Thread: Building my lowline Entertainment unit...

Welcome aboard steffche.

I prefer solid hardwoods myself. Jarrah, red-gum, blue-gum or bloodwood would give you your desired look. You could get the timber from a mill, or use floorboards glued together, all depends on what equipment you have.

Alternatively you could just use elcheapo pine stained with a Jarrah stain, or mix and match other stains trying on scraps until you get the colour you like.

All the best. I now wish I made mine as small

Hi Steffche and welcome to the forum! You will find a buunch of great ideas here and no short supply of opinions !!! Depending on what you are trying to achieve, the material used for your project may range from "incidental" to "critical". If for example youre just going to paint the item, any stable material would be fine. If on the other hand you want to achieve a true japanese look and feel, then selection of the material matters enormously. I live near Melbourne and have some experience with Japanese pieces - I also have a range of images here somewhere that may help. Feel free to PM me and we can exchange numbers etc. and have a chat...... if youre wanting to achieve "authenticity" and a piece that will last for ages, then I would love to be involved.

By the way, while that piece is nice, there are design elements in it that you may want to rethink..... again it depends on what youre wishing to ahcieve

Silly me...I have been waiting for an email to tell me that someone has replied to my thread, but I never got one for some reason. Today I decided I would look into it and I am happy to find that some responses have been made to my enquiry, and many thanks to those who did.

Yeah, I have another design in mind...one that doesn't involve sliding doors which I think would be very impractical for an entertainment unit. It does however involve a couple of sliding draws for my DVD collection, and some glass doors to enclose all the gear up but still be able to see it and use the remote controls.

The picture I suppose is the character I would like to maintain when I make this piece. Dark blood reds, nearly brown, and not too perfect in the finish either...a little rough, but not rustic... I guess I'm just being difficult.

Supposing I did use floor boards to form the top and the shelves, whould jarrah be the best option? The actual frame of the unit consists of perhaps 50cm x 50cm timber or perhaps a little thicker...similar to what you see in the picture, but instead of having the sliding doors I would have openings, and some of those openings will have draws and some will have glass doors (timer framed doors).

Sorry for the lengthy post...just can't seem to put it in fewer words...

For another newby - how would you join those boards on the top of the unit? Glue & Clamp? Or dowell/biscuit & glue & clamp?

Biscuits & dowels are only for alignment in a panel so you dont need them.
Jointing dead straight edges then gluing & clamping is normal.

Steffche, I have attached my version of such an entertainment unit. Drawers are full slides.
Wood is Jarrah.
Be careful to have enough air ventilation for the electronics, I had to add a planet fan after the fact!
Jacko

To get that colour on crapiarta(pine) you'd mix jarrah and american redwood stain with a touch of black japan stain.
Dont use the plain jarrah stain on crapiarta looks horrid.

Hope you've worked out how to get email alerts! There are still a range of things you can do to successfully achieve a true Japanese look while integrating Hi-Tech into the unit - including doors which look like those but open or are actually drawer fronts - easier to explain if I wave my hands around like this - see? Also as mentioned, ventilation is very important and once again, Japanese style pieces are perfect for this when done right. (waves hands around again) - you can incorporate riveted slats as your door panel inserts instead of solids..... it will look brilliant and assist greatly in the cooling. Just let me know if you have some time and I will be please to receive a call to discuss further. Just shoot me your details via PM (private message)

BTW Jarrah is OK depending on where you're placing it - in my experience, it fades FAST when hit by direct sunlight

Well guys, I'm back on the DIY train again...after having left the entertainment unit idea to rest for a while, while I focused on some other projects, it's time to have another crack at my lowline entertainment unit. I have attached the plan I have in mind, and I still want to achieve that same look as the earlier picture I posted, but perhaps not the fat square pieces around the edges. I've been wondering if Oregon is a better timber to use than pine..?? I like the rustic character that Oregon can give, but I'm dont know if it is harder or softer than pine? Can it be stained to such a dark color? How do I construct the thing? Should I be looking at clamping together pieces to make the top, sides, shelves etc.. Or is it possible to get such wide pieces already cut? The dimensions of the unit are 200Wx65Hx45D. Depending on what size timbers I use I may make it 50 deep...although 45 will do. If I am to join lots of pieces together to make the top,shelves etc, do I have to dowel them then clamp, or just glue and clamp or is there a better way?

As you can tell I'm really new to this sort of thing...although I have made a coffee table and a dining table before out of pine...and for the dining table I used dowel and clamped all the bits together and then had the top run through a thicknesser? to even it all out. WHat about using tongue and groove floor boards?

Any ideas to help me get started would be greatly appreciated. I am havin troubles convincing my wife that I can make this unit, and not have it look like a home made piece of junk!

Thanks again,

Steve.

I made a unit out of nice old demolition oregon a few years back. Reduced the timber to about 30mm and jointed them (just cramps and glue, no biscuits etc) to about 500 x 30 (to take a standard amp etc).

In your design, I'd probably make those intermediate shelves in the centre bays adjustable for flexibility with the electronic units etc into the future but also because it would make fixing the shelves above the drawers right and left easier. I am not a master craftsman - I do what seems to make sense and strength and that often involves screws and plugs (and glue). I think you might want to look at a spirit stain to get the colour right. Interesting project - good luck with it.

hi again Steve - Douglas Fir (Oregon) is a pine/softwood but it has more interest that radiata pine - if you do wish to create something japanese in style, then it is excellent matertial to use. I believe I can refer you to one place that has it in tongue and groove profile 200mm wide - you can easily join it together without dowels as the t+g locate the boards just fine - I used it on a French Provincial style cabinet I made with great sresults. It takes stain easily and once again, if it is Japanese style you prefer I can assist with what stains to use.

All things, done well, with thoughtfullness and patience look great.

Woodworking novice here but I have lots of experience finishing .

I agree that Oregon grain would give this heaps more character than pine. For staining I'd go the Feast Watson Mastertouch range - mixing if necessary. You can also really deepen and enrich dark tones by using Feast Watson dark Carnauba Wax on the finished piece.

Steph

Hi Guys,

I'm a newbie here to. I've diddled around a bit and haven't go much to show for it, my work has been mostly left behind in place in the houses we have renovated. My new resolution is to mainly make stuff I can move with me next time.

I've also been thinking about a low line entertainment unit as my next project. One point of design I'd like to incorporate is easy access to cabling. Our current gear is setup on a (ah hmm... Ik*a) auto trolley. Being able to swing it out to get at the cables worked when it had a small TV on top and it was on hardwood floors, but with the 26in boat anchor on top and on carpet, forget it! My worry with the low line styles placing the components in the middle sections is that rewiring would be annoying. I seem to replace amp/tuner/vcr/dvd/pvr/whatever is next more often than the screen I view it on.

Cheers, Fuzzie