It wasn't my original intention to only blog once a week, but that appears to be what is happening. Anyways, like last week, I have been working on it.
Here it is with the front, top, and diagonal attached. There really isn't a whole lot to say about this, except I did cut some angles to make it fit together better. The angle in front should help when I install the marquee and backlight.
This is the "ventilation slot" I was talking about. If I had thought about it better, I might have cut a slot for T-molding to make it look nicer, but it is in the back after all, so it probably doesn't make a difference.
This is the template I used to route the holes, and it worked fairly well.
I did manage to get a TV finally. I had been looking on Craigslist, and maybe it's better when you want to pay for something, but people were so flaky, I probably sent out about 20 emails, and got back maybe about 3, with one being spam, and the others saying it was already taken. I eventually gave up and went to Goodwill. That's what I should have done from the beginning. I spent way too much time trying to save what turned out to be $25, and I really needed it to keep going. If anything, I actually went a little overboard with trying to find the best deal, and ended up with a 27" screen!
Sorry about the worse than usual picture quality, but anyway, this set me up for the next step.
This was to screw the TV shelf in place, but I wasn't sure where to locate the the shelf. When I got the TV, I was able to measure it, and figure that out. I decided to have it at a right angle to the slant on front, so hopefully the TV will be parallel with the bezel. Before I screwed it in, I screwed another piece of MDF to the bottom, kind of like I did the base, to help support the TV. You can kind of see it in the following picture.
I still didn't completely trust it, so I decided to glue cleats to the edges. At this point, I don't think it will budge at all.
I also decided to glue a cleat to the top of the shelf. This is to make sure that the TV doesn't slide back, since it will be at an angle. It should be plenty strong enough.
Around this time is when things started to fall apart a little bit. I had originally planned for the speakers to be 3" from the edges. This meant that the opposite side would be approximately 7" from the edge. That was before I took the bezel into account. I realized that if I kept the holes where they were, I would have to either cut out a place in the bezel for the speakers, or have no bezel at all. Both of these options were unacceptable of course, so I had to create new holes in the board. To do this of course, I also had to make a new routing template. Luckily, I was able to squeeze out what I needed from the same board I had used for the original measurements. The new holes were 1" from either edge.
I got that routed, and also managed to rout out part of my bench cookie in the act. It looks a little bit sad, but I learned my lesson, and hopefully will be able to keep from doing that again.
Anyway, I did that, and cut the bevel, just like the last time, and screwed it in. That probably would have worked, but I have not mastered the fine art of drilling a straight hole yet apparently. I had also been using a bit that was too small, which had been working fine, although it has cracked the MDF slightly. All these combined problems caused the board to basically split. I tried to fix it by watering down some wood glue and injecting it into the hole, and that worked to make it stronger, but I couldn't clamp it good enough to more or less stuff the MDF back in. I eventually gave up and made another board. Anyway, the picture is the only really good way to show what I am talking about with the splitting and blowout.
You can see the more or less stain from the glue. You can also see the holes alternating sides. This is from my less than perfect drilling.
The sequence for making the second board is more or less the same, so I won't get into that too much, but I will note a few things I did differently the second time around. To start with, since the holes were already drilled in the side, I took a ruler, and marked a straight line centered on the holes, and then measured 3/8" down to put the board precisely in the middle. I also used a larger drill bit. For those keeping score, I went from a #40 to a #34. Both of these things helped keep the MDF from splitting. I also used 1 1/2" screws near the holes for the speakers, instead of 1 3/4", which is what I am using for the rest of the project.
The next thing I did was screw on the two back pieces. Also pretty straightforward. All I did was measure in 1/2" from the edge on the inside, and 7/8" from the edge on the outside. Clamp in place and drill, countersink, and screw. Done.
I also filled in the holes/countersinks with woodfiller. Both of the cans of Plastic Wood that we had were dried up, and my idea of MDF sawdust and wood glue didn't work as well as I hoped. So today I went out and bought a canister of Timbermate woodfiller, recommendation of the Wood Whisperer.
It worked very good. I had to put it on a second time, but I think that is more due to the fact that I have not yet mastered wood filler. I am almost done with the filler, I just need to finish sanding it down, and I should be ready to prime. Now I just need to turn my shop into an operating room, aka, clean it up really good, and I'll be ready to prime, then paint. Unfortunately, I only have tomorrow to work on it before I go to my college orientation, a 3-day live on campus ordeal. After that, my friend is coming in town, and I had hoped to have all the construction done and the cabinet hauled upstairs before he came, but it looks like I will have to rethink my strategy. On that note, anybody know of a non water-based primer that dries quickly?
I did manage to get a TV finally. I had been looking on Craigslist, and maybe it's better when you want to pay for something, but people were so flaky, I probably sent out about 20 emails, and got back maybe about 3, with one being spam, and the others saying it was already taken. I eventually gave up and went to Goodwill. That's what I should have done from the beginning. I spent way too much time trying to save what turned out to be $25, and I really needed it to keep going. If anything, I actually went a little overboard with trying to find the best deal, and ended up with a 27" screen!
Around this time is when things started to fall apart a little bit. I had originally planned for the speakers to be 3" from the edges. This meant that the opposite side would be approximately 7" from the edge. That was before I took the bezel into account. I realized that if I kept the holes where they were, I would have to either cut out a place in the bezel for the speakers, or have no bezel at all. Both of these options were unacceptable of course, so I had to create new holes in the board. To do this of course, I also had to make a new routing template. Luckily, I was able to squeeze out what I needed from the same board I had used for the original measurements. The new holes were 1" from either edge.
The sequence for making the second board is more or less the same, so I won't get into that too much, but I will note a few things I did differently the second time around. To start with, since the holes were already drilled in the side, I took a ruler, and marked a straight line centered on the holes, and then measured 3/8" down to put the board precisely in the middle. I also used a larger drill bit. For those keeping score, I went from a #40 to a #34. Both of these things helped keep the MDF from splitting. I also used 1 1/2" screws near the holes for the speakers, instead of 1 3/4", which is what I am using for the rest of the project.
The next thing I did was screw on the two back pieces. Also pretty straightforward. All I did was measure in 1/2" from the edge on the inside, and 7/8" from the edge on the outside. Clamp in place and drill, countersink, and screw. Done.
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