Build thread follows.

For those wondering, this took place over a period of three months or so (finished two weeks ago) and I was chronicling this on a woodworking forum I have been a member of for years. That's why the posts are worded the way they are.

 Nice, here we go!

Awful fireplace needing eye bleach:

Fireplace with fire.  I didn't make the mantle, I found a premade one cheaper than I could buy the wood.  I did stain and seal it.  I made those moldings around the window with a couple router bits.  I didn't need enough of those square end things to justify buying the bit, so I bought those.

 



I also hand picked and set the slate.  I remodeled this fireplace three times so far.  

I welded up the tools holder from scrap horseshoes and a mining pan, but it is vintage poor ipotato photo........

So I have this space in the basement. Well, let me start by saying that I won't stage pictures of my shop or the area at all, and hopefully make some of you feel better about the conditions in which you work. My shop can't stay clean for more than 15 minutes, and neither can my house. My daughters have seen to that. In any case, here it is, along with the 48" entertainment center that I built for the equipment about ten years ago.



I want something bigger and better there. I'm limited only really by the access panel (the outdoor faucet is on the other side, and the panel is there after I had to fix everything the builder screwed up). Centering the unit and butting it up against the wall will let me have about 80" of width. That lets me get a 75" TV on there with a little room to spare. That's also helpful because I would like to do a "fireplace" down here, and by that I mean an electric fireplace in the cabinet. The basement, like many, does get cold, and it would be nice to not only have the ambience of a fireplace (even an electric one) but also the heat. I settled on this one:

https://www.amazon.com/PuraFlame-Western-Electric-Fireplace-Control/dp/B01LA3VHHU/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=puraflame+western+electric&qid=1617843453&sr=8-3

Behind the existing entertainment center I have one outlet and a low-voltage panel with two coax and four ethernet. Based on my past experience with an electric fireplace, I've decided to run another circuit back there just for the fireplace. You can't, for example, expect to run a vacuum and the fireplace at the same time without tripping a regular 15A breaker. Fortunately, behind that near corner (where the portrait of my dear departed rabbit is) is unfinished space, so I won't have a lot of drywall cutting and patching to do.

I came up with this design. It's pretty straightforward. As you can see, pretty much any surface in my house is subject to crayons, markers, or anything else my kids can get their hands on.



The 4 1/8" dimension was chosen to house this speaker:

https://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Signature-S35-American/dp/B01LW8H3NX/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=polk+center+channel&qid=1617843764&sr=8-4

...while also allowing about 5" on each side for things like remotes, an IR repeater (more on that later), the Playstation controller when charging, and random things my kids put in there. I fully expect it to be used for Play-Doh, markers without caps, legless Barbies, and other sorts of things like that. 

I tried to maximize the depth since the original unit being replaced was limited to the Onkyo A/V receiver that's in there - all others were too deep. I don't have any need to replace this one, but were I to do so I could have considerably more flexibility.

Now, with the center channel and fireplace occupying the middle two compartments of the unit (indeed, being built specifically for them), the A/V equipment has to go on the sides. This means that to use them I either need an A/V IR repeater with regular doors, keep the door(s) open, or use glass doors. Two of these options at the very least mean the equipment will be generating lots of heat and have nowhere to go with it. I opted for an IR repeater and a heat exhaust solution. They are here:

https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-AIRPLATE-Thermostat-Cabinets/dp/B00QFWWZQO/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=airplate+t7&qid=1617844082&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ZGK6QS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The AC Infinity unit looks very well made and has a beautiful finish on it. I chose that primarily because its dimensions matched well and the ability to only turn on when needed (when the sensor reaches a certain temperature) is very useful. The repeater, on the other hand, is definitely Chinesium, and I knew that going in. I have no idea how well it will or won't work. If it doesn't, I can certainly spend more money and get a better unit. The repeater receiver, which is quite small, will sit next to the center channel in the top middle compartment.

I should note that I use my computer in an enclosed cabinet, and when playing games or mining some useless cryptocurrency a lot of heat is generated. It gets warm but it appears to draw enough airflow from the gaps around the door, so I don't think I will need much more than what I have. I'll be using Blum hinges, which also offer a bit more offset from the face frame (and thus allow more airflow). Also, what's not reflected on the design is that there will be grommets on the sides of the unit (bottom/back corner) to allow the speaker wire, subwoofer cable, split HDMI, and whatever else to exit. This should also allow for more airflow from the outside in.

