Record storage cabinet

 Design and making

The challenge with this commission was making the cabinet match as close as possible to an existing desk which had a grey woodgrain finish. It seemed wrong to make the unit in hard wood as it was going to be stained/painted, so I decided to make it in pine.

Pine is a soft wood, quite easy to work but very easily knocked and damaged. The other issue are knots which can weep resin through the final finish creating unsightly marks.

I had an offcut of the cabinet timber to attempt to get a reasonable colour match to the desk. I tried using patent knotting then the stain, but the area painted with knotting was very visible, I then tried some Zinzer primer a shellac based product which would behave like knotting and could be applied over the whole cabinet. Not only did this seal the knots but gave the white background colour I needed to blend with the desk.

The timber was biscuit jointed to make boards, then rebates were cut using a router so the different sections could be joined together. A trial assembly took place prior to sanding and finishing . One coat of primer, two coats of littlefairs driftwood grey stain then two coats of silk finish hard varnish.

 

 

 

 

Assembly and delivery

Having made the appropriate boards and made all the joints the unit was assembled and finished as described above, being careful to sand and thoroughly clean the unit between each application of finish.

Transportation was a problem as the unit was too large for my vehicle when complete. The plinth was removed as a separate unit and by removing the top shelf it was possible to get all the components in to the car ready for delivery.

On arrival at the clients address the components were taken to the final location, the plinth was attached and the unit was then stood up ready for the top shelf. All the screws were counter bored so once the top shelf was screwed in place, the screw holes were plugged. The plugs were then stained and varnished to match the rest of the cabinet.