How did you make the custom entertainment center?
Final design decisions, finding the hardwood, and begin to cut ...
From the design ideas on the left, my client chose the top one. All the designs had legs which required a billet of curly or tiger maple which was 4 inches thick by 16 inches wide by 30 inches long! I'm not sure if you have much experience trying to find a piece of wood like that but it's not easy.
The wood was then cut to rough shape and stickered to that it could air dry and stabilize prior to mortising and planing.
Mortise and tenons
The joinery used in furniture is critical to its strength, and thus, critical to whether or not the piece lasts for generations or for only a few years. This is particularly true where a plasma television weighing several hundred pounds is going to sit on top.
Here you can see the mortises (essentially slots) and tenons (the pieces that fit in the slots) being cut to fit. This is one of the strongest methods of joinery ever invented and a hallmark of fine custom furniture. Nothing else even comes close. Careful hand fitting is required wherein either the tenon is carefully planed down to size, or the mortise is opened up with a sharp chisel.
Initial dry fitting of the pieces
Again and again as this entertainment center is built, I dry fit (without glue) everything to make sure that it fits securely. As you can see, when proper joinery techniques are used, no glue or clamps are required to hold the piece together. There is inherent strength in the joinery itself.
If you look closely at the panels on the ends of this piece you will see that the wood on either side is a mirror image of itself; almost as if a book had been open up with the pages on each side matching one another. This is called "bookmatching" and you see it often where veneers are used. In this case, I took a large panel of the curly maple and resawed it (cutting it with a bandsaw through the thickness) then opened it up so that the surfaces which were revealed were facing out.
It may be worth noting that if this piece were simply finished now "in the white" you would not be able to see the "curl" or grain of the wood very well. This is why maple and oak should be stained; though the darkness of the stain is relatively unimportant. In this particular piece the client chose a very dark stain.
Staining and finishing
As I began staining this piece I was drawn for awhile to the contrast between the light rails of the doors and the dark stain. This would have given the entertainment center a more modern look. My client chose otherwise and I can't argue that one way looks better than another.
The image on the right with the doors being finished shows the slots on the top of the doors. Hidden brass knife hinges were used and had to be carefully fit into the tops and bottoms of the doors. Additionally, if you look at the finish here it will seem rough or unprofessional. All finishes must be leveled and then rubbed out after each additional coat is applied. This is one of the "secrets" to beautiful finishes. There really is no secret other than hard work and elbow grease.
Staining and final finishing.
I mentioned before that I was drawn to the contrast of the "white" doors and couldn't resist showing you one more shot.
It is interesting to compare these two images. On the far right is the stained, but as yet unfinished piece. The remainder of the images on this page show the finished piece. Notice how the final coats of hand-rubbed finish give a look of depth to the curly maple and grain of the wood. Here again, care must be taken in order to achieve this effect.
It's done!
This piece could as easily have been made with wood panels instead of glass in the doors. My client wanted to be able to see his components but the glass was not necessary in order to be able to use a remote.
An IR receiver may be hidden on the outer surface of an entertainment center so that components can be hidden and yet still used. Cooling is not a problem because there are always cooling fans on the back of the units I make. Additionally, the backs are removable for ease of accessing wiring, with big brush grommets in back for running cords in and out.
