Moving and completing the Monster Display Case

One of the tricky things about making a big and complicated piece of furniture is that the design will probably change as you work. Most of the challenges of the Monster Display Case involved engineering much more than wood work. For instance, it was obvious from the start that I could never make the whole cabinet in a single piece (the damn thing is 11 feet long and 7 feet high). I originally designed it in three separate pieces, each one 43 inches wide and 7 feet high.

This was a stupid idea.

43 inches wide and 7 feet high is still WAY too big. Especially for one-person shop like mine, pieces like this are almost impossible to move. Even worse, there was no way to stand them up. My ceiling technically has enough clearance, but the floor is uneven and when you stand up a rectangle, you have to be able to clear the diagonal dimension, which is always longer than the horizontal or vertical.

Geometry is a killer.

After days of carefully cutting, fitting, and gluing up the three big pieces, I ended up having to redesign the entire project. I cut the cases in half and inserted a countertop to tie the whole thing together. A big thanks to my old friend Stephen who works in a cabinet shop and helped me work through some of these details.

Cutting the cabinets apart was difficult and time consuming, but it gave me manageable chunks to work on. With six reasonable-size pieces, I was able to cut the rest of the components, add backs to the cases, and start on the face frames. The job became intimidating, other projects got in the way, and I spent months slowly grinding through this phase of production.

The client became impatient.

Along the way, I realized that it was time to look for help, especially with finishing. Luckily, my colleagues Bill and Colleen own American Eagle Antiques and they specialize in reclaimed and industrial furniture with hardwood tops and fine finishes (search for them on Etsy). They have a big shop and a spray booth, so we moved the whole thing to their place for completion and finishing. They have a pair of minivans and even with all that space, it still took us two trips. My car didn’t help much.

Have I mentioned I need a truck?

Once the piece was installed at Bill and Colleen’s, I was finally able to assemble the whole thing and put the face frames on the large upper boxes. This all had to be done with the piece assembled in order for the face frames to come out square and flush. Moving the cabinets was also good practice in setting up and leveling the piece, since I was going to need to do that for installation anyway. I got the face frames done, added trim and details, and then pulled the whole thing apart for sanding and finishing. I sanded the whole thing myself, and it took me a day and a half, even doing almost everything with a power sander.

If with the construction and sanding completed, I stepped back and handed it off to Bill for the staining. Most of my work is with natural, unstained wood, and when I do apply a stain there isn’t much finesse to the process. I brush and on, wipe it off, and live with whatever color I get. Bill on the other hand, is a master finisher and he treats even staining as if he were Rembrandt. His process was slow and controlled and yielded very consistent results, even when the wood wasn’t cooperating. 

The staining also showed some of the flaws in my own work. I had a lot of messy glue lines that wouldn’t take stain at all. Bill has plenty of techniques for dealing with these problems, but I need to be a lot more careful in the future. 

If I were finishing this piece at home, I’d be limited to polyurethane, which is an excellent finish but really requires three coats with standing in between and buffing of the topcoat. With a project this size, it would’ve taken me weeks. Bill and Colleen spray nitrocellulose lacquer with vinyl sanding sealer in between the wood and the topcoat. The process takes a lot of skill (that I don’t have) but it is straightforward: stain, sealer, light sand on the sealer, topcoat. Done.  Spraying the finish was the only way to get a good result with reasonable efficiency.

Bill and Colleen sprayed the sealer and then the three of us carefully sanded all the raised grain and dust nibs. Then we vacuumed and wiped every surface and I left it to them to spray the final coat. The piece was only sprayed the day before delivery so they rapid-cured the finish by sealing up all the pieces in the spray proof with a kerosene heater and leaving it overnight. This is why you hire finishers.

When I came in on installation day, the finish was as smooth and lovely as anything you would find in a store. For the first time in months, I felt really confident in the quality of the work. 

Next time: delivery and installation.