Author Topic: Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc? (Read 235768 times)

tomos · « **Reply #175 on:** June 25, 2015, 03:33 AM »

Looks great mouser

Note 1: The cabinet has not yet been "finished" -- i just wanted to see what it would look like -- i have to remove everything and put many coats of polyeurethane on to give it some sheen and protect the wood.
-mouser (June 24, 2015, 06:40 PM)

Pity it needs the polyeurethane - I love the matt finish.

Deozaan · « **Reply #176 on:** June 25, 2015, 05:21 PM »

Thanks for sharing the photos, mouser. I really like it. Makes me want to build something.

mouser · « **Reply #177 on:** June 27, 2015, 02:38 PM »

Finishing has begun.. I'm using standard brush-on polyeurethane on the insides, and a thin wipe-on poly (General Finishes Arm-R-Seal) for the top and face frame. I decided to go with the wipe-on poly for the top and face frame because i wasn't confident in my abilities to brush on a smooth coat. Given how slowly it's going on and how expensive it is, i'm having second thoughts, but i'm committed.

Will take me a few more days to put on all the coats, and then a week to dry. I'll take more photos when it's done.

It's even more dark looking now -- I've resigned myself to it. It's not out of place in my living room, where i have a dark wood coffee table, it just still seems like a waste since you can barely see the wood grain..

I'm thinking to go with "satin" as the final coat. Any finishers have preferences for gloss vs semi vs satin?

ayryq · « **Reply #178 on:** June 27, 2015, 06:16 PM »

Are you using gloss for the build-up coats? I would go with the glossier of the non-gloss options for the final coat—so as not to obscure the grain further. You can always add some paste wax or another coat of satin if it's too shiny, but it's hard to go back from too matte.

ayryq · « **Reply #179 on:** June 27, 2015, 06:18 PM »

By the way here's some of my projects:
http://lumberjocks.com/ayryq/projects

mouser · « **Reply #180 on:** June 27, 2015, 06:25 PM »

Are you using gloss for the build-up coats?

yep -- i've read it's best to use gloss for all but final coat.

wow, aryq's a real woodworker!! nice!

mouser · « **Reply #181 on:** July 01, 2015, 12:45 PM »

I'm finally finished with the finishing. Finally.
Not fun. I would think twice about using wipe-on poly for big things in the future -- just takes too long to build up.

I went with satin as the final coat and am happy with that decision (somewhat ironic since my initial idea was to buff to a mirror gloss).

I'll post new photos soon.

mouser · « **Reply #182 on:** July 02, 2015, 02:09 PM »

Some final photos. It's hard to take a photo that doesn't look REALLY dark and shadowy. In real life, although it is dark, it doesn't look quite so shadowy, and looks more like normal dark wood furniture.
I think it looks a lot better in real life than it does in the photos.

Overall I'm very happy with the new media center, though I'm not sure I would do it all over again given the time and money it took (because of my inexperience).

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

Finally now I can get back to DC work!

tomos · « **Reply #183 on:** July 02, 2015, 03:05 PM »

I love it

Deozaan · « **Reply #184 on:** July 02, 2015, 04:26 PM »

That looks great!

mouser · « **Reply #185 on:** July 02, 2015, 05:33 PM »

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 · « **Reply #186 on:** July 02, 2015, 11:12 PM »

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 · « **Reply #187 on:** July 08, 2015, 03:38 PM »

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

Deozaan · « **Reply #188 on:** July 08, 2015, 04:37 PM »

The new furniture definitely looks much nicer. Nice work!

mouser · « **Reply #189 on:** July 11, 2015, 11:38 AM »

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?

Deozaan · « **Reply #190 on:** July 12, 2015, 06:27 PM »

Can we get more details on the spring loaded speaker cover?

Also, does your new cabinet include a TV mount? Or is it a wall mount?

mouser · « **Reply #191 on:** July 12, 2015, 07:46 PM »

spring loaded speaker cover =
a $1.50 magnetic spring latch that you can get at any hardware store.
a square frame built from 1/4 inch square dowels wrapped in speaker fabric.

as for the tv -- i used a wall mount even though it places the tv almost exactly same place a tv stand would put it, just so it would leave the top of the cabinet uncluttered. i had to employ a trick i use when wall mounting heavy objects on my plaster walls that don't have studs, which is to mount a wood plank to the wall and then attach the tv mount to it.

Deozaan · « **Reply #192 on:** July 12, 2015, 08:08 PM »

as for the tv -- i used a wall mount even though it places the tv almost exactly same place a tv stand would put it, just so it would leave the top of the cabinet uncluttered.
-mouser (July 12, 2015, 07:46 PM)

Thanks. I was seeing that plank going down behind the cabinet and thought maybe you had built in the plank/wallmount onto the cabinet.

mouser · « **Reply #193 on:** July 12, 2015, 08:17 PM »

I actually considered it, but it seems secure not attached to the cabinet. it does look like its attached behind it though.

arvin23 · « **Reply #194 on:** October 14, 2015, 12:07 AM »

The one you know how to use!

