Amplifier furniture is finished

[Geeze]

I'm bored with a garage full of wood. I am slowly building home furniture to fill in the house and make it more functional. I have struggled with having way too many cabs - with and without amps and speakers and over the years have come to appreciate a low clutter and low altitude furnishings. Namely less than 30" tall. Only bookcases should be taller in the living / dining areas for me - can't have enough books. To add fun to this challenge I want to be able to move the amp heads easily and leave the speaker cabs static so it will be wheeled.

On a whim I built a credenza top last fall with cherry and curly maple and have vacillated what to do with the base.

Drawers or no drawers. Tambour front [thin vertical strips of wood that slide horizontally - think roll top desk but sideways]. Bifold doors or just shelves. Storage boxes on shelves - pretty wood or plastic. These are the thoughts that ricochet noisily through my mind like bullets on meth.

After looking at wire shelving - which all ends up in the garage holding wood - [again] I decided to use the top and build two long shelves out of cherry and curly walnut and the same for legs. Should fit two standard width and two small box heads with guitars on stands [maybe] on top. Rough sketch.

Cherry and walnut rough cut then to be edge sanded on the drum sander.

Wet

First bits glued up. I'm doing strips for dimensional stability.

Russ

 

[fitz]

So, a wheel-around cart full of amp heads?

 

[paul-e-mann]

@Geeze unless youre psychotic and can dream up your own ideas from scratch, I suggest looking at Pinterest for ideas, just type in what youre looking for with as much detail as you want and you'll have a ton of examples/ideas.

 

[Geeze]

So, a wheel-around cart full of amp heads?

A beautiful cart of amp heads - as several wives said to their husbands at the shows I've displayed at where I received the highest household six praise - 'Livingroom worthy.'

@Geeze unless youre psychotic and can dream up your own ideas from scratch, I suggest looking at Pinterest for ideas

Pinterest is the gateway drug to design hell topped with scrapbooking and cats... I've been described as psychotic multiple times. One of these days I'll put on my big boy pants and have a look!

Russ

 

[TXOldRedRocker]

Something like this?

 

[Geeze]

Something like this?

Exactly!

Not as tall - 60" wide, heads only and I thought - me being me - that I would have a flip down hinged door on the bottom section that would hold the current lineup of pedals with the also rans stowed in the back. Maybe with a stealth Marshall logo - me being me again.

Russ.

 

[TassieViking]

Maybe with a stealth Marshall logo

WTF
It should be pearl inlay and LARGE just like a beautiful inlay on a guitar neck
Be proud
Make it large.
And I want to see how you make a pair of greenbacks hide in there somewhere too.
Maybe behind some nice wood lattice scrolls like vintage radios used to have.

 

[Geeze]

WTF
It should be pearl inlay and LARGE just like a beautiful inlay on a guitar neck
Be proud
Make it large.
And I want to see how you make a pair of greenbacks hide in there somewhere too.
Maybe behind some nice wood lattice scrolls like vintage radios used to have.

Stealth to not detract from the wood of course!

I've had an idea for several years to have an amp 'pop' up like an old sewing machine on the top of a cab with a 1x12 hidden in the bottom section. I think Ampeg did a pop up like that at one time.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

I received a notification yesterday that these two pieces were selected for display at the East Tennessee Workworkers show in early November.

Zebra set with 77 JMP 2203 + Scumback J75LDs

Union Jack with handwired 1987

Russ

 

[TassieViking]

I think I will retract my earlier post, those cabs look great but a bit over the top for my liking.
Maybe I'm just getting old but I love the older dark wood french polished look, even on newer things.
I always want wood to give me a feeling of warm and homely, something I want to touch.
Just like the pic in post #1

 

[BlueX]

I received a notification yesterday that these two pieces were selected for display at the East Tennessee Workworkers show in early November.

Zebra set with 77 JMP 2203 + Scumback J75LDs

Union Jack with handwired 1987

Russ

A stunning parade!

Do you want more ideas? Maybe smart and good looking storage for all guitar related accessories? At least my music room is beyond cluttered.

 

[Geeze]

Maybe I'm just getting old but I love the older dark wood french polished look, even on newer things.
I always want wood to give me a feeling of warm and homely, something I want to touch.

Depends on my mood and the venue I'm displaying at - boring doesn't get past jury selection. One of the many reasons I use RIT fabric dye for wood as most wood dyes are boring.

French polish looks nice but is a very fragile finish. I spray lacquer as it's covers well and is the easiest finish to fix that brings out the chatoyance [jeweler term] of the wood.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Two more strips added to shelf #1

Russ

 

[Geeze]

Sanding time. All that's left on the shelves is the front lip of more cherry that was left over from the top.

Probably another hour's worth before it's righteous. Then it's leg time.

Russ

 

[TassieViking]

French polish looks nice but is a very fragile finish

I think I will have to agree with that, I have never tried french polishing.
Even making stuff as good looking as those heads and cabs is above my abilities.
I usually stick with Marine Varnish and Marine Ply as they are very nice and durable, some of the Marine Varnishes will have a mirror finish when it dries and very durable.
I find the best shops for any general hardware is the marine shops since whatever they sell can withstand any weather, hinges for your gate will never rust or seize up.
And some of those old school cigar boats look sooo good varnished.

I think I should have said I like wood to look like honey, light or dark, honey always looks good.
That top would look great with some mirror finish marine varnish, and that stripey look will come up really nice, love it.
Cheers
Mick

 

[Geeze]

Shelves sanded to 1.125" thick.

Front lip posed with shelf.

I'm not willing to go for symmetry with this build.

Russ

 

[Geeze]

I'm waffling on the leg design and currently a curved leg is catching my eye but I'm thinking on scraping the current top as it is forcing me to limit the design. Decisions decisions.

BTW @paul-e-mann suggested I look at Pinterest - lots of ideas he said. An hour later I'm contemplating the above course of action and recreating a pick guard design. It will be fun they said, it will consume two hours of time on a scroll saw...

Nothing like a 'quick' project to allow the brain to sort through design options...

Russ

 

[Geeze]

After deep meditation on the leg design I started with a full curve top to bottom but I didn't want the footprint to be wider than the top. I also want to avoid the 'everything's straight AKA workbench look' so I'll curve the top section in from about halfway up. The top will be 31" tall - the same as the dining table I built when I moved to TN.

Here's a crude sketch -

The outside leg layer will be walnut and the insides cherry. The shelves will sit in a slot cut into the legs. The bottom will have a skirt to hide the casters - giving them about 1/2" of protrusion.

Russ

 

[WesChilton]

I built myself a simple combo amp cabinet with built-in power and amp switching capabilities.
Designed in SketchUp, and built our of high quality birch plywood, stained and poly. Really saves a lot of space in my tiny studio!

 

[Geeze]

Nice @WesChilton !

After my drop down the pinterest hole...

I sliced up the leg material tonight and made some planning sketches.

The casters will be inset for free rotation. I'm not anticipating much if any sag from the 6-7 piece 1.125" thick shelves. Running sag calculations on just cherry with 30lb per foot load I'm seeing about .030" sag across an unsupported 54" width. With the cherry/walnut laminations I expect less than that.

Russ