TV Stand/Entertainment Center
As mentioned, this was my first experience in the world of woodworking. After finding
a plan of something close to what I wanted from
Wood Magazine.
I set off with my first table saw, a 10" Craftsman. For some reason I could never
get the fence properly lined up with the saw blade. So I wound up using a 2" x 4" and a
couple of clamps. This of course took forever to line up and make sure it was square.
Fortunately I didn't mess anything up too bad. There were a few times I had to step back
and re-think a few things, but that's part of the fun of woodworking. Especially when you
are deviating from the original plans. I made this stand much wider than the one in the original plans.
The first image below shows the TV stand in it's near finished state.
The bottom frame and feet were assembled using biscuit joints that provide a solid base.
As you can see from the original plans, I changed the section by adding an additional
support in the middle. This was used in the front and back braces. I also went with the
straight braces instead of the more decorative arch in the plans. I was a little too hesitant
to try the arch.
I was also extremely disappointed with the result of the stain job. Of course I found
what I thought was this wonderful product that was a stain and polyurethane mix in one.
This was the PolyShades from MinWax which is supposed to save you tons of time finishing
because you don't have to wait on the separate coats of stain and polyurethan to dry.
As you can see in the below picture, the PolyShades went on uneven and muted the wood grain.
After doing some research I found other people to have the same problems with this product.
However, I decided to leave it as is because I really
did not want to strip it down and refinish it.
The side profile shows a little more even of a stain.
