mindsquirt

I can tell people aren't that interested with the ins-and-outs of how I made this wine cabinet. So I will make the conclusion of this story brief:












step 13)drawers: cut the dovetails.

this required a dovetail jig and a router to do.
as you can see, dovetails create dovetail-shaped "pins" that fit together like a puzzle. There is no room for error.















I really like this look, and most high-quality drawers are made this way.


this seemed like it is fairly complicated to do, and I had never done it before, but after reading the instructions to the jig, it was quite easy. It did, however, take alot of prep time and any mistakes are costly. I made one mistake, but it was an easy fix.

step 14) drawers: glue them together

this is actually kinda difficult. you have to put togeher 5 peices of a puzzle at once, within 10 minutes or so or your glue will dry.

the bottom of the drawer is pre-finished cherry, the sides are birch plywood, and the front and back is cherry hardwood. As you will see in the finished product, the wood contrasts really look good!


here is a picture of a drawer glued up and clamped.
















step 15) build the wine rack.
I wanted this peice to be able to be used as a wine cabinet, or just a curio/china cabinet. With this in mind I wanted to be able to have:

a) a removable wine rack
b) hidden stemware holders
c) glass doors
d) have adjustable interior shelves (for different sized curios)

the stemware holder and glass doors were a snap compared to the removeable wine rack.

I wanted my wine rack to be the popular "X" type, where bottles are essentially stacked on one another. (as opposed to single cubby-holes per wine bottle)

After talking to some people, and thinking and drawing up some ideas, i opted to make a 2 half-lap panels that had sloppy enough engagments to where they could fold a little bit and slip out of the interior of the cabinet.

To get a better idea of what I am saying, make the Vulcan hand sign in both hands. now make it to where the web inbetween the middle and ring finger of both hands touch. see how if you look at your hands right, they look like an "x"? that is what i needed to do.

unfortunatly I don't have many pictures of this and I am certain you are still lost. So I wasted everyones time with that half-hearted explanation. perfect.

step 16) build the stemware holders

this was pretty easy. I made a bunch of "T"s and 2 "L"s and screwed them on. They weren't going to be seen at all with the doors closed (see step 15 a) so it was okay If they were a bit sloppy. It did actually take me all lunch to figure out the dimesions of them, so that I could hold the maximum numbers of wine glasses, and have them be symmetric.

this is the view as you look into the cabinet from the front. glasses are turned upside down and the bases are inserted into those slots.
















step 17) mock up the doors and drawers

with the drawers and doors finished, I needed to make sure everything fit before staining. It was a good thing I did too, because the doors needed to be trimmed to fit!

here is a picture of the mock up. I also put on the back, so I could get a vision of the final product. The doors are held on with bungee cords. those wont be permenent. :) The wine bottles inside might give you an idea of what I was talking about in step 15. also, there are some wineglasses in their holders.

















step 18) drawer guides.
I had to make drawer guides to make sure the drawers slide easily.


step 19) Staining, finshing, and install hardware


staining took awhile because I couldn't make up my mind. I tried mutliple test-runs on parts of the cabinet you could not see. I asked many people, and then ended up making the wrong choice.

Long story short, it took about 3 full days to sand, wash(partially seal), stain, sand,re-stain, sand, and put 3 coats of lacquer on it. I made sure to get it really smooth. certain parts are as slick as glass (like the top, which is the first thing I check for on any peice of furniture I touch).

hardware (pulls and hinges) was easy. Just drill holes and make sure they are lined up with one another. The hinges on the doors were actually a bit tricky, but I was happy to see that the gap in between them was very small and looks great!

I fastened the top of the peice with screws.

the last step was to nail the back of the peice on, and then the glass in the slots of the doors and secure them with little wooden strips I cut.

The end. I think it looks pretty glam. I have included multiple shots so that everyone can admire the various things I talked about (mistake on the top, paneled sides, the smooth top, dove-tailed drawers)

full frontal
















top. mirror shine! boo-ya! (click on this picture to see the beauty of the wood I chose for the top)
















side view.