3 projects at once! TV corner unit, wardrobe, storage unit

[oddsocks]

A few months ago I agreed to build my daughter three projects, all to be delivered before her baby next March.....

To match with existing furniture the finish needed to be American White Oak, Limed (I think - not got to the bit of trying to get a good match yet!) and simple contemporary style.

Here's the final sketchup images that I used with the cutlist plugin and then my data transformation process to import into Optimik (I created a how to post a few months ago). The result showed that all three units could be built from 3 sheets of 19mm Oak veneered MDF, 2 sheets at 7mm veneered and a 1/2 sheet of 4mm ply (drawer bottoms). The solid wood (TV unit top, door frames, plinth and lippings to all the MDF components) needed approx 4 cu ft of white oak (this translated into me buying 12 but using 10 lengths of 2.5m at widths from 110 -280mm, most at 160-180mm).

(ignore the colours on the images, I was showing the different materials). The top of the corner unit is solid wood, in this image I have replaced the original one component with the individual timber widths, so that I could get the needed lengths. I ended up with this layout as I think the grain will flow better and it avoids short grain at the front.
short side to wall corner is 1130mm, long side 1575mm, depth of top is 320mm (sized to hold two rows of DVDs after allowance for rear panel and doors). The drawers on the short side are to hold gaming handsets, the games console will be behind the door to the right of the drawers.

Wardrobe with height to fit in an alcove

storage unit, to be built as three towers with one door on each tower and 1, 2 and 3 cubicles (the larger one takes full size A4 folders). Note that the lower rail on the middle and large towers is aligned to the small tower, which means the panels are not all the same size in these

I estimate the total cost will be just over £550 for all three....

• 
  Veneered MDF & Ply = £275... I give my local timber supplier (Bradhams) the optimik print out and they cut all the pieces for me free of charge - in this case that required a minimum of 80 cuts for the 5 sheets. They even label the usable offcuts as such.
  
  American White Oak - £168 from Thorogoods....I selected 12 boards, all 2.5m long 1" thick with totalled 4.9 cu ft. I only needed 10 of the boards....next time I'll take the laptop with me and have optimik ready to allocate cuts based on the actual timber widths I select. What I actually did was assume in Optimik I had 100, 125, 150, 180 and 200mm widths and went with what it allocated. In the yard they were 140 etc so when I got home and put the true widths in Optimik was able to get all i needed out of just 10 lengths. Optimik and similar are really designed for sheet materials, but it did what I needed for solid as well.
  
  Hinges, super magnets for doors etc £57 from ironmongery direct
  
  Toughened glass for the TV unit centre door - quoted at £18 (not yet bought).
  
  Glue, finish etc approx £30.

So now to some WIP (not much progress yet but hopefully documenting here and having the March deadline will spur things on....)

The cut MDF stacked against the wall, the initially dimensioned oak in stick on the dining room table (yes I had to move it all on Christmas eve!)
The labels on the MDF come out of the optimik program so hopefully i won't mix up the pieces. They are stacked by unit.

After Christmas I sharpened the blades on the dewalt planer /thicknesser and thicknessed all the oak to just over 20mm after getting the garage nice and warm....
good old Hotspot..still going after 12 years

The wood waiting to be thicknessed (it took about 3 hours!)
[

And this is where I'm at now....the wood is thicknessed, labelled and the TV unit long side top has been jointed (its indoors to allow the glue to dry). Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have the TV unit top 3 main components (short side, long side and centre) all jointed and maybe some of the MDF lipped.

Looking ahead...

