After several months of no activity, I finally finished the assembly of the table saw. Power for the saw was still an issue, though: no 220V power in the garage yet. What to do? Ah HA! Let's make an extension cord! I've got a gas clothes dryer, so I don't use the 220V outlet in the utility room, so that's the perfect thing to use as a temporary power source for the saw. I went to Home Depot, bought a Rigid 10 AWG 50' extension cord and the plug ends necessary, then lopped the ends off the extension cord and wired it up. Table saw now has power! Sweet!
The first project I decided to tackle was a semi-entertainment center for the big screen TV. I call it a stage, as entertainment center implies that the TV is surrounded and all the other gear is enclosed in a cabinet of some sort. I did design the stage with areas for my audio gear, the DVR and DVD player, but rather than being surrounded by a cabinet, the TV simply sits on top of the cabinet. The main goals of the project: clean up the A/V equipment to get it off the top of the TV and make it neater, and to raise the TV up to a higher, more comfortable (for me) viewing height that the dog can't stand in front of. 
This is my first furniture/cabinet-making project in a number of years, and as such, I made a big boo boo when putting together the cut list for the piece of birch plywood. I didn't account for saw kerf and wound up short. I tried to compensate on the fly by moving a few things around, but didn't take into account the slightly narrower width. As such, I totally screwed up the placement of some dado cuts and essentially trashed the bulk of the sheet. Trashed isn't the right word I guess - I didn't throw it away, just have lots of scrap to use for other things down the road.
Anyway, I went and got another sheet of plywood and essentially started over. I got the box knocked together on Saturday 8/29/09, and got the hardwood stuff put on Sunday. Here are some pictures of the progress so far.
9/4/09
Evenings during the week, I worked on building the drawers. They are a little unconventional in their mounting method, but none of that will be seen. I haven't built drawers in years, and I was really worried about things not fitting properly, but all in all I think everything worked out. Here are a few pics with the (almost finished) drawers installed.
I also got all of the nail holes and gaps filled and ready for sanding. After some initial sanding, I will be doing the final millwork: putting some trim around the top and a footboard around the bottom, doing a little round-over routing in a few places, and making the front faces for the drawers. After some finish sanding and the installation of the casters, the piece will be ready to stain and finish. I hope to have the piece complete over the long Labor Day weekend. More pictures and updates to follow as work progresses.
9/9/09
I finally completed the project. Final construction (mainly the drawer faces and then <ugh> all the sanding), staining and finishing were completed over the long Labor Day weekend. All that was left was to bring it in the house and attach the back. With that done, the bad part: lifting the TV onto the stage. Jerry and Monica came over to help (THANKS!!!), and then it was component hook-up time.
The TV fits great on the stage, and the top of the TV is at 82" - a great height for me. But I forgot to take one item into account: with the rear projection TVs there is an optimum viewing angle range. As you move to the sides, the picture dims. Well, turns out it does the same thing when you're at a higher or lower angle, and that's what I didn't take into account. The picture isn't as bright from the new viewing angle. It's great when you're standing in front of it, but when sitting down, it does dim from the angle. Oh well... The unit still looks good, it is functional, and all goals were accomplished. Here are some pics of the finished unit.
