My TV Console - Finally Finished

[Chris Bruno]

This project took a lot longer than I anticipated (big surprise). I just finished with some of the hardware this evening.

We recently decided to spend some money to execute some much needed decorating in the house (moved into this new house 3 years ago, but several rooms look like we moved in yesterday).

One of the decorating items was to bring our family room into the modern era and get rid of the portly rear projection TV and associated media unit (which I built about 10 years ago) and update it to a modern flatscreen. But being the quasi-video/audiophile that I am, I wanted to make sure that the TV was at the right height, and that the center channel was also optimized. Neither of those two could be achieved with any of the store bought TV consoles that would fit between the two windows to where this must go, so I designed and built my own.

It was my first project using essentially solid maple for all exterior surfaces and despite what I thought I already knew, I learned a lot - particularly about finishing maple. It's far from perfect, but in the end, I am pleased with it.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/__wPHrJrDyog/Ta0VIsdraQI/AAAAAAAAFxk/lsvk-9A6jRc/s800/GP0T2709.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/__wPHrJrDyog/Ta0VKQREypI/AAAAAAAAFxw/QxqI--l6d1M/s800/GP0T2716.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/__wPHrJrDyog/Ta0VLccGbgI/AAAAAAAAFx4/hER9gX2QX68/s800/GP0T2718.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/__wPHrJrDyog/Ta0VNX02GMI/AAAAAAAAFyE/0NnkEL0IMs4/s800/GP0T2722.jpg

You can see more pictures and some during the build here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/slideruleracer/TVConsoleProject#

-Chris

[Bruce Page]

Chris, that is stunning! I love the design and the color you achieved on the maple is warm & pleasant.
Do you have it vented to deal with the component heat?

Well done!

[Chris Bruno]

Do you have it vented to deal with the component heat?

Well done!

I do, though I'll be honest that this is a bit of an experiment. I'm not sure that convection alone will move the heat out of there well enough, but I figured I'd give it a try before installing actual fans in. The routed groove at the bottom of the compartment is to let cool air in and the holes at the top will hopefully let warm air escape.

Thanks!

[Bruce Page]

I have a similar cabinet setup (not nearly as nice) with a convection design. I ended up installing a component fan to keep my a/v system under control.

[Dave Gaul]

That is a beautiful piece! How about a pic with all the electronics in & on it please (once that's done of course!)?

And I love the color too, can you describe your finishing schedule too please?

[Gary Pennington]

Outstanding design and execution! +1 re: your finishing schedule, it looks flawless.

[Roy Wall]

Chris -

This is a beautiful cabinet. The finish looks incredible - tight joints...........WOW! I would love to hear more about the finishing.

This cabinet is SO good looking........

[Chris Bruno]

Haha.. I'm blushing.

The positive comments on the finish are actual a bit comical to me.. I very nearly threw the whole thing out after the first attempt at staining... So I'll give you the COMPLETE rundown of the finishing process for this piece.. :-)

(For the record, I wanted a medium brown-red tone that would still show the slight curl of the maple and then warm it up further with a dark glaze in the crevices for a rich furniture look)

