiving a lot of advice, I got the doors hung. They aren't perfect, but they work. It took a day's worth of mock-ups before I got it right. I ultimately increased the bore distance beyond what Blum said I could do. It works fine. One thing I know for sure, I really, really, really hate fussing with hinges.

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Next step was to re-make the center door. I had to dig deep into the scrap pile of nogal for that. I needed wider stiles so the Blum hinges would work. While I was add it, I made the rails wider so that they matched the rails of the left and right cabinet doors. It was encouraging to see how much faster and better that door came out. The joints were tight; everything lined up flush; it only needed finish sanding. Felt good to see improvement in craftsmanship over the course of this project.

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I ended up using birdseye maple for the center panel. It might end up looking jarring, or it might look interesting, or it might look good. We'll see when it's all done. For the finish on the birdseye, I tried a new (to me) technique. I was looking for a way to make the birdseye pop. Ended up mixing a 1 lb cut of shellac, added a few drops of Transtint vintage maple, and wiped it on. Lightly sanded with 220 after it dried, then applied General Finishes arm-r-seal. I'm happy with the tint, but not at all happy with the overall result. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations. I'll post pics of that later since the panel is covered in painter's tape right now.

I also learned how to use the plunge router (another cause of procrastination). Bought a 1/4" upcut spiral bit at the woodworking show in Mesquite, TX over the weekend. Cut the grooves in the table top, cut the inlay out of Steve's donated fiddleback maple. I was nervous about many things at this step. Screwing up the table top, not getting the inlay to fit snugly, cutting the inlay on the table saw. It all came together remarkably smoothly. Clamped it up, then sanded it all down flush. I pulled out the dread belt sander, but had the self restraint to stop before I did irreparable damage. I swear that thing is my nemesis.

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Tonight I did finish sanding, then did the slurry Watco thing. I'll let it dry tonight, then sand the remaining paste out. Even with one coat of Watco, the inlay really seems to pop.

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Getting closer!

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[John Keeton]

John, I see a finished entertainment center "just around the corner!!" It is really looking great. The curly maple inlay really sets off the top, and it a nice addition. You did a good job on the install, as well. Also, nice vertical grain match on the front, left stile/foot bracket. Can't see the other side very well, but it looks like you have paid close attention to that little detail. It can really make a difference in quality.

Sometimes taking a break can rejuvenate one. Looks like it worked for you.

This is going to be a great end result. You have taken your time, and have put forth the effort to do it right.

[John Loftis]

Thanks, John!

Any thoughts on drawer/door pulls? I want to avoid 'shiny' stuff. My default is probably round pulls, some sort of dull steel. But I'm not married to that.

I guess brass and bronze are the other options. What do you think would look best with the style of the piece?

John

[John Keeton]

John, I would think you would want to match the metal of the hinges, but one might also consider maple to pick up on the inlays and center panel. However, they certainly will jump off the nougal. That may not be a bad thing, and it might be worth placing a pull on there to see what they look like. I agree on simple, though. This piece will not tolerate a lot going on with the pulls/knobs.

[John Loftis]

A little progress, which could be entitled "fun with Arm-r-Seal."

As I mentioned previously, my stain was applied by wet sanding the Watco in. I ultimately did this once with 320 grit and then again with 600 grit.

I realized yesterday the Arm-R-Seal can says not to sand to greater than 220. I called General Finishes (great folks, very helpful) and the guy said he thought it would probably be ok, but it would likely take a long time to dry.

Boy howdy. The can says 6-8 hour dry time, more depending on conditions. The last couple of days it's been high 50's at night, 70's during the day. First coat has been on the carcass of the unit for 26 hours and it's still tacky. My guess is it will be about 36 hours before it's ready.
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The table top was tacky as well, but it's considerably more movable. So I put it on a table in the back yard for an hour in the sun and that dried it out nicely. I'm not sure whether that was a no-no or not, but it seemed to work. Scuff sanded the top with 320, applied a second coat a few minutes ago.
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I wiped on the Arm-r-seal with an old t-shirt (per the can's instructions). I'm trying to be careful with it, but I don't have a lot of points of comparison to know if it is looking like it is supposed to look at this point. Still seems a little streaky/splotchy to me.

