Re-stacked too many times to see the log, rough cut solid lumber for woodworking comes to the lumber yard in what is called a bille which is generally seen at the lumber yard as a complete log. Each piece of the bille is a plot.
4 plots (planks) , each 54mm thick by 3m long, will provide the material required for a computer gaming cabinet of solid oak. The cabinet back will be 10mm oak veneer plywood.
A track saw is my best option for rough sizing the planks. I have neither the necessary strength nor the correct machine — nor the space for that matter — to proceed in any other way. French lumber for cabinet making has a higher moisture content than what we find in the United States. These planks are exceptionally heavy.
While not the the first solid wood piece of furniture I have made, it is the first for which I have done my own re-sawing. Buying thick stock (the US equivalent of 8/4) allowed me to both re-saw boards for the carcass and mill pieces for the stand.
The size of the carcass made it difficult to move by myself. It’s not terribly heavy — just awkward. The day after this photo was taken I built a rough stand from some pine (leftover from some framing work) to match the height of the oak stand. That made moving the carcass as needed to and from the oak stand. Wanting to be sure everything was okay before I glued anything, I placed the stand on the carcass to check the fit. Turning this image over helped me judge the proportions.
Finished and assembled, the door panels are book-matched. Despite buying more board-feet (meters-cubed in France) of wood than I needed, I found myself near the end of acceptable stock for the door frames.
The carcass panels are also book-matched. The open doors show the pull-out keyboard and mouse tray, the monitor shelf, and a storage shelf. I try my best to track shop hours when working, even for things built for my family. Photos at the end of each work day help me track the big picture. I tracked over 100 hours of work for this piece. If that sounds slow, you are likely right!
The gamer in his native habitat. We did have an issue with the hinges as installed. That was fixed by changing the hinges to a type with a greater swing.
All quiet now. When the cabinet arrived at our apartment it did not yet have the computer sidecar installed. The design of the cabinet is such that with this removed, it can be repurposed for something other than gaming.