TV Cabinet in English Walnut - NOW FINISHED!

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BradNaylor

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Turning MDF into gold in a northern town
I've done a couple of this sort of thing in the past; an elderly client who bought an elaborate cabinet for their telly 30 years ago now wants to upgrade to a big flat screen jobby and wants a cabinet for it the same as the old one. But nobody makes them anymore.

Except I do!

This one is to be in walnut. This is the cabinet I've got to copy;

SmithandKirk26909002.jpg


And this is another piece in the same room that the new cabinet has to match;

SmithandKirk26909012-1.jpg


The top and the doors will be made from MDF lipped all round in walnut and then the fronts veneeered with burr walnut and cross-banding. The backs will be veneered with American Black Walnut.


My initial thought for the carcass was to use English or European walnut veneered MDF. A couple of calls to board suppliers however, revealed that such a thing does not exist.

No problem, I think. I'll get some veneered board made up locally. Unfortunately I could not find anyone with suitable veneer in stock - I would have to buy a full bundle of 20 or so sheets; far more than I will ever need.

So I started ringing round hardwood suppliers in search of English or European walnut with a view to building the carcass in solid wood. I couldn't find anyone in the north of England with any in stock.

So I then contacted other cabinetmakers to see if anyone either had any to spare or could give me any leads. I was just about to make the trip to Chris Tribe's place when I got word of a tree surgeon only 20 minutes away from me who might have some.

I arrived at a farm in Cheshire to find an entire tree felling and timber conversion operation. Rummaging around in the attic of one of the barns we unearthed these two slabs of locally grown walnut which had been air-dried for 6 or 7 years.

WalnutTVcabinet001.jpg


They were around 55" x 16" x 2.5" Tentatively I suggested that he might slice them in two for me as what I needed was 1" boards

This is when I met the Wood Mizer. I want one!

WalnutTVcabinet003.jpg


As the blade reached the end of its cut I really expected the boards to go 'ping' and move all over the place as always seems to happen when I resaw timber on the bandsaw.

Absolutely nothing. Both halves of each board stayed completely flat. :D

What a find this place is. I'll be back.

I paid £50 a cube.

Back at the workshop I stickered the boards to condition for a few days and will make a start next week.

WalnutTVcabinet004.jpg


All in all a rewarding afternoon.

Cheers
Brad
 
They are superb looking boards with a nice colour too for the price. English walnut is hard to come by without a mass of defects - wastage can be as high as 50% in many cases.
 
Superb find. What nice, clear boards and with hardly any sap. Looking forward to the rest.

John
 
Lovely stuff Brad. Watching this one with interest. Will he have a flashy, flash based website this time next year and exhibiting in London alongside Burt, Ingham, Pinky, Lloyd, Savage, etc.
 
£50/ft³ for English walnut??? As 2in. boards, that's a heck of a lot cheaper than what you'd expect to pay for American black walnut!! :shock: (There must be something wrong with them!! :D :wink:)

If you did have to buy a load of veneer then, I'm sure you could have sold the excess off to forum members and other cabinet makers in time. :)

I don't think I've seen you work in solid timber before so, I look forward to following this. :wink: From reading his book, I've noted that Robert Ingham has a band-resaw in his workshop immaculate workshop, if every you wanted to go down that slope... :)
 
Care to share the supplier's details....says the person in a neighbouring county.....? :wink:

I'd be very interested to see how this comes together - keep us updated??
 
BradNaylor":xdlfxo4j said:
I paid £50 a cube.


Cheers
Brad
Lucky sod :) I did once buy a whole butt of prime English walnut for £75, but that was looooong time ago.
Youl'll have to polish up those long forgotten hand skills now Brad :wink:...secret mitred dovetails for the carcase construction? :whistle: :lol: - Rob
 
woodbloke":3irlyo2x said:
Youl'll have to polish up those long forgotten hand skills now Brad :wink:...secret mitred dovetails for the carcase construction? :whistle: :lol: - Rob

My money's on dominoes :wink:
 
WellsWood":r3auvhkd said:
woodbloke":r3auvhkd said:
Youl'll have to polish up those long forgotten hand skills now Brad :wink:...secret mitred dovetails for the carcase construction? :whistle: :lol: - Rob

My money's on dominoes :wink:
Mark - so's mine! - Rob
 
WellsWood":d0fjwxz8 said:
woodbloke":d0fjwxz8 said:
Youl'll have to polish up those long forgotten hand skills now Brad :wink:...secret mitred dovetails for the carcase construction? :whistle: :lol: - Rob

My money's on dominoes :wink:

How about secret mitred dominoes?

Actually the last time I used English Walnut was for my A level woodwork project in 1978...


... and I did it with immaculately hand-cut secret mitred dovetails. The trouble is, nobody could tell.

What a stupid joint that is!
 
First of all I must apologise for the total lack of WIP photos. Unfortunately, with the workload I've had over thast few months, taking piccies has been low on my list of priorities.

Anyway, this job turned out a bit stressful. The lovely English Walnut I sourced proved to be too dark and purple in colour for my client, so I had no alternative but to bleach it and restain it. This is a procedure I had never tackled before but it proved quite straightforward in the end.

The other problem was that I had never actually done any veneering before. On previous jobs of this type I have undertaken previously I have farmed out the veneering to a local specialist. Sadly Len died suddenly in November, otherwise I would probably have got him to do this one for me too.

So I decided it was time I learned a new skill. Fortunately a local 'old boy' cabinetmaker let me use his veneer press and gave me some valuable advice on the techniques to use. I spent two days at his workshop doing the lay-outs and glueing up the doors and cabinet top. Many thanks to Bill O'Neill of Hazel Grove.

This is how it turned out. It is far from my usual style but I am very pleased with it. It's good to step outside your comfort zone now and then. More importantly the client and his wife were absolutely delighted with it when I delivered and installed it today.

SmithWalnutTVCabinet001.jpg


SmithWalnutTVCabinet002.jpg


SmithWalnutTVCabinet006.jpg


SmithWalnutTVCabinet005.jpg


If I was doing it again I'd take more care with the selection of the veneer for the cross-banding; however I had not ordered enough to be that picky. I now realise how much wastage you have to allow for!

All in all I've enjoyed the experience despite the stress and will be buying a bagpress in the new year. I feel ready to tackle any veneering job now!

Thanks for looking

Cheers
Brad

PS - I've just noticed the aliens on the doors in photo 1! I never saw them on the real thing...
 
Oh very nice Bradley, and good to step out of your comfort zone once in a while. I'm sure you'll take those skills and apply them to your work in the future. My Dad would love this. We had one similar when we were growing up with an old B&O monstrosity inside it. He reluctantly sold it because flatscreens looked silly in it. This is a nice solution to that problem.

Well done, happy xmas.
 
I think it looks excellent! Well done and thanks for sharing. :)

What did you finish it with? Looks like some kind of lacquer.
 
That looks great Duncan. You really are moving in new directions it seems.
 
Very nice job. What finish is it? Looks quite glossy.

Even though you haven't matched out the cross-banding, i like the randomness about it.
 

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