For the birdseye panel, the figure is very muted (bummer). I also applied the Arm-r-seal on the panel with a foam brush, and it ended up being way too thick of a coat. Caused some streaking that I'm going to try to sand out later.
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Still waffling on the hardware.

[John Keeton]

John, actually the top is about what I would expect with the first coats. I know you want more consistency in the sheen, but at this point I think this is expected. You will get more build with successive coats. Tough to get really good cure with cool nights.

And, the BE maple looks great, IMO. I think additional coats will help there some, too.

Really pleased with the depth and richness of the nougal. I think this project is coming together!!

[John Loftis]

Sorry I never posted the completed pictures. I'm pretty happy with everything except the center door panel. I think it looks distracting. Lesson learned here might be, "less is more." I might cut the panel out and try again at some point.

Thanks again for all your help along the way, folks.

John

[John Keeton]

John, I think it looks great! Glad you are pleased with it, as I know you put a lot of effort in this project.

A possible suggestion on the center panel - you spoke at one time of doing an inlay. What about doing a simple, and thin, relief carving from the nougal scraps. Finish it out, stick it on temporarily with something, and live with it a week or two to see if it feels right for you. The only loss would be the experience of making the applique - and that can't be all bad!;)

[Heath Markovetz]

Very nice work, John.

I agree that the center panel could be a little distracting looking at it dead on, but anytime I see a picture off at an angle, there's enough of the maple ply showing that it ties in nicely for me.

I also really like your layout of components on the sides with a center channel in the center. I may incorporate something similar if I ever get to replacing our current entertainment center/stand.

Two thumbs up from me for sure!

[John Loftis]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

John, I guess I'm a little stumped on what type of aplique or inlay to put on/in the maple panel. There's a subtle arch above the center channel and at the base of the unit, but the rest of the piece is a study in rectangles. Not sure if either of those aspects would be something to play off of. My design juices petered out about 3 months ago. If anyone has creative ideas, please chime in!

Alternatively, I have a solid panel of nogal that I could replace the birdseye with. Maybe could do fiddleback inlay into that, imitating the top of the unit.

Whatever I do will have to wait 'til after Christmas. I've filled up the dust collector 4 times in as many days making Christmas presents. Many miles to go before I sleep...

John

[Peter Aeschliman]

I love the top. Just beautiful. I also really like the functional design with the center channel located where it should be.

I do think I agree with you on the contrasting panel, but I feel bad providing any criticism since your skill level exceeds mine.

If I can offer one more bit of layman feedback... I generally like the contrast of walnut and maple. But I think having the shelving a lighter color is also a little distracting. My eyes are immediately attracted to the shelving first since the lighter color stands out. I think the contrast would've worked really well if the shelving were dark and the case, doors, and drawers were maple.

But in this case, the first thing I notice is the shelving. THEN my eyes are attracted to the fine work you've done on the rest of the piece.

Anyway, despite those things, I'd love to have that entertainment center in my home! Good work.

[John Loftis]

Peter, I agree with you completely. As soon as I installed the shelving and stepped back and looked at it, I had exactly the same reaction. If I hadn't used brad nails (and glue) for the shelf edging, I would have ripped the maple off and re-trimmed in nogal.

Thanks for your feedback.

John

[Ben Hatcher]

How about a nice big script JL for the inlay? They're relatively symetrical, long and skinny.

[Heath Markovetz]

How about a nice big script JL for the inlay? They're relatively symetrical, long and skinny.

LOL... the first thing I thought of when I read this post was, "I didn't realize he had JL Audio equipment in the pictures..."

Then I realized they were your initials, John. :D