BooTENDS TnRoITIoNAL SuurTERs STEp TooI Box ... - Wood Tools

CompnctDisc CabinetLi,ke most people who grew uplistening to music on ainylalbums, I dug in rny heelswhen compact disc recordingsentered the scene. Eaentually,the great sound CDs ffir won42me over. Now, myalbum collectionsits in cardboard boxes, waiting forJudgment Day, while I have stacksof CDs in need of a good home.It would have been simpleenough to go out and buy one ofthedozens of ready-made CD racks,butlike mostwoodworkers I'm constantlyseduced by the song thatgoes, 'hey, I can make this myself!"So, going enthusiastically forwardlike I always do, I began'WorkbenchtJune 1997sketching out ideas. The cabinet Idesigned and built holds over 30CDs, and multiples of this cabinetcan be stacked to create evenmore storage space. Although Idid not intend for my project tohang from the wall, you could easily adapt it for this purpose. If youdo mount the cabinet on the wall, Irecommend using heavy-duty wallanchors to support the weight -the cabinet is deceptively heavy.To complement its high-techcontents, my cabinet sports somenew technology of its own. Forparts of the project I used a biocompositematerial made withrecycled newspapers, soy proteinbinders, and natural colorants.Called Environ, it comes in a varietyof colors, some having the mottledlook of granite. It machineslike hardwood, and holds a routededge beautifully. If you're interestedin learning more about thismaterial, take a look at SyntheticStone on page 46.On the other hand, if you're notinterested in trying out someEnviron, but still want to build thisCD cabinet, you can substitute anyhardwood and still end up with agreat-looking cabinet.Mochining the EnvircnMaking the top and bottom comesfirst in this project, and they arethe pieces I thought were perfectfor my e:rperiment with Environ(see the Compact Disc CabinetConstruction View). I think theresult supports my hunch.