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Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

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mouser:
Thanks for the compliments!

I did this mostly for the experience -- and i think i'd have a hard time advising someone to do the same -- in most cases you'd be better off buying something already made --  save yourself the hassle.
The one benefit of making it yourself is getting the dimensions and areas exactly how you want them..

For example in my case:

* It's hard to see but that small area above the drawers hold the center speaker and some plugs and wireless switch, hidden behind a custom-built little inset speaker grill i made that pops out with a spring.
* Behind the books on the left is space for a rather substantial 8"x14"x4" battery backup UPS power supply that everything plugs into (cut out in the back).
* Where the stereo rack is, the back is cut out for access, and the cabinet is 16" deep, just deep enough for my htpc.

mouser:
Summarizing some lessons learned from the recent project:


* Hiding nail holes -- i did this completely wrong.  i did it the way i've done it when painting: sink nail holes; fill with wood putty; sand; then paint/stain.  completely wrong way for staining.  even "stainable" wood putty does NOT take stain well. proper way when staining is to just stain over the sunken nail holes.  THEN fill with COLOR-MATCHED rubberized filler pencil.
* Drawers -- definitely doable; in future i would leave myself a bit more gap room.  good news is that this false front method is really forgiving -- even more so when you drill the pull holes slightly large, which gives you yet another way to adjust to fronts.
* I should have bought a mini table saw.  especially for the drawer fronts, the accuracy from a hand held circular saw is not good enough, makes life much harder.
* Don't oversand the veneer plywood -- i started to sand through some areas on the top, and it did cause some areas of blotching and some small areas of ripouts and rough areas.  i read about avoiding this but it's easy to have it sneak up on you.  i got dangerously close to a problem,
* Wipe-on poly is a pain the ass in how long it takes; i don't know that i would use it again for such a large piece, but it definitely helped avoid runs and brush strokes.  it was a good idea to use brush on poly on the areas other than top and face.
* I wish i could see how it would look with a much lighter color.  i think it would have resulted in a much nicer looking piece of wood furniture in terms of being able to see the grain and details; might not have fit in as well in my apt.
* A huge amount of money and time was spent testing stains and just doing a million little details.  I do this all the time, it's not a good cost-benefit tradeoff.  Next time i think i would just rush through the project.  might not be quite as good but would take 1/4 the time and 1/4 the cost.

mouser:
I found an old photo of what the new cabinet replaced.  So here is what used to be there:

Deozaan:
The new furniture definitely looks much nicer. Nice work! :Thmbsup:

mouser:
Custom made center speaker cover (spring-loaded pops off):

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

Behind that is the center speaker, the network switch, and the thermostat control for a cabinet fan in back of the stereo equipment, to keep things cool:
Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

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