Advice: Building a TV unit/bench

HI Avago, Yes 22mm ply will work fine, you may be able to get your local timber merchant to cut all the ply to size. I would have the internal uprights set in slightly, it will look nicer. Other things to bare in mind are the cut edges, as they are ply you will see the laminates even if you sand them down , this may be fine for you, or you could lip them with something else ( which will have to be exactly the same width as the ply)
You can then screw it all together, and fill the countersunk holes before sanding.

 

I would pop down to your local B&Q reasonable selection of materials (some finished) and they will cut the boards for you

 

I see you mention painting it white. If you are painting and don't want a wood finish just use MDF. You can even use filler to correct bad joints as the paint hides a multitude of sins ( I often use car filler, because it dries very hard and sands nicely). You will get a good finish on MDF and it's a bit easier when compared to ply which can be a devil to work with to not chip the top layer of laminate. Seal it (with sanding sealer or an mdf sealer) sand it down then put a top coat on.

When I've made furniture like this and want a wood finish, what I have done is join a small solid wood section (18x25 say) to a piece of board using dowels. Ply always looks like ply IMO, and finishing the edges neatly to disguise it is difficult. Just using laminate faced board also looks like exactly what it is, and again finishing the edges, whilst not difficult can easily look rough. If you use a small section of real wood around the front, you can put neat radiuses on it so it looks good. Once I used some mahogany, ran a 6mm groove in and pushed in a 6mm square bead in a light wood, which once sanded down made a nice contrasting feature strip. The panels can then just be cheapo laminate board. A proper dowel jig helps. Little bit more work than just joining boards together, but you end up with something that actually looks half decent and is still inexpensive. If you visually make the edgeing/frame a feature, the solid wood edge doesn't necessarily have to be the same thickness as the board.

 

I'd go with Rusty on this one - MDF is chust much easier to get a good sharp edge on, and make ready for a decent paint finish; it doesn't splinter, exposed cut edges can be sanded, primed, sanded again to get them good for painting, no 'wood grain' showing through (which - on ply - will tend to vary a lot), etc etc. (Yeah, I've run out of reasons...)

What's more, for a thicker top and bottom, you can cheat by doubling-up an extra strip of MDF and then plane and sand them down together.

As for joining the panels, you could actually chust get away with using dowels - 8 or 10mm diameter. Use dowel pins to get the locations spot on, and then Bob's yer thingy.

Prime (MDF Primer) and mini-foam-roller on a coat of satinwood.

 

I've always used dowels no problem. If you use screws pilot holes are best

 

You could top the basic ladder frame with some timberboard, which is usually soft enough to work with hand tools and abrasives. Then you have the option to stain or varnish etc. But for decent results you might think about some clamps.

 

Buy it from IKEA or if you really want to make it then take a cutting list down to B&Q, one sheet of 18mmMDF should do that, I've never heard of 22mm BTW, I would simply glue and pin it together with PVA and 40 mm pins.
Paint it before you assemble it and use one strike on the pin heads.

 

For it to work well, it has to be cut accurately and straight-edged.

The saws at B&Q etc will cut the pieces dead straight, but whether they will be accurate enough is another matter.

22mm MDF (or double 12mm) is pretty strong and will hold chust about anything up. BUT, it will also 'sag' under a constant heavy weight.

What's going on it?

 

22mm MDF (or double 12mm) ?

 

Piece of really good advice: Measure twice, cut once. And I still sometimes cut things wrong through mismeasuring.

 

If your thinking about Mdf, here is something similar I made recently, its a boot rack bench (unpainted) people will sit on it, so it had to be pretty solid, all made from 18mm doubled up, mostly just glued and pinned. 3mm mdf veneer on the front. Had to assemble some of it in customers home, otherwise I would never have got it out of the work shop, weighs a ton!

 

Screw the back on as that is what provides the stability and you won't see them and pin the rest.
If you won't see the sides then screw those as well.
I never dowel as it is very time consuming setting it up.

 

If you are lacking a little confidence, you can inset a few of these on the back edge before you put the back on.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/angle-plates-zinc-plated-50-x-13-x-50mm-pack-of-10/18918

Help you keep it square and more than keep it stable - a bit of a sledge hammer to crack a not though