Wine Cabinet

When I started this project, i had little more than a vision and a spot in my house that needed a piece of furniture. At the time, i completely lacked the necessary skills to build what I had in mind and had never worked with any wood other than pine. This proved to be a year long journey and plunge into the world of wood working.

My plan was to create something of lasting beauty and timelessness, however it was a slow and rough start as I had little idea what I was doing. I had never heard of such things as face frames, nor did I know a whole lot about joinery, but I was willing to learn, and so, i did a lot of reading, asked a lot of questions and took the opportunity to acquire lots of tools!

The carcass is built from maple plywood, with maple faceframe buiscuit jointed to the front. The wine rack is poplar and all done with dowel joins. I had to make sure the wine rack was very strong as the bottle capacity (27 bottles) = 150+ lbs

Tools that this job necessitated for purchase (as far as my wife is concerned):
-New table saw (x2) – There is a story to this, I will get to it one day
-Biscuit joiner
-Router
-Dovetail jig
-Dowel jig
-The initial endeavour into handplanes
-Marking guage
-Clamps! Loads of clamps!
+ others that I can’t think of at the moment

I have to say that I learned a LOT in the process of designing and building this piece. I practiced and learned a lot of skills, and also learned a lot about planning and execution of a project which I will apply forward.. I also learned how to convince my wife that spending money on tools is worthwhile! Not the finest piece of woodworking, but i’m quite happy with it and the feedback i’ve received in person.

If anyone wants drawings/measurements, I designed/drew it in Google Sketchup prior to the build and am happy to share drawings.

-- Will, Ontario Canada. "I can do fast, cheap and good, but you can only pick two... "