Now that it's designed, we can start building.

I will be using sapele, because it's readily available, very pretty to my eyes, I have a lot of it, I like it, and various other reasons I'm sure made sense at one point. While not the boards I've used to this point, here are a few I've quickly planed and will probably be using for raised panels, door rails and stiles, and so on.



For reasons unknown, the first thing I finished was the top. Since I already did it, I can't do a build along, but there isn't really much to say about a panel with routed edges and some holes cut in it. Here it is:



For those wondering, the vertical images will display properly sized if you open them in a new tab. The edge profile, which you can't really see, is just a standard ogee and fillet profile. As I'll probably use this same profile on the door edges and the base molding, it should work here. I finished it with three coats of Watco natural danish oil, after which I scrubbed with mineral oil and a green Scotch-Brite pad and then sanded with a 500 grit Abralon pad (used for resurfacing bowling balls) along with some more mineral oil. This evens out the sheen (sapele can be inconsistent in absorption) and produces a very soft finish. The relative lack of durability is fine since it won't see much more than dust. For why this is ultimately wrong, see above about how I have children.

In any case, here are close-ups of the exhaust fan and the "fancy" grommets:



For the externally visible grommets, I opted for these 2" "red bronze" or "copper" grommets available on Amazon. I think it goes well enough with the sapele tone.

Now I start on the inside...the "guts." As mentioned, we not only need airflow, we also need room to run wires. I opted for mahogany plywood for the inside, partly because I had some 2x4 sheets, but mostly because the inside of the center channel speaker compartment is technically visible from the outside. Mahogany is a very good match for sapele as well, and it's way more readily available than sapele plywood. I will use stained sande plywood for the back and bottom because neither of those will be visible unless the doors are opened. It also takes stain pretty well and is readily available at Home Depot. In any case, here's the face frame with the internal dividers attached and center channel compartment built:



You can see that there are two grommet holes in the center channel compartment because I don't know which side I want to put the A/V equipment on and I also don't know when I decide that it will be permanent. There are also two holes on the top and bottom of each internal divider, with both serving the dual purpose of airflow and wire runs. For these grommets (which will go in after finishing) I will be using plain old black plastic.

The center channel compartment is secured with pocket screws to the face frame on the underside of the shelf (in the "fireplace" area) and regular countersunk screws on the insides of the cabinet. Countersinking eliminates any potential interference with shelving. Also, the internal dividers are glued to the face frame at the top portion only (I did not use pocket holes as they would be visible) and attached using pocket screws in the hidden fireplace area. Gluing a joint like this to me is one of the most important applications of parallel clamps as they apply equal pressure and tend to bow and twist (like regular pipe and bar clamps) a LOT less. Here's a side view of the center channel compartment:



I use a small piece of blue painter's tape to mark the "top" of each divider as a reference when setting up the shelf pin drilling jig. It's probably not really necessary, but it certainly could be depending on how preoccupied I am.

That's all I have for now. Next up will probably be the side panels, which are almost certainly going to be 3" rail and stile construction with raised panels. To avoid gluing up a relatively large center panel, I am still considering doing a center stile and two narrower panels. It's a bit more work, but no grain matching concerns.

I don't really do the whole SketchUp thing. Despite being in the IT field forever and having grown up with computers (starting with a TI-99 at the age of three) and using various graphics programs over the years, including 3D modelers, I never took to SketchUp. Also, going back to all of my schooling, I have been chastised my entire life for doing far too much work in my head. This means I am generally likely to consider and reconsider things in the middle of a design. One of the things I really, really, really don't like to do is waste wood. I do make a lot of cutting boards, and since I started turning the shorter scrap has a place too. But even so I try to minimize waste.

