Vinyl Cabinet

Hi there,

I am new to the forum and new to building my own furniture so am looking for some guidance.
I am looking to build a shelving unit for some of my vinyl. I am going to initially build it out of a cheapish wood, and then once i have the specs down to a tee i will be investing in oak to make a new one. I am wanting to make a unit that uses 2.5in thick wood, 37.5in high and 16 in deep. I remember building with a joint, that I believe was called a mitre joint in DT (about 8 years ago), which used identical angles cut into the ends of the joint to make a perfectly angled finish to the corner of the joint. I also used dowels (? again sorry, my memory is very poor so apologies if i am wrong) which were thin strips of wood that were cut into the joint at an angle and glued in as a means of adding extra support and creating a nice finish. Is this the sort of thing I should be using to build this cabinet, or should I just stick to the bog-standard joint where one piece of wood is glued and screwed into the end of another?
Also, I am looking to split the cabinet into 4 squares (ie 4 compartments for my vinyl) within the unit. Any tips on how to attach these? I was thinking of cutting out segments in the middle of each of the segregating pieces so as to slide them together in the middle, making it flush to the look and stronger.

As i said, this is the first thing I have tried to do for around 8 years, and outside of a classroom ha! so if anyone has any ideas about how I should go about this, or any tips for me about how to put it together, it will be much appreciated!

Cheers
Sully

2.5in is quite a thick chunk of wood for a cabinet like that (seems like it to me, at any rate).. No reason you can't do it, and it'll definately be solid, but it certainly won't be cheap. "Just for thought"...

Yes, a mitre (or miter for the yanks) joint is what you're thinking of.. Two pieces cut at 45 degrees to form a 90 degree joint.. like a picture frame. Can be a bit tricky to get the joint perfect, especially if you don't have much experience and 'the right equipment' (if you're talking about 2.5inch thick panels for a cabinet, then you're talking about a pretty solid table or cabinet saw here.. up into the thousands of dollars).

The 'thin strips' you're referring to I'm thinking are probably what's known as 'splines'.. you cut a slot across your joint and then glue a flat piece into the two with the grain aligned crossing the joint to add strength and perhaps some contrast if you're using a different wood. Dowels are round pegs that are inserted into drilled-out holes between two pieces in a joint. Similar idea, but a different technique and result.

The "bog standard" joint you're referring to is a 'butt joint' - where the end of one piece simply 'butts' up against the other. Not very strong in itself and to be avoided where possible. It's the default in construction because it's exceedingly quick and easy to do, and there isn't such need for strength ni that individual joint (where there is so much other bracing and reinforcing going on elsewhere). It's generally frowned upon in 'fine' woodworking and cabinetmaking because it's not particularly strong or particularly pretty.

If you want a mitre joint (and be aware that they're also not particularly strong), then yes - splines would certainly be a good idea. I'd suggest looking up 'rebate' (or 'rabbet' - pronounced like the bunny - if you're searching the Americanised interwebs ;) ) joints.. they're not too complex to cut, and quite a bit stronger than a butt or mitre joint. If you want to get a bit fancy, box joints would probably be very strong and give a fairly distinct look that you may or may not like..

To split it up.. yes, you could easily cut the half way down the width of a pair of boards and slot them together into a '+' and install that in the middle of the thing.. but you'd probably want to make them slightly longer than the cabinet is wide (and high) and cut a groove into the frame with a router, so that the outsides are supported as well.

Take a bit of a hunt around youtube, there's all sorts of stuff on there that will give you all sorts of inspiration and ideas. Not entirely sure on the policy for plugging external sites in here is (anyone?) But you might want to check out Woodworking for Mere Mortals: Free woodworking videos and plans. - Steve in there does some really nice projects that aren't overly complicated, and there's free plans in there to do with as you wish (I'd suggest you look into some of his cabinets and bookshelves for your purposes), and he's an entertaining kinda fella even without the sawdust-making.

Best of luck on the project, though!

Sully unless you are confident in your joining ability i would stick to a m&t (or domino/dowel) as a cube of vinyl 305x305x305 is roughly 20kg, so a cabinet of 4 is a whopping 80kg.

I made one recently to hold just 40 albums (high rotation list) and it just sits next to the TT, and all my others are in a big standard boxed floor standing cabinet.