Entertainment Center in Parts
An entertainment center to fill double roles. One is to hold the A/V equipment for the TV and game systems. And the other is to hold a vintage stereo system for records & CDs. This is still a work in progress.

Mostly-finished photo first. In place, and full of equipment.

This design is the result of HUNDREDS of sketches and about half a dozen detailed drawings. And it still isn't quite final. The general design is to combine heavy Mexican casework with ultra-light Federal style furniture.

This drawing shows where to put the shelves to fit the equipment needed. Spoiler alert - the sizes weren't quite the same.

An isometric view to help me visualize what goes where.

Lumber! This is a bunch of African Mahogany. I already had Pepper wood at home.

Rough cutting.

Shelves sized and shaped. The shelves are 1/2" thick, but the last few inches taper down to 1/4", with a manual round-over on the front. This makes the shelves look MUCH thinner than they actually are. Got the idea from Greene & Greene bookshelves.

Horizontal braces for the top.

Dry fit to make sure everything fits together.

And with some glue! Not pictured - pre-finished all the sides that wouldn't be easily accessible after assembly.

Main carcass assembled!

Big foot.

Smaller foot.

The tenons for the feet include a hidden wedge. So when you drive them in, the tenon expands a bit more and really locks it in place.

Checking to ensure all legs are even, so it will stand straight on the floor.

Assembled carcass! The holes you can see in the back are for cables and computer case fans that will eventually be needed to cool down components.

Working on the top! Pepper wood is full of cracks and voids, and needed stabilizing before it would work as a solid top. I went with black epoxy so it doesn't really stand out.

Gluing up the top.

And checking what it will look like in place.

The board on the back is walnut. I assumed from the start there would be a backboard to this top, but it turned out to be more necessary than I thought. The pepper wood was from a log I had milled years ago, and I couldn't exactly make it wider. But it turns out it wasn't quite wide enough for the carcass depth. So the backboard is extra thick to fill up the space.

Finish on the top. Added wooden brackets on the bottom to attach it to the carcass.

And here it is in place. Still need to make the left door, the right door, an integrated center channel speaker, a drawer, and a carved goat-shaped foot. Each of those can be considered a separate project, and will be added as they're completed.