The side panels need to be 20 3/8". Technically, about 7/8" less, since I will glue them to the ends of the face frame for a somewhat continuous joint. This way the effective stile width looking at it from the sides is uniform front and back. But normally I just rip that small strip off and use it for cutting boards. I have a 13" planer, so if I were to do a 13" panel I would have 7 3/8" remaining. Add 3/4" for the depth of the grooves in the cabinet members, and then subtract 1/4" for space ball compression. That means I've got 7 7/8", which is remarkably close to 4" wide members. As it will be built in and butted up against the existing 3 1/4" baseboard molding, I chose 4" for the pedestal/base height since that would let me rout an edge and still have a flat mating surface for the existing baseboard molding. If that's 4", it would probably look good to have the side panel members be 4" also. Conveniently, I have more than a few 11" boards, which will let me get the necessary 4" and 6.5" pieces out of it for the cabinet members and the panel. I will have probably no waste after jointing and squaring, though maybe I'll get some super narrow strips I can use for cutting boards (because that's where all the scrap goes).

The other consideration is that I have grommets to put somewhere on the stile to get wires in and out. With 2" grommets - and considering you've got 1/2" plywood recessed into the back and the panel into the front - 3" cabinet members would be pretty tight if it would even work at all. I'd like to center the grommet in the bottom back corner, and I think 4" will comfortably avoid hitting any other wood while also looking proportional.

So the next step is going to be turning those 11" wide boards into the necessary 4" stock for the rails and stiles and 6.5" stock for the panels. While the glue is drying I can work on routing the cabinet members. I can also work on hunting down the plywood template that I use for removing the bulk of the raised panel material on the table saw, as either my oldest daughter put it somewhere or my neighbor mistakenly grabbed it as firewood.

OK, back at it. I don't have any incredibly high-end equipment and my wife and daughters can't exactly help me very well, so ripping the long boards into two narrower long boards wasn't the easiest. Plain old sawhorses with a random section of conduit set on top work very well as a support/glide system, so I ripped those two boards from an earlier picture into what will be the 6.5" panel halves and 4" rail/stile stock. There's some left over for the doors too.



After that, I started to cut the wider stock together (leaving just a shade extra - the boards were nine feet long, and this means that I could get all of the panel stock I needed from a single board if I measured carefully). Just a bit of math, cutting them together on the miter saw, and then to the jointer.



 
As an example of "life happens," it turns out that I was getting a little bit more snipe than expected and the cuts weren't as good as I would have liked. I went through my jointer technique growing pains years ago, and while I'm still not the best I am much better than I was. Turns out the outfeed table needed a bit of adjusting, which I did prior to jointing the rail and stile stock. In any case, once the panel stock was jointed, it was time to glue them up.



I got good uniform squeeze out and great mating surfaces, and despite all four halves being from the same contiguous board I did OK in terms of grain and tone matching. The glue line will still be visible and detectable, I think, but it will also blend pretty well to the untrained eye. In any case, with the glue drying I can go back to jointing the rail and stile stock. After a bit of adjustment these boards came out much better with a lot less effort. That doesn't matter much since they aren't mating to anything, but it's still nice to have the jointed tuned up.



Woodworking is not my only hobby, and sometimes I get sidetracked doing other things. This week it was brewing beer (five gallons of an Irish-style red ale)...



...bottling two different one-gallon batches (Double IPA, which I don't like, and brown ale, which I do)...



...and a very quick project to turn a box from Booker's Bourbon into a lamp for the next project (the bar). It's a prototype, more or less, but it did work pretty well. The box is free (with the purchase of $90 bourbon), while the bulbs, sockets, and inline dimmer are only a few bucks (maybe $15 total). Using incandescent bulbs (these are 15W bulbs, intended for salt lamps and similar things), a fair amount of heat is generated. I am going to look into LED bulbs, though the dimmability and general color tone are not going to be the same. That's not a huge issue. In any case, they do look nice, and the only thing missing is some sort of concealment for the wires on the back.



But back to the entertainment center. I've got the rail and stile stock cut (four stiles, and two pieces which will be two rails each). Squared and ready to go, along with the panels (which have been planed and trimmed on one edge).



The router bits I use are Freud. I don't like to plane wood down for the sake of meeting some arbitrary thickness limitation, so I wanted rail and stile bits that could handle thicker stock. I started with cheap Chinesium bits, and surprise, they didn't work very well. They weren't "matched" by any stretch of the imagination, and what's worse they didn't seem to allow for any adjustment to fix that. So I decided I would try the "buy once, cry once" route and bought this Freud set:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ZG7PXM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's been worth every penny. Sharp, minimal tearout, everything you want in a router bit. They are, as you might expect, perfectly matched. All of that is good. They even look good in the table.



