my drinks cabinet

[stef]

This is my new on going project: a fancy oak drinnnnnnk cabinet. enough to hold my stash of malts and wines. I'll upload my original plan later, i dont have it at hand ! so here are the WIP pics.
the legs/corners

my router morticing jig.

the top

the sides, dry run

and glued

all straped

planing the plinth

and as of this evening, this is what it looks like

 

[Crooked Tree]

Should be able to fit quite a drinks collection into that!

 

[stef]

Some progress over the last couple of days:
i used some "aging agent, to bring out the natual aged look of the oak.
then 3 coats of grain filler (it's for the driiiinkks !), then waxed.
i also worked on the front flat and top.
bottom section will hold 2 drawers, middle bit will have some wine bottles housings.

The more observing amongst you will notice that the bottles are all placed towards the front of the cabinet.
That's because of the "party piece"!.. the back of the cabinet houses a glass rack, 100mm wide or so, which slides up and down, to reveal more glasses as the bottom shelves come into view.
The rack is not in place at the moment, which leaves a gap at the back of the top shelf. could be a disaster, this !
The cabinet is about 1100mm all closed and folded.
the top opens towards the back wall, and the glass shelves pop up (by means yet to be defined) to increase the height of the cabinet by a good 500mm

lets hope it works out.

 

[stef]

 

[stef]

Almost complete now.
i still have the two bottom drawers to do (only the front is in place at the mo, just to keep aparences up)
and the pop up glass shelves, as per the sketch..

 

[MickCheese]

Looking good, very rustic!

Mick

 

[Orcamesh]

That's very nice work Stef. How does your glass shelf go up and down, is there some sort of mechanism or what do you plan to make this work? cheers Steve

 

[disco_monkey79]

Looking good. Always nice to make something that's gonna be well-used... ;-)

 

[stef]

That's very nice work Stef. How does your glass shelf go up and down, is there some sort of mechanism or what do you plan to make this work? cheers Steve

cheers.
well, i am working on it at the moment (on paper)
i have a smallish damper, like the ones used to keep car boots up. it has a travel of around 100mm. if i connect this to some sort of cam, i can extend the travel to about 350mm, which should be enough. it's then a question of preloading this with a spring, and hopefully reach some sort of effortless lift.
The trick is that it's going to be dependent on the weight of the glasses.
The heavier i'll make the shelves, the less so.
the shelves will slide on some drawer slides mounted on the sides.
lets hope it all works out.

 

[Orcamesh]

That sounds very interesting. I will be interested to see how well this works, maybe you could make a short video at some point? I guess you are going to have to account for different shelf loads otherwise it may spring up too quickly when there are no glasses on the shelf!! Good luck! cheers Steve

That's very nice work Stef. How does your glass shelf go up and down, is there some sort of mechanism or what do you plan to make this work? cheers Steve

cheers.
well, i am working on it at the moment (on paper)
i have a smallish damper, like the ones used to keep car boots up. it has a travel of around 100mm. if i connect this to some sort of cam, i can extend the travel to about 350mm, which should be enough. it's then a question of preloading this with a spring, and hopefully reach some sort of effortless lift.
The trick is that it's going to be dependent on the weight of the glasses.
The heavier i'll make the shelves, the less so.
the shelves will slide on some drawer slides mounted on the sides.
lets hope it all works out.

 

[stef]

some progress on the lifting shelve:
I made the shelves themselves from oak. they are not finished yet, as they need a few bits to hold glasses.
as for the mechanical part, it's almost there.
It needs a tweak on the dampers anchor point, but the main idea works.
very little effort is needed to get upwards motion, and little effort is required to get it back down. even less with the shelves on top.
This metal rubbish gets hidden well out of sight, underneath the shelves and behind the bottles and drawers.

the dampers are from a citroen BX hatch...

 

[Halo Jones]

What a great project.

All you need now is a lock to keep the little 'uns off. My dad was always going on how we pinched his whisky. He has always been a "famous grouse" guy, which I cannot stand. I much prefer a Talisker, Laphroaig or Highland Park. Hmmm. The kids are in bed..........

 

[stef]

The shelf mecanism is now in place in the cabinet, bolted solid.
HEre are a few pics with the back panel removed. I had to modify the anchor points a little from the previous pictures, just to make it a little smoother.

The shelves are only proped up on the lift at the moment, held in place with some clamps. eventualy, they will be screwed. I still have to make all the fittings (glass holders, bits and bobs...) and finish it. The lift works well. very little effort is required to lift it (one finger sets it in motion) and a little (much) more is required to push it down.
I still need to properly weight it down, to make the upwards travel a little smoother, and the downwards push a little easier.. There is hardly any play in the metal work.

 

[mtt.tr]

I really like the dark oak isnt seen very much as it is out of fashion but beautiful

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

That is wonderful... I want one now..

 

[stef]

I really like the dark oak isnt seen very much as it is out of fashion but beautiful

what is this "fashion" word you speak of ? :lol:

 

[mtt.tr]

I really like the dark oak isnt seen very much as it is out of fashion but beautiful

what is this "fashion" word you speak of ? :lol:

Being bleached oak

 

[stef]

now 99% complete.
All i have left to do is add a little weight on the underside of the pop up shelves, as they are a little "lively". i need to gently restrain them on the way up, and push hard to get them down. a few Kg of weight should sort this out.

I also need to complete the second shelves, and include upside down glass holders..

 

[Geno]

Hi.

Great job on the cabinet.

What about the addition of a spring instead of additional weight?

 

[stef]

yes, it's an idea, but i find it easier to tune with just weight. I'd have to find the right spring (around 60cm extended, 30cm closed, and the right weight...)
whereas finding/fitting the right amount of extra weight is easy.