Needed: Plan review

[revchris]

I've been asked to build a TV stand and a matching pair of speaker stands by a friend of mine.

Here is a PDF of the plan (note: the plan is drawn on 8.5'x11' paper so that I don't have to figure out how to get Coreldraw to scale the distance markers).

The basic plan is a 2x2 oak skeletal frame with 3/4" oak veneer plywood banded with iron-on veneer. The TV stand also has three slide-out component trays, each mounted on two center-mount-style drawer slides. While I was drawing the plans, I also added the diagonal braces on everything, because I decided it would be a shame to have it collapse.

Does anyone see anything that they'd recommend changing? So far, the only thing I think it's missing is a cable port or two (to get wiring up to the TV through the table top). Simple solutions would include punching a standard cord grommet or two through the top, or putting a scallop or two along the back edge.

I need to provide an estimate by Tuesday. As is, I'm looking at $300 for materials, and I haven't decided on labor charges yet.

Comments

[therealattentiv.livejournal.com]

I had this sneaking suspicion that there was a reason it was designed that way ("to match existing furniture" was tops on the list). Then the only thing I'd recommend is learning from the existing furniture to see what was done to stabilize and strengthen it.

You might check into pocket screws. You could pretty easily get 2 side-by-side in a 2 inch space and they'd be on hidden sides of the joints. I'd recommend using gorilla glue since it has much stronger holding characteristics. I'd also recommend that in place of biscuits you make rectangular oak wedges (3/8" thick x 1.25" high x 2" long) and cut (with a drill, chisel, or (plunge) router) mortises into both parts of the joint. In my experience, biscuits primarily serve to align pieces rather than strengthen them. I try to use slightly larger wedges or splines of the same wood where possible. Make sure to try a couple of samples first to get the sizing right since the gorilla glue expands slightly and you don't want to split the joints.

If you do skip the end bevels I'd still recommend relieving the end a little. You have oak end grain on the end of each of the runners. The end grain can catch and split off (not as bad as cherry or mahogany - but bad enough to worry about). You could just use a router or sander to round over the bottom front/back edges of the runners by 3/8" (slightly less than the depth of average carpet) so it would tend to slide without catching.

Visually, if their existing furniture doesn't have the corner bracing, you could minimize them by making them triangular wedges in the corners instead of full corner braces (with an empty triangular area in the middle of the braced pieces). They would be less visable that way.

And speaking of triangular wedges, that is another way you could strengthen the design and prevent racking. Under the top (and maybe under the bottom shelf) you could add in triangular corner wedges between the corner joints of the horizontal frame pieces.

If you *really* wanted to get weird, you could look into some of the hidden Japanese joinery. You end up with *very* tight joints without any visible signs of support... but that's probably fun for another day. :)