| Project by Alin Dobra | posted 1102 days ago | 1653 views | 5 times favorited | 14 comments |  |
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This is a solid cherry home entertainment center that was quite exciting to design and build. As you can see from the pictures, the cabinet has a lot of hand tool details:
1. The carcass is joined with hand-cut dovetails bot at the top and bottom. I wanted to make sure it is both nice and very sturdy to support a large TV without any possibility of crumbling (even if a toddler climbs on it)
2. The shape of the piece was dictated by the style of furniture I build for my living room (see other projects) and by the utility. I wanted something that is classy and has an immortal, clean style (hope I succeeded).
3. The TV stand is 1 1/4 thick cherry with massive dovetails to ensure it can hold a large TV. I wanted to avoid a square shape and opted for a little slant as well to break the boredom. A nice side effect is that the design pretty much requires hand-cut dovetails since it would be hard to cut with a dovetail jig.
4. The partitioning of the cabinet is dictated by the electronics I want to put inside. The top self in the middle compartment hosts DVD players, a Wii console and a VCR. The bottom a large Receiver. The top part is shorter and there is an air column from the receiver to the back (that is not completely closed) to allow the cooling of the Receiver.
5. Cables are well managed to the point that they are not visible at all from the front and only a little from the sides.
6. The front of the TV lines up with the front of the speakers (to avoid sound delays).
7. The doors are curved (quite a challenge to build) and have plexiglass inserts. The brand I used is called Optiplex and I purchased it from Lowes (quite cheap actually). The nice thing about it is that it bends. Making the doors out of glass would have cost a fortune and would have been a big hazard for my 2 year old daughter.
8. The finish is shellac since it is easy to fix (I know that I will have to refinish the piece in few years with two kids in the house).
Enjoy,
Alin
-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida
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14 comments so far
live4ever
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#1 posted 1102 days ago
Very nice job! I’d love to hear more about how you did the curved doors. Was it steam pipe bending?
-- Optimists are usually disappointed. Pessimists are either right or pleasantly surprised. I tend to be a disappointed pessimist.
Alin Dobra
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#2 posted 1102 days ago
The curved doors on both this and the hall table are cut from a solid piece of cherry. This way it should be more stable. Alin
-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida
Beginningwoodworker
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#3 posted 1102 days ago
Nice entertainment center.
-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker
steiner
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#4 posted 1102 days ago
Niiiice!
-- Scott - Katy, Texas
a1Jim
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#5 posted 1101 days ago
Another nice piece well done
-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/
ND2ELK
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#6 posted 1101 days ago
Very nicely done. Thanks for posting.
God Bless
tom
-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa
Maveric777
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#7 posted 1101 days ago
Where do I begin with all the cool stuff on this project? I love the doors! I too would love to hear more detail on how you did it. At the moment I cant quite think of how you nailed it so well (OK Im still new to woodwork so that isn’t to hard to imagine…lol).
I also like how you have the back set up to hold the TV. I been thinking about how I was going to do mine for a while now. This pretty much answered my question. Very cool!
Job well done Alin…
-- Dan ~ Texarkana, Tx.
Alin Dobra
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348 posts in 2060 days
#8 posted 1101 days ago
Dan,
The TV stand is bolted to the base with 4 bolts. It is super secure. In terms of how I did it, the project is truly difficult. Event the hinges were troublesome to install and I had to think a lot what hinges to buy.
Alin
-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida
Routerisstillmyname
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#9 posted 1101 days ago
Awesome! nuff said.
-- Router è ancora il mio nome.
sras
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#10 posted 1101 days ago
Another excellent design! Looks like the challenges were worth it.
-- Steve - Impatience is Expensive
sharad
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#11 posted 1101 days ago
Your talent is seen in this project at all the levels. Everything is superbly done. I liked the idea of using plexiglass in place of glass for the doors, for all the reasons you stated.
Sharad
-- “If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they have never tried a new thing in their life”.-Albert Einstein
Ken90712
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#12 posted 1101 days ago
Love it….
-- Ken, "Everyday above ground is a good day!"
blackcherry
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#13 posted 1101 days ago
A engineering degree kinda project Alin, very complex and beautiful. Nice achievement as far as craftsmanship is evolved, thanks for posting…Blkcherry
Grumpy
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#14 posted 1100 days ago
Great job Alin. The design suits very well.
-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python
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