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This entertainment center is made from oak-veneered plywood and walnut trim. The doors slide inward in a groove. I should have used biscuits when attaching the walnut trim on the top and bottom. It's pretty hard to glue these perfectly flat, so I had to do a lot of scraping. I also wish I would have kept the grain vertical instead of horizontal. Not sure what I was thinking when I did that. Lessons learned.

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8 Posts
I think it looks great. As an added bonus you learned for the next one. What more can you ask? Congrats on a great project.
 

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90 Posts
This is a really nice piece.
What finish did you go with?
 

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1,833 Posts
Well done, I finished one recently as well. There fun to build.
 

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JimmyD1021,

I like the grain orientation. Good looking project, keep up the good work.

Steve
 

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112 Posts
Looks great, the walnut trim really gives it a rich look.
 

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the grain direction makes it different….i like it. nice looking project
 

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Thanks for the kudos everybody. I used linseed oil and a wipe-on poly.

This project has been a comedy of errors. Pretty frustrating at times, but also pretty hysterical when I think about all the things I did wrong…

1) didn't use biscuits when attaching the trim. I've never used biscuit joinery before, so I didn't know any better.
2) have have oak sides with horizontal grain and walnut trim with vertical grain. I know some folks here have complimented that. I guess it does look ok, but honestly it was an error.
3) forgot to sand before assembling. I could have saved a lot of time if I did some course sanding before assembling.
4) I routed the sliding door channels wrong. The top channel is deeper than the bottom by about 3/16". This is done so I can lift the door up into the top channel, slide out the bottom of the door, and the door comes out. That was the plan anyway… So, I sized the doors properly, but I cut the bottom channel too deep, so if the door was resting in the bottom channel, the door would not catch the upper lip at all and just fall out. Of course, I didn't realize this until I glued on the walnut trim. I had to glue in a thin strip of wood in the bottom channel to raise up the door.
5) Here's the kicker - you'll laugh at this one… I can't use the entertainment center. Really. I already had a store-bought entertainment center with the same basic layout - enclosed areas on the right and left, and shelves in the middle (but the existing one has swinging doors instead of sliding doors). I keep the DVR and DVD player on the shelves in the middle. The stereo goes behind the right door. If we're watching TV, I have to keep the right door open so the remote can control the stereo. Now, with my new brilliantly designed entertainment center (sarcasm), the door doesn't really open - it slides to the middle. Thus, to control the stereo, I slide the door to the middle, blocking the DVR and DVD player. Conversely, if I have the door slid to the right, I can control the DVD and DVR, but not the stereo. So with this setup, I can change the channels, but I can't control the volume.

Since the entertainment center didn't work for me, I gave it to some friends. They were really appreciative. Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out, it looks pretty good, and was the nicest thing I'd built at the time… but HOLY COW, it took a long time to finish… and then I gave it away… hahahaha… :)

I pride myself on learning lessons the hard way, haha. Seriously though, its been fun, and my friends are happy with it. Again, I appreciate all of your kind words. You folks are awesome.

Jimmy
 

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There are remote extender products out there that are wireless and can control IR devices. x10 dot com has some of them. That was you can leave the doors closed and still control things behind the wooden doors.
 
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