Thread: Vic Ash Entertainment Unit

John you obviously have skills to make beautiful furniture, and its good that you are learning ways to deal with wood movement. I really like this piece. It looks simple but elegant. It is a stunner.

Re your question. I would glue solid wood (end grain) to the edges of the MDF panels, then glue the diamond to the surfaces. For me I would make a torsion box for the door instead of using MDF. It is lighter and a lot more stable.

I would also make my own door/drawer handles out of wood. It is a lot classier.

You and several others have been very helpful, and I appreciate your assistance.

A torsion box makes good sense to me (in a previous life I had a Civil background). Do you make your own grid, or buy cardboard or similar?

I imagine keeping everything flat and level during construction is mission critical.

Concerning gluing wood to the edges of the MDF and then applying the laminates over the entire panel ... If I glue end grain to the MDF panel, will I not present end grain to the screws for the hinges ... or am I misunderstanding you?

Yes make you own grid.

The end grain strips should be thin (say <5 mm), so you are screwing into mostly the MDF. I would insert a couple of dowels into the MDF at where the hinges are hung. The dowels give the screws some long grain to hold onto. Hope it make sense.

Thanks Wongo. So that's how you make porridge.

Can you enlighten me as to why you stipulate end grain, or is it an issue of aesthetics only, so end grain presents visually to the edge of the board?

I thought end grain would look neat together with the diamond patterns.

Hi John
as Wongo said, the end grain would give the visual appearance of there being no long grain around the doors. The end grain strips would only need to be about 3mm thick and as Wongo said you'd use slightly longer screws and screw through the strip into the MDF.

John that's a very nice unit you built for your daughter and son-in-law

please tell me it's mostly your own design so I can add praise for your design skills to that you git from Wongo for your build skill

well done

Hi John,
Nice looking unit there

Re the ?, I'd be thinking about some good quality 19mm thick plywood, one with more plies = stable rather than less, a torsion box might end up being too thick, of course I am thinking about my standard torsion box thickness, about 34mm thick, no reason that you can't make one up at around the 19mm but the ply is quick and easy.
Might be a little more work tho with the edging, may need to add a tounge cos half or so of the edge will be end grain

Just my 2c worth


Pete

This forum is a gold mine of support and information.

I now have several approaches to making such doors. Eventually, I'll try them all. One simply must make at least one torsion box, just for the experience, although I suspect matters would not stop there ... and I like the idea of ply for stability too, pjt.

Wongo, I thought using end grain was a visual thing, but wanted to be sure I was missing nothing. A good idea that I will certainly use.

Ian, the design is mine. Thanks for the kind words. I intend to make a similar unit one day. The next will feature the diamond pattern across the entire face of the drawer fronts and the doors. If I get a rush of blood, might even do something similar to the sides and top, but that might be overdoing things a bit.

When I made drawer fronts with the diamond or chevron pattern in the past I made up the drawer with the four sides glued and dowelled and simply screwed the chevron patterned front (full timber) onto this carcass. In about five years I have had no problems, but the front can wriggle a bit without creating issues.

Another question ... I'm nervous about putting hinge screws into the end grain of dowels. Should I be? Could I put about 15mm of solid timber on one edge (stile) of the MDF (to take screws) and then laminate over that; or is that re-introducing movement issues?

Another question ... I'm nervous about putting hinge screws into the end grain of dowels. Should I be?

No you shouldn't. Here is why....

Further to Wongo's reply, with the doewels you orient them so it's long grain you are screwing into, heres a few pics of a jig I made were I had to use dowels to screw into as the endgrain of the pine didn't hold...
Attachment 219302Attachment 219303Attachment 219304

Also a few pics of a torsion box
cleaning.JPGAttachment 219306Attachment 219307


Pete

I am awake now. Thanks for the slap to the side of the head ... I needed that.

I am keen to take another crack at laminating. A few years ago I saw an antique cabinet that was veneered in many smallish squares of wood, all showing end grain. It was spectacular, but my guess is that most of the beauty was in the design (as is nearly always the case). I am probably going to laminate the doors of a cabinet I'll make soon for She Who Must Be Obeyed, and am thinking about the design, including end grain laminates.

I was thinking about getting a saw-miller to cut the smallest possible veneers off the end of a log, sanding them to design thickness and then laminating them to a substrate. Might just do a test run and see what it looks like. Are there any special considerations for laminating end grain?

Thanks, fellas ...

Your welcome.

I was thinking about getting a saw-miller to cut the smallest possible veneers off the end of a log, sanding them to design thickness and then laminating them to a substrate. Might just do a test run and see what it looks like. Are there any special considerations for laminating end grain?

Hmmm this is tricky. Its thinking cap on and do not take this lightly. Why? Because it is very difficult to cut a thin layer of end grain accurately. The layer will warp almost instantly and it will be very easy to break up into pieces. This is how I would do it. Cut a layer to say 15mm thick and glue it to a substrate. Use a router and a planner bit to mill the layer to the desired thickness.

I guessed that the veneers would be pretty thick to start with, and was prepared to do the necessary work to reduce the thickness.

For the Vic Ash doors I decided not to wait until I got a re-saw blade (picked it up today). I cut off the borders, cut the panel in half and re-sawed these panels first over the table saw, leaving only about 15-20mm for the band saw. The panels were a tad wide, so I took off the upper blade guide, increased the tension a bit, and the saw went through the last 15-20mm very easily.

I sanded them flat, to about 6mm before gluing them on the substrate, and then sanded them again to about 1.5mm veneers.

However, were I doing something like that again, I would consider veneering a long panel so I could (if necessary) run it through the thicknesser ... very carefully ... and with very sharp knives. Does that sound like a workable approach?