Just finished up my record bins.
This was my first wood project and I'd like to say thanks to the originators and commenters on this post thread for giving me a nice project to learn with. I took my time and enjoyed this project.
I started off by building a box out of cheap plywood, basically a small record crate. Recommended if you've never done much woodwork. You can get smaller sheets of 3/4" birch at Lowe's for $17 that are pretty nice. Assemble it, Stain it, finish it.
For the final project I ended up getting some nicer birch plywood from the "fine lumber" store so this changed my measurements a bit. The nicer plywood has more layers and was more consistent than the Lowe's stuff. Total bill for wood was $110 with tax for two 5'x5' sheets.
The lumber store made some rough cuts on a vertical cable saw that were not square to break the wood down to fit in my car.
I started off doing cuts with a circular saw and homemade jigs and practice plywood from home depot. The standard circular saw blade will shatter veneer on plywood - you will need to buy a finer blade meant for cutting plywood. I found that laying down painter's tape helped stop some of the splintering. Practice a lot if this will be your only method of cutting. Google "Straight cuts plywood circular saw" and look at some jigs.
Eventually borrowed a table saw from a neighbor and this was so much easier to work with on the cuts. Even with the table saw - getting wood straight and square on a large scale is really difficult to do. In some cases I used a straight-edge and a router with a 'flush cut' blade to finally get square, straight edges.
Looking back - the fine lumber store offered to do the majority of the cuts for $40. Might have been a good idea to take them up on that - though in the end I worked through it and that's sort of the point of this. If you have a friend or relative who knows this stuff some hands-on instruction would be very valuable.
I ended up buying a Kreg jig to do pocket joinery - this was $35-ish + a box of screws. It's great for hiding screws but if there is an area where you need to plug it can be ugly.
https://www.kregtool.com/store/c13/kreg-jigsreg/
A ton of sanding once assembled to get the panels lined up perfectly - though nowhere was I out more than 1/16".
I sanded up to 320 with a random orbital. Multiple times. First round of stain was Minwax "Special Walnut" mixed 50/50 with red mahogany. Second round of stain was straight red mahogany. Applied with a rag. Do a ton of testing on scrap wood to arrive at what color you want. MinWax should sell a sample set at the home depot.
Sealed it with semi-gloss polyurethane applied with foam brushes- 3 coats. Hand-sanded between coats with 220 grit. Use a razor blade to knock down bubbles and runs if they come up. Patience and once you have sealer all over a given surface make sure to use the tip of the foam brush to smooth it out in long light strokes- big difference. Super happy with the final outcome.
LED underlight was $20 at Lowe's.
More pics here
http://pics.1800philes.com/record_cabinet/
otherwise I'd be building one of these right now.
