I’ve finally started cutting the pieces for my Corner Entertainment Center after over a year of planning and at the last minute decided to go cheap. I have three 4’x8’x3/4” oak cabinet grade plywood in my wood shed and while I was pulling them out, I found enough scrap pieces of other mixed plywood just the right size to do the job.

One piece was some regular fir plywood that I had set up as a Christmas tree display. It was shaped with round corners but the piece I needed fit right inside the piece. It was painted white with material to look like snow, but I have a completely new display and have been looking for something to use it on. I also have a 1/4” piece of oak plywood that could be used to laminate on top of the shop grade plywood, so that’s what I’m going to do at least for the bottom.

I also have a 2’x8’ piece of Burch and another 2’x8’ piece what I think is Burch but not sure because its yellowed.

I have oak boards to frame around the front and doors so the plywood will not be seen. Actually with all the stereo and video equipment in place I think the only part to be seen is the front.
I’m just not sure if I can pull it off because the Oak really stands out. I probably will use the oak veneer on the top as well, but was just wondering what to do if the inside cabinet stands out. Should I try to paint it or maybe stain the inside a dark oak color and hope for the best?







Without Stereo Equipment

Ok I guess I’m going ahead with the scrap pieces that I have. This is such a system specific cabinet that it doesn’t make sense to go overboard on the materials because the equipment is old and when it fails I’ll probably be tossing the whole thing anyway. So the only thing I really care about is the front facade anyway.

I just realized that I forgot about the Sub-woofer before when I had the big 3 color projector TV the sub woofer would not fit anywhere in front so I drilled a hole around my fire place and put it in the closest corner. I never felt that the sub-woofer was very efficient where it was but I never heard it in front of the TV to make a good judgment.

I don’t want to buy new surround sound equipment, so I’m going to have to make some changes to the doors. Does anybody here know anything about Sub-woofers and does it indeed need to be up front?

The subwoofer does not need to be up front.....placement isn't really important with a sub like it is with small speakers.

Have you considered painting the interior flat black.....wouldn't matter what you make it out of......and it would blend with your equipment.

Thanks Ryan, I was just about to give up on this thread and take my chances.

I just drew the Sub-Woofer in Sketchup and it will fit inside one of the compartments on the bottom if I turn it on its side. I would have to leave the door open and was just thinking of maybe making sliding doors instead of hinged. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a sliding door that looked good, but I’m going to look at some sliding door hardware to see if there is something I could use. I have a couple of DVD storage towers that will fit inside the cabinets, but I could sacrifice one compartment for the Sub-Woofer if need be.



I was just looking at my Oak Panel that I was thinking of using for the veneer and decided that it was too nice a piece to waste on this project, so black paint might be a better solution.

My subwoofer is behind my sofa. Below is a link to an article about speaker placement. I think you might actually not want the subwoofer in the cabinet with your other gear. It could cause vibration and/or rattling.


http://www.crutchfield.com/S-znNqYVg...placement.html

Hey this is perfect because it solves so many problems. Thanks for the Link

This is similar to what I have now except that my sub-woofer is on the opposite corner next to the right surround speaker.

I cut my cabinet side pieces of 37” to allow room for ¼” dados on each side plus room to wiggle in the heavy 35 ½” tall speakers. I actually asked my wife to measure them for me but forgot to tell her that I was planning on keeping the ¾” rubber feet on, so now I guess I have to remove the feet.

Well I guess its the way it should be, without the feet.

Not doing so well by mixing scrap pieces, one side is a full 3/4” thickness and the other is 21/32”.

I guess it will not matter because I just realized that I was going to cover the plywood edges oak trim anyway. So I just have to be careful when I cut my dado to be sure everything is on the correct side.

I should have known because one 2'x8' Plywood was quite a bit heaver than the other, but thought it just might have been the type of wood used in the layers.

