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The wife wanted something impressive for the Hall/Entry of the house and we had looked but not found anything that we liked so I said of course, "Let me make something". Anywho, I had found a piece of marble at a flee market and had a bunch of cherry sitting around so I proceeded to design a cabinet.

The basic design is a recessed panel construction. The panel design idea came from a wall hanging we found at Ballard Designs on the web. I first snagged the jpg file from their web site, then imported it into Autocad and then traced it out. Then printed the tracing out and taped it together. I re-sawed some cherry to 5/16, planed it to 1/4, edge glued to make panels then sanded. Then I took the two panels, layed them face to face and glued the tracing to the back of one with spray adhesive. Then used a jigsaw to cut out the pattern. I found that the cherry is very weak so I added some 1/8 plywood to the backside and cut it as well. Sanded again and cut to size. I did the same thing with the side panels.

To fasten the marble to the case I drilled 5/8 holes in the underside and then epoxied brass threaded inserts into the holes. I then used a machine screw to hold it down onto the case. This was a scary process cause I thought that I might crack the marble but as it turns out marble is as soft as butter.

The whole project took about two weeks and I am fairly pleased with the results. There are a couple of things that I would do differently however if doing a simular project. I should have used something to equal out the blotchiness of the cherry. It is over time evening out and turning more brown so I assume that it will eventually be all one color.
The other item is the panels. When I used plywood on one side it causes some of the small parts of the fretwork to bend out as the humidity changes. The plywood won't give as the cherry shrinks. I could have used plywood and because it is stained black you really would not notice it. Of course the average person does not see these issues so they are really not that big of a deal.

I have installed a light and glass shelves and it is quite impressive when the light is on and is shining through the cut pattern of the panels.

Gallery

Comments

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1,833 Posts
Well done, very elegant. I'm sure she loved it!
 

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That is a really unique piece. It is very elegant. Love the marble, love the cut outs. You did a great job of doing that with a jig saw. It would be nice to see a pic of it with the light and glass shelf.
 
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