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Default Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments

As promised on the woodworking group, here are some pictures of the
entertainment center I just completed. Despite the low quality birch
plywood from Home Depot, I'm happy with the end result.

I could only afford a 42" plasma right now, but I built the cabinet to
accomodate a 50" plasma. The modular design would also allow me to build
different shelf sections on each side if I ever need to accomodate an even
larger screen. Or, I could remove the upper sections completely to handle a
screen up to eight feet wide!

With the four main sections, the drawers, and the various shelves, there
are a lot of pieces to this puzzle... But, it makes it easy to move
around if needed.

The one "gotcha" I hadn't planned on was the stability of the fully
assembled entertainment center. While the sections all bolt together as a
single sturdy unit, this one is taller and shallower than our old
entertainment center. It was fine out on the concrete garage floor, but it
felt a little too wobbly on our padded carpet. I solved that issue with a
couple of inexpensive shelf brackets screwed to the wall studs and into the
underside of the top.

I still need to stain and poly the drawer dividers, but that's no big rush.
I'm also going to build a center section to mount the plasma to instead of
the wobbly stand it comes with. Due to the design of the TV base, the
plasma kind of sits back in the "hole". Mounting it to a new center section
will let me bring it out closer to the front of the center, and hide the
view of the wall around the TV. It should also be a lot more stable.















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Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments-et2-jpg  Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments-et3-jpg  Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments-et4-jpg  Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments-et5-jpg  
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Default Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments

Very nice! I have a couple of questions. Since you used Birch ply, what did
you use for staining and how did you do it. Where did you get your plan,
did you just come up with it on your own?
Thanks for sharing.


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Default Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments

Very nice!

Thanks!

Since you used Birch ply, what did you use for staining
and how did you do it.


Nothing fancy, just basic homecenter finishing supplies.

I sanded to 150 grit, then used a shop vac to clean up any sanding dust.

Next came a coat of MinWax Preconditioner. This reduces the splotchy
appearance and helps the different wood types stain more evenly.

Within 15 minutes of applying the preconditioner, I applied a single coat
of Varathane "Golden Mahogany" stain. None of my local home centers
carries Varathane stains, but several of the smaller mom and pop hardware
stores do (i.e. True Value).

I like to use staining pads for both the preconditioner and the stain.
These are basically just a sponge covered with a cloth material. It seems
like the stain comes out more even when I use them. The home centers used
to carry them, but now I only see them at the hardware stores. In a
pinch, a cotton rag works too ("staining cloths" at the home center, AKA
T-shirt material).

After wiping off the excess, I let the stain dry overnight. Then I
applied three coats of Minwax Gloss Polyurethane (oil based). I let each
coat dry about 6-8 hours, and sanded lightly with 220 grit paper between
each coat (vacuuming any dust before applying the next coat).

Where did you get your plan, did you
just come up with it on your own?


It is my own design, based mostly on the experiences with our old
entertainment center and proportioned around current TV sizes.

I had vertical drawers for CD's and DVD's in our old entertainment
center. While they had a certain "gee-whiz" factor, I never could get
them to work right despite trying a variety of drawer glides. So I knew I
wanted standard drawers this time around.

Our old entertainment center was over 8 feet wide, made up of three
sections side by side. These were heavy and bulky to move around, and
resulted in an uneven top with seams between the sections. This time
around I wanted a single smooth top, which meant 8 feet maximum (using
standard plywood sheets). I cut the plywood to 94", so I could still
miter the ends of an 8 foot board for the face frames.

Our old entertainment center was 24" deep to accomodate our old TV's, but
the depth wasn't needed for the plasma (or LCD's, or DLP projections for
that matter). I went with 16" depth this time since my stereo receiver is
about that deep and a four foot wide sheet cuts into thirds nicely.
It's only 8" shallower than the old center, but it makes the room feel
much larger.

The 16" depth meant the DVD's would need to be arranged in side-to-side
rows, so I based the width of the drawers on three DVD's with 1/2"
spacers in between. This also works out nicely to accomodate four rows of
CD's.

The height of the base section (28") was based around the drawer fronts
(1x8 boards), and to accomodate a center speaker and my stereo gear.

