Marc: "The Wood Whisperer" is sponsored by
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Marc:The base of the entertainment center
is gonna be a very simple frame
about three inches wide,
made from strips of plywood.
Obviously, in every project we like
to be as efficient as possible,
as far as our use of materials.
This time, I think we've really done a decent job here.
These are two pieces of scrap
that I have left over from the project,
and that looks perfect to me,
as far as getting two long pieces
and two short pieces to make up that frame.
When you lay out your materials for any project,
you always want to consider every step of the way,
and make sure you have enough material
to get you to the end.
In this case, this just worked out
to be perfect for us.
I'm gonna cut these strips downn to about three inches wide,
and then we'll miter the corners
just like we did with the trim material
around the top and bottom pieces.
It's gonna just be a very simple frame
that's gonna elevate the piece a few inches off the ground,
and just give it a floating look,
which I think is gonna look pretty cool.
Let me get these guys ripped down
and we'll go from there.
Now, I have all the base pieces cut.
Each one of them has a nice 45-degree miter here,
so we can make a nice square frame for the bottom -
pretty straightforward.
Before we attach them to each other
and actually build the frame,
it's a good time to start thinking
about how we're going to attach this
to the bottom of the entertainment center.
Laying this frame down,
it's kind of an odd situation,
and it's maybe not immediately obvious
what you should do.
For me, I'm gonna use pocket screws.
To me, I don't really use pocket screws very much,
but there are some applications
that they absolutely excel at.
In this case, securing this frame
to the bottom of this entertainment center,
it's perfect.
Here's a little sample board that I did with one screw.
You can see how strong that is.
We've got the pocket screw right here on the side,
so it's a nice tight joint.
You may not even need glue at that point,
if we have maybe six, seven, eight different
locations all the way around the frame.
What I'm gonna do is use my little jig
that I have here
and start adding some pocket screws, I guess.
I'll probably put two or three on the short side,
and maybe four or five on the long side.
We'll get those all drilled ahead of time,
so that once the frame is together,
all we have to do is put it
on the actual entertainment center and screw it down.
Here's a trick I like to use for gluing the frame pieces
for the base together.
I put them face down like this,
miter to miter,
and I use another backer board here
to line everything up, like so.
I grab some clear packing tape.
My goal here is to really take the human error
out of the equation.
I'm gonna cut two pieces,
one near the top and do another one at the bottom.
The whole joint is covered now.
Now that we've sealed them here, flip it over.
and let's spread a little glue on that joint.
Then, just flip it up on its side,
rotate it, and that tape is gonna
keep the joint nice and tight
as we pull it together and close up the miter -
like that.
Now, I just make sure everything is nice and square,
and I throw a few 23-gauge pin nails through -
both directions.
That's it.
With our two halves pre-assembled,
the rest of the assembly is a breeze.
Attaching the base is a pretty straightforward
and simple affair.
Everything is pre-finished,
so I don't have to worry about that.
I basically reference off
of the back piece of trim,
and I just make sure my spacing is even on both sides.
It looks pretty good.
And, we drive the screws home.
To attach our little handles, all we need to do is start
with a little piece of blue tape
'cause we don't wanna draw on a finished piece here
The blue tape gives me something to write on.
I put a line two-and-a-half inches in from the edge.
I set my adjustable square to two-and-a-half inches,
and I draw the line all the way down,
just making sure I cover the whole range.
The screws, we're gonna have set two inches apart.
The easiest way that I find to do that is
to go with center points.
If I find the center point of this piece,
and measure out one inch in each direction,
it'll be two holes that are exactly two inches apart,
and same thing here.
If I find the center point,
and then measure up an inch and down an inch,
I should be able to get those holes
in the right place as well.
I happen to know the number that we need to look for.
A lot of times, I'm just gonna measure
from the bottom of the case,
and then from the top of the case here.
If they're slightly different -
I'll show you in a second here.
Notice that there's actually a little space
between those lines.
