Greene and Greene Stereo Cabinet - Finished!

Greene and Greene Stereo Cabinet - The Top

I got lazy and neglected to take any construction photos while making the top. But no matter, really, since it's almost exactly like the one on the Aurora nightstand. Several of the posts in this blog series show how I made the nightstand top and its fancy ebony splines.

Greene and Green Stereo Cabinet - The Doors

The doors are made from the same plywood that I used for the sides and back of the cabinet.  I trimmed them all around with solid wood to hide the plywood edges, then just glued on the fake rails and stiles.  This picture shows one of them about halfway done.

I thought about using some fancy Brusso brass leaf hinges for this project, but the only ones I could find seemed a little big and a little pricey.  So instead made some the right size from some 1/8" aluminum plate for the leaves and some 1/4" aluminum rod for the pins.

I paid for a little bit of poor planning surrounding the hinges.  First of all, it was no fun at all cutting the hinge mortises in the part of the cabinet that I had already put together.  That would have been much easier if I had done it before assembling the front frame.  The other problem was the stupid decision to mount the hinges in a little way from the outside edge of the doors.  This made it somewhat challenging to actually hang the doors.

Normally you're supposed to 1) attach the assembled hinge to the cabinet, 2) slide the other leaf into the mortise on the door, and 3) install the screws into the door.  But I couldn't do step #2 the way I mounted the hinges.  So instead I had to screw the leaves to the cabinet and the door, then hold the door in place and then install the hinge pins.  That wasn't a show stopper by any means, but I did spend a few minutes wishing I had a third arm.

Greene and Greene Stereo Cabinet - The Drawers

The drawers in this cabinet are put together the same way as the drawer in Darrell Peart's Aurora Nightstand, with a big finger joint attaching the sides to the front, and a couple of ebony plugs for good measure.  As in the nightstand, they slide on wooden runners attached to the inside of the case.  These drawers are big enough that I probably should have used ball bearing slides instead of the wooden runners.  As it is, I'll have to be careful not to overload them.  Live and learn.

I made the drawer bottoms from solid poplar.  The bottoms float in grooves cut into the sides and the front, and are supported in the back by a little metal clip.  This arrangement allows them to expand and contract as the humidity changes without tearing themselves to bits.

Blocks at the back of each runner limit the travel when the drawers are shut, while some little tapered shims center the drawers from side to side when they are fully closed.