Seriously, most anything from Sketchup to Solidworks will suffice for the work I see here.
It all depends on what you are comfortable using, or learning.

If this is a new pursuit for you ( designing on computer) I'd keep it simple.
The more capable pro design packages give you endless flexibility which comes in handy is special situations.
The downside is all those options can be overwhelming. Rhino has 10 options for drawing a circle, for instance.

A lot of people like Sketchup and you can't beat the price.
There are many good tutorials online and some are specific to woodworking.
That said if you have any experience with other CAD programs you might find it confusing to transition. ( I know I have to switch my hat around when I switch to Sketchup)

Another consideration is 2D vs 3D.
If you are used to working in traditional 2D drafting methods ( top, front and side views) you could work with almost any vector drawing program ( Adobe Illustrator for one) I've done many quick full scale layouts in Illustrator that get the job done.
It doesn't automatically give you dimensions, but there are tools that will give you what you need.

Sorry for the long rambling answer, but there are many options and most of them will work.
There are several very capable Sketchup users on here who I hope will chime in from that perspective.
It may well be the way to go.

Good luck

mouser · « **Reply #195 on:** July 10, 2016, 09:10 PM »

I have always loved hammocks, and for the last 4 or 5 years I have been dreaming of hanging one in my place.
The problem? The walls in my 1929 building have no studs. It's brick on the exterior, and some studless plaster over thin metal frame in the exterior (structure provided by giant steel beams).

Two years ago I decided to go for it and cut a half dozen holes in my wall only to give up having found nothing I could possibly anchor into and hang a hammock from. I admitted defeat.

Then earlier this year I got a cheap rusty 10ft outdoor hammock stand for free from craigslist in order to hopefully convince myself that having a hammock in the house was actually not something I would really want. Only it had the opposite effect and I was determined once again to have a hammock in my living room.

When I explained the difficulty I was having figuring out a way to install a hammock everyone said the same thing -- just use the stand.

Never. Even a beautiful hammock stand would be an eyesore if it had to be sitting in the living room all the time, even when i didn't want it. And most hammock stands are serious eyesores.

So after a few weeks of planning and purchasing parts, 3 days ago I began Project Impossible Hammock.

The results after 3 solid days of work, one catastrophe that I hope I've figured a way around (unexpectedly hollow bricks 10 inches deep in exterior wall):
Note that all the crazyness you see below is all done in order to create stable surface to mount the anchors to.

In order to mount to the interior living room wall, I cut a 4x4 hole from the living room into the office, and then put a 4x4 post through the wall flush with the living room wall, and strongly screwed the post into a wall-to-wall bookcase on the other side of the wall in my office:

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

On the exterior living room wall, I thought I was going to have an easy time, using Sleeve Anchors specially designed to mount in brick. I bought an SDS drill for the project which can drill through hard brick like butter. These sleeve anchors can hold an insane amount of force if properly mounted in brick (like 5000 pounds). However, the nasty surprise I disovered however was that the first 10" of the exterior brick wall was actually made up of mostly hollow brick -- unsuitable for holding much weight:

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

My solution was to expand the cut out on the exterior wall even more, which revealed that lower on the wall they actually did have full depth of brick. Then I used the sleeve anchors and some toggle bolts to attach a 30"x10" 3/4 inch oak board to the brick in a half dozen places to spread out the weight. I anchored into full brick where I could, and then put a couple in the mortar between the hollow bricks (normally a no-no but i think a reasonable compromise that seemed to offer best hold onto surrounding hollow brick), and one toggle bolt directly into middle of a hollow brick. I used my torque wrench (for car work mostly) to tighten the sleeve anchors to proper torque, and then I mounted the hammock anchor onto that board.

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

Here I am testing it..

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

Then I replastered the walls to cover up the oak board, etc. I actually had to use a dremel to cut off the bolt heads and even then built up and feather out the plaster wall another half inch to fully cover and hide the mounting board. But the result was what I wanted -- nearly invisible hammock mounting points when there is no hammock present:

Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

And now I wait to see if it holds. After all this work, if it fails I don't know if I will emotionally survive.

tomos · « **Reply #196 on:** July 11, 2016, 07:26 AM »

Impressive work jesse

Hope it holds up -- looks like it should

mouser · « **Reply #197 on:** July 12, 2016, 06:39 PM »

Hammock doing great so far. cat loves napping with me in it.

tomos · « **Reply #198 on:** July 13, 2016, 01:58 AM »

Hammock doing great so far. cat loves napping with me in it.
-mouser (July 12, 2016, 06:39 PM)

great

mouser · « **Reply #199 on:** December 12, 2016, 12:50 PM »

Hammock update: It's holding up great and I love it.

I am now seriously considering building my second piece of "fine" furniture, a large chest of drawers/armoire. I'm afraid it will take me too long to do, cost too much, and that I will struggle getting the drawers to fit again. My rationale brain tells me to buy a second hand one and save lots of money and energy and time. But the part of my brain that is rogue is telling me that if I don't build it myself I will regret the lost opportunity/excuse to do so