Project DONE!

Here it is, completed, with the doors closed. I had it in the back of my mind that there might have been a way that the remotes would have worked due to the fact I had a bigger gap in the drawer fronts than I wanted, but no such luck. The doors will have to be open. As you can see, the sapwood is all but gone on the drawer fronts. The camera also does a poor job of showing how alive the rays are on the front drawer.

Front view with the doors closed.

This is a side and front view showing the ventilation that the components will get. The back is all open, as are the sides, so I'm not really worried about anything overheating. In fact, the front will be open as well whenever it would even think about getting hot.
There are a couple of "better to be lucky than be good" things I should point out. When the drawer fronts are open, the dvd player tray misses the drawer opening by about 1/4". A little too close for me, but not much I can do about that. I also knew that I was going to be tight across the front with the dish, center channel speaker, and stereo. I didn't have much room to spare, maybe an inch or two.Front view.



Side view.

Here is a picture of the entertainment center all waxed up and loaded up.

Doors open for component access.

All that's left to do now is install the top, take some pictures, and watch a movie. I'm using figure 8 clips ton install the top. Predrill and install the clips on the cabinet side, position the piece where it needs to be on the top, mark the location, and drill into the top with a forstner bit. Then predrill and install to the top. the clips will show, but only if you are looking directly under it.

Figure 8 clips being installed.

I love the smell of Shellac in the morning.

My wax arrived in the mail today, so I spent my lunch hour waxing the piece, and I also installed the tracks, and installed hardware. Tonight I will attach the top and put it to work.

Piece waxed, and hardware installed.



With the piece ready for final assembly, I took some playing cards and shimmed in the track that the drawers ride on. There was a little racking of the drawers during construction.

Adjusting the track.

After I got about 3 coats on, I used 320 grit sandpaper and sanded the piece back to get rid of any dust nibs, and to smooth the piece out.

Piece during sanding.



After I let the piece "gas out" for a few hours, I started to apply the shellac. I thinned it with lacquer thinner. Funny story here. It's been a while since I've used shellac, and the last time i thinned it down as well. I had two gallon steel cans in my possession, lacquer thinner, and mineral spirits. I knew that it wasn't mineral spirits, so I grabbed the lacquer thinner. It went on nicely, and between that and the fact it was a warm day, it dried very quickly. It wasn't until I got about 3 coats on that I started to wonder if I was using the right stuff. I wasn't. I was supposed to use denatured alcohol. However, the finish was dry, so I didn't worry about it. My final coats will be shellac thinned with alcohol.
Top after shellac.



I didn't get a shot of the top after fuming, but here it is. You can see a small streak of sapwood in the middle of the board. That was my comprimise between as big of a top as I could get, and grain matching.

Top after fuming.