This weekend I built a credenza. It is a adaptation on the Cubby Credenza in Handmade Modern. The main difference is that I couldn't bring myself to nail and screw through exposed faces. Instead I used pocket holes from underside the shelves and only glue to attach the top. (The plans called for 8 finish nails to be driven through the top into the uprights. I just couldn't do it!)
Another difference was that I didn't bother putting a back on it. This was half because I liked the look and half because I didn't have a suitable piece of wood to do it with.
The project started by creating the drawing of cuts to make in a full sized sheet of plywood using SketchUp. I chose a maple veneer from Boulter Plywood in Somerville. For $3 labor they made all the main vertical cuts in this diagram. This saved me immensely over trying to get the whole sheet home and then deal with cutting it in my meager shop.
Even with the cutting done at Boulter, I still had larger cuts to make than I can achieve with my puny table saw. So that meant using the circular saw. First I picked up a new blade specifically designed for cutting plywood. It had tiny teeth and cut a kerf maybe 1/8" wide. I also used this handy hint to support the plywood while cutting. This woorked much much better than my previous technique of letting the cut off piece fall onto a waded up blanket! Here is a picture of the jig just after making a cut:
To finish cutting, I used the table saw for the small pieces (pink in the diagram) and excess from some of the others.
Next came the edge banding. I'd bought a 50' roll of pre-glued iron on maple from Boulter and a trimmer from Rockler in Cambridge. It took some time to get the hang of just how much heat to use but it came out pretty good. (had to glue down a couple ends later on)
Right about now I was thinking I was making progress and with a little bit of time applying stain and what-not I'd be getting right to assembly. That turned out to be wishful thinking.
First I had to apply a washcoat to partially seal the wood in order to prevent blotching. While at Rockler I'd picked up a copy of Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner which Woody from Rockler said was the practically the bible on wood finishing. This turned out to be a good purchase because it does a great time explaining what all the finishing options really mean. This included the advice not to believe the labling on the washcoating that you can apply the stain in 2 hours. I ended up giving it 8 and the results seemed good. (although I didn't do a test piece in 2 hours to compare)
In any event, this meant that the staining took much longer than I'd intended. Because of this I didn't want to wait before staining the backs of the upright panels. I ended up "tenting" them so that I could stain both sides and still let the dry. Clumsy, but effective.
Once the stain was dry I finally got to assembling. The biggest challenge here was attaching the top using only wood glue. I ended up attaching the legs first and then using the bar clamps as shown in the following picture.
The doors were attached using piano hinge and magnetic push latches from Rockler. (no handles needed).
Tasks remaining include appling a little more stain to the center drawer and painting the white feet black.