Once I do the profile cuts, I can cut down the rail stock to the appropriate dimensions and do the cope cut. They are all ready to go.



It's probably not clear here, but as mentioned I do not like to waste wood so I was planning on maximizing the size of my cutoffs so I can glue them up and turn them or something. But one of the stock pieces needed to be run through twice, and my pressure was not identical (it never is) so one end of the cut was slightly larger. Clean, but larger. In any case, having an extra 8 inches or so to play with if I use that piece for rail stock, I can sacrifice the thin section. Once I pick the pieces, I cut all four of them at the same time, clamp, and flip to ensure the dimensions are as close as possible to exact.



I always say that a miter saw is not a precision tool (because it's not), but that doesn't mean you can't do your best to get a precision cut. In any case, the stock is all cut and coped.



One thing that might make things easier that I do is to use one of the excess coped ends as sacrificial setup to ensure the cope cut matches as well as possible. I always expect some sanding, but if you have stock of identical thickness it is not that hard to take what is otherwise a scrap piece, line up the cut, make a test cut, test fit, and if it doesn't fit to your liking just chop off 3/8" and try again. One of the other things I wanted to point out is that if you're doing rail and stile construction for structural panels (like these) you don't need to be super precise with the cope cuts. It's easy to trim profile cuts to final length. With cope cuts, it is harder, and if the edges will be exposed (like with doors) be aware that any protrusion of the bit's bearing from the fence will cause slight chamfer in and out of the cut. This means you will have visible gaps on the mating surfaces. This is fine here because all of these joints will be hidden, but will be more important on the doors. In any case, I can test fit the frames and measure for the final size of the panels. I think I might have to trim a tiny amount off the panels.



No, by the way, I never did find my raised panel setup block, so I will have to make another.

More to come hopefully later this week.

I'm aware it's been three months. I've done a fair amount of work (just ran the wire for the new fireplace circuit yesterday) and I'm actually almost done. Unfortunately, I got a little too aggressive with the table saw when making the relief cuts for the raised panels (front doors), and while it could easily have been fixed with a 15 inch planer I don't have one of those so I had to remake the panels. Not a big deal, but now I (again) have extra raised panels waiting for another project. This actually happened before - I intended to have these pretty heartwood/sapwood doors for my wine rack, but I screwed up (don't remember how) and had to use those on my wife's desk. Now I did the same. Fortunately, these panels are pretty large, so they can be trimmed to size for almost any other cabinet application.

Tomorrow I need to buy some paint so I can do the wall first. Off comes the baseboard (this is a built-in, after all), the drywall patch where I trenched for the wire gets sanded and textured, and then the wall gets painted. I had to buy a new keystone decorator insert for the low-voltage wiring, but the extender rings are in place and I need to cut the cabinet for the outlet boxes. I am not sure whether I will have time this week but the plan is (hopefully) to get it at least mounted.

I have taken pictures along the way and will resume the build thread - while life happens, I at least remembered to document important milestones.

Anyway, the saga continues. Picking up where I left off (months ago)...

Raised panels for the side are cut and ready.



Side panels are aligned, dry fitted, space balled, glued, and clamped.



After that, for some reason I didn't take a picture of this, but I ripped off the thickness of the front face frame from one edge of these panels and cut a rabbet in the other edge to accept the back panel of the cabinet. I also cut a hole in the bottom for the grommets - back in the beginning, you remember the speakers were outside the unit. This is for the wire, and on one side it also has the subwoofer wiring and the HDMI cable that will (one day) go to a TV outside. I hope, anyway. Here's what they look like after being glued and assembled. 



You might notice those are two different sides. In any case, I then went on to the back. This is 1/2" sande plywood, and I used a few coats of Minwax cherry to try to darken it up a bit. The grain is nondescript (good, I didn't want it to draw any attention) but the panel absorbed a lot of stain. It turned out light no matter how many coats I put on. In the end, not a big deal.

Now, it gets mounted. I used screws - trim head smaller screws in the rabbet (it's about 1/2" wide, so big enough for screws) and regular screws (probably #8, I don't remember) through the back into the dividing members.

