More progress has been made. I've been sitting on this pictures for a few months now and am finally getting around to posting them so this post may be a little lengthy.
First, I finally took on creating the vents in the sides for real. I was nervous about this step as screwing up would mean having to make a whole new side. I had my
trusty jig though so I was ready to take it on.
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| Setting up the first side. |
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| A little more than half way through (so far so good). |
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| Completed. |
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| All cleaned up. |
The jig was great, it saved me so much time and I got beautiful results (IMHO).
Next up was cutting the vents and wire holes in the two backs. I'm embarrassed to say I don't actually remember what type of plywood I'm using for the backs. Home Depot didn't sell 1/4" in maple so one of the guys pointed me towards what's normally used as backing. Of course, I don't think this stuff is meant for this type of cutting. As you'll see in the picts below the very top layer chips and peels away with some of the cuts. However, it does have once good side so not really that big of a deal since I can hide the bad sides from view.
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| The wire holes only run through the inner back, the vents run through both |
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| Here's the inner back finished except for the holes for the media PC |
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| Close up of the right side |
Moving on. Next was the dowel joints for the top:
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| The dowels inserted in the top |
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| And the corresponding holes in the sides |
This was another step I was nervous about. I was so relieved when the holes lined up and the top snapped on. For those curious, I used a
doweling jig, I can't imagine trying to do this without one.
Then, finally, I built the drawer box. I originally was planning on cheating here and just ordering one because I wanted the drawer joints to be dovetailed and I don't have a dovetail jig. However, it was going to cost $60 with shipping which defeats the purpose. So I used dowel joints instead of dovetail and it came out pretty good. I'm actually glad it was too expensive now. For wood, I ended up having to use poplar instead of maple as, again, Home Depot didn't have maple in 1/2" stock and I thought 3/4" walls were too thick. (I also don't have a planer so I couldn't make my own.)
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| The drawer box assembled but not glued |
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| Glued and dyed |
The drawer was also the first thing I dyed. I thought it would be a good test as it'll be on the inside anyway.
OK, so, where are we? I still need to finish the edgebanding, sand, and then glue the cabinet together. After that, I need to tackle the doors and finish the drawer.
