Entertainment Center

Entertainment Center

I built this entertainment center before I had even half of the tools shown in my shop pictures seen elsewhere on this site. It was also built before I knew what I would be getting into on a large project like this; pretty much, this was woodworking 101 for me. I mostly learned how NOT to do things on this project. The basic design of the piece is Mission. It is made of solid Maple, Birch plywood, and Maple veneer. After a considerable amount of time and a large number of design concepts, I finally settled on the Armoire type case with full length doors. None of the entertainment centers I saw in stores had full length pocket doors so this seemed to be a nice differentiating feature and aesthetically it's a more homogenous design. The door panels and some of the side pieces are commercial veneers over a plywood or hardboard substrate. The crown molding is a cove cut on the tablesaw and is made of some wild grained Maple. Just underneath the crown is a flat band of Walnut. On the front corners of the crown are some thicker pieces in the same profile but made of Birds-eye Maple. The primary reason this was done is due to the fact that I did not have enough of the wild grain Maple, it seemed to look good on the finished piece. The entire case rests on a "foot". I knew this piece would be heavy but I wanted to be able to move it somewhat once it was installed. At one time I estimated the entire case to weigh almost 400 pounds (unloaded), if the case did not have this "foot" it would be immovable; it is still difficult to move but not impossible. The design of the case did not really allow for a true face frame so I decided to try and build all the anti-rack strength in the back. The back is frame and panel however the panels are let into rabbets and screwed in, I wanted to be able to remove them later if needed. Behind the stereo equipment is a sliding panel and opening for all the wire to pass into the cabinet. The exterior finish is water based aniline dye stain with several coats of Danish oil rubbed in with 600 grit sandpaper. The interior is the same except I used wipe on polyurethane for the top coat.