DVD Video Storage Cabinet

The plans for this DVD video storage cabinet actually started out a little more interesting than the result you see here. My mother-in-law had asked me to design a shelf to store DVD?s, CD?s, and VHS tapes.

I came up with a clever shelf that was adjustable to fit various combinations of CDs and DVDs perfectly. It turns out all she really wanted was a set of simple DVD storage shelves. So I headed back to the drawing board and turned out these plans for a pretty basic DVD storage cabinet.

At first, I considered making the shelves fixed rather than adjustable. A DVD case is about 7-1/2? tall by 5-3/8? deep so the 8-1/2? tall clearance would have been fine. However, by making the shelves adjustable it will be useful for storing other things as future needs change.

Material I?m quite sure that you?re all getting pretty sick and tired of me building things out of 3/4? white melamine. But this time in particular, that?s what she asked for! My in-laws just had some new cabinets installed as part of a dining room addition and everything is white. So in this case, white melamine really did fit in okay.

I should take a moment to mention that there are significant differences in the quality of various brands and grades of melamine panels. This is probably why it often gets such a bad rap. I picked up some melamine at the local ?home improvement warehouse? and it turned out to be complete garbage. The core was a very poor grade of particle board, making it completely unsuitable for building cabinets.

For the DVD video storage cabinet I bought a reputable brand of melamine from a lumber yard that often deals in factory seconds. The core was a dense, good quality particle board, but the face had several blemishes in it that really caused problems when I laid out the sheet for cutting. Also, the price was very little different than what I would have paid for a high quality panel at a commercial lumber supplier. The bottom line is that it pays to shop carefully when choosing your materials.

Construction The DVD storage cabinet is really just an open wall cabinet with a couple of minor adjustments. First, since I wanted a specific clear distance between the shelves, I placed the shelf support holes at intervals other than the standard 32mm. Keeping 8-1/2? between shelves allows enough room for a DVD (or VHS tape?they?re the same height) plus a bit of room to reach in and pull the disc or tape off the shelf.

As I was designing the original DVD video storage plans, I needed to center the adjustable shelves on the support holes. Normally the shelf sits slightly above the hole, depending on the shelf pin or support used. To achieve the look and spacing I wanted, I opted for an angled steel shelf support. They?re available for use in both 5mm and 1/4" holes and they allow the shelf to sit approximately centered on the hole.
Wall Mounting One of the things that makes this DVD video storage cabinet unique is the method used for mounting it to the wall. Rather than screw the cabinet directly to the wall, it is hung on a pair of beveled rails called a French cleat. One cleat is attached to the cabinet and the other is attached to the wall. The cabinet is then hooked onto the wall cleat. A screw can then be used through the bottom nailer to prevent the cabinet from being lifted up off the cleat.

Hanging wall cabinets using a French cleat is actually pretty common. In fact, there are several commercially produced metal variations on the wooden French cleat that I?ve employed here. A couple significant advantages of using a French cleat are increased strength and a better ability to hang your cabinets level and plumb.

Strength is improved, especially in a long run of cabinets, because the wall cleat runs the full length of all the cabinets and is screwed to every stud. Sometimes with long runs of narrow cabinets you?re only able to fasten a cabinet to one stud. By using a French cleat, the weight of the cabinets is evenly distributed between all the studs.

Leveling your cabinets is also easier with a French cleat. You only need to level and plumb a 4? wide board. This is so much easier to handle than four or five cabinets ganged together. It?s also possible to shim the wall cleat away from the wall if the wall isn?t perfectly straight.

In my particular case I was most interested in the French cleat because it allowed me a very simple, concealed method of fastening the DVD video storage cabinet to the wall. Since both cleats are completely enclosed between the cabinet back and the wall, you can hang it without any exposed fasteners. This cabinet is so small that I wouldn?t even add the screw through the bottom nailer.

Drawing File I suppose this has digressed from how to build a DVD storage shelf into a discussion on avoiding poor quality sheet goods and a mini primer on the use of French cleats for hanging cabinets. If after all that you still want to see some plans for DVD storage, then just click on the link below. If youd like to download a copy to your computer, right click then "save-as". Either way, youll need the Adobe reader to view the file.

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Turning Around America

June 28th, 2011 in blogs         3 users recommend $(document).ready(function() {$("a.popit").fancybox();});

The back of Beths van opens to a complete woodworking shop.

Photo: Doug Stowe It seems that many in the media these days are mourning the loss of American manufacturing, and have changed their minds about whether or not it is ok for us to abandon manufacturing completely. (I for one never thought it was OK.) But if we dont introduce our children to  craftsmanship, and the value of making things, there is little we can do to reverse the loss. Beth Ireland decided that as a woodturner she could do something. She’s been on a mission to turn as many students on to woodturning as she can in a single year. Her idea was that while children taught to the test and challenged by compliance with "standards" in school and occupied by social networking at home  just dont make things anymore, she could take matters into her own hands.

Having heard about Beths Turning Around America project, I invited her to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to teach at the The Eureka Springs School of the Arts, and the Clear Spring School. 

