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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Build a mid-century modern style credenza, using cherry with sliding doors, spindly turned legs, and shelf pins for adjustable storage, with a TV set on top. The video is a build-along showing the process from cutting dividers and edge banding through drilling, dry fitting, clamping, turning legs, and installing doors.
Key Points
- Choose cherry and orient the boards so the sapwood streak runs through the visible side, which the maker preferred for the look (no mention of edge banding being on grooved side).
- Dry fit the whole case before gluing to confirm pieces fit, especially that the end panels sit flush at the front while the center dividers sit back to form the door track.
- Use a shelf pin jig to drill adjustable shelf holes in the dividers after dry fitting to confirm the pieces fit.
- Turn the legs from three glued-up solid cherry pieces, and fit them with dowels set by a template at each corner.
- Finish the door panels and interior surfaces with lacquer before assembly, masking the front rabbet and molding area that must stay glue- and finish-free.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Edge band the front of each divider with iron-on edge banding, using a hot iron (never a cold one), then trim it flush with a razor blade or a plane.
- Cut a sliver off the front edge of each divider to make up for the thickness of the edge banding.
- Cut cord access holes in the back panel.
- Route the grooves for the dividers before gluing up the case.
- Use a 3/4 inch hole on each leg corner, located with a template with a hole in it, then glue the legs in and tip the case upright so its weight clamps the leg joints.
- Shave a little off the top of each square door panel so it slides easily in the track.
- Tape the front rabbet and molding area before lacquering, and wrap the doors in waxed paper when gluing the front molding strip so glue does not reach them.
- Install the end molding pieces first, using joined pipe clamps long enough to span the case.
- The maker says clamping was improvised: pipe clamps could not fit underneath, so the case was turned sideways to reach the clamps.
- Turning the legs took almost three hours, and the maker describes themselves as not very good on the lathe.
- The case was originally inspired by a credenza the maker's grandparents owned, which held records; this build is for stereo components with a TV on top.
Bottom Line
A mid-century credenza is a manageable project if you dry fit first, plan clamping before glue-up, and protect the door track and molding surfaces, since the tricky parts are the sliding door fit and clamp access.
