Carpentry and Woodworking - New to wood working...

and I have a few questions. We bought a new tv for our selves for Christmas and I am going to make a new entertainment cabinet for it to set in. It is a 32" t.v. so it has some weight to it, I think about 140#. The cabinet, as I see it, will be about 48" high (50" if I add the bunn feet the wife likes), 40" wide and 24" deep. The tv itself is 34 5/8"W, 27 5/8"H, 22 1/4"D.

What I plan on doing is making a big cabinet on top 30"x24"x40" for the tv to sit in and 2 smaller 18"x24"x20" on the bottom for the components to go in. I was going to make a plain cabinet out of MDF for strength and then make panel like sides to spruce it up. The wife wants beed board back and sides as well as doors. I was going to make the panels by basically framing the bead board with 1x3 popplar on the sides and for the doors.

Now for a couple of questions, am I going over board on the wood??? Do I need to make a cabinet out of MDF and then make a second cabinet kinda like a shell to go around the first??? Could I just use the popplar and beed board for the sides and doors and make heavy duty shelves, or would there not bee enough strength???

As for joints, for my B-day a couple months ago the wife bought me the pocket hole jig kit from Rockler and for Christmas she bought me a Porter Cable finish nailer combo pack with an air compressor and 16g finish nailer. Where and when should I use the different applications???

Sorry it is kinda long!
Thanks for any help you can give me!!!

Mike

You can calculate the sag of a shelf with a load here:

http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/sagulator.htm

I would build it frame and panel and skip the MDF. MDF is not all that strong. Poplar and bead board panels will be strong enough for the case and doors.

You will need reinforcement in the shelf to support a 140 pound television. Consider a face frame style with 1.5 inch thick shelf for tv by front, rear, and center reinforcement of .75 inch plywood or solid wood.

I think the sides should have two panels vertically, one rail horizontally for balance of appearance and to accommodate the mounting of the shelf for the heavy television.

Consider building it as a single unit, not the one large and two small cabinets to stack. It will look better architecturally and will be stronger.

Plan the back and shelf for wire and cable routing between the television and other components. Think about where the heat will go.

You can use the pocket hole jig to join the stiles and rails to build the panels and join most of the case.

Furniture Bldr should have some suggestions about appearance and strength considerations, too.

Hope this helps.

bigflatsmike,

If I might add a thought to chfite's very good suggestions, you might consider the possibility of "expansion". By that, I mean that you may purchase a slightly larger TV somewhere down the line.

Your available space is obviously a concern, as it is with all of us, I would assume. I've got an entertainment center project going on, myself, for a 53" floor model with two side units for knicknacks (the wife) and components. Now, assuming that my carpentry will outlast the TV (no small assumption, mind you), I'd like to be able to utilize the same unit for a larger TV.

Bottom line, before you lock yourself into a unit that will only accomodate a 32" TV, consider that you are the builder. If you've got the room, build it for a larger TV and let the wife put knicknacks on the side of the 32-incher 'til then. (Mine will...:rolleyes: )

Tom

Thanks for the replies!!!

Tom, that is one thing I didnt think about, but we probably wont be getting a bigger tv, atleast for a while. As for going bigger than a 53" tv, WOW!!! Thats a big tv!!!

Chfite, so you would just build the face frame with popplar 1x3 and build 2 side panels attached to the face frame. Use a bead board panel for the back and add the doors. Right?
For the shelf use 2 24"x40" pieces of ply wood, how would you get the front and rear support? I was thinking of using a center, verticle, divider for underneath as to divide the bottom compartment.
Should I return the MDF and get a sheet of Oak Ply wood to use for the shelf.

Mike,

So many ways to go about this...

I'm in full agreement with Chfite's suggestion of single-unit construction. While I'm a fan of oak, you may want to consider birch for economic reasons. (Might save a few bucks.)

You may also consider doubling the cabinet divider, i.e. two 3/4" panels vice one, and going with a single 24" X 40" plywood panel for the TV shelf. Again, a little saving on some fairly expensive lumber.

Go back to your original idea of bead-boarding over 3/4" plywood for the lower side panels. With approximately an inch of support on each end and 1 1/2 inches in the center, you should be able to put a refrigerator on that shelf. (A samll one, anyway. :) )

My thought on the sides would be to frame them as you do the front. A rail on each side (as Chfite suggested) will hide the ends of the plywood shelf and a faux-face-frame appearance on both sides and the front would, in my opinion, look very nice.

We could on here for a while...

Tom

Thanks again for the suggestions!!!

Hopefully I will start it this weekend, time permitting!!!

If these pictures make it, here's the cabinet I built last spring for our 37" TV. I went thru all the thinking you've done - including carrying the weight - and came up with a nice cabinet (in oak) that is working just fine. It's even on wheels so it can be moved when needed.

The vertical sections on either side of the DVD and cable box carry the weight of the set (approx 200#) and the wheels are mounted directly under them so I don't have any bending stress on the shelves.

The shelf between the DVD and cable box is adjustable. The drawer was sized for DVD's & CD's. The doors on each side give "she-who-must-be-obeyed" more places for "stuff". :)

Just checked back and don't see the pictures. If you'll drop me an e-mail, I'll send them that way. (Dang computers!!:( )

Dave,

Wish I could see the pics. (Don't know if they didn't make it or I'm just not doing something right.)

Excellent thinking on the casters, though. Sounds like you put a good deal of thought into your project.

Casters woudn't be appropriate for my design, being positioned around a floor-mount TV, but leveling feet are definitely going onto the side cabinets.

One more thought, then, I swear, I'll let everyone get back to work.

Rather than put my components on fixed shelves (I've got a receiver for surround sound, DVD player, cable box and VCR), I built three shelves and put them on over-extension drawer slides. (The fourth component will sit on the fixed bottom shelf.)

Anyway, my logic here was to avail myself of an easy way to connect/change cabling, etc. without having to balance the darned things and connect wiring at the same time. Simply pull out the shelf, do whatever and slide it back into place.

For cooling (does this count as two thoughts?) I'm installing a "muffin" fan - similar to the ones on our computers - to the side of the component section. In my application, it won't detract from the appearance of the unit. (The beauty of designing and building your own stuff! :) )

Tom

Tom;

I just saw that the max file size I can attach is 10.2k. The pictures are 150k each.

If you'll send me an e-mail, I'll send them to you.