| Project by Todd A. Clippinger | posted 576 days ago | 1528 views | 8 times favorited | 22 comments |  |
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This is an entertainment center that I designed and built. It is huge – 9’ high x 16’ wide.It is constructed of curly maple, curly maple plywood, and cherry.
The upper opening is 5’2” high x 7’wide. The lower section is 32” high x 7’ wide. The third photo really shows the size of the unit with me standing in front of it. The top houses the t.v. and entertainment electronics. The bottom houses the wireless based computer system.
The cabinet interior is lighted by a touch activated light system that throws light against the back of the acrylic shoji panels. The side display cases have lighting tucked behind the face frame that is touch activated as well.
This unit sits across the great room from the dining area where the chandeliers hang. The doors carry the same design as the chandeliers and really tie the space together, even though they are different woods and overall designs. That blows all ideas that everything in the house has to be the of the same wood.
Because of the unit’s large size, I cascaded the design. Everything flows and steps in three’s. Maple, cherry, maple. Center, bookcase 1, bookcase 2. Notice that all the corners are rounded in the case construction.
This was no small undertaking and incredibly challenging. The doors bifold and slide in. A lot can go wrong covering a space like that. It is like a bullet leaving a rifle; the farther it travels from the gun, the farther off target it gets.
The stock for the doors was entirely unstable so I ripped the material down, glued up the strips and used curly maple veneer to make the rails and stiles. (I have a vacuum press.)
I used floating tenon joinery on the doors with locking pins inserted from the back side of the doors.
As the cherry has darkened, it has created an incredibly dramatic contrast to the curly maple. The maple is just so rich with curly figure. The tools that made this project possible were my new 8” spiral head jointer from Grizzly and the dual headed drum sander. It was not even possible to plane this material. The spiral head cutter on the jointer produced no tear out. Many, many, many light passes had to be taken with the router to do profiles.
-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com
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22 comments so far
Larry
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144 posts in 693 days
posted 576 days ago
WOW - that is big – very nice – the design is very pleasing and well balanced. You did a great job.
Larry
-- Larry "In dog years - I'm dead"
MsDebbieP
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11909 posts in 642 days
posted 576 days ago
oooooooh mmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyy goodness .
amazing.
now.. it looks to me like someone has already started filling the shelves while it is still being built… Oh yah.. definitely have to do that!!
-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
Roger Strautman
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498 posts in 615 days
posted 576 days ago
Yes Todd, you are so very right about having to be more or less perfect with plumb and level. This was a very challenging but rewarding project wasn’t it? Thanks for sharing.
-- " All Things At First Appear Difficult"
Don
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2586 posts in 658 days
posted 576 days ago
Just terrific, Todd!
It’s obvious that money was not the issue in this project. How did you find such a fantastic commission?
-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/
Don
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2586 posts in 658 days
posted 576 days ago
Just terrific, Todd!
It’s obvious that money was not the issue in this project. How did you find such a fantastic commission?
-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/
oscorner
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4573 posts in 792 days
posted 576 days ago
Great looking design. You must be very proud of your accomplishment and vision of this piece.
-- Jesus is Lord!
gbear
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51 posts in 580 days
posted 576 days ago
I am totally impressed Todd. Great job and obviously no easy undertaking. A true piece of art.
-- gbear, Carmichael, CA
Karson
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12887 posts in 882 days
posted 575 days ago
Todd they are beautiful. I can feel for you having to work with unstable wood and then overcoming it into a showpiece.
-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com
Duane Kohles
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35 posts in 782 days
posted 574 days ago
Very, very nice. Your attention to detail and execution are evident. Congratulations on such a monument.
-- Duane Kohles
fred
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257 posts in 579 days
posted 574 days ago
Todd, you are the man. That is absolutely gorgeous.
-- Fred Childs, Pasadena, CA - - - Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
Dick, & Barb Cain
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5043 posts in 781 days
posted 555 days ago
Beautiful work !!
For a massive piece it still looks kind of dainty.
It’s just what that wall needed.
-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1
Bill
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2512 posts in 643 days
posted 555 days ago
Wow..an amazing piece! Where did you find someone willing to purchase that? I just can not imagine how many hours went into something like that.
-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com
Todd A. Clippinger
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2536 posts in 581 days
posted 555 days ago
This was an incredibly technical piece, I worked on it over a span of six months. But the truth is that I was also working on other projects in the house at the same time. I had a lot of glue-ups to do and would bounce between projects. I also started it, and had to go home to Montana at one point for a couple of months. Sometimes you just need to be home for a while.
-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com
IowaWoodcrafter
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249 posts in 558 days
posted 493 days ago
That is absolutely gorgeous!
-- Owen Johnson - aka IowaWoodcrafter
Douglas Bordner
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2550 posts in 545 days
posted 490 days ago
More top flight artistry Todd. Thanks for sharing. I am planning a much smaller and more modest piece for my home and wanted to use a portion of shoji paneling, but my wife shot that down due to concerns about durability. Could you tell us more about the acrylic material?
-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.
mot
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4837 posts in 518 days
posted 489 days ago
Wow! I’m glad I stumbled into this one! Great piece!
-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)
DIABLO
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86 posts in 334 days
posted 322 days ago
very nice and sharp…......excellent craftsmanship and design
miles125
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920 posts in 487 days
posted 315 days ago
You outdid yourself on this one Todd…Greaaattt looking cabinetry!
-- miles125, Alabama.."Architecture is frozen music""
JoeHeskett
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23 posts in 404 days
posted 280 days ago
Very nice work Todd.
-- Joe Heskett---Illinois
Blake
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2000 posts in 356 days
posted 278 days ago
wow…
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.
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...wow.
-- Check out my new website! http://www.theeasellife.com
GaryK
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8482 posts in 470 days
posted 269 days ago
Excellent work! What else can I say!
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.
Joel Tille
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200 posts in 726 days
posted 269 days ago
Just watched your interview and looked through your projects. This is awsome!!
The photo of the cabinet by itself doesn’t truely give you the feel for the size until your last picture when you are standing next to it.
Thanks for sharing.
-- Joel Tille