Hello and welcome to my blog! In today’s post I will detail the process of building the wire passthrough for a wall mounted electronics console of American black walnut. The passthrough will be incorporated into a solid wood cabinet back. In addition to completing the cabinet back, I have detailed the process of finish planing the outside of the case, using hand planes.
This post will be light on photos. I caught some sort of bug in the later half of the week, so while I was in the workshop I was remaining solely focused on the work and not documenting the work as I normally would. In fact most of the time was spent trying to avoid moving from my seated position on the floor and hoping the tools and lumber would magically come to me.
The work began by cutting material for an interior molding, supporting frame and panels. The panels were book matched across the back, but rather than use the full width of material available I chose to use only the rift cut sections. The rift sections will reduce the amount of wood movement I’ll have to work around, ultimately allowing for a much tighter fit in winter that will not buckle in the summer humidity.
Shown here were the full panels that I started with, which were cut down into rift sections, putting aside the center flat sawn sections.
The moldings and framing supports were dimensioned then finish planed. Radial grain has a surprising tendency to tear out, and hide the tear out well. The chip breaker must be set fairly tight in order to get a shaving which behaves as it should.
The resulting finished parts awaiting joinery.
The molding was cut out to fit around the support and then cut to form a mitered corner at the bottom.
The molding is a bit heavier than typical for this sort of application in order to support the frame at the case sides. Shown here I’m chopping out mortises for the frame members which will run along the back of the case.
The frame members are rabbeted along their edges in order to hold panels.
The cutout begins first by chopping a ‘V’ shape, then chopping the sides square.
Two slats are now installed. The layout is set to allow the passthrough to be in the center of the back, from the inside of the case, but appears to be off center in view from the back due to the supporting cleat.
The pass through will be formed by a pair of uprights.
The uprights are in place, and I’ve begun cutting and fitting panels. The uprights are made slightly thinner than the horizontal framing members to allow for continuous chamfers on the inside of the case.
The panels are captured at the center support with a very small rabbet. The center support needed to be made flush to the panels.
The panels will be cinched in place by the exterior molding, here I’m cutting notches in the molding to accommodate horizontal battens.
I determined that the client will likely put all of the electronics on one side of the case, making it easier to run all of the wires from one side, and so I blocked off the opposing side. I have made it easy to remove the panel if the opposing pass through is needed. The batten supports which capture the panels come together using a lapping joint at the center.
The resulting appearance from the inside of the case shows continuous chamfers along the frame members, molding and uprights.
Finally the completed back from the outside of the case.
The battens are held tight at the case sides by the cutouts shown above. I do attempt to clock most of my screws, but brass screws are a delicate item and so over-torquing them for aesthetic purpose is not advisable.
Should this have been a visible back I would have made efforts to conceal this area, but I found the result acceptable for a back completely hidden by a wall.
Now that the majority of the work to be performed on the cabinet is completed, with only the shelved remaining, I decided it was time to finish plane and oil the exterior case. The case having been only lightly finish planed prior to cutout.
Finish Planing Part 1 – Commentary starts at about 1 minute 55 seconds in.
Finish Planing Part 2. The commentary is geared toward a request that I had received for information on finish planing.
The resulting surface creates a nice even sheen which reflects at a low angle.
Thank you for following along with this build, I hope that you are enjoying and I look forward to your comments.