Back to the project...

My wife and I had a baby boy arrive in May which put my work on hold. Now that he's sleeping through the night and we've got a new routine down, I've been able to move forward again.

Last weekend, I cut the slot for the t-molding on both sides of the cabinet and mounted the cabinet sides to the base. This weekend I did some more work on mounting the top of the cabinet and the lower back panel. I'm following St. John's book VERY closely. Where the book may lack a detail or 2, I've been able to go to the byoac.com website and find the answer. There's a project there called "Mars Invasion" that follows the book closely, too. That project has a lot of pictures that have answered questions of mine.

Here are some photos of the work so far.
In this one, I've drilled the holes (using a countersink bit) so that I can sink the screws deep. I'll fill in the holes with wood putty later.

I didn't have a helper for this portion so I used my step ladder along with some scrap pieces of wood to prop up one end of the cabinet side until it was level. Then I clamped everything in place before drilling.

Here are the two sides mounted. They're wobbly, so I followed the book's instructions and used some L-brackets to secure them a little better.

Now it's starting to take shape and you can sort of see what the final cabinet will look like.

Used clamps to provide the lower back cabinet piece with a 3/4" recess. This recess will continue with the upper back cabinet piece, the angled back piece, and the top.

I went ahead and did the top piece next so the entire cabinet wouldn't be so wobbly. Even with the L-brackets, it needed more stabilizing. So the top was put in (using 8" strips of 3/4" for the top to sit on for stability).

And this is where I have stopped for tonight. Up next I've got to mount the angled back piece and the upper back panel. Then I'll put in the speaker shelf and the monitor shelf. Hopefully I'll have some time this week and next weekend to do a little more work on it.