Greene and Greene Stereo Cabinet - The Side Panels

With a design in hand, I hitched up my trailer for a trip to the lumber store.  Although Spellman Hardwoods is the biggest hardwood dealer in Phoenix, they've always been more than accommodating to me and my tiny (by their standards) little orders.  This time was no exception.  I came home with a stack of rough-cut African mahogany for the solid parts of the cabinet, and a sheet of mahogany veneer plywood for the side and rear panels.

Given the difficulty of storing and handling full sheets of plywood, I decided to chop the plywood into bite-sized chunks and work on the side panels first.  Each of them is just a piece of plywood with three faux rails glued on.  Instead of trying to cut the rails to exactly match the size of the panels, I took a page from my own playbook by making the panels and rails slightly oversize, gluing the rails to the panels, and then trimming each edge of the assembly with a single cut.

The legs will eventually be glued to the front and back edges of the side panels.  Here you can see one of the holes for a dowel that will help align one of the legs with the panel during assembly.  You can also see a little channel I cut into the back of the faux rail to keep glue from squeezing out onto the face of the panel.

The back panel is almost the same as the side panels, but I'll wait to make it until I can measure the as-built front of the cabinet to see exactly how wide the back panel should be.