Popular Post Eric. Posted February 9, 2015 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 The wife has been hounding me to build this cabinet for her since she saw it...good lord...has it been almost five years ago already? How time flies. Seems like just yesterday. Anyway, it's been five years of fairly persistent nagging, so I'm happy to have it scratched off the list once and for all. Naturally I wanted to make a number of significant changes...and naturally I was rebuffed. It's awkward when your wife prefers another man's...uh, anything...over yours. But I'll live. I wanted to build the whole thing out of solid bubinga, which I already had enough of on my lumber racks to do the whole piece. But she was dead set on the walnut, which was fine with me, since I love walnut as much as everyone else. It's undoubtedly the more appropriate choice for this piece with its mid-century modern look. And I do love the look...kind of has an early Maloof thing going on when he was doing more geometrical designs before he got into the flowing, sculpted pieces. Quintessential late-50s southern California. Reminds me of something that you'd see on the set of Mad Men. I added wenge accents for a little bit of a contemporary flair, and the only other change I made to the design was using 3/4" ply for the doors instead of 1/4"...which meant I had to do something about the exposed ply groove that they slid in...so I inlaid a wenge track for both appearance and durability. A straight-forward and easy build that took way longer than it should have for various reasons...as usual. Everything was smooth sailing until the very end when I made a screw-up of epic proportion. Of course "epic" is a bit subjective and definitely exaggerated...it is finished and in my living room, after all. I won't go into details but suffice it to say, it kind of ruined the whole piece for me. I'm over it now, and most likely no one will ever notice, but it's all I see when I look at it. If you do happen to see it, just go ahead and keep your mouth shut. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Now I know why you're so acerbic.....I would be to! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Super looking piece Eric! I really like the grain in the doors and the wenge was an awesome addition! What's the finish? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Nice Eric. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Schicho Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Very nice I like it a lot! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks guys. Super looking piece Eric! I really like the grain in the doors and the wenge was an awesome addition! What's the finish? The usual...A-R-S, satin, x4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Ya I see the screw up. Time to rebuild and just send that terrible piece my way. An amazing piece Eric I'm sure the wife and kiddos love it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 So that's what the shelf pins were for. Great looking piece and not too shabby for a snowflake ❄️ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Just realized your little one takes after you, bare foot made the picture:-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Nice job, Eric! Your work is outstanding, as usual. I see evidence of such in the final photo, as well! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Classy looking piece, well done ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freddie Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Sexy stuff as usual. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Very nice looking piece, Eric. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks for the kind words, fellas. It's always a little less gratifying to build someone else's design, but it was a fun project nonetheless. And you do what the wife tells you to do... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stobes21 Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Really beautiful piece. The book matched triangular grain pattern on the doors is particularly striking. Did you have a piece of ply that came like that or did you do something to create that effect? Because the rest of the piece appears more straight grained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks man. It's a long, boring story, but the short version is that I found exactly two sheets of ply that had that killer rift-sawn grain and I had originally planned to use it for the entire piece. But because of a fairly severe defect that I had missed initially, I was unable to use the remaining two pieces for the doors. So I had to go back and buy a third sheet that was from the same batch as the other two but had lost that perfect straight grain. I thought the pattern was cool looking so I went for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell Beeman Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 One of the biggest reasons that my wife is encouraging me to get into woodworking is so I can build her something almost exactly like this. That looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stobes21 Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Ah, I see. Nice job turning a problem into a feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Really nice work Eric - the walnut is great and I love that lower trim detail mirroring the upper panel angle and it looks like it is floating off the floor. I haven't spotted the goof yet even though you described it - it looks great to me. But one thing that you haven't done is sign it with your feet photo. I can't be an "Eric" without that famous foot shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Looks great Eric! You didn't tell the wife "for a project this big I'm going to need an HVLP?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwalter5110 Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Eric, your work always looks so clean. I always like seeing your projects! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janello Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Looks great as usual, as does all of your work. If you didn't mention the screw up, I'd have never noticed. Hell, I had to stare at it for a good five minutes knowing there was one to even find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vyrolan Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 So these are the kinds of amazing projects you can build once you reach the zen-like state of no longer needing any more clamps... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Really nice work Eric - the walnut is great and I love that lower trim detail mirroring the upper panel angle and it looks like it is floating off the floor. I haven't spotted the goof yet even though you described it - it looks great to me. But one thing that you haven't done is sign it with your feet photo. I can't be an "Eric" without that famous foot shot. Thanks man, but I can't take any credit for the design...it was a straight copy of Marc's, including the angled trim pieces on the shelves. The only design change I made was adding the inlaid wenge track. Looks great Eric! You didn't tell the wife "for a project this big I'm going to need an HVLP?" Doh! Missed opportunity! Honestly I probably wouldn't have sprayed this piece anyway since I'm such a big fan of A-R-S on walnut. Tough to beat. Not sure water-based would pull out the richness in the same way. I want HVLP mostly to spray WB on blonde woods, and to experiment with lacquer since that's missing from my skill set. HVLP is coming...right after the lathe. Looks great as usual, as does all of your work. If you didn't mention the screw up, I'd have never noticed. Hell, I had to stare at it for a good five minutes knowing there was one to even find it. Well I'm not sure what screw-up you spotted because after looking back at the pics, you can't really see the one I was referring to because of the glare from the TV. What happened was I just barely burned through the veneer on the top...about a half-dollar sized spot. It wasn't entirely my fault because it was a defect in the ply that caused it...a high spot presumably caused by some kind of booger in between the ply and veneer...but there's no one else to blame so I blame myself. I got some brown markers and did my best to camo that area, and it worked fairly well to get the color back to acceptable. But it's still kind of a shiny area where the open grain of the walnut was lost. Like I said, no one else will notice it. My FIL helped me carry it inside last night and I challenged him to find it...told him there was a terrible ugly spot and wanted him to point it out. He looked at it for ten minutes and gave up. But every time I walk by it, my eyes go straight there. For the rest of my life. What were you seeing? I'm curious and want you to tell me...seriously... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Doh! Missed opportunity! Honestly I probably wouldn't have sprayed this piece anyway since I'm such a big fan of A-R-S on walnut. Tough to beat. Not sure water-based would pull out the richness in the same way. I want HVLP mostly to spray WB on blonde woods, and to experiment with lacquer since that's missing from my skill set. HVLP is coming...right after the lathe. Eric I'm totally with you as waterborne straight on walnut is cold looking. As a long-time Waterlox (similar to ARS) user the warmth it gives to walnut and cherry can't be beat. One thing I want to do is several walnut test boards using different techniques and here are some of my ideas: 1. I've actually tried this and know it sounds wrong, but I put a weak mix of American Walnut water-based dye, then SealCoat shellac, then water-based poly and it gave depth and warmth to the walnut. The dye seemed to give the ambering that oil would have. 2. Dark shellac following by water-based poly. Haven't tried this yet. 3. Waterlox (maybe thinned with MS) followed by water-based poly after a few days to dry. Probably also try shellac in the middle here. I don't like BLO on walnut and cherry as it muddies the grain IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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