The screws are here, and even the smaller ones are visible on the edge. All holes are countersunk as I don't want to risk any more drywall damage than necessary in the back (and also keep the back smooth for a good mating finish with the wall). This also (hopefully) shows the difference between the stained (appearance) side of the non-matching plywood and the back side. It's a very pale yellow/off-white color without any stain added.

I did have some sanding to do before proceeding. The outside of the cabinet is now ready to be finished. In the ideal case, I would have achieved a better grain match between the raised panel sides and the face frame edge grain, but that's a lot easier said than done.

On to the bottom. Having learned a lesson from the back, I tried a lot more stain on the bottom panel. It made very little difference in the end.

Here's another spot where I didn't take as many pictures as I could. While what I did will be obvious, it helps to talk about it since it's probably not something that's commonly done. Truth be told, I've never researched it and don't really have the slightest idea whether there is a "standard" way to do this or not. On the bottom of the bottom plywood panel, I screwed pre-drilled (pocket holes) 1x2 pine to the underside of the panel, which should provide both a better mating surface (1.5" vs. 23/32") and a mechanical fastening to the hardwood edging. Here are some shots of the underside, showing the finished product.
The gaps are there for additional vertical (ground contact) support, since I don't want any sagging in the middle. I don't know that it would or wouldn't happen, but it seems like prudent planning to me. In any case, the panel can be turned over and finished now.


The second shot is important, as it shows the joint between the plywood and the hardwood. This is usually what happens to me, at least to some degree, when I mate plywood (especially cross-cut plywood) with solid wood edging. It's very hard if not impossible to mate perfectly. This joint will be hidden as it is designed to be overlapped by the top. This is part of the reason why I used 6/4 stock for the hardwood base edging, and part of the reason why I don't plane my face frame and side panels down to 3/4" (they are probably closer to 15/16"). It will be clearer in a few pics.

In any case, I can add the additional vertical supports (I bored holes on the drill press and used screws to attach them) and added some finish on the bottom. It's probably not necessary, but every now and then I fight my perfectionism and completionism. Once I turn this right side up, I do not plan to ever see the underside again.

Once it's flipped over, I can glue in the grommets. Now it starts to look somewhat like it's supposed to.

Note that the four "interior" holes will not get grommet inserts - there will probably be a lot of wires, including thicker power cables, and I also want airflow. The outside grommets are what Amazon calls "red bronze" and will have inserts. Also, the black plastic grommets in the center channel cavity will get inserts as they are potentially visible. In any case, it's now time to attach the top.

My method for attaching table tops is something I came up with and refined over the years. It has served me well, though it might be a strange idea to some. Let me walk you through it.

1) Scrap pieces of pine (stretchers, I guess, for lack of a better term) are cut to fit inside whatever gaps are available in the top of the piece.
2) Pocket holes are cut to attach those pieces to sides, dividers, back, and face frame as necessary.
3) Holes are drilled for screws with spacing allowed for expansion.
4) Dadoes are cut on the opposite side of the pocket holes (in this case, at 5/8" width to accept Lee Valley #14 expansion washers).
5) Expansion washers are glued in.

The pictures show both sides of the stretchers, the washers attached, and the stretchers installed in the cabinet ready to accept the top. The top can expand about 1/4" in either direction (depending on how well I center the screws) which should be more than enough. This is going from my shop about 12 feet to the wall, but the difference here is that it will contain electronic equipment and an electric fireplace. Even with a built-in cooling fan I expect more than average wood movement. Note that the configuration of the stretchers is somewhat unique - ordinarily I would try to put one all the way in the back (two instead of one in the middle, as it were), but I can't go all the way to the front since I don't have clearance to install fasteners in the very front and I need to leave the back open for the fan. In any case, I use FastCap PowerHead screws to attach the top (really good for such applications). Here it is all put together.
I also had a chance to make some shelves. I used 1/2" prefinished maple plywood (bought online with free shipping from Home Depot, not bad) and prefinished iron-on edging. The nearest size I could find was 3/4", so I ironed the edging on, leaving the shelf a tad wide, and then used a router to trim the edging down. It took a few passes with a chamfer bit, with the last actually chamfering the edge slightly. They turned out pretty smooth, considering they are shelves.