For 9 months, 32 states, 21,000 miles, Beth traveled the US in a van equipped with two lathes, a band saw, boxes of tools, a grinder, and would teach wherever an extension cord could be plugged in. Her van also contains a bed, living and cooking supplies, toilet, and space dedicated inside for book making. She’s taught at schools, clubs and even campsites. Her total after 9 months is 2084 students, which in the vast scheme of things may not seem much more than a dent, until you remember that most of those students had never made anything before in their lives.

At ESSA, our School of the Arts, I brought a lathe from Clear Spring, and the Stateline Wood Turners from Northwest Arkansas and Southwest Missiouri brought one, and with Beths two lathes set up and ready to go, woodturners of all ages were invited. Adults, some as old as in their seventies turned on the lathe for the first time. We made turned pens and whistles, and even the director and staff of ESSA became hooked on turning.

In three days at Clear Spring School, all my students from 1st through 12th grades made turned and carved whistles.  From  a wood shop teacher’s perspective, I can tell you that spending time with another teacher with such skill and passion brought me new skills of my own.

Beth’s partner Jenn is taking the  the van on the road to new schools, while Beth does a residency at the Turning Center in Philadelphia, as part of the International Turning Exchange. Her project, "Turning around America" is aptly named, as nearly all the political pundits have finally moved toward agreement that we have lost our creative edge,  that weve been going steadfastly in the wrong direction and that it is not enough for us to be a nation of mindless consumers educating our students heads, but failing in the education of their hands. Weve been missing the development of character and intellect that arise when the hands are intelligently engaged in learning.

You can support Beths project through a link on her website. www.turningaroundamerica.com

posted in: blogs, , wood turning, woodworking education, Beth Ireland, ESSA, the Clear Spring School

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DVD CD Storage Cabinet

When my mother-in-law asked me to design a DVD-CD storage cabinet, these plans are what I had originally come up with. It turns out she really only needed to store DVD?s, so the plans were scrapped and gave way to the DVD storage cabinet you?ll see elsewhere on the site.
I was bummed that she only wanted a simple shelf, because I had come up with a kinda clever way of locating the adjustable shelves to fit various combinations of CD?s and DVD?s. Although I never had a chance to actually build the original shelf, Im publishing it here for those who might find it useful.
Material There isn?t much to say about materials. It?s designed with the same white melamine as the DVD cabinet, with white PVC edge banding. As with many of the projects youll find here, it could also be built out of plywood or even solid lumber.
I did learn something new about edge banding while designing the DVD-CD storage cabinet and building the DVD shelf. Most of my experience with banding has been operating automatic glue pot edgebanders in a commercial shop. During my very first job in a cabinet shop I also had some exposure to a simple table-top hot air bander, but that?s about it.
Recently I bought a used Virutex hand-held hot air edgebander (apparently the same machine is marketed under the Grizzly brand name). I?m accustomed to high quality PVC edge banding and was quite disappointed to discover that virtually all of the pre-glued edge banding on the market is cheap, lightweight vinyl. No wonder hot air edge banding has such a poor reputation!
I contacted my favorite edge banding supplier, Frama-Tech, and they are able to pre-glue any of their stock PVC colors for a small fee. That?s pretty awesome considering they?re incredible at matching even the most obscure laminate color. Of course my first order of PVC was white for the DVD-CD storage cabinet but it could have been just about any color I wanted.
I?m used to 15/16? edge banding and it worked very well in the Virutex bander. Having a bit of extra width was helpful in making sure it completely covered the edge of the board when my hand wasn?t running very steady. I used a FastCap Quad Pro Trimmer on the edges and a Flush Cut Trimmer for the ends. It went very quickly and you can?t tell the difference between the hand-held bander?s work and that from a $25,000 automatic glue pot bander!
Hardware Other than some small size differences, the major difference between the original DVD-CD storage cabinet and the plain old DVD shelf is in the shelf pin hole location and hardware. Initially, I wanted the CD storage shelf to be configurable for several combinations of CD?s or DVD?s. Regular 32mm system holes don?t always line up nicely for storing items of a real specific size. So I placed holes in a modestly sized cabinet such that the resulting shelf spacing would be a ?perfect? fit for storing CD?s, DVD?s, or VHS cassettes.
In the original design I had figured on using a low profile, concealed shelf support. The main purpose for this was to allow the shelf to be centered on the pin holes rather than sitting above the holes on shelf pins. I also liked the clean look of no exposed shelf supports. This requires slot to be cut in the ends of the shelves to conceal the shelf support.
When I switched to the simple DVD shelf, I also simplified the construction by eliminating the concealed support in favor of an angled steel shelf support. The angled support didn?t require the extra groove in the ends of the shelves, but still centered the shelf on the pin holes. I left the concealed support in the original DVD-CD storage cabinet plans just so you could see a nice alternative method for supporting adjustable shelves.
Drawing File Even though the DVD shelf design turned out nice, I still like this design better. Hopefully you?ll enjoy it too. You can view the drawings by clicking on the link below. If youd like to download a copy to your computer, right click then "save-as". Either way, youll need the Adobe reader to view the file.
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