Reclaimed Heart Pine Entertainment Center

[Julie Rose]

Very nice, I need to make one myself. I assume the speakers are behind the pretty mesh panels, but I have other extras, the DVD player, stereo system, dish receiver, etc. that I don't know how to house. Do you have them hidden, or just don't have anything else hooked up?

~Julie~

[mreza Salav]

Wow! that looks nice.

[Peter Rivlin]

Thanks for all the great positive feedback. Great to be a part of this group.

There were a few questions in the responses that I wanted to answer.

1. I based a the design on a rough sketch from a decorator and modified it significantly, including reducing cabinets from 5 to 4, adding the marble top, putting bead-board behind the TV and substituting mesh for the top doors in the tower cabinets.

2. The wood for the project only cost me about $750. I found most of it locally on Craig's list - first batch was a load of beams and beam chunks that somone tried to turn into lumber with a circular saw, unsuccessfully. Had to remove the nails I could see, joint one edge, resaw with a bimetal blade to find the hidden nails, denail again and then turn into dimensional lumber. Beams were 16" wide by 4-5" thick so I had to cut them to 4'-6' lengths to manage on the jointer. Second batch of wood was denailed and in much better condition. I had about a 50% yield from the first batch and a 75% yeild from the second batch. Pine sap would clog the bandsaw blade when resawing and had to take the blade off and clean it multiple times. Ended up going through on Laguna carbide resaw blade and one bimetal blade. Biggest problem with the wood was checking in the center of the wood - had to cut out and glue up to make the panels. If I had purhased denailed, rough cut wood, I could have cut the hours significantly but would have added $4-5K to the cost of the project.

3. In terms of electronic components and speakers, the mesh does not hide the speakers. Just decorative so you can see whatever we put inside the cabinets. There is a center channel speaker in the shelf and the L/R speakers are free-standing and not in the picture. The center cabinets in the base were designed for the electronics. Each has an adjustable shelf with cut-outs in the back of the shelf for wires to pass top to bottom. There is a multi-outlet surge protector mounted in the back of each cabinet as well as a temperature controlled fan at the upper outside corner. The fan exhausts into the wall. Just above the shelves, behind the crown, there is a vent cut into the wall for each cabinet so the hot air from the fan can rise up and exit at the top. There is also a hole in each center cabinet (top center edge) for wires to enter/exit for the TV/speakers.

Thanks again for all the great feedback.

Peter

[Joe Cowan]

I bought a house that had the den and kitchen cabinets made out of reclaimed heart pine that came from a old church that was built in the mid 1800's. I tore out the old cabinets and made some furniture out of it. The smells that came out of planing that wood was amazing. It is my favorite wood, although I know I will not use it much in the future. Such history makes it a pleasure to use.

[Peter Rivlin]

Thanks for all the great feedback.

I wanted to answer a few questions that were asked in the repsonses.

The design was based on a sketch from a decorator but I ended up modifying it significantly, including changing the base cabinet configuration from 5 identical cabinets to 4, with two larger center cabinets for electronics and two outer cabinets for storage, adding the marble top and adding the metal grill for the doors.

The metal grill in the doors does not hide speakers. There is a center channel speaker on the shelves and the L/R speakers are free-standing and out of the picture. The center cabinets in the base are designed for electronics. Each cabinet has a shelf, a surge protector and a temperature activated exhaust fan. The exhaust fans vents into the wall behind the cabinet and there are openings in the wall above the shelves, hidden by the crown moulding, that allow the hot air from the fans to escape.

The cost of the wood for the project was $750. I found most of the wood locally, through Craigs List. First batch was a mix of old beams (14" wide x 4-5 " thick) along with beam "chunks" (someone tried to cut the beams into lumber with a circular saw, unsuccessfully). I had to denail, resaw with a bimetal blade to find hidden nails, denail again and then turn into dimensional pieces. Beams had to be cut into 4'-6' chunks to manage on the jointer due to their weight. The second batch of wood was denailed and resawn (poorly). Biggest problem with the wood was checking in the center. Had to cut the center section out for dimensional pieces and glue up for panels. If I used denailed and resawn stock I could have cut the hours significantly but would have increased the cost by $4-5K.

Again, thanks for all the positive feedback.

Peter