Now I have to do some grunt work. In my old house, I learned that an electric fireplace will take almost all of the juice on a regular 15A circuit. It doesn't need more than that, but it will hog it. I had to run a new circuit, so this meant trenching the wall, running wire, and installing an old work box. It's since been repaired, taped, mudded, and spray textured (at least to where it will be visible). I really, really, really do not like drywall work.

Next up are the doors. I have actually already cut them and just glued them tonight. They are in the clamps now.

Good news - the project is almost done. I have the doors glued, but I need to add an edge profile, finish, and mount them. Then we're done. Well, almost. The IR repeater I had procured is...finicky. I am trying a few other solutions first.

The unit is mounted, the wall is painted (including edging around everything), the baseboard is reinstalled, painted, and caulked, wires are all run, new TV is in, fireplace is in, all of that. It needs doors and it's done.

The problem with the IR repeater seems to be that it's unreliable and doesn't like to work consistently. Apparently there are single receivers available (so instead of receive and retransmit, there are IR jacks on the back of the two devices I need - AV receiver and FiOS box) so I should be able to connect directly to an IR receiver. No sticking a retransmitter over the device's IR receiver. Let's hope that works. It *looks* pretty now - very unobtrusive, almost impossible to see - but it doesn't work well.

The project is now finished. I think I left off with the doors. I had cut and squared the stock a while ago. I just needed to profile with the rail and stile bits, glue up the panels, profile them, add space balls, glue everything up...you get the idea. It's the same as the side panels on the unit (pictured before), just with the edge profile and the hinges. I skipped a few of those pictures. But here are the doors, ready to finish:

It's worth noting that I used the Kreg hinge jig this time around. It makes drilling for cup hinges incredibly easy. I wish I had bought one earlier. It's preset for "standard" cup hinges (I used Blumotion 1/2" overlay) with a 3mm inset and the matching Forstner bit. Where to place the hinges wasn't much of a thought - just matched the jig up with the edge of the door and drilled. Super easy. The doors are then finished (this picture is blurry, but I'll still post it).

My finish bottle is now empty. I use Watco Danish Oil, but I do tend to thin it with mineral spirits. I think this is partly inherent and partly because of the way I store it. It slowly cures ever so slightly in the bottle, so thinning helps retard that. I also find that a thinner finish is easier to rub and less likely to create nibs, which are one of my personal pet peeves. In any case, it's now time to mount the unit while everything's drying. The doors can't go on until everything's done anyway, at least not without getting in the way. I started by painting the wall - take off the baseboards for the built-in and paint where the unit will meet the wall so I minimize masking. Here's the unit installed, with the baseboard "before" and "during."


After reinstalling the baseboards, I caulked, painted, and touched up. I am a perfectionist (as I say every other sentence) and one of the things I cannot stand is when paint lines are not clean. This is challenging with baseboards and other trim as it's not hard to get lots of waves in drywall. In any case, I caulk all of the 18 gauge brad holes and along the base, and then paint (just regular semi-gloss white). If the lines between the baseboard and wall are not clean, I will touch up one or the other with craft brushes. This might be excessive, but I would prefer things to look computer rendered. Probably not a realistic standard. In any case, with that drying I can move to the wiring.

I am not sure where I went wrong, but the outlets were perfectly aligned at the bottom but had an extra 3/4" or so on top. I measured these things six different ways before cutting, but not that dimension. I guess I just forgot or got confused. I *did* think while I was cutting (Dremel Multi-Max, by the way) that they looked taller than they should be. Fortunately, the oversized wall plates were able to hide things. The new circuit is on the left, and the two existing (low voltage and electrical) were already there. I did have to trim to the rightmost plate some as that was a little closer to the divider. The unit is almost exactly centered butted up against the outdoor faucet access panel, so I thought I could live with this hidden inside the cabinet.

Now there's a lot of equipment to move and a lot of wiring to run. That's boring and not worth pictures. Or at least that's what I'll claim since I didn't take any.

