Media Cabinet - Final Stages

Well, I am in the final stages of the media cabinet! I'm pumped and can see the finish line. Over the weekend we finally had some amazing weather so I was able to spend a good deal of time working on the cabinet. I was able to rout the profile around the bottom of the cabinet and then glue the vertical partitions into place. Next, I was able to dry fit all of the back panels; for these I just used ship lapped panels that will free float. One thing I did was to leave a good bit of space in the center section, at the top, to allow plenty of air flow and cable routing. I also took a page out of Marc Spagnuolo's book and his media cabinet build where he inset the middle back panel a couple of inches so you could put the power strip there and all the cable routing would fit in there and be hidden and allow you to put the cabinet further against the wall; great idea!

After the vertical partitions were dried, I got to work final fitting all the shelves and got those lightly glued into place. Lastly, I put the center doors back in and did the final fitting of those to make sure I had enough clearance all the way around each door. Then it was time to do any glue removal and finish sanding to prepare for the finish. One thing I like to do is to wait a few hours for the dust to settle, literally, then wipe the whole piece down with mineral spirits. This does a couple of things. First, it gets all the saw dust off of the piece. Next, it allows you to see any blemishes or glue spots that you may have missed and allows you to touch those up before putting on the finish.

For the finish I am applying a couple coats of Watco Danish Oil. Once that is good and dry (after a few days) I am going to spray several coats of shellac on it. This may be about another week or so away as the weather is supposed to turn pretty cold again for the next several days.

A couple construction Items I still need to do are to scrape and sand the top, rout the profile on it and apply the finish. I also need to feet on the base as well, but that will be last. Nearing the end!

Be Safe!

WoodTreks - Great Woodworking Site!

About a month ago I stumbled across a great woodworking website I had never seen before, nor ever heard of; that site is WoodTreks. WoodTreks is a video blog by woodworker and filmmaker Keith Cruickshank. When I first saw the site I thought "man, this is kind of cool!"...then after about 4 straight hours spent on the site I thought "man! This IS cool!". The site is all video podcasts and has several categories from materials, techniques, tools as well as artisan profiles; I really like the artisan profiles, and the materials videos are pretty incredible you get to walk through a lumber mill and see how they process logs.

When you watch one of the videos, one of the first things you think is "is this from a TV show?". Keith's film making background is very apparent in the great quality videos and sound. What's even more neat, to me, is you don't even know he's there...it's like you are standing there with the artisan and they are talking to you.

About the site itself. One of the first things you notice about the site is how clean it is; no unnecessary graphics, no ads, no pop-ups, just great content. Next, when you click on the videos, again, no ads, no endorsement, nothing...except if you consider "watch more of my free videos" an ad or endorsement. Oh, did I mention free? Yep, free! No subscription, no registration, just click on the video and go! You can, as I have, subscribe to his site, via an RSS feed or through email, if you like as well so you don't miss a single episode. While you are there, don't forget to go to the Links section and check out some of the other blogs and sites that Keith has there; there are a ton of great sites there.

WoodTreks, it's full of great information, it's clean and concise, and best of all...it's FREE!