Finishing schedule:
1. Research for 4 days different maple finishing techniques.
2. Buy no less than 4 different dyes, 2 gel stains, 1 water based stain, 2 oil based stains and 2 glazes for experimenting
3. Spend 5 days blending, layering, sanding and top coating no less than 25 cutoffs
4. Find the combination that you like! (for the record, it was 1:1:1 General Finishes Cinnamon:Med Brn:Reducer)
5. Show sample to SWMBO and promptly get rejected for being too 'red'.
6. Go to Rockler with SWMBO - she picks out 'Candlelight' Gel Stain
7. Final prep piece
8. Apply stain....
9. Shriek in horror with the results... (For my tastes, it was much too orange/yellow - it had a country cottage type look that I felt would have looked much more at home in knotty pine. Further, my prep job was HORRENDOUS. Areas that I thought were smooth were not even close, areas where I thought I had cleaned up glue I had not, and so on. It was really really bad).
10. Deliberate for a day over how to fix.. decide to take the most painful but best path - Sand it out.
11. Make decision to get glaze effect by subtraction instead of addition.. that is, sand out all flat surfaces to bare wood but not the nooks and crannies.
12. Spend 4 hrs with the ROS and multiple grits trying to get the flat surfaces as good as possible.
13. Stain with General Finishes 'Brown Mahogany' Gel stain - when wiping, be gentle. It's easy to wipe the maple down to be too light and lose the warmth in the stain. In the corners/nooks/crannies especially if you want to have the glaze effect.
14. Sigh in great relief for recovering from the finishing nightmare.
15. Top coat with 4 coats of Arm-r-seal gloss.
16. Laugh when people admire/inquire how you achieved such a great finish.

:-)

I did the doors and drawers only in the brown mahogany - I didn't make the mistake of using the candlelight on them after doing the main carcass. So to get the glazing look on them I had to take a slightly different approach. I sanded the flat surfaces and primary endgrain sections all the way down to 400 grit (prior to staining).. Except in the corners and crevices - for those I only went down to 220 grit, and even at that I tried not to sand well in the corners. Then, they took the stain darker than the other surfaces, giving me the glaze effect without any follow up treatment.

In the end, the hue is pretty close to what I wanted (maybe a touch more red would have been nice) and I got the glaze look that I wanted.. But the maple is a lot more work to get even coloring than I had thought.. Anywhere that I had used a wet wipe to wipe up glue or a pencil mark (even if I did it before 'final' sanding) made these awful dark regions of stain... similarly, sanding marks that I couldn't see at all in bare wood, showed up instantly when stained. It was quite a learning experience.

-Chris

[Roy Wall]

Chris --

Great report with nice humor! Glad to know many of us have the same issues.......

I have also had great success with General Finishes -- Seal-a-Cell and Arm-r-seal. Great products for a great finish --- even I can't mess it up :)

Thanks again and the cabinet is terrific!

[Jerome Hanby]

Fantastic! Prepare to be shamelessly copied...

[Ben Hatcher]

Looks great, Chris. I chuckled at your finishing schedule. I've had the same experience of sanding off version 1.0 of what I though was going to be the perfect finish. That glaze look you got in the details really makes them pop. I'm going to have to remember that the next time I make stained furntiure. Thanks for sharing.

[Brett Bobo]

Chris,
Very well done in both execution and design! Out of curiosity, why did you decide to have the bead detail integral with the drawer and door parts, instead of the frames? I'm working on a built-in piece as I've been going back and forth on how to do the bead detail, i.e. a part of the case, separate from the case and applied, or apart of the doors and drawers.

By the way, I hope you protected that nice road bike (carbon wheels and frame?) in the background during the build.

[Aleks Hunter]

That is very nice. Kudos especially for the finishing, really does justice to the beauty of maple. Sympathies for all the extra sanding!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Chris.....Very, very nice! I am about to embark on something similar. I would love to have results as good as yours! Very nicely done Sir!

[Chris Bruno]

Chris,
Out of curiosity, why did you decide to have the bead detail integral with the drawer and door parts, instead of the frames?

By the way, I hope you protected that nice road bike (carbon wheels and frame?) in the background during the build.

Personally, I just like the look of the bead detail on the doors/drawers instead of the frame. Further, I think it's a little easier to execute if you're willing to do mitered doors/drawer fronts. I milled my lumber for the frames all at once and was able to make just a few long extrusion-like pieces that I then cut/mitered to length to make the frames. For the doors, the cross section is slightly different for the glass, so I did that separate from the drawer fronts, but it was the same process.

