Slow and steady...

A couple hours here, half an hour there...and a week or so later, here we are, at the first dry-fit of the core of the case.

A "dry-fit" is basically an assembly with no glue. You use them to check the fit of parts, and to plan your actual glue-up (where seconds count). The dry-fit is where you find out whether your measure-to-cut ratio was high enough, and if your accuracy was on or off. So far, so good.

So far, there are about 25 biscuit joints in this thing. And they all lined up.

I expect to do a LOT of dry-fitting on this piece - it's going to have to be assembled in stages, and I will need to make sure that I plan the right step in the process to bolt in the 75-lb TV lift mechanism...which by the way has to be perfectly balanced and plumb...

It's actually coming faster than I'd expected - a little time after dinner here and there has really been productive. I find that when I'm not rushing and don't expect to make a huge milestone with each session in the shop, the accuracy goes up as I'm just trying to get each step just so rather than plow toward finishing. When the accuracy goes up, I spend less time fixing errors, scratching my head about how to proceed, and "re-working the design" unexpectedly.

Back in the Shop Again!

Today, I finally started the actual work on a furniture project I've been designing, planning, and generally preparing for for over a year - my stealth-tansu plasma TV cabinet. Here's what it will look like if I do everything just right...

The idea is to have a place for my new 50" Plasma TV to hide so that we don't have to look at the monolith from 2001 lying on it's side every time we walk in the room.

The TV will be lurking in there, waiting for someone to summon it, at which time it will rise from it's slumber behind the false back in the cabinet. Ideally, when you walk into the living room, there will be no sign that a television is even present.

For those who don't know, when I'm not working at my paying job, I spend my spare hours out in my woodshop, which is basically a detached 2-car garage in which I will never park a car, but instead have filled with various machines, hand tools and workbenches. I'm always happiest when I've got a good furniture project going, which really just isn't often enough.

Today, I spent about 4 hours in the shop, and made exactly 5 cuts. The dimensions of the cabinet are 89" long by 18" deep, and the base is 1" thick plywood. Since I don't have a big heavy cabinet saw with a luxurious cast-iron top, using the table saw for this was impractical, and probably dangerous. So I had to use the old SkilSaw, which is always a little tough to control especially when cutting thick stock. I solved that problem by building a fixed sled for the circular saw. Basically, it's a cleat that holds the saw to a piece of plywood with another cleat at the side that rides along the edge. The saw blade cuts through the jig and extends down to cut through the workpiece underneath. Below is a picture midway through a cut into the nice, shiny prefinished maple plywood I'm using for the case.

I gotta say, this thing worked like a charm. Managed an 8' long rip through 1" plywood with no wiggles, no burn marks, and leaving two nice, flat, 90-degree edges. The lesson here is: if you think building a jig to make a couple of simple cuts is a waste of time and materials, think again. Trying to make these long cuts with just a straightedge against the foot of the saw would have been dicey at best, and never would have come out as clean.

I finished up my day in the shop cutting the top of the cabinet and beveling the ends for the miter joints I'll be using to join the case.

Next step is to cut the sides of the case. Hopefully I'll be able to get to that next weekend, so stay tuned....