Building a Media Cabinet

are you going to make your cabinet like a raised pannel cabinet?...

-- christoper Blanchard, Michigan

I would like to make the doors raised panels. There will be four doors, two on top, two on bottom with a center shelf secured and movable shelves elsewhere, but the bottom half will have a center vertical divider which will have smaller shelving on each side.

Also, I plan to dado the secured shelf and divider but is it better to dado the face boards or simply nail into place?

You might also think about adding some cable/cord mgmt and airflow. I don’t know what kind of media equipment you are running, but some of it runs a bit hot and does not like being in an air tight box.

well for the face frames I would use pocket screw construction and biscuits to attach to face frames …bench dogs right add a few slots on the back for air movement …

-- christoper Blanchard, Michigan

remind you I am not a master cabinet maker…but that is the direction i would go in..

-- christoper Blanchard, Michigan

Poplar is a great choice for being inexpensive, paint friendly and easy to work with. I do however disagree with the choice of using MDF. It is heavy, prone to cracking or breaking if dropped and you really should use special fasteners if you want it to last, plus it just looks cheap. I have purchased a nice paint grade(sanded both sides) plywood from Home Depot for about $30. It to is easy to work with and a lot stronger than MDF. As a novice woodworker the hardest part of your project is the moulding. Since you’re painting it, I would recommend that you purchase stock moulding either MDF or real wood for the base and cap. Raised panel doors are at a more intermediate skill level. You can make simple door frames with tounge and groove construction and a 1/4” floating plywood panel. To get a raised panel effect attach smaller stock moulding either centered in the panel or butted against the inside edges of the frame. Norm Abram has used this applied moulding technique on some of his pieces so you may want to check his web site.

-Rabbet