As for my road bike - that's my latest build up. Carbon frame with 50mm carbon clincher wheels. The frame showed up in the middle of my Console construction so I had to take a break from the console to build my bike. :)

-Chris

[Chris Bruno]

Installed!

(Note: Yes - I know the TV is crooked.. its actually between the TV and the base of the TV and it annoys the crap out of me.. Is it wrong to return a $1300 TV because the base is crooked?)

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/__wPHrJrDyog/TbMltC0871I/AAAAAAAAFzU/uNKA10qxRIY/s800/GP0T2734.jpg

[Edward Porter]

Chris,

Your cabinet looked great and it just happens to be very close to the color I am trying to obtain for a corner cupboard that was designed by Lonnie Bird from a corner cabinet that was originally built in about 1745 from the Eastern Shore region of Virginia. I have completed about 95 % of both cabinets, and started applying the finish on one of the cabinets. I started with a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil and let it dry for over one week. I then added a small amount of lemon trans-tint dye to a wash-coat of dewaxed blonde shellac before applying General Finish Brown Mahogany gel stain. I had put on a one coat of Brown Mahogany stain, but was not able to make the finish dark enough with an additional coats of stain on a test board. The yellow - amber color from the shellac just didn't provide a pleasing result with a light coat of brown mahogany gel stain.

I noticed that you mentioned that you needed to apply the brown Mahogany Gel Stain with a light touch. That was a fantastic tip. By very carefully wiping off the excess gel stain with clean paper towels using a very light touch, the project seems to be back on track. Since I have spent an unbelievable amount of time making the cabinets, obtaining a good finish is very important to me. I spent an lot of time trying to come up with a good finish before deciding to use the General Finish Brown Mahogany Gel Stain. Both my wife and I now like the color of the wood I have stained, but it will be a while before I am able to complete the entire cabinet.

Your project and staining procedure has been very helpful, and I appreciate the time that you spent letting others understand how you achieved your fine finish.

Thanks
Ed




Haha.. I'm blushing.

The positive comments on the finish are actual a bit comical to me.. I very nearly threw the whole thing out after the first attempt at staining... So I'll give you the COMPLETE rundown of the finishing process for this piece.. :-)

(For the record, I wanted a medium brown-red tone that would still show the slight curl of the maple and then warm it up further with a dark glaze in the crevices for a rich furniture look)

Finishing schedule:
1. Research for 4 days different maple finishing techniques.
2. Buy no less than 4 different dyes, 2 gel stains, 1 water based stain, 2 oil based stains and 2 glazes for experimenting
3. Spend 5 days blending, layering, sanding and top coating no less than 25 cutoffs
4. Find the combination that you like! (for the record, it was 1:1:1 General Finishes Cinnamon:Med Brn:Reducer)
5. Show sample to SWMBO and promptly get rejected for being too 'red'.
6. Go to Rockler with SWMBO - she picks out 'Candlelight' Gel Stain
7. Final prep piece
8. Apply stain....
9. Shriek in horror with the results... (For my tastes, it was much too orange/yellow - it had a country cottage type look that I felt would have looked much more at home in knotty pine. Further, my prep job was HORRENDOUS. Areas that I thought were smooth were not even close, areas where I thought I had cleaned up glue I had not, and so on. It was really really bad).
10. Deliberate for a day over how to fix.. decide to take the most painful but best path - Sand it out.
11. Make decision to get glaze effect by subtraction instead of addition.. that is, sand out all flat surfaces to bare wood but not the nooks and crannies.
12. Spend 4 hrs with the ROS and multiple grits trying to get the flat surfaces as good as possible.
13. Stain with General Finishes 'Brown Mahogany' Gel stain - when wiping, be gentle. It's easy to wipe the maple down to be too light and lose the warmth in the stain. In the corners/nooks/crannies especially if you want to have the glaze effect.
14. Sigh in great relief for recovering from the finishing nightmare.
15. Top coat with 4 coats of Arm-r-seal gloss.
16. Laugh when people admire/inquire how you achieved such a great finish.

