The Hands And The Eyes, Part II

As I mentioned in a previous Blog Post, I had the opportunity to learn how to weld. After that project was done, we had some leftover materials and in the interest of refining the skills I had learned, I thought it would be a good idea to create something that I had a need for. After a little thought (and some wandering around the house, looking at the things I had), it occurred to me that I needed a better solution for my entertainment center.

I have a fair amount of electronic stuff devoted to this (TV, Receiver, DVD player, PlayStation , Media Center PC, etc) and the TV stand I had simply wasn't designed for all of the things I had. In fact, I had a number of components that were not even hooked up. It wasn't tall enough or wide enough to accommodate everything. So, I had identified a need. Now I needed to figure out what I wanted to do about it.

The first step was obviously to design and plan out what I wanted. I didn't want to just start cutting and welding stuff and see what happened. This wasn't Lego®; I couldn't just take it back apart and try again. I wanted whatever I came up with to be sturdy, solid, well built, and, most importantly, fill the need that I had.

The first step was to look at the things I needed to have in the entertainment center and determine how much space I needed for it all to fit and then draw it out on paper to get the measurements right and see if the idea in my head was doable. Plus, my Geometry and Algebra was a little on the rusty side so I'd better be sure of what I was doing or this would be a colossal waste of time and materials.

My background is originally in 2D and 3D graphics so the next step for me was to build this in 3D Studio so I could visualize what this would look like when it was finished. That way I could play with the colors I might want for the steel and the wooden shelves. This would also give me a feel for how I would need to assemble everything once I'd cut the pieces to the proper dimensions.

So, now I had my design and a "proof of concept" rendering and I was pretty sure this project was going to be a great exercise in fabrication and I would have a very useful piece of furniture that would last for years. And, hopefully, it would just look cool as hell.

The next step was gathering the materials.

Now to cut them all to length, "de-rustify" it and get those angles cut.

In following the assembly line idea from the Engine Crate project, now that I had all my parts ready, it was time to begin assembly. I tack-welded everything together and made sure the whole thing was square; I certainly didn't want the TV falling off on top of someone. I also tweaked the front-to-back cross supports for the middle shelf. I originally had them going between the 2" x 2" legs but that made for some rather difficult angles to figure out so I moved them in a few inches. They'd still provide plenty of support and now I only had to deal with right angles.

The last step in the machine shop part of this was to finish weld everything and then, using a side-grinder (my favorite tool if you recall from the Engine Crate), clean up the welds, and make those joints all look like a solid piece of steel. I also wiped everything down with a mix of Transmission fluid and oil to degrease it and protect it from rust. I wasn't using stainless steel and this is Florida with lots of humidity so bare steel can get rusty pretty easily if you aren't careful. Once I had it primed and painted, it wouldn't be and issue but I needed to protect it from Mother Nature until then.

It was now time to relocate the project from my Dad's shop to mine so I could do the priming, painting, and woodwork portions. I didn't want to get sawdust and overspray all over his metal shop, and didn't want oil and grease to be a factor with the shelving; my shop was better suited for this part. I measured and cut the Oak plywood and made sure it all fit the way I wanted it to.

Now to prime the frame.

Next, staining and sealing the shelves with polyurethane. Because of the design of the stand, I would have to cut the bottom and middle shelves in half; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get them inside of the frame. I did run into a bit of a slowdown here because it had started getting cold so it was taking a lot longer for the stain and polyurethane to cure and dry. Annoying but I'd rather not rush anything so I just rolled with it.

The final step was painting the frame. I went with a black hammered metal Rustoleum® spray paint finish. I thought this would look really nice and hide any imperfections in the steel. Plus, the color contrasted nicely against the medium-dark Cherry stain I'd chosen for the shelves.

So, project complete, it was now time to take it in the house and set everything up on my new Entertainment Center. First, here's a before picture. As you can see, it's just not working out for this tired, old TV stand.

And here is the finished project with all of my equipment hooked up and working.

I think it turned out WAY better than I had hoped. It looked great, had room for everything I wanted to hook up, was solid as a rock, and would probably last for the rest of my life. To say this is a plausible replacement for that cheap, pre-fab particle board stuff at Wal-Mart® or Target® would be foolish; I'm not gonna put a dent in that market; this would've cost me about $400 to $500 had someone built it for me. Instead, I spent about $100 for the plywood and the primer, paint, stain, and polyurethane. The steel was scrap material left over from the Engine Crate project and my own time/effort. Definitely a worthwhile project and I learned a lot doing it. There is something immensely gratifying about making something with your own hands and having such a nice end result to show for it.