I intend to use my new joint genie to dowel the MDF components, and the freud door panel router set (bought at the DM tools show) for the door frames - I kept the component dimensions common across all three pieces of furniture.and have plenty of dimensioned test pieces......there may even be the odd gloat pic with my recently acquired festool TS 55 EBQ plunge saw and rail that jumped out me as a discounted bargain as ex demo stock (approved as demo stock because it had been sold and recovered within a few days due to the buyer going bust but by that time it had been used)......I only went in to buy a spanner':roll:'

The construction is hopefully not going to be too difficult, but I'll post progress and any good photos I'm able to take

 

[johnf]

You must have a very understanding wife that allows you to work on the dining room table
looks like you will have to be a busy boy to get that lot finished in time for the new baby's arival
keep the picture's coming

 

[oddsocks]

You must have a very understanding wife that allows you to work on the dining room table
looks like you will have to be a busy boy to get that lot finished in time for the new baby's arival
keep the picture's coming

Yes! Mind you it helps that there is a baby deadline involved and I need to keep the wood stable in order to progress.

I'll post more pics in a couple of weeks, I think the next few days will be more of the same (if I can get to the garage) - the mundane of jointing the boards for the corner unit top and biscuiting the lippings onto the 106 pieces of MDF (or at least most of them) them trimming to size.

I also need a trip to my daughter to get a drawer sample for colour matching and confirm the door frame profile.

 

[OPJ]

Yes, I do like that last photo as well!!

Keep the progress coming. :wink:

 

[oddsocks]

Since my last post most of the work has been mundane gluing boards and solid wood lippings. I did discover that I had not been diligent enough in sketchup so a number of my veneered MDF panels are full size (no allowance for lipping) and hence my cutting list did not have enough lipping pieces - good job I have 2 lengths of oak spare!.

Today I planed, scraped and sanded the corner unit solid top and then cut to final size. There are three pieces short side, long side and the centre piece. This was the first time I used my new toy - the festool rail saw and I am extremely pleased with it. Prior to owning this I would have cut using my EB200 table saw, but the rail system (with clamps each time) was absolutely solid, accurate and even on cross cuts gave a finish that shone.

I realise I didn't take any pics of the finished items, but here are some WIP.... My saw package came with 2 x 1400mm rails so I cut one of these (on my mitre saw) to give me 800 and 600ish. During the day I used each if these individually and joined the 600 and 1400 for use on one long rip cut. I am so impressed I wonder how much I'll actually use the saw table now (for general batch ripping I can use the bandsaw).

trimming the centre piece across the grain..

And the finish from the saw (and the accuracy, totally on the line of the sacrificial strip)

Now to cut the diagonal (on the short side)- you can't see the two clamps but they hold it firm. I had already cut the piece to exactly 320mm wide and then took the sketchup front and back edge dimensions from the other end to the mitre and set the guide to these.

Accuracy confirmed

To trim the long side to width (320mm) I needed to join two rails. I used the third one (800mm) as a straight edge to confirm the run was correct.

That's it for now. Next weekend it will be more lipping, dowel joint genie to join the corner unit top and probably building Steve Maskery's tenon and mortice jigs (workshop essentials 1-3 ordered< I knew I should have bought all 5 when I bought the 4&5 recently!). I've also ordered a couple of wealden long reach 1/4" straight bits to give me the 25mm mortice depth.

Dave

 

[oddsocks]

well its two weeks since the last update. last weekend was spent lipping more of the wood, routing the rebates into the corner unit framework and building Steve Maskery's router morticer jig.

This weekend my plan is (and I'll be amazed if i get through all of this....)
1 -lip more wood
2 -plane the glued lips flush
3. groove the rebates in the remaining veneered panels and plinths that need it (for the storage unit) - in my preparation today I realised that in the storage unit design I set the rebates in 9mm and in the panels it was 10mm, so will need a fence move.
4. use the joint genie to dowel the corner unit carcase together (dry fit)
5.finish the mortice jig by adding a couple of improvements I've thought of to stop the vice tipping and make it quicker to fix the next piece of wood at the correct height.
6. plane the door frames with face and edge
7. mortice the door frames
8. cut the rails to length
9. make SM's router tenon jig (or do i make the 'ultimate tablesaw tenon jig??)
10. cut the tenons
11 make 2 x hinge jigs (bigger hinges on the wardrobe and storage units, smaller ones on the corner unit
12. cut the hinges
13. mock up the concealed magnetic catches
14 sand and finish the corner unit carcass

Plus go shopping!

