Full of good intentions, I said to myself last night..."Robert, it's a day in the 'shop for you tomorrow, my lad, freezing cold or nae...don't be such a bloody namby!" However, a quick peek out of the bedroom curtains this morning only showed that the weather situation hadn't improved one iota overnight and was confirmed when, on going into the 'shop this morning, the thermometer read -10degC!
At one time, such a mere trifling variation in the temperature wouldn't have bothered me, but as I get increasingly geriatric a few creature comforts, such as a bit of warmth, become slightly more crucial...
Having decided to forgo the delights of the 'shop, I thought I could do a little more design work indoors on this unit for the TV. I sorted out some scale rules and did a couple of 1:5 drawings on A3 paper, firstly having made some card shapes of the frontal footprint for each piece of equipment being racked out. Once the drawings had been made, I was astonished to see that the proposed thickness of the material for the top and rails (initially around 24mm) didn't look at all good...far too skinny! By increasing the thickness to 40mm and having a re-draft, it started to look much better.
I should add that the design is based on one of his simple, but chunky stool designs, that can be seen on page 112 of his book (and if you didn't get it for Christmas...you should have!) One feature of these designs is that they are made from solid timber and whilst I have a decent quantity of English Oak in stock...I haven't got that much, so I'm going to make much of it using bandsawn veneer over an mdf core.
Now the problem is the top, as the (mitred) end lipping will cause a glaring problem when the shaping is done, but after some deliberation, the solution is was blindingly obvious! As AP himself said many times..."make a feature out of problem and it ceases to be a problem."
Make the end lippings from ebony, or some other contrasting timber.
The bonus side of this type of approach is that it would enable me to make the drawer pulls from the same material.
That's the theory...practice might be slightly different.
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