Wood Work

When I bought my condo, the living room looked like this:

Since then, I've changed every surface of the condo -- except the hotel style Air Conditioning unit.

Unfortunately, due to HOA rules, I can’t replace the AC unit with a more modern alternative (mini split, etc).

With replacement off the table, I went down the ‘hiding it’ route.

My design for the enclosure was based on slatted benches - I hoped the slats would obscure the unit while still allowing enough airflow.

This was my first real woodworking project and I made some real rookie mistakes:

Mistake #1: Don’t burn the wood

I bought the Cherry from a lumber yard where each board had rough edges and was roughly 15 feet long. This project required a seemingly endless number of cuts to get uniform pieces in the needed sizes.

Initially, I cut quite cautiously - prioritizing intact fingers over slicing speed. I soon learned that the slowness of my cuts was creating black burn marks on the wood. You can see that in the below picture.

I was able to remove all the burn marks with a sander, but that process was excruciatingly time consuming. My subsequent cuts were so quick -- my hatred of sanding will ensure I never create another burn mark

Shoutout to my Dad for letting me use his table saw

Mistake #2: Just use the tool

I spent a significant amount of time creating a makeshift system to drill “pocket screws”.

Turns out there is a super cheap tool that will help you do exactly that.

Please gaze upon my beautiful pocket screws.

Mistake #3: Tung Oil Finish is not Tung Oil

The type of finish used on Cherry wood has a big impact on the eventual color.

I ventured into a woodworking forum seeking advice. A cadre of grizzled Woodworkers recommended I use Tung Oil for the best results.

Like a fool, I bought the below Tung Oil thinking that it contained mostly Tung Oil

Turns out that Tung Oil “Finish” doesn’t contain much Tung Oil

I returned the questionable finish to Home Depot and bought 100% Tung Oil from a specialty shop.

After meticuously putting this unit toghether, I wasn’t about to let the project fall apart due to misleading labeling by “Big Finish”

Mistake #4: No Air

When I placed the finished enclosure over the AC unit, my room soon became noticeably hotter. My worst fear was that I didn’t leave enough space between slats for airflow. Luckily, that wasn’t the actual issue.

Cold air was reflecting off the slats and back onto the temperature sensor - making the AC unit think the room temperature was much cooler than reality.

To fix this, I created a tiny new system to monitor and control the temperature.

It consists of:

• a thermometer (placed across the room)

• an ir blaster (this mimics the remote control that came with the AC and allows me to control the unit)

• an ESP32 microchip which acts as the ‘brains’ of the operation. It’s connected to wifi, so I can control it remotely and add ‘smart’ features to it.

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If anyone has any projects they're working on, let me know, I'd love to hear about it!