I didn’t have enough of the cabinet grade plywood to finish, but I found a scrap piece of 23/32” T&G Sturd-I-Floor for the middle shelf. I just cut it to size, but one side is pretty rough. The other side can be sanded smooth fairly easy and I definitely think I should lament the rough side. I’m just not sure which side should be up.
I can paint the top black because the Stereo and DVD equipment will cover it all except the space around them. It’s going to take a lot to see the bottom unless you sitting on the floor in front of it. I think it should be at least smooth to avoid splinters in case someone reaches underneath.

I have had the grain pop up in the past on this type of grain from the paint and I just don’t know how this Sturd-I-Floor will react to the paint. I’m sure I’ll have to do 2 coats of sealer with a sanding in between for smoothness, but I’m just not sure how much sanding I’m going to need. Maybe I should laminate both sides.

I'm still not ready to dip into my Oak Plywood stash just yet. So far I don’t have any money in this project except for the caster wheels. Its all scraps and some I've had for 20 years just taking up space.

I was just thinking that laminating would make it too thick and I was wondering if maybe I could sand it a little and then fill it with wood putty or something. Anyone ever do that?

This is the rough side:

You could try bondo. But you'll have 10 bucks or more into it then.

Bondo! Thanks for your input Ryan, I didn’t think that stuff worked on wood. I think I have a can of that if it’s not expired.

My wife is on my case to get this done. She thought it was going to done 4 days ago, but she doesn’t realize that I’m working on 4 projects at the same time.

So I pulled out my dads old belt sander and started to sand it with 120 grit, but I may have to use an orbital sander. There are some deep spots around the harder grain that just keep getting deeper.

Well I’m just not happy with this ¾” Sturd-I-Floor. I guess I’m going to have to break down and buy a small 2’x4’ piece of ¾ Burch or something. I’m going to check all the scrap bins first and if I can get one cheap then so be it otherwise I’ll have to pull a full sheet of oak out of my wood shed.

I’m not sure that anybody is reading this or even interested, but I thought I would at least post an update.

I don’t get anything done on work days because I’m just too exhausted when I come home. Today I did manage to finish all my dados and do a little sanding, and then had my wife help me glue everything together.

It was not a good day for me because I have a fractured hip and I was in quite a bit of pain. I finally couldn’t take it anymore and and had to take some pain medication just to be able to walk. Earlier I took some prescription Ibuprofen, but it didn’t help at all. I never even noticed any difference after 3 hrs so things were going too slow especially trying to move around with a walker.

Well at least its finally glued in place. I bought some Red Oak boards yesterday when I was able to walk on my own and I plan on ripping the oak edging for the plywood today. That is if the pain meds are still working. I have a very limited amount so I have to use them wisely and only as a last resort. Today I couldn’t even rest on the couch without pain.

So anyway this is what I managed to get done today in spite of it all, I know its not anything to brag about, but its going to work for what its intended for:

I decided to hold off with cutting the oak trim until I knew for sure everything is going to fit where I want it and it does. So now I just have to cut the back plywood panel, oak face trim, and put a finish on it. I don’t know about the finish, but unless I can’t walk I should be able to do the rest tomorrow. I’ll have to see if I can get my wife to do the finish.

Oh I forgot the doors, oh well that will have to wait till next weekend.

I just thought I should post the final photo of it completed. I've never been able to keep up a build thread because I can't seem to get answers to questions I have as I'm building.

Anyway this is the finished product. Cabinet Done

Somehow, I missed this thread...sorry. I usually kick in when I can. I've got to say you did a great job...looks good, and everything fits.

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Nice job! Looks like it makes good use of that corner space & does exactly what you needed it to do. That's what's nice about being able to build something yourself; you're not stuck having to "make do" with whatever you can find in a store somewhere. And the best part is when someone asks where you bought it, you can say "Oh, you can't just go BUY something like this..."

Thanks everyone, but I just realized that I forgot the most important feature of all. That is I have 9 caster wheels under it so I can pull the whole thing out from the corner to work on the wires or move it to another corner or even to another room without taking it apart.

For some strange reason I didn’t take a photo of the bottom with all the wheels, but I wanted a lot of wheels so I would not damage my hardwood flooring when moving it.

Now I can sit in my office chair to work on the wiring while wheeling around.