Joinery question

[woodmats]

I am in process making this corner stand for a flat screen TV. It is 3 separate cabinets on a common base with a common top. The equipment cabinet is open with adjustable shelves. The cabinets are built of maple plywood and I plan to have face frames made from hard maple. Having never built anything quite this complicated, how do I tie the face frames together so it looks like one unit? The drawer unit frames are aligned to the cabinet using biscuits to make sure the frame is flush with the cabinet but if I use the same process with the equipment cabinet, I'm afraid any small misalignment between the cabinets will stand out? I am considering actually making the equipment cabinet stiles be part of the drawer frame and let them overlap the equipment shelving opening about 1/2". If any of the cabinets is a little out-of-square,it will be hidden. Is there a better way I should consider?

[cputnam]

I would think about making a base can be squared and plumbed absolutely. You can put levelers where needed, and drop alignment pins where needed. Whole thing can be hidden with a toekick. Then your cabs will slide right in or drop right on.

[woodmats]

Curt,
I am putting the cabinets on a plywood base and plan to cut dado's in the base to secure the position of each cabinet so they should be firmly located relative to each other. If I attach the face frames to each cabinet, how do I tie them together at the angled transition points between each section?

[JGrout]

I would pass on the dadoes in the base you are going to need flexibility to set the units accurately

build all the units set the center securely then bring the wing boxes into position and screw them together

that is the simple way to get alignments

There are others but they get complicated fast

[woodmats]

Joe,

Thanks! How would you tie the face frame stiles together between cabinets?

[jteneyck]

I built a set of cabinets with a similar configuration:



Here's a shot of the corner detail of how they fit together.



The side cabinet faceframes have a 45 deg section on them that fits against the side of the center cabinet faceframe. The faceframes are screwed together in the normal manner once they are pushed and shimmed into alignment.



Whatever little misalignment I had wasn't noticeable.



John

[woodmats]

Thanks John!

The pictures helps greatly and you are right that the design is very similar to mine. I had thought about a adding a plate like you have at the top to tie the cabinets together "behind the scene" and I will do the same. Probably complete the cabinets first to get better precision. I also noticed that you put all the angle on one stile, rather than splitting the difference like I showed in my drawing and I will do that as well.

[JGrout]

John did a fine job of answering the question.

I do it the same way he shows.

[woodmats]

Thanks Joe!

I tried cut every panel absolutely to dimension and every dado exactly the right depth but history proves that somehow, the cabinet always ends up just a little larger than what I planned . Good idea to wait with with the critical pieces of the face frame until the cabinets are assembled, later this week. I've cut the base plate already but I'm waiting to cut the top for the same reason.

[JGrout]

I think I would build all the face frames and install them on the cabinets then install them to the base.

The top attachment John shows would be a good addition to the base ( again screwed to the base to act as a stop) to fit the boxes properly

then if you need to make adjustments you remove the block move it accordingly and screw it back down.

Joe