I didn't get it dead center,
but since I know that the measurement is the same
from the top and bottom,
directly in that space there, in the middle here,
that is the perfect center point,
So, when you measure center points,
you don't necessarily need to know the exact number.
You just get pretty close,
and then just go in between the two resulting lines.
If that's our center point,
all we really need to do is line a ruler up here.
Measure one inch up, and one inch down.
These two marks represent where we need to drill.
I use a scrap piece of plywood as a backer.
That way, that'll help us avoid tear-out.
Since this is a little thin,
it gives us a nice firm surface
that we can push our bit into.
Another thing that I should probably mention is
the bit that I'm using here is a brad point bit.
That means it's got this little tiny needle point on it,
which is perfect when you're trying
to drill very, very accurately-placed holes.
I usually like to get a little pinpoint started,
especially if I have to go at it one-handed.
Let's go ahead and drill those holes all the way through.
I use the same exact process,
taking the measurements on the back
of the handle piece,
marked one inch up from the center point.
and made sure I have the center line of the whole thing,
and now we're ready to drill a little bit
of a pilot hole in there as well.
Now just drive a few little tiny screws here
from the back of the door panel.
I like to drive the screws far enough,
just so that they poke out.
This way, I can center this
right where it's supposed to be.
Now, we can snug it up.
There it is, homemade hardware.
All right, we've got the piece right side up,
and we finally have access to the top.
It's kind of a good thing that we waited
to play with the top
because you figure a lot of times,
if something is in the shop for a good deal of time,
and it's already pre-finished,
you're just increasing the chance
that you might actually ding the surface
or scratch the finish.
It's nice that the surface
that's gonna be the most visible on this piece,
we're able to address that last,
so as soon as it's done,
it's outta the shop and safely in its final home.
The other thing is,
when we clamp the top and the bottom together,
there's a chance that those clammps
could have marred the surface,
so it's nice to have an opportunity
to make sure we can sand any imperfections
out of the surface before applying our finish.
What I'm gonna do is start
by sanding the whole surface with 180.
I'm gonna sand the front edge as well.
All these corners, I'm just gonna relieve by hand
with a piece of sandpaper,
and make sure it's nice and smooth to the touch,
nothing to get splinters from
or clothing to get caught on.
The only other thing I'm gonna do
a little bit differently here is
I'm gonna add a few more coats to the top.
You figure the top is where the TV is gonna be.
It's gonna be moved in and out
as people need to access things behind it.
There may be decorative things sitting on top.
Certainly, since it's a horizontal surface,
that's where all the dust is gonna collect,
and it's gonna be the surface
that's gonna be cleaned the most
by the person who owns this,
so it's nice to have a little bit
of extra protection on this top surface.
Let's get started.
So, here it is, assembled and finished.
I gotta say I'm pretty happy
with the way it came out.
If you notice that your sliding doors
aren't sliding as easily as you would like them to,
it's a good idea to take a little bit of paste wax,
get a Q-tip and spread some of that wax
into the groove all the way across.
That's really gonna dramatically improve the sliding action,
and just reduce friction for you.
You know, overall the piece has sort
of a retro, very simple look to it,
but it's elegant and it's got a few
of those features that you would not find
on commercially-produced furniture,
like a little cubbyhole in the back,
certainly adequate ventilation,
and the ability to move the doors
in a way that makes sense for the things
that you have in there,
and it still looks good
when two out of the three compartments,
no matter which two you decide to cover,
it still looks good.
Kind of a neat little project,
but the real important thing here,
and a take-home message is
you don't need a huge shop full of tools
to make some great furniture.
Don't get me wrong.
It certainly will make your life easier,
and it was quite a challenge for me to say,
"Forget the fact that I have a table saw.
"Forget that I have this tool over there,"
and just focus on the basics.
It was a good exercise to re-ground myself
and realize what we're actually capable of
if we have minimal tooling.
I hope you'll take the time
to build one of these yourself,
or something like it,
and I can't wait to see what you guys come up with.
Thanks for watching.
(upbeat music)