With the width, height, and depth of the base section determined, I
simply looked up the sizes of various TV's, and added a couple of inches
to the largest each way for ventilation. That determined how much was
left for the width of the side shelves.

I ordered the black ball bearing drawer glides from Orvis. They were
advertised as being "over-travel" glides, but are in fact just full
extension glides. They still work fine for my purpose, but over-travel
glides would have been nicer.

It took 3 sheets of 3/4" birch ply, 1 sheet of 1/2" ply, and 2 sheets of
1/4" plywood to build the entertainment center.

Anthony
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Default Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments

Very nice -- shows very well. Good job.
Thom


"HerHusband" wrote in message
...
Very nice!


Thanks!

Since you used Birch ply, what did you use for staining
and how did you do it.


Nothing fancy, just basic homecenter finishing supplies.

I sanded to 150 grit, then used a shop vac to clean up any sanding dust.

Next came a coat of MinWax Preconditioner. This reduces the splotchy
appearance and helps the different wood types stain more evenly.

Within 15 minutes of applying the preconditioner, I applied a single coat
of Varathane "Golden Mahogany" stain. None of my local home centers
carries Varathane stains, but several of the smaller mom and pop hardware
stores do (i.e. True Value).

I like to use staining pads for both the preconditioner and the stain.
These are basically just a sponge covered with a cloth material. It seems
like the stain comes out more even when I use them. The home centers used
to carry them, but now I only see them at the hardware stores. In a
pinch, a cotton rag works too ("staining cloths" at the home center, AKA
T-shirt material).

After wiping off the excess, I let the stain dry overnight. Then I
applied three coats of Minwax Gloss Polyurethane (oil based). I let each
coat dry about 6-8 hours, and sanded lightly with 220 grit paper between
each coat (vacuuming any dust before applying the next coat).

Where did you get your plan, did you
just come up with it on your own?


It is my own design, based mostly on the experiences with our old
entertainment center and proportioned around current TV sizes.

I had vertical drawers for CD's and DVD's in our old entertainment
center. While they had a certain "gee-whiz" factor, I never could get
them to work right despite trying a variety of drawer glides. So I knew I
wanted standard drawers this time around.

Our old entertainment center was over 8 feet wide, made up of three
sections side by side. These were heavy and bulky to move around, and
resulted in an uneven top with seams between the sections. This time
around I wanted a single smooth top, which meant 8 feet maximum (using
standard plywood sheets). I cut the plywood to 94", so I could still
miter the ends of an 8 foot board for the face frames.

Our old entertainment center was 24" deep to accomodate our old TV's, but
the depth wasn't needed for the plasma (or LCD's, or DLP projections for
that matter). I went with 16" depth this time since my stereo receiver is
about that deep and a four foot wide sheet cuts into thirds nicely.
It's only 8" shallower than the old center, but it makes the room feel
much larger.

The 16" depth meant the DVD's would need to be arranged in side-to-side
rows, so I based the width of the drawers on three DVD's with 1/2"
spacers in between. This also works out nicely to accomodate four rows of
CD's.

The height of the base section (28") was based around the drawer fronts
(1x8 boards), and to accomodate a center speaker and my stereo gear.

With the width, height, and depth of the base section determined, I
simply looked up the sizes of various TV's, and added a couple of inches
to the largest each way for ventilation. That determined how much was
left for the width of the side shelves.

I ordered the black ball bearing drawer glides from Orvis. They were
advertised as being "over-travel" glides, but are in fact just full
extension glides. They still work fine for my purpose, but over-travel
glides would have been nicer.

It took 3 sheets of 3/4" birch ply, 1 sheet of 1/2" ply, and 2 sheets of
1/4" plywood to build the entertainment center.

Anthony



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Default Entertainment Center from "Home Depot Plywood" thread - 5 attachments

HerHusband wrote:

As promised on the woodworking group, here are some pictures of the
entertainment center I just completed. Despite the low quality birch
plywood from Home Depot, I'm happy with the end result.


Looks nice from here. From the side shot, it looks like you have some
quilting in the plywood sides.


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