Glass Corner Cupboard

[artHarris]

I have been asked by my most serious client to produce a corner cupboard to display his collection of wine glasses in his dining room. He has calculated that the cupboard needs to be 4 feet high and around 4 ft wide, with 4 shelves to accommodate all the glasses.
The dining room has oak panelling up to the level of the window ledges, and he wants this cupboard to rest on the ledge above the panelling - this ledge is about 4 " wide but he would like a 'wall' of the cupboard sides projecting from the dining room wall about 9"; this has been taken into consideration in his space calculation.
And he wants as much glass as possible - toughened glass shelves, glass windows, glass in the projecting 'wall'; all timber (English Oak to match all else in the dining room) as fine as possible.

I can see great problems with this concept, because of the weight the wooden frame must support - toughened glass weighs 2 lbs/squ foot!
I have already suggested that the projecting wall would look better being no wider than the ledge at the to of the panelling, but that would mean the cupboard being wider, to rain thus-lost volume. I also think that the side-wall would be better made of oak-veneered ply, which could be made to give some strength to the frame, which it clearly needs.

I would be grateful for any input.

 

[Chris Knight]

The strength of your side walls will also depend on the dimensions of the frame. If the rails and stiles are of sufficient width/thickness, I would think strength would be adequate. Most of the weight of shelves could be taken by the supports at the rear corner and the intersections of the wall/side walls.

The weight of glass in the front and sdes would be around 38 pounds and that doesn't seem too much for a couple of well made frames to take even without the addition of an oak panel.

I'd just make up a single frame and test it to destruction for guidance.

 

[artHarris]

Thank you for that input, waterhead37. The dimensions of the frame are clearly critical, but he has asked for as light a frame as possible, so that glass dominates. I think your suggestion to make up a single frame is a good one.

I also think that dividing the glass doors (vertically)into 2, so that there are 2 hinged sections to each side, should make things safer; I just hate the thought of a glass filled door which is over 4 ft square, with slim framework and lateral flex in the pane of glass! A pane of glass 1 foot wide could possibly be of thinner, untoughened glass - much lighter and a smaller frame is less likely to flex.

The real problem is the stipulation that the wooden framing should be as un-noticeable as possible. I can't see starting at less than 20x30mm cross section for the framework.

 

[artHarris]

Discussing this project long after its successful completion with another craftsman, he asked me why I had never presented it on the forum.
So here is are 2 photos:

The biggest problem was getting the angled dimensions, as the corner into which the cabinet had to fit wasn't a right-angle. As the client wanted the possibility to take it with him if he moved, or left it to an off-spring, I decided to make the corner a little less than a right-angle, and make the side panels extra wide towards the wall, overhanging the frame, so subsequent adjustments would be a simple matter of planing away a bit.

I used my CAD programme to determine the exact lengths of the front pieces, and measured as I went. A bit nerve racking, but it worked fine, as you can see from the pictures.

Any questions, even at this stage, will be answered, when I get the time.

 

[Mike Vastano]

Lovely piece of furniture!

 

[artHarris]

Thank you.
I am rather proud of it, given the involved difficulties, and it fitted in well with the rest of the furniture in the dining room, a lot of which I had made over the years. It was my 'Swansong'; I am now retired from professional furniture making in even have difficulty getting round to the things we ourselves need, of which there are many.

Thanks again.

 

[SamW]

Wow, really nice. Which CAD software do you use & how much? I am still using the free Sketchup and keep wondering if I'm limiting myself.

 

[Shultzy]

SamW, sketchup will not limit you in what you want to design. I would go so far as to say "if you can't draw it in sketchup you can't make it"

 

[Brentingby]

Wow, really nice. Which CAD software do you use & how much? I am still using the free Sketchup and keep wondering if I'm limiting myself.

In what way do you think you're limiting yourself? I would agree with Shultzy.