CHERRY ENTERTAINMENT ARMOIRE

Beautiful figure and nice craftsmanship combined.

SHOP OWNER: Mike Hirsch

LOCATION: Jasper, IN

I finally got something complete that I feel is worth showing to everyone. With some of the great items that I have seen here, I didn't want to show just anything.

I started this cherry entertainment armoire about a year and a half ago. I know that is a long time but I don't work in the summers too much, too hot, and I lost about six months with some elbow surgery. The entire piece with the exception of the back, top, and bottom are solid cherry. The doors and the sides feature raised panel. It is about 78" tall, 46" wide and 24" deep.

The big cove molding on the top started as a piece of six-inch wide 12/4 solid cherry. I created the cove on the table saw. Actually, the only power tools that I have are a Craftsman table saw, a PC-690 router, and a Delta 12-1/2" planner. For everything else, I used hand tools. The rectangular inlay on the side panels and the trim around the doors is Macassar ebony.

The pocket door hardware and the drawer slides are Accuride. The bottom of the case is 3/4" plywood built into a torsion box and joined to the sides. For the inside case, where the TV sits, I joined the top and bottom corners with hand cut dovetails. All of the shelves and dividers are in sliding dovetail joints.

The armoire was finish sanded to 400-grit. I followed with four coats of Watco Danish Oil, wet sanding each coat using 1000-grit paper. To complete the finish, I applied a final coat of Briwax and buffed.