Computer Cabinet - #1 The Beginning

 

Probably some 20 years ago I built a corner computer desk and a side cabinet made out of cherry for the computer, printer and some paper.  It worked well for the original computer but from its replacement and the subsequent machines there was a problem.  The original computer’s cooling air came in at the bottom back and out the top back.  All the others have had the cooling air come in from the front and exit the back so my solid doors were a problem as there was no good way for cooling air to enter from the front.  The 15-year temporary solution was to stick a washcloth in the door to hold it open a couple of inches for the cooling air intake.  I just could never bring myself to cut a vent in the door. 

As computers increased in power cooling needs became more critical to a point of just having a door propped open was insufficient not to mention the esthetics.  What tipped me over to do this project was when I recently finished building a new computer that has six cooling fans and needs a lot of fresh air for cooling.  That and the case won’t fit in the existing side cabinet.  So now I have a nice-looking side cabinet that is completely empty except for a couple of shelves with a 9” x 18” hole in the back for wiring access and cooling.

In looking at a whole series of options ranging from just adding more shelving to adding interior cubbies and drawers similar to what’s inside a roll top desk I settled on a graduated stack of two sets of 3 drawers.  The drawing below shows what I have in mind.  There are no handles, a simple drop cutout will provide a good hand hold.  Since there are doors, I was not worried about the drawer contents getting dusty plus any type of handle except a recessed one would eat up drawer depth and usable space.

For material because the cherry has darkened quite a bit over the years, I wanted the interior to be a lighter contrasting wood.  Alder, poplar, maple and oak all came to mind.  There is a lot of alder used in this area but for me it’s too soft.  Poplar would be OK if it were painted but I want to use a clear finish so that’s out.  Maple is a good choice as is unstained or lightly stained oak.  As the cherry has aged and darkened the grain is not as pronounced as it once was so to provide contrast in color and grain I decided to go with red oak. 

Recently I was gifted an older oak mantel that is about 1 5/8” thick, 14” wide and 8’ long.  To get the width it’s glued up from three pieces.  The mantel is really pretty flat and straight which is nice but did have a few problems. Over time the glue joints had opened up and are not in the best of shape.  There is also a fair number of cracks and splits of unknown depth plus a handful of knots that will need to be worked around.  Nothing catastrophic but it will take some work and measuring to get the needed pieces out of it.  Here is the whole plank along with a closer look at one end showing the problems. 

The first step is to rip the mantel along the glue joints to get the rough blanks.  I was a little concerned about the possibility of hitting some metal fasteners like what had happened when cutting down the mantel supports for the Kumiko jigs.  Dowels or biscuits would not be a problem.  After carefully checking with some rare earth magnets I could not find any ferrous metal so started ripping the plank down.  Process is to make a rough cut just a little bit into the center piece then come back and make a trim cut right at the edge of the glue line.  Here is what making the second cut looks like.  The roller stand toward the back of the piece supports the end of the plank helping me keep everything level making for a smooth cut.

Fortunately, there was no metal fasteners in the mantel but I did run across a few dowels that were used for alignment.  Here is what that looks like.  The question now is how long are they and will that cause a problem when laying out the drawer pieces.

After ripping the mantel down, I ended up with two pieces a little over 6” wide and 8’ long.  Next, they are run through the thickness sander loaded with 36 grit paper to get rid of any finish, flatten them and to see how bad the cracks and splits are.  The top photo is the sander setup and the bottom shows that while some of the cracks were superficial there were a number that are pretty deep.  Lucky for me is that the deep cracks are limited to one side of one board.

Since the drawer sides are going to be ½” thick more can be taken off the bad face and still leave enough to rip the piece so hopefully I can get two ½” thick boards out of this plank.  The thickness sander can be used to remove the material but the planer does it a lot faster.  Here is what that setup looks like except I will have the garage door opened for outfeed space.  Behind the planer you can just see a shop-vac that will suck up the chips it produces.  For ease of use both the planer and the vacuum are plugged into a control box that senses once the planer is started it starts the vacuum.   The vacuum runs as long as the planer is on plus a few seconds after shut off to empty the hose between the two.  The control box is a little more complicated than some due to the current draw of the planer and vacuum they need to be connected to separate circuits.

I removed as much material from the bad face as I could and it helped but some of the cracks were just too deep so I quit leaving enough for two finished ½” pieces plus a little.  That’s so if the ripped boards cup I have some room to flatten them.

Next Up – Resawing & Smoothing the Oak plus Starting on Oak Plywood Parts