NOTE 1: Beautiful pieces of wonderful wood can sometimes be available to you for FREE! All you have to do is keep your eyes open.
NOTE 2: All amateur woodworkers should make friends with local pros in your area - you can learn so much, and in their quieter times, most will gladly offer their assistance.
Sometimes a woodworker can come across FREE USEABLE WOOD from a variety of sources - all you have to do is ask for it. Like I mentioned, the wood for this project came from the scrap heap of a renovation project. A local watering hole in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada was being renovated, and my brother-in-law Alfie was passing by one day and asked if he might have any of the wood which they were pitching out. After inspecting the scrap pile, he carted some of it home and discovered there were some great pieces in his "find", which he shared with me.
Most of the boards were oak which had been painted many times. If they were going to paint it, why use oak! Who knows, but they had covered up the beautiful grain pattern that oak always has. I put it in my garage, to be used when the right project came along. I noticed in my current Lee Valley Tools catalogue, slotted plastic CD racks which would greatly simplify making a CD storage case, , ,Hmm, , ,I thought, like everybody, a nice CD storage case was something I drastically needed!
When I decided to make the small CD case I needed, it was time to see exactly what I had. This is where the local professional woodworkers come into this story. This project was made before I got my planer, so I called around and got some positive responses from local pros, when I asked if they would have time to run a couple of boards through their planer for me. They said that day was not a good time, but in 2 days they would gladly do it for me. So 2 days later, having decided I needed 3/8" oak, my 3/4" painted boards were planed down to 3/8" revealling some really nicely grained oak material. More about these great guys later, but now on with this project.
This is a really simple project to
make. The set of plastic racks comes in 4 pieces: 1 left end
piece, 1 right end piece and 2 pieces which go in the middle. The
end pieces have 1 side which is flat, and the other side is
slotted. The middle racks are slotted on both sides. The middle
racks have protrusions on the top and bottom, which will fit
perfectly, into a 1/4" slot you will cut with your router,
into the insides of the top and bottom of your case.
When ascertaining the overall size of my case, I put CD's in between the inserts, and measured the overall length, the overall width, and the distance between each piece. I felt that the overall length would have to be just a smidgen larger, so the CD's weren't too tight. So with these dimensions in hand, I then cut the wood to length and width, routed the 1/4" slots in the inside of the top and bottom. Don't cut these slots all the way through to the front, because it will be visible from the front. The top and bottom edges of the plastic inserts will hide the edges of the slots and the ends, IF you don't cut the slot right to the edge of the wood. Those plastic protrusions are placed a 1/2" or so back from their ends, so hiding the end of your slots is easily accomplished. The end pieces, with the flat side, are attached to the inside of the ends, with contact cement, but you do that when it's all assembled. If you need to sand a tad off those plastic pieces, it can be done - I had to do it,,,just a tiny bit.
The choice of joinery at the corners of the cabinet, can be whatever you choose. In the catalogue showing the plastic inserts, they used a simple butt joint. I used a rabbet 3/16" deep and the width of the stock wide into the top and bottom of the unit, but whatever type of joinery you choose, be sure to take that into consideration when making your calculations of the dimensions of your case.
The most important part of this project is to measure exactly for the placing of the middle slots - in the top and bottom. There is not too much room for error in the spacing of these slots. The ledges on which the CD's rest, are not very wide and if you're measurement is off by too much, the CD's will not fit into the slots properly and will either be too tight, or will fall from the plastic ledges right through to the bottom.
When assembled, the case was stained with a Behr oak stain, and then the unit was given 3 coats of a water based lacquer.
Now, a further word on the help I've received from my professional friends. On several occasions, they have helped me with advice or by doing some difficult "for the amateur - which I am" cuts. They offered to sell me beautifully grained wood "anytime" for my projects, and believe me, the wood you can get from a pro woodworking shop, is not carried at your local home centre. And, the price I was charged was LESS than I would have paid at that same home centre. We've shared many an early morning coffee, discussing projects, and I show my appreciation by periodically dropping off something to wet their pallette, if you know what I mean - small price to pay for the help and advice I've received from them.
Do yourself a favour: Make a few calls, and get to know a few professional woodworkers. You will be glad you did!
For the next project, click on BACK, and then on the next project photo.
Email
Webmaster
In an attempt to decrease the spam I get, my
email address is
no longer clickable but instead is shown as an image in the box
below.
If you wish to email me, please record the address below and email me there.