Tonight I organised the solid timber and made sure I knew which pieces needed tenons, mortices and rebates - here's the photo.. on the left are the drawer fronts, at the back are all the rails needing tenons, in the middle is the wardrobe plinth, in the front is the storage plinth that needs rebates and on the right are the vertical door frames that need mortices!

 

[oddsocks]

Well I never did everything I intended, due to having to service the car rather than spend Sunday in the workshop, but I did get 1-5 from the list finished.

I also 'stumbled' upon this method of cutting mitres at each end of a finished length of wood (in my case needed for the storage unit plinth).

Set the mitre saw to 45 degrees and clamp a scrap piece of wood (with a square end at 90degrees to the edge against the fence) to the fence and make an initial cut...

butt up the piece that needs cutting and make another cut. The saw kerf will be the gap between the two...

Assuming the full mitre hasn't been formed, move the workpiece to close the gap...

and cut again....
and now I realise I don't have a final picture! but the result was the full mitre. Doing the same for the other end resulted in the workpiece still measuring it's original length with perfect mitres at each end.

I haven't done the maths theory, but seeing as the first cut established the saw kerf then all the subsequent references from that mitred face to the scrap mean that the bottom end edge of the workpiece will in the final cut just touch the blade but not actually get cut - providing the previous cut had left work to be done.

The position of the scrap piece is not important as long as some of it ends up being mitred and the square end is 90 degrees.

 

[devonwoody]

Well done.

Called my wife into the computer room to look at your project and she said..........., I said dont worry darling I will put an old tablecloth on the table so you needn't worry.

Have you got my other sock, theres one hanging in my wardrobe awaiting for its mate can't remember where I left it. :wink:

 

[MikeG.]

Good stuff Dave! You need a bigger workshop!!!!!

Whereabouts is Bradhams? Is it a Haverhill company? I also use Thorogoods, but also deliberately over-order every time I buy from them so that I slowly build up a stock of timber......and so that any cock-ups don't entail another trip to Ardleigh!

Mike

 

[OPJ]

That tip looks similar to something I read in a Fine Woodworking magazine, recently... I like the idea a lot.

 

[devonwoody]

That tip looks similar to something I read in a Fine Woodworking magazine, recently... I like the idea a lot.

I shall have to do that cut on a saw, cant follow it at the moment. I assume it is the right hand piece (with dowel) that is the final piece of timber being used.?

 

[BigMac]

I haven't done the maths theory, but seeing as the first cut established the saw kerf then all the subsequent references from that mitred face to the scrap mean that the bottom end edge of the workpiece will in the final cut just touch the blade but not actually get cut - providing the previous cut had left work to be done.

The position of the scrap piece is not important as long as some of it ends up being mitred and the square end is 90 degrees.

The positioning of the scrap piece does matter a bit. If you mitre more than half the width of the scrap piece you won't get the final piece in two cuts.

That may or may not screw the whole thing up (it may just mean three cuts, I can't quite get my head around it) but best to make sure the mitre is about a third of the width for speed if nothing else.

 

[oddsocks]

Good stuff Dave! You need a bigger workshop!!!!!

Whereabouts is Bradhams? Is it a Haverhill company? I also use Thorogoods, but also deliberately over-order every time I buy from them so that I slowly build up a stock of timber......and so that any cock-ups don't entail another trip to Ardleigh!

Mike

Mike - thanks and yes (but my workshop is a double garage). Bradhams is a local business in Haverhill about 1/2mile from me (through town, towards Cambridge and take the withersfield road).phone is 01440 702110.

I shall have to do that cut on a saw, cant follow it at the moment. I assume it is the right hand piece (with dowel) that is the final piece of timber being used.?

