150g Stand Canopy (designed/built for GiulianoM)

[rededge2k1]

I am currently building a stand and canopy for GiulianoM's custom MRC acrylic display tank and sump, and wanted to share the build progress with you guys so far.

The construction will be a 3/4" maple plywood frame with hard maple raised panel cabinet doors and trim.

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The build started with sheets of 3/4" maple plywood that I picked up from Peachstate Lumber Products in Kennesaw. This is my preferred plywood/hardwood dealer, and I highly recommend them.

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The stand frame panels cut to size, then laying out the door openings/cutouts on the stand's front panel...

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And then on the stand's back panel...

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A drill is used to pop a hole through two corners of each cutout, which will allow a jigsaw to be used to roughly cut out the openings.

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The stand's front panel with rough cutouts made...

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And the back panel...

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A straightedge is aligned with the layout lines and clamped to the panel. A router table with a flush trim bit is then used to finish off the openings, cleanly cutting right up to the layout lines.

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All of the plywood pieces cut...

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Setting up the table saw with a dado blade and sacrificial fence. This setup is used to make rabbets along the necessary plywood panels for joinery later.

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Rabbets made on the table saw w/ stacked dado set...

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Laying out for concealed pocket hole screws on the stand's bottom panel

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Drilling the pocket holes on a Kreg jig

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Attaching the stand's bottom panel to the back panel...

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Edit:

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Attaching the side panels...

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Attaching the front panel...

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Edit:

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Installing reinforcing over the wide opening in the stand front...

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Attaching the stand top...it is left oversized, and will be flush trimmed with a router later.

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Laying out the canopy front cutouts...

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Flush trimming the rough openings on the router table...

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Small openings in the canopy back panel...

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Pocket holes drilled in the canopy panels...

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Assembling the canopy panels...

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The canopy has no top, for air movement over LED fixtures. So, these corner supports are needed to hold the canopy square.

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[rededge2k1]

The cabinet doors and trim are milled from rough cut hard maple lumber. I purchased about 25bf of 8/4 from Peachstate Lumber, and later purchased about 25bf of 4/4 from Woodcraft (Peachstate was closed on Sunday).

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A board being cut to rough length using a crosscut sled on the table saw...

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These rough lengths are then cut down futher. These will become the cabinet door raised panels.

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Each 8/4 board will be resawed (cut in half across the width of the board) on a bandsaw. This will produce two book-matched panels from each block, that will be glued together later to create one of the raised panels for a cabinet door.

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I make a grid of pencil marks on one face of each board...

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Jointing the rough lumber to make it flat

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You can see each pass of the jointer takes a little bit of material off, which erases the pencil marks. When all pencil marks are gone, you know the board is perfectly flat.

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The four panel sets, jointed smooth

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Ripping the panel sets to rough width

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Resawing each panel set in two, this will create a bookmatched set of panels for each cabinet door

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Bookmatched panels (notice the two panels, which will be glued up later, match perfectly in color and grain -- this is the purpose of bookmatching)

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Four sets of bookmatched pairs...to become cabinet door panels later.

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Stickering the panels overnight to allow them to acclimate after being resawn

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4/4 hard maple for the cabinet doors and stand/canopy trim, purchased from Woodcraft

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All of the cabinet door pieces (rails, stiles and panels) are stickered and allowed to acclimate overnight after being cut

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Edit: Running each piece through the planer to bring it to 3/4" exact thickness...

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Each bookmatched pair of panels are glued and clamped overnight. These will become the raised panels in the cabinet doors.

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[giulianom]

First post.

:yay: :yay: :yay:

Edit: And holy carp, that is a lot of maple..

 

[qasimja]

thats great work you did there so far its gonna come out great

 

[puffer9375]

Sweet !! Thanks for sharing man.

 

[mvm]

Wow!

 

[legalreefer]

True craftmanship! Im affraid the stand and canopy might be more attracting than the tank!!! jk But it will be a thing of beauty when everything is up and running!!

 

[giulianom]

I'm looking forward to how it looks with the doors / panels.

 

[1mbrews8]

dang dude! u are the man! )
mike

 

[dvara78]

Wow....is this something you do on the side or your main business?

 

[rededge2k1]

Dvara78;667640 wrote: Wow....is this something you do on the side or your main business?

Just a side hobby, when I find some free time. It's more therapeutic than anything else.

Dustin

 

[smallblock]

man, as always amazing!!!! I love your build threads mostly to see all the cool gadgets you have.

 

[rededge2k1]

The build continued this weekend with finishing up the cabinet doors and rough cutting the trim boards.

Check out the gnarly curly maple around the knot on what will become a raised panel in one of the stand's cabinet doors. The picture doesn't do it justice. Typically you try to hide knots, but there's no way I will hide this one. The two panels are bookmatched from a 8/4 board, and the knot was a hidden gem inside the boards. It's gonna look really sweet when a coat of finish is applied later!

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With all the panels glued up, it was time to scrape the glue off and do some hand planing to remove the milling marks.

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All of the panels planed and ready to be cut to size.

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I used a crosscut sled on my table saw to square up one end of each panel before crosscutting the panels to size.

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The cabinet door rails and stiles ready for the router table.

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The cabinet doors are joined using the "cope & stick" method, using a matched set of Freud router bits on the router table. In this picture I'm cutting the cope on the ends of all the rails (the horizontal pieces).

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After the copings are made, it was time to rout the inside profile and slot on the rails and stiles.

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Here you can see how the "cope & stick" bits make for a perfect joint, very quickly on the router table.

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I switched over to the 3rd bit in the Freud set, the raised panel cutter with backcutter. This bit is used to create the cove detail on all of the center panels of the doors. This process is a great test for your dust collection system!

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Here you can see the cove detail on one side of the panel, and the back cut on the opposite side. The Freud raised panel bit makes both cuts at the same time as you push the panel past the router bit.

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The rails, stiles and raised panels all ready to be glued up.

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The doors are held together with glue only and were left clamped overnight to dry.

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The stiles are left long intentionally, so that they can be flush trimmed to the rails after the glue has set.

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I use a crosscut sled to flush up the ends of the cabinet doors on the table saw.

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Lastly, the outside edges of the door get a bead detail on the router table.

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The completed cabinet door, before final sanding.

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After the doors were finished I switched over to the 4/4 maple (bought from Woodcraft) to begin rough cutting the stand & canopy trim boards.

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All of the stand & canopy trim boards rough cut and stickered to allow them to acclimate over night. It's common for freshly cut wood to bow/twist/warp after bring cut, so it's best to let them sit overnight before doing the final jointing/planning.

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Well, this is where I called it a weekend. I'll pick back up next Friday evening.

Take care folks,
Dustin

 

[giulianom]

Absolutely amazing.

That knot should look interesting.

 

[skriz]

Nice work, as usual!

 

[kilo32]

This is so cool. It's like watching HGTV. A true craftsman.

 

[rededge2k1]

GiulianoM;670007 wrote: Absolutely amazing.

That knot should look interesting.

I think so. It will add a lot of character (dare I say a touch of art) and one more thing to prove your stand exists nowhere else on the freakin planet!

Gotta love custom woodwork.

Dustin

 

[tgriffin]

Awesome work Dustin! As always..... I love seeing your build threads. I used them to help build my stand. Looks like you have been stocking up on tools there. I like it!

 

[giulianom]

RedEDGE2k1;670013 wrote: I think so. It will add a lot of character (dare I say a touch of art) and one more thing to prove your stand exists nowhere else on the freakin planet!

Gotta love custom woodwork.

Dustin

What do you think would look better?

A light stain?

A dark stain?

Or abstain?

 

[rededge2k1]

GiulianoM;670016 wrote: What do you think would look better?

A light stain?

A dark stain?

Or abstain?

I wouldn't stain it at all, I would just seal it and finish with clear coat only (polyurethane, since there will be water dripped on it eventually).

I'm not a fan of stains in general, I think they only hide what lies beneath. If a piece of furniture is built properly and out of the proper wood species, there's no need to stain in my opinion. If someone wants a dark piece of furniture then it should be built out of a dark wood species like walnut or mahogany. If someone wants a cherry bookcase, then it should be built out of cherry with only a clear finish -- not built out of poplar, birch, or some other cheap wood species and stained to look like cherry!

Ok, that's my rant for the day.

Dustin

Edit:

tgriffin;670015 wrote: Looks like you have been stocking up on tools there. I like it!

Yeah, things are starting to pile up and I'm quickly running out of room. It's nice to have a wife who knows what I really want for anniversaries/birthdays/Christmas

Dustin