:-)

I did the doors and drawers only in the brown mahogany - I didn't make the mistake of using the candlelight on them after doing the main carcass. So to get the glazing look on them I had to take a slightly different approach. I sanded the flat surfaces and primary endgrain sections all the way down to 400 grit (prior to staining).. Except in the corners and crevices - for those I only went down to 220 grit, and even at that I tried not to sand well in the corners. Then, they took the stain darker than the other surfaces, giving me the glaze effect without any follow up treatment.

In the end, the hue is pretty close to what I wanted (maybe a touch more red would have been nice) and I got the glaze look that I wanted.. But the maple is a lot more work to get even coloring than I had thought.. Anywhere that I had used a wet wipe to wipe up glue or a pencil mark (even if I did it before 'final' sanding) made these awful dark regions of stain... similarly, sanding marks that I couldn't see at all in bare wood, showed up instantly when stained. It was quite a learning experience.

-Chris

[Edward Porter]

I meant to say your TV Cabinet looked great, not your corner cabinet
Ed

[Gordon Eyre]

Very nice work Chris. Your finish is excellent and it was fun to read about your experience obtaining it.

[Mel Fulks]

I can tell it took a long time ,my guess is you started it about 1974. You are the only guy I know who missed the
"entertainment center" era. Where are you going to get a tv small enough to fit in there? Nice looking job though!

[Mark Valsi]

Very nice project !

[Pat Barry]

Chris that is a very nice piece. As others have mentioned the finish looks really nice. I also like the overall design and fit-up of the drawers and doors - just the right gaps. A question though on the end panel. Any idea why the top portion of the panel turned out so much darker than the lower portion? It seems to be just that panel, so not something caused by the photograph. Maybe the photo or lighting just accentuates this but if the colors are correct it would drive me crazy after putting in all the great work you did.

[Mike Hollis]

Stunning work Chris. I love the raised panels on the ends, but wonder why you ran the grain horizontally?

[Jerry Olexa]

Nicely done...Good job! Looks great!!

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work, Chris!

[George Bokros]

Awesome design. execution and finish.

Wish my projects came out as fine as yours did.

George

[Sam Layton]

Chris,

Your TV console really turned out great. Your finish looks outstanding. All of your hard work to obtain the finish was well worth it.

Great job, Sam

[Jeff Monson]

Chris, I really think the finish makes the piece. Its funny to read your process, been there done that....but not that well! Very nice piece and you should be proud.

[Chris Bruno]

Haha, funny to see this thread revived after so many months.

Sorry to everybody for the delays in responding - I haven't been on the site in a little while.


Chris that is a very nice piece. As others have mentioned the finish looks really nice. I also like the overall design and fit-up of the drawers and doors - just the right gaps. A question though on the end panel. Any idea why the top portion of the panel turned out so much darker than the lower portion? It seems to be just that panel, so not something caused by the photograph. Maybe the photo or lighting just accentuates this but if the colors are correct it would drive me crazy after putting in all the great work you did.

I didn't get all of my maple at the same time and that piece of wood took the stain darker. If you look at the 'before stain' pictures on Picasa, you'll see that they look exactly the same before finishing. As it was a 'wood character' thing instead of an 'I screwed up' thing, it doesn't bother me so much, but the takeaway is that glued up panels should really try to use wood off the same tree if possible if you're not going for the look of different boards standing out.

-Chris

[Chris Bruno]

Stunning work Chris. I love the raised panels on the ends, but wonder why you ran the grain horizontally?

Hi Mike,

If you look carefully, I made the panels in the front drawers horizontally because it was a more efficient use of the maple boards I had - I didn't want them to be glue-ups. So I thought it would make more sense if the side panels grain direction were consistent. I've never looked at them and had it bother me, but then, it probably wouldn't have bothered me in the end if the side panels grain direction was different than the drawers...

-Chris