Sunday, November 25, 2012

Angle Madness! - Designing the Column, Rabeting the Tiers

After way Way WAY to long of a hiatus on this project, I got a hall-pass to go into the shop this long weekend.  That, folks, is partly why it was called Thanksgiving weekend! :)

The back is to get a column in Etimone, a beautiful Mahogany with a lot of color (board on the right in the photo).  While I've talked about it and waved my hands a lot while doing it, we never committed to any dimensions.  I go through the design process I used to originally come up with the numbers for the column.

The drawer tiers need the panels installed as well as the webbing.  To install the panels into the drawer tiers, we need to rabbet the edge, but the edge is on an incline.  The fact that each tier has 5 unique inclines means we can't use some normal techniques for doing the rabbet.  I'll talk about some options and why I didn't chose them then show you how I did these.

The section on rabbeting is longer than I expected, but it shows you some tricks to do the operation safely, even if you don't have a hotdog-phobic saw :)  I think the techniques are useful in a lot of other operations.

You have no idea the amount of time between the recording of the first clip to the last... whoa, need to reel in that day-job :)

As always, thanks for reading!  Okay, bucket of hot apple cider ready? Cue it up...



(the slow-cooker in the last scene was loaded with hot apple cider in case my neighbors showed up; sure enough, they did and I got nothing done, but that's okay because there may or may not have been some rum involved...)

For my email subscribers, here's a link to the video page.

9 comments:

  • Unknown said...
     

    Just a question about your design change for the column and not having any access holes facing the front. Can you not put the access holes directly behind the drawers? It's my understanding that those drawers would never move in the future therefore you would never see them, even if the unit is to be used as something other than a media cabinet. I understand you would have to either have a hole on top of drawer or someway to pass the cables down and through, but I think visually it would be a cleaner look.....that's probably a lot of work as well.

  • neilc said...
     

    Nice progress Paul-Marcel. There is a LOT of work in this cabinet.

    As to the back panel, is it going to be strong enough to support a heavy amp on the top and not deflect? I was not clear if there are front supports that will be on the unit as well.

    As to hiding the wires... What if you drilled a hole into the bottom of the shelf (maybe 1-1 1/2 forstner) centered in front of the post? Then drill a similar sized hole INSIDE the shelf unit INTO the post itself. This would HIDE the hole from the front but still let you drop the wires down and then through and into the post for connections between layers.

    Nice to see you back in production mode!

    neil

  • HalfInchShy said...
     

    I'm not altogether following your suggestion, Jeremy... I blame my headache (seriously!)

    Since the column intersects the drawer boxes, wires can pass up and down. If the top of a drawer box (or bottom as someone on YouTube suggested; hadn't thought of that!) had an access hole to get into the drawer box, you can easily fish the wires into the column. My problem is hiding the access panel although thinking about your suggestion gave me an idea... will consider it more when the column gets built.

    Thanks, Neil! I won't lie, this is taking way longer than anticipated! Between non-woodworking interruptions and the fact that while the steps aren't that difficult, there's a lot of work for each! Guess it isn't a weekend project... :)

    The tiers should be pretty well supported. Each corner (all 8!) will have a nickel-plated rod through it into the tier above/below it. Which reminds me to head over to IMS to get them...

    In a way, your suggestion for the wires is similar to the guy on YouTube: putting the hole on the underside of the drawer box so the wires just go up. Getting into the column from within the drawer box is easy; no hole needed as it will be completely open to the column.

    Ideally, the access panel would be on top of the drawer box directly in front of the column so a component centered on the drawer box could hide the wires right into the drawer box then into the column for distribution (side note: the wengé base is also hollow for all those wall-warts and excess power cables).

    Thanks to both of you for the suggestions!

    P.S., glad I'm back in production mode, too, Neil!

  • Brian said...
     

    you are a crazy man. very exciting seeing this project coming together

  • Tim Raleigh said...
     

    Paul:
    I can't wait for the next installment.
    I am glued to the progress of this build 'cause I can't figure out how it'll come together.
    Very entertaining...at least for me.

  • HalfInchShy said...
     

    Tim, I dunno how it'll come together either. :)

    I think you'll like a video I was working on tonight; not part of Angle Madness, though. I don't know how that project will come together either :)

    Flying by the seat of my pants is awesome!

    Just kidding; when I thought of Angle Madness long ago I swear I built it tossing and turning bed a dozen times. Why the hell I think of that instead of, say, Megan Fox... I dunno, but it's annoying!

  • Unknown said...
     

    It's nice to see the madness project continue. After you intro to the latest clip your vision for this piece is clear. I wish I wasn't so mathematically challenged. At least you will have tons of time to work on it with as you will not be distracted by NHL hockey anytime soon.lol
    Keep up the great work, can't wait for the next installment.

  • HalfInchShy said...
     

    Thanks, Sean! I have to admit I was mathematically challenged when I planned this project: I couldn't figure out the formulas, but I was using the wrong math. Then middle of the night I thought of linear algebra and it was a pretty easy problem to solve (after re-reading half my LA book!)

    I'm slipping in another project right now; videos to come out soon. That one has a bit of Angle Madness in it, too, but not so much to frighten children.

    As for the NHL... uhg. I don't have cable or domestic satellite TV so no way to watch the games except at a sports bar, where in AZ they will always have something other than hockey on the screens. I recently got an Apple TV to help doing presentations off the iPad and found it had an NHL.com app on it so I was excited that this season I could à-la-carte games. Didn't plan on a lockout. On the positive side, the police in Vancouver will be happy!

  • corner shelf unit said...
     

    It's quite impressive.