OPJ's Part 1 Final Submission

[OPJ]

I've been in need of a new unit in my bedroom for some time. I need something that can support a medium-sized TV on top with a couple of shelves below for a DVD player and one or two games consoles. Currently, I have a small bedside cabinet with one drawer and left 'open' at the bottom. One of the biggest disadvantages with this, though, is that the back is still enclosed and, therefore, I have leads running wild everywhere!

So, I can across a "Mission"-style, Arts and Crafts-inspired TV made from oak with beauty in its simplicity and a strong sense of 'openness' about it. So, I've taken it upon myself to adapt this design to suit my own needs and improve upon it where necessary.

For my final submission to my competition Design and Build entry I have made a few revisions and improvements to certain aspects of my original design; all of which are detailed below.

Shelf 'Corbel' Detail

I noticed one of these brackets in a couple of other Arts and Crafts-style
designs for larger storage units and thought that a pair of small 'corbels'
(or brackets) might complement the fairly basic and 'square' design my TV stand has currently. Not only that, but they'll do away with the need for extra dowels or notches in the legs to support the shelves. Two dowels glued in to each of the four should eradicate any need for screws and the finished size will be 13mm, to give a 6mm 'set back' from the front edge of the shelf.


Shelf Notch Detail

As mentioned above, I've done away with the idea of housing out the legs and I'm going back to an original idea of notching the shelf itself to fit; something I've done before in a similar project. Something I am far more comfortable doing.As you can see the front edge of the middle shelf extends to no more than half the depth of each leg (20mm), which is also about the same for the lower shelf, finishing flush with the front edge of the lower rail.


Slats Layout

It's taken me a while and after drawing out a number of different ideas, I've finally come up with an arrangement for the side slats that I am happy with. As stated in my initial drawings, I wasn't happy with the original designer's idea of using square spindles. I'm now happier looking at this with all slats and spaces in between at an equal width to each other. I also prefer the look of having slightly wider gaps around the slat's arrangement - it looks less like a prison now!


Final Design

This is just a quick sketch to give a very basic idea of something which vaguely represents the basic shape and idea of the final design.The use of contrasting colours was something I learned a few years ago, back at school - those A-levels came in handy after all!


One other feature, which I haven't illustrated, is my intention to replace the lengths of wooden cleats to fix the top and base in place with more traditional wooden 'buttons' (which most people are familiar with anyway), which will be housed in to 6.35mm stopped grooves machined in the upper half of each rail.

Thank you. I now look forward to making it!

Olly (OPJ)

 

[johnd]

Should be rather nice when built

 

[OPJ]

Thank you. Provided I can get sorted or replace my current planer-thicknesser, I'm hoping it'll turn out a lot nicer than some of my rather crude drawings have it set out to be.

Then again, I drew most of this sat on the floor while resting the paper on a magazine placed on my lap - does it show at all??? :wink:

I don't have anywhere else to really do this kind of stuff any more - perhaps that should've been my competition entry then. Perhaps it still could... :wink:

 

[OPJ]

I feel this is the right place to respond to The Judges' comments on my design, in only a good manner, of course.

First of all then, a note about the size of this piece; in particular, the spacings between the top, shelf and base. In order to get the dimensions shown above, I took a measurement which came as being slightly less than the overall size of my TV, but still larger than the dimensions of the actual base to it. I then repeated this for the height to give a 'square' look - I don't like tall, skinny units although I may be prepared to stretch it horizontally a little more.
This does leave for tight spacings when it comes to what I actually want to store inside the unit. I've just downloaded the free version of SketchUp so I'll try and have a play around with that to see if I can come up with a design which doesn't overpower the TV in comparison.

As for the 'tapered legs' debate, well, that's just my rushed drawings skills trying to meet the final deadline for you! Saying that though, I'd like to do something with the lower portion of the currently square legs below the bottom rails, other than to simply chamfer the ends. They do look too plain. I have considered previously adding a rather traditional inwards taper on both inside faces, although I'm not sure how this will affect the overall Arts & Crafts style of the piece?
I need to research this a little more. What would Williams Morris do? Maybe some larger corbels might do the trick? Any thoughts?

I made no significant mention of how the alternation of the growth rings and biscuit-jointing can improve the the stability of a top, base or shelf in the long term, simply because I took these thoughts for granted as something which most woodworkers are aware of anyway.
I do intend to use biscuits however and yes, there should've been some mention of this and the board arrangements and they are part of my design - just like a mortice and tenon joint. D'oh! :wink: