Another Built-In

[Todd Burch]

I tried talking the client into QSWO, but they just didn't want to pull the trigger on a premium wood. So, poplar and birch plywood await the painter.

This thing is 46 1/2" wide and 99" tall. 26" deep. Yes, lots of skinny halves of plywood left over on this one.

The TV pulls out and swivels. It's a 36"er. Heavvvvvy. The lower doors and upper cabinet doors are hinged on Horton Brasses precsion butt hinges. The BIG TV door is on pocket door (flipper door) slides, mounted horizonal. (KV8092 4X4 slides). The two drawer-looking doors are on "up and over" slides, KV8050 slides.

The CD drawer is kinda neat. The shelves are canted back about 7°. The drawer is on a 24" full extension slide. (Still have to mount a finger pull on the top of it.)

The carpet guy is coming later this week, and the painter after that.

I'll have more about it on my web site in a week or so, after the painter does his thing. Thanks for looking.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Todd....you are truly an artisan.......I hope someday to be able to produce work some where near the quality that you do!

[Jim Ketron]

Looks Great Todd!
Nice features too!
You Da Man
Jim

[Wade Samuelson]

Excellent--I'd like to see it in person.

[Paul Comi]

I tried talking the client into QSWO, but they just didn't want to pull the trigger on a premium wood. So, poplar and birch plywood await the painter.

This thing is 46 1/2" wide and 99" tall. 26" deep. Yes, lots of skinny halves of plywood left over on this one.

The TV pulls out and swivels. It's a 36"er. Heavvvvvy. The lower doors and upper cabinet doors are hinged on Horton Brasses precsion butt hinges. The BIG TV door is on pocket door (flipper door) slides, mounted horizonal. (KV8092 4X4 slides). The two drawer-looking doors are on "up and over" slides, KV8050 slides.

The CD drawer is kinda neat. The shelves are canted back about 7°. The drawer is on a 24" full extension slide. (Still have to mount a finger pull on the top of it.)

The carpet guy is coming later this week, and the painter after that.

I'll have more about it on my web site in a week or so, after the painter does his thing. Thanks for looking.

Todd-I can really appreciate this kind of work. Its the kind of project that inspired me to get into woodworking in the first place. What was your process for designing it? Did you lay out using software, sketching on paper, or what?

[Rich Konopka]

I tried talking the client into QSWO, but they just didn't want to pull the trigger on a premium wood. So, poplar and birch plywood await the painter.

This thing is 46 1/2" wide and 99" tall. 26" deep. Yes, lots of skinny halves of plywood left over on this one.

The TV pulls out and swivels. It's a 36"er. Heavvvvvy. The lower doors and upper cabinet doors are hinged on Horton Brasses precsion butt hinges. The BIG TV door is on pocket door (flipper door) slides, mounted horizonal. (KV8092 4X4 slides). The two drawer-looking doors are on "up and over" slides, KV8050 slides.

The CD drawer is kinda neat. The shelves are canted back about 7°. The drawer is on a 24" full extension slide. (Still have to mount a finger pull on the top of it.)

The carpet guy is coming later this week, and the painter after that.

I'll have more about it on my web site in a week or so, after the painter does his thing. Thanks for looking.

Todd:

Beautiful Design and I like the pullout for media storage. How are the components cooled in an enclosed environment ? Is there a fan in there?

[Jim Becker]

I was just talking about you last night...'even said good things! Seriosuly, that's another nice job, Todd. Beautiful work.

[Bob Marino]

Great work as always, Todd.

Bob

[Frank Pellow]

Great design Todd. And, it appears that you can make any wood look good.

[Michael Stafford]

How nice! Obviously poplar and birch are wonderful choices for painting. With your skills sow's ears do become silk purses. Can't wait to see it painted.

[Todd Burch]

What was your process for designing it? Did you lay out using software, sketching on paper, or what?

Paul, the first step was to meet with the clients and listen to what they wanted and didn't want. In a previous home, they had a built-in made so they weren't foreign to the process (which was nice), as most of my clients have been. Their prior setup was this TV sitting on a black laminate particle board roll around cart (with smoked glass curved doors - you know the kind) within the niche that I filled with wood and wood products. The niche was 40 1/2" wide, 28" deep and 95" tall. I decided that my outside dimensions needed to be 40" wide, 27" deep and 94" tall.

The TV was too wide for the space to have doors on the side of the case. But, they still wanted a door to close it off. So, we came up with the flipper door mounted horizontal. I usually allow 2" reduction in width, per side, for flipper doors and hardware. With a 40" wide case, the inside dim. would be 38 1/2", minus 3/4" per side for face frame overhang, so that's 37" wide. The TV was 34" wide. Not enough room for regular flipper doors. There really isn't a "cabinet", per se, for the TV area. The space is created between the bottom cabinet and top cabinet. The door gives it the appearance of a cabinet. The top cabinet has long "legs", if you will.

They didn't have gobs of components. A small VCR/DVD player combo and a cable box. These are folks living in a retirement community and they didn't forsee getting any more components either. He said he only needed 6" in height for his components, and 18" wide per side was fine.

On the bottom, they wanted a pullout rack for CD/DVDs. I came up with the drawer. On the outside of the case, they wanted symmetry, but they were OK with the assymetrical case guts on the bottom.

For the top cabinet, they wanted max storage and no vertical partition, mostly for seasonal items. @ 40" wide, I was concerned about sagging in an adjustable shelf, so I put a poplar edging on both the front and back edges of the 3/4" ply shelf. Initially, they wanted a full depth shelf for the upper cabinet. @ 26" deep, that was a BIG, DEEP shelf, especially at that height. I'm 6'2" tall, and it was everything I could do install the shelf up in the cabinet without a stepstool. I suggested that they opt for a shallower shelf, say, 16" deep (which is still a deep shelf), and that way they could have 10" of "tall" space in front of the shelf. They decided they wanted both, to have the option, so I made both and charged them for both!

The outer frace frame and crown element is typical of what I'll do for an inset built-in like this. It hides the edge of the niche recess and gives the appearance of stability and finishes it off nicely. It's simply 2 stiles and a top rail, covered by a panel moulding with a 3 5/8" crown on top of that. I had an interesting cut on the top right side. The wall to the right of the built-in falls back at a 45° angle, and the crown had to follow that profile. Picture below. I cheated. I cut the 45° profile to follow the wall, then glued back in another piece to square it of at the bottom. You can see the glue line (and my glue finger prints!)

I use Sketchup software. (See design forum for a recent thread.) Pictures below. In my meetings, I'll do paper sketches in front of my prospects in my "carry it everywhere with me" spiral. I do not give these away, even if asked for them.

How are the components cooled in an enclosed environment ? Is there a fan in there?

Rich, no fans, no ventilation holes. These shelves are 26" deep and about 8" tall. These components don't emit lots of heat. No big deal on this one. Whenever they are watching a movie or TV, the doors will be open.

Pictures to come shortly in a subsequent post... Todd

[Rob Russell]

I was just talking about you last night...'even said good things!

I can vouch for that!

Another beautiful Burch job.

[Todd Burch]

Here are a couple more pictures. Todd

[Frank Pellow]

Todd, your drawings are as proffesional as your work. Thanks for showing them; but now you have me wanting to purchase new software to be added to the long long list of hardware that I "need".

[Tyler Howell]

Bravo, Bravo!