The wood with the dowel is the scrap piece on the right hand side, that stays fixed. I'll take some proper sequence photos at the weekend and post in in the tips and jigs section (and I'll show the starting and finishing lengths of the wood being the same). I liked the idea as it is easier to cut the wood to length and then mitre rather than try to get the second mitre in the exact place on an overlength piece.

That tip looks similar to something I read in a Fine Woodworking magazine, recently... I like the idea a lot

Typical - I don't subscribe to FW but it goes to show that nothing is every original, just rediscovered!

 

[devonwoody]

Does that mean that picture frame pieces will be a doddle in the future regarding consistent lengths?

 

[oddsocks]

Does that mean that picture frame pieces will be a doddle in the future regarding consistent lengths?

I did some experimenting this morning it looks like I was just lucky last weekend as the position of the scrap does make a difference. it didn't take me long though to get it right so that the last cut was in the right place and once i had that I could cut the mitres very quickly. If needed often, once the correct position for the scrap is found it could be marked against the mitre back fence for fast reuse. I'll post some pictures later (just stopped for tea break!)

 

[OPJ]

Hi Dave,

I've drawn a couple of quick sketches to illustrate how the mitre jig works in the issue of Fine Woodworking (it's the 201 Tips for Woodworkers special).

First, you score a 45° line on your mitre saw. Where this meets the back edge, you square a line across from that edge, which is what you will trim to 90° with your saw (I've drawn two lines here, representing the kerf width). You would repeat this at both ends of the block for mitres either side of the saw.

Trimmed block is on the left (blue), piece of timber to be cut on the right (yellow).

Hopefully, you can see it references off the square end and yet, still cuts a mitre without reducing the length. You'd need to designate a saw blade to be used specifically with this jig. Yes, positioning is critical.

I also appreciate that you were cutting your mitres along the other axis but, I think the principles are the same.

Hope this helps, people.

 

[oddsocks]

Thanks Olly - that makes sense and supports what I found this morning - the scrap block needed only a small mitre cut into it much as shown on your blue piece - same principle in the other axis

tea break over, back to drilling dowel holes!

Dave

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks OPJ, I would add that the blue piece needs holding on to the fence with a clamp to maintain its position?

I myself would want the yellow pieces clamping, to stop any runaway as well.

 

[OPJ]

Yes, DW, the block would definitely need securing. They recommend drilling or using a dowel for location but, most mitre saw fences are pre-drilled anyway. Clamping the work piece is also a good idea.

Only thing that does concern me about this is that there's a risk the cut-off might get caught by the rotating blade as it frees and bind between the blade and block... Especially as it's tapered. :?

I guess that nipping the corner off first (halving the size of the offcut) might work. You don't want to lose too much of your 90° edge or else there will be nothing to register against the block.

 

[oddsocks]

today's progress, mainly joint genie of the carcase components for the corner unit. I made up a locating peg from a piece of 8mm stainless steel rod and tapped it for a set screw (why isn't this item included in the kit in the first place given the cost of it?). the joint genie was easy to use, and every test joint was perfect...

note the reference face clearly marked. I also use a block of wood on the drill to ensure the depth stop does not drift - 16mm deep holes in 19mm does not leave much margin for error..

and a test fit

Next job was to make a jig for the hinges - these are drawn brass hinges from Ironmongery direct. I used a 6.4mm cutter and a 10mm guide bush - took less than 30mins to make and was perfect first time. ....not the hole in the jig - lesson one is make sure the depth stop is locked. Lesson 2 always start off in the jig area not the wood!

Here's the fitted hinges in test pieces ...EDIT this is the photo of the hinge recessed to achieve the 1.63 mm thickness..

but when the door is in the closed position the gap was 2.67.. which looked too big..

setting router to cut deeper reduced the gap to 1.63mm but the hinge recess doesnt look so good

Is there any 'standard' gap to have between a cabinet frame and the door? Tomorrow's schedule is to cut the hinge slots in the carcass, sand and then apply ronseal diamond hard satin clear varnish then assemble