Entry Details

IMG_1314.jpg - Shows wall cabinet being used as a display cabinet for model cars. Cabinet is built from red oak with bocote accents, glass sides panels, glass door panels and glass display shelves. The dimensions of the cabinet are 28 ½” wide, 29” high and 10” deep. It is designed to hang flat on the wall using a French cleat hanger system. It has 2 - 9 watt light fixtures for illumination and an on/off switch to control the lights.

The doors and sides of the cabinet are frame construction using mortise and tenons. The doors are accented with bocote in the center of each corner and the middle of the outside stile. The knobs are turned from bocote and inlayed with an oak accent piece to add contrast to the knobs.

The doors and sides are designed to give full viewing of the bottom shelf. This was accomplished by setting the glass sides panels in a stopped dado to allow for insertion of the glass after the cabinet was assembled.

IMG_1313.jgp - Shows the cabinet with doors open to highlight the back panel. Back panel is made from ½” oak with overlapping dados to allow for wood movement. On side of each “plank” has a bead routed on it for decoration and to help distinguish the individual “planks”.

The metal plate in the center of the cabinet is the mate to a rare earth magnet set in the door to keep the doors in the closed position. The box on top of the cabinet houses the 2 – 9 watt light fixtures. It is held in place by brass machine screws set in counterbored holes located at each end of the housing. They are screwed into brass inserts in the cabinet top, making for a clean mounting arrangement for the lamp housing.

IMG_1302.jpg – Shows the lamp housing removed from the cabinet top to show the installation of the 2 – 9 watt light fixtures. They are wired together to the incoming power cord controlled by an on/off switch. The power cord is routed down the back of the cabinet thru guide holes that allow the cabinet to set flat against the wall; the cord exits the bottom of the cabinet. Light fixtures are held in place with metal clips supplied with the fixture. Slots for the light fixture were cut in the top of the cabinet using a straight router bit and template setup. The inside edge of the slots was profiled to remove the hard corner of the slot.

IMG_1312.jpg – This photo details the no mortise hinges used to mount the cabinet doors, they are antique brass and blend in with the bocote accent pieces used on the cabinet doors. This photo also shows the bocote retaining stops used to hold the side glass panels and door glass panels in place. Plastic ¼” shelf supports were used to mount the glass display shelves.

IMG_1300.jgp – Detail photo of the rare earth magnet used to keep the cabinet doors in the closed position. Also shows the mortise and tenon joint used throughout the cabinet.

Bocote retaining stops used on the doors are installed in the vertical plane only. This allows the door to close flush and allows for the minimum gap created by the no mortise hinge. Side glass panels are installed this way also because the side glass is recessed in stopped dados in the cabinet top and bottom.