Nothing beats the satisfaction of seeing the finished piece. Over the last couple of weeks I was able to build the base, door pulls , door stop and apply finish to the remaining parts.
The base is made of mahogany to provide contrast to the figured maple. Two cross members on the base are raised higher than the exterior rails which elevates the case above the stand. This design element is inspired by James Krenov’s case on stand designs. Since the case doesn’t sit directly on the rails on the base, I took this opportunity to shape the tops of the rails and legs to further emphasize the “floating case” design.
The door pulls were originally going to be black metal hardware. After seeing the piece in person, I felt metal hardware simply wouldn’t mix well with the rest of the piece, so I made the pulls out of some scrap walnut I had laying around. The tops of the pulls are pillowed to soften the feel and a cove profile wraps around to make the handles easier to grasp and to tie into the half cove that makes the rails of the base appear to swoop upwards. These took less than an hour to make and I think they were well worth it.
The doors close onto a door stop and are secure in place with magnets. The door stop has a set of magnets that are hidden in a stopped hole on the back side. Leaving about an 1/8in from the surface, the magnets maintain enough strength to hold the doors in place but allow them to be concealed in the door stop. Corresponding magnets in the doors secure them against the stop.
With all of the parts complete, I moved on to surface prep and finishing. Mahogany is always a pleasure to work with and planes really well. I planed the base first which only leaves minimal sanding to be done. This speeds up the surface prep when its possible because I don’t have to work through all the grits of sandpaper. I can skip straight to 220 for final smoothing.
I’m really pleased with the final product. The design and materials are really appealing and I feel I executed the plan well. The joinery all came out nicely from the mitered dovetails in the case, the mortise and tenon base and frame and panel doors. Its always rewarding to see the culmination of the effort put into each small piece come together for a complete final product. I hope you enjoyed following the build, and I look forward to sharing the next project with you!
Whitehurst Custom Woodworking 