Building an Entertainment Center

It's hard to believe that I have been away for so long. Life just gets in the way when you are having fun, and then Life isn't so much fun. Things have quieted down, allowing me to spend long hours in the basement working on the entertainment center that will go in the addition to the Manchester. I began the project way back in August so I had a lot of work to do to catch up. My first attempt at making the cabinet failed. Pieces didn't fit and I did a sloppy job gluing pieces together, so I started over.

      

The entertainment center is a massive piece measuring 8 inches across. I used two 4" 1/16" thick basswood cut 7" inches long to accommodate a big screen TV and a modern fireplace.

I have applied the first coat of white paint, designed the fireplace, made more logs for the fireplace, baked them, painted them, and ordered the Fireplace Kits (3) from Evans Designs. (Love that company). I thought today I'd write a lesson on how I used the Cricut Maker to create the cabinet doors for the entertainment center where I'll hide the nickel batteries that will power the fire. 

These are the basic pieces of the cabinet. Because it is the bottom of the entertainment center, I need only a top, one side for each cabinet, the door and the frame to create the shaker look.

I cut the cabinet pieces on my Maker, designing them Design Space.

After gluing the shaker frame on the door, I clamped the pieces together and let the glue set for several hours.

I have always struggled installing dress maker pins for hinges because I waited until after the cabinet was built, making it very difficult to locate the drill hole and then getting the drill bit in place,  but this time I decided to drill the holes BEFORE assembly. So in this photo you see that I taped the top of the cabinet to the door. I will use the very fine drill bit that comes with this tool that used to be sold with the Cir-kit electoral kit, but you can use a thumb drill, too. A Dremel might be too powerful for this tiny job.

I lined up the top of the cabinet with the door and secured it in place with masking tape

Note: Thin 1/16" basswood is very hard to center and drill holes without splitting the wood--one reason I prefer 3/32" basswood. This project was much easier because of the doubled thickness of wood with the shaker frame added.

I drilled through the masking tape that holds the pieces in place made which actually helped to create a more stable drilling. Remember that I have not yet glued the pieces together.

I repeated the process with the bottom pin hinge, by taping the door front in place in the entertainment center.

Once the pin hinges are inserted in the hole using a jewelry plier. . .

. . .I cut the pin off with another jewelry tool. There will a bit of pin above the surface, which I push down or gently hammer flat with surface.

The pin hinges have now been installed in the door front with the hinge holes drilled in the top of the cabinet and the bottom of the entertainment center, ready for installation.

Now you may be asking,"How did you make the cabinet door, you might be asking?" 

Answer #1: I learned my basic cabinet making skills from watching Julie Warren's Youtube videos. She has a great system for DYI 1:12 scale miniature furniture and cabinet making. If you haven't discovered her yet, check out her Youtube channel and you will find her on Instagram and Facebook and a subscription channel Partron, which I don't follow. There are others builders on Youtube who are great, but I find Julie's British voice soothing and interesting as she narrates very well orchestrated tutorials--and she has books and an Etsy store to buy supplies. I hope I don't sound like a commercial for her, but certainly she has created a wonderful support system for beginners. 

Laurie Heisler is also a favorite with so many projects that will help the 1:12 scale builder. 

Be sure to check out my favorite blogs listed that inspire and teach me how to make cool stuff. 

Answer # 2: So I tried my hand at making Julie Warren's kitchen cabinets. I even bought a couple of Julies books to get the cutting lists and step by step instructions. Still I had problems. The biggest one was cutting straight lines. Most all of my cuts were off--some just plain crooked. Already owning an older model Cricut machine, I was intrigued with the new Maker that would cut wood! So I bought one. If you get addicted to building miniatures--as I did--and you intend to do a lot of miniature projects, a Maker will make life easier, especially if you have old, worn out hands as I do. 

Just to be fair, there are other cutting systems, like the Silhouette which might serve your purpose better, so do some research to which machine will fit your needs best.

Caution: There is a learning curve with the Maker (and I assume other machines, too). I decide what I want to make and search YouTube to see if anyone has made it, like how to cut wood on a Maker. You will find great tutorials on learning the basics, for example this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCtHxwTWhIk. 

I generally watch more than one.

You need reliable WI FI because the Maker operates using Bluetooth. I use my MacBook Pro laptop and my iMac desktop. I can't speak to iPad or iPhone. I do know that at one time my granddaughter's iPad would not connect to cut the project. Nor can I speak to other computer systems.  

How I Created a simple shaker style 18 inch (or 1 ½ foot) square cabinet

 Let's begin with a Cricut Maker basic: Using the Slice Tool to create shaker style cabinet door fronts and, for this project, how to cut out the face of the modern fireplace. It is a very simple process that may take some practice--as learning all new skills requires. 

First, this tutorial assumes that you are familiar with Circuit Maker and Design Space basics. If you are new to the Maker, you need to familiarize yourself with some of the basics. Here is a great tutorial that helped me understand those tools in the very bottom right-hand corner of Design Space that you will use in this project: Slice, Weld, and Attach

(The layout for this tutorial may be a bit wonky because I created in MS Word and copied and pasted it into Blogger.)

Use the shape tool to create the cabinet door front. Size the door front: 1.5 inches. The shapes are always black; I prefer to work with a white outline. Change in the color tool in the top  menu

To create the Slice for the shaker style door front, Duplicate the front door front then reduce it by .5 inch (or whatever width you want)

Slide the Slice over the door front. It may appear to be behind the door front, so select the image then select Arrange and choose the appropriate  command to either move the slice forward or the door backward. Gray line indicates that the image has been selected.

With the Slice now in place on top of the door, it needs to be centered: Choose Center in the Align menu to center the slice on the door.

Select the piece by dragging the pointer over it

Select the Slice tool in the bottom right-hand corner.

Drag the slice away from the door front; drag the door front away and you will have spare pieces

Drag the main door away from its position. The final step: Select the newly sliced door then use the Attach tool located in the bottom right hand corner--otherwise the shaker frame won't stay in place should you decide to move the door front to another location in Design Space.  Now you have two slices and the shaker frame. I delete one slice and hide the other slice so that it will not be cut. When you save this for future use, keep the Slice piece so that you don’t have to remake it.

End result: you have one shaker style cabinet door. Duplicate as many pieces as you will need for your project.

 

Materials: Purple Mat strongest grip; painter's tape to secure wood or chip board to mat; knife blade

I have always used 1/16" basswood, but other builders use 2mm chipboard which I have also used but only for my prototypes, so it is a personal preference. However, I much prefer the 3/32" basswood because it is stronger and while my Maker will cut it, it takes longer and is not recommended. I think it makes my machine work harder. 

While the 1/16' cuts nicely, it tends to warp and get soft with paint. Once the paint dries, it the wood may need some tender care to get back into shape. That does not seem to be a problem with Cricut's chip board. 

Gorilla Wood Glue or a tacky glue: Wood glue doesn't dry clear, so clean up excess glue, but has a stronger bond.

Sandpaper 320 grit to acquire a smooth surface; 120 coarser grit to take off a lot fast--proceed carefully with a light touch. I used this grit to shape the curved hinged edge for cabinet door.

I couldn't resist a sneak peek at my progress so far with one coat of paint.

                            

And inside the house. It will fill up this wall and even the room, but I'm liking it so far.

                          

There will be more to come on the entertainment center once I get it finished.

Please email me or leave a comment if you have questions or suggestions on how I can improve this tutorial. 

Thanks for visiting.