I will say that the IR situation required some tweaking. I purchased a simple extender here (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ZGK6QS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1), which works by receiving the IR signals and retransmitting them to the device. You do this by sticking on a retransmitter over the device's IR receiver. Google is helpful in telling you where exactly that is. The receiver has an LED indicating it's receiving IR, which is good. The retransmit part, though, was not that effective. It seemed to be spotty. I needed two devices controlled - the AV receiver and the FiOS box. It turns out that monaural cables can act as IR transmitters, so I was able to run a cable from the above repeater's output directly into the receiver. This avoids the problem of retransmitting IR and the receiver works like a charm. However, the FiOS box, which also has an IR 3.5mm input, didn't respond to this. I had to buy a second extender for just the cable box. More money than I would have liked, but they both work like a charm now. In any case, I can go back into the shop, get the doors, and put them on. I had a buddy helping me that day.

After that it's time to put the doors on, clean up a bit, and take a few final pictures.

Here's the back of the TV, showing the grommets (in use) and the thermal exhaust fan. Looks sleek.

Here's what's hidden behind the doors, and why it's much easier and cleaner to use a repeater setup than it is to leave components exposed. I don't have to hide the wires since they are behind the door.

This is what you see instead, and the soft chatoyance of sapele certainly makes this much more pleasing to look at.

Here's a closer shot of the front in natural light. It's very hard to see the IR receivers even this close, and the fireplace looks decent for being an electric unit.

And finally, here's some detail of the raised panel sides. These are hidden by the current speakers so it's almost wasted, but they don't always have to be so someday it might be nice to see.

Super nice and great details in you post.  

Very nice and beautiful wood grain! Excellent brew pot too.  I haven't brewed in 15 years, but still have the fermenters and kegs.  

I have used the Watco Danish oil on several projects and it is an excellent product.  

My TV stand box is made out of MDF.  I wanted it to mostly disappear, so it is painted black.  It is essentially a drawer box to store DVDs with a riser for the TV to sit on.  I doubt I have any pictures of it, but it was probably the first project I used my Kreg fastener kit on.

I had problems with my amp overheating (also a Denon ) and they make automatic variable speed fan boxes to sit directly on top of your amp.

The brew kettle has been worth it. It's big enough (30 quarts) to handle enough grain and water (and a sous vide) that I don't need to add water after the boil. No leaks or anything and seems very well made. My only complaint is that the temperature probe sticks out a bit, and although it's rounded and not at all catchy it has ripped a brew bag during the mash and created quite a mess.

The Denon is new (AVR-X2700H) and replaced the ten year old Onkyo. My receivers have always gotten warm, but never overly so (or at least not that I've noticed). On the other hand, I've never put one in an enclosed cabinet, at least not during use, so I don't know how it will fare. The cabinet holding the equipment is somewhat spacious so there should be adequate airflow. My main concerns were the fireplace - I have no idea how much heat it puts off behind the unit, but it is supposed to blow all of it out the front - and the PS5. I am actually playing Infamous Second Son now, which is more than seven years old. Even on the PS4 Pro it was almost unplayable since the fan would absolutely scream when it was in use. I haven't noticed any heat issues yet - the fan is set to come on at 85 degrees and I don't think it's come on once. I imagine something like gaming in the winter with the fireplace on will test it, but so far I haven't had any heat issues.

I have a similar fan (designed as a register booster) in my computer desk. I originally built it with just grates allowing for some airflow, but once I started mining that couldn't keep up. In an enclosed cabinet it got very hot, and playing things like Far Cry (known to be graphically intensive) would cause the cabinet to get very hot. It's got similar construction (door gap for air intake on the front along with two grommets on the back) but the AC Infinity keeps the ambient internal temperature between 95 and 100 most of the time. That is to say it works very well for its intended purpose.

My last 3 Denon overheated in open conditioned air.  We rock it pretty hard sometimes and Top Gun plays at full volume on occasion.

very nice

Wow! Nice work and a big plus for non staged shop photos. Clean shops and clear benches with tools on pegboard are for show.

was I the only one freaking out until the end about the pocket holes? lol...  I kept thinking to myself, Hes.... He's going cover those up right? and BAM fireplace... Awesome work bud..

Of course I'm going to cover them. I'm not uncivilized.

Even when hidden if there's a chance you could touch it I use plugs. There's no chance I'd ever consider them appearance grade. I know Kreg advertises them as such but unless you have a 30 flute drill bit with a 16000 RPM drill you aren't going to get clean enough holes for that. I won't say it's impossible, but it's impossible.

Turned out ??

very nice! you wear gloves when using power tools?