20 July 2010

The Alan Peters Media Unit














Despite the many and varied cock-ups which proliferate this piece, it's finally done and dusted and I have to say that the overall result is quite pleasing.
The pics shown here are just the initial 'setting up' ones and taken with flash fotography...hence the icky colour of the drawer sides and wall behind is not a true representation. In addition, all the cables are still showing, which will of course disappear when the audio and TV kit is installed properly. It's also shown without the 6mm smoked glass shelves which were ordered yesterday, so once these are in place everything can get fitted out properly.

The drawer unit turned out well too, despite the slight 'foxes pouch' in cutting one of the mortises for the handles...I just made them all the same! The handles are curved at the front and made from ebony laminates with a chunky feel to them...small and dainty wouldn't have worked here. I resisted the temptation to make them curved in section as well as I think you can have too much of a 'good thing'.





















Despite the odd looking colour of the sides, the drawers all slide in with just the touch of a finger in one corner. Construction is conventional...lapped d/t's at the front, through at the rear with the bottoms made from Cedar of Lebanon.











The inspiration for the piece came from these Oriental type of joints shown in Alan's book and apart from some minor problems in marking and cutting, turned out quite well.

The only problem now is that I haven't got an ongoing project. However, I do have the Wilton Woodbloke Summer Bash '10 to get ready for this weekend, when all and sundry will descend for a really good woody day on Saturday.

3 comments:

Jeff Branch said...

Very nice. It is cool the way you joined the sides to the top. Nice work.

Anonymous said...

Looks good to me Dad.

Gareth

Anonymous said...

Rob

This looks absolutely fantastic!

For the past few weeks, I have been doing rough sketches for my planned media centre and have been mentally wrestling with options for edge detailing/assembly/jointing.

I have struggled to think of something that won't look like a flat-pack. I've even looked at the Ercol catalogue for inspiration.

By pure coincidence (honest!), one of my ideas was a layout similar to yours, since I have to house sets of audio and TV components, plus I wanted some storage space, in a unit that wasn't too high.

Then today (thanks to Matthew's WH blog) I clicked on your blog and started reading. Looks like you've overcome a few obstacles! Your solution answers a few questions.

I have a pile of sawn American ash waiting to be used for this. But with my slow rate of progress I guess mine won't be finished for a long time.

Best regards

Les (Routermonster)