TV and Wine Cabinet Advice needed

[penright]

Hi,

I am about to embark on my first wood working adventure, always had a bit of tinker but now its real.

I have been drawing up plans for a TV and wine cabinet and was hoping for some advice on the materials I should use.

I have attached some sketchup drawerings but was wondering on what timber I should use? I was thinking maybe cutting some of the large laminated pine sheets for the sides of each compartment and then some rectangular pieces for the drawer construction?

I wish to stain the outside of it so it blends in with my other dark ikea furniture and was hoping to stain the inside pannels, particularly the draws in a nice rich brown stain.

But any general advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[xpro]

A bit late, but only just saw your post. If you still need some input, pm me.
Gus

[Lplates]

Hi,

Just had a quick glance at your drawings. Seems a simple enough design, not sure about some of the sizes though (11mm, 23mm??). Most timber in Australia is labelled in mm but still conforms roughly to Imperial sizing. So your will most often find 12mm or 18/19mm thick panels which correspond to the American 1/2 and 3/4 inch sizes.

In any case I would think that a 1/2inch panel with a 800mm+ span will tend to sag unless you brace it somehow. You can go to an 3/4in plywood panel for the whole carcass and then maybe just use a 1/4in (6mm) for the backing board since it's cheaper. Or you could use smaller pieces of wood under the wide spans to brace them for the weight from above.

Getting good plywood in Australia can be a challenge in itself unless you have a specialty supplier in your area. Most places just have the big B or M "hardware" stores and as such will only have plywood that is meant for the building industry and is quite rough faced generally. I've done work with this sort of panel before but it's not always flat and you generally need to fill the defects on at least one of the sides with some sort of filler. I used plaster of paris and then painted over it since that was the finish i was going for. YOu will probably want some better faced BB or AC panels. Probably marine grade since they tend to have a nicer finish.

In terms of staining most people here would tell you to avoid it since it can be finicky. Whatever you do make sure you practice your technique on some scrap first. Keep in mind that pine is very porous and as such can absorb stain at different rates depending on how it is sawn. You can largely stabilise this sort of behaviour by sealing the wood first with something like shellac. I saw a friends project where he did this and then used a dark brown stain to good effect. Although i personally prefer to see the true colour of the wood itself. Also try and avoid products that are a varnish and stain in one. These can be difficult to control the colour of the finish if you aren't very steady with your application method.

Don't let the above concern you too much. Give it a go and you will learn along the way. That's half the fun of woodworking isn't it?

Cheers
Mat