My Kitchen Cabinet Project

Busted!

The cat is out of the bag folks. Last night I had the LOML in tears.:eek:

She put two and two together and asked how the cabinets were coming. I hemmed and hawed awhile, but in the end I had to fess up that I was working on new cabinets for the kitchen.

we talked about my rough plans, and she's good with me working on new cabinets and replacing them despite not asking her about the details. In fact when I offered to show her what my plans were, she said she wanted that part at least to be a surprise.

so, I'm going to the BORG to look for supplies. budget constraints are going to keep this on the cheap, but it will be custom and she'll be tickled pink in the end.

one request she had for me was to either build taller upper cabinets for more storage and/or to hang them higher on the wall. The current cabinets are fairly low, and she'd like a little more space above the counter.
 
latest pics

More maple milled up today:
wow.jpg


detail shot
pop.jpg


and a slightly better lit shot of what boards we milled up at my friend Grizz's shop.

newboards.jpg


all of this was wood from my road trip a couple of weeks ago. these boards are destined to become doors once I get the final measurements and door sizes drawn up.
 
thanks steve,
i just realized doing a rough cut list that I'll need to do a few more boards before I get to assembling the doors. I've still got 6 10' boards, left out of my wood haul. Plus some more in the storage unit that I had on hand.

I think i'm going to go buy some 5/4 walnut, the LOML and I were countertop shopping, and we decided to put in a section of butcher block into the counter as a custom touch. I'm going to price what it would cost to buy a strip, or make a strip, whichever is cheaper....
 
3am and I can't sleep, so I'm working on my kitchen reno project. here are a couple of renderings from Home Architect. (fun little program)
Also I just ordered cabinet hardware, and will be pricing plywood in the morning (if I'm not snoozing).
 

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I'm at a crossroads right now.
I just lucked into a hardwood ply dealer here in syracuse. I called on prices and I'm faced with the following choices...

3/4 baltic birch ply in 4x8 sheets (on the phone, so I'm doubting this one) $71.40/ sheet

3/4 Pre-finished Maple ply 4x8 sheets (advantage, not having to finish the bulk of the cabinets) $79.89

1/2 prefinished Maple Ply 4x8 sheets (same advantage) $65

Now here's my dilemma:

I've been planning on using 3/4 birch ply all along. The pre-finished maple however would be a huge step up in look, all I would need to finish would be the face frames, doors and edge banding on the shelves. The 3/4 is out of stock at the moment (gal didn't know when they'd have it in again) they have the birch ply in stock. I'm still working on the doors and so forth, so I'm not in any 'hurry', but I'm tempted to go with the 1/2" maple at this point, just to get the project done sooner (relatively speaking)

In the fact of all of this, I finally broke down and purchased cutlist plus. I'd been using the demo copy, but decided if I'm going to Do this right, I might as well get some help with maximizing my cuts.
 
Well for 8 bucks difference in the 3/4 selection, you cannot spend your time finishing the baltic birch insides.

I've never used 1/2 in cabinet boxes, always 3/4
Around here, 1/2 is always higher than 3/4 :huh:
Supply and demand I guess
 
No problem. I've seen several shops use 1/2 for backs.

I use 1/4 :eek: Lowers my cost around here.

I use a 3/4x2 nailer in the top of the upper to compensate for hanging uppers
 
Ned have you considered using any of the melamines? Some are pretty nice and they are about half the price of the pre finished maple. I'm doing a kitchen now with hardrock maple melamine and 1/4" backs. No finishing required and durable for cabinets. You said you are going to be selling the house soon so it might fit in your budget and if you personally don't like it maybe the new buyer might.

Doug
 
Doug,
yes I did, and the 'design consultant' vetoed them.:eek: Chances are that we'll have to live with them awhile, so I'm going to build what she likes and the next owners can update them (though I doubt they will want to) if they want to.
I'll get 'out the door' (in the door considering I'm installing them) for under $1000 so I'm not doing too bad price wise. that's including new countertop and faucet. (sink getting recycled)
 
long, but good day in the shop

After several weeks of taking stock from this:
enddetail.jpg

to this
features.jpg


surfacing the gorgeous maple I picked up from Hicksville Planing Mill in Md, today Grizzz and I finally got down to brass tacks. after fortifying ourselves with coffee and 'fat pills' (donuts)
fatpillcoffee.jpg

we got down to brass tacks.
first we cut rails to length using this:
chopontablesaw.jpg


why clamp a chopsaw to a tablesaw? um, yeah, well, about that... I'm in the habit of cutting pieces to length on a chopsaw is all. Yes, miter guage and TS would work just fine, too. Just a creature of habit I guess.

then we set up the K2 :
kregdust.jpg

and got to drilling pocket holes in all of the face frame horizontals. winding up with 'kits' for each frame:
readytogo.jpg


continued...
 
long day continued...

Grizz has loads of really cool tools. Just about every Kreg accessory known to Man... including the snazzy assembly clamp and plate. (seen in the foreground of last photo)
We didn't stop to take photos during the glue up and securing of the frames, but here's what we wound up with:
stovecabinetface.jpg

that's the 19x30" over the stove face frame

lowerframes.jpg

and there are the three lower cabinet frames clamped together... 21", 36" and 36" respectively

and the top cabinet frames clamped together:
Upperframe.jpg


that took us a couple of hours, between digging all of the materials out, getting the tools together, safety discussions (coffee breaks) and drilling the workpieces out. Each corner is both glued and screwed for strength.

The rails are 1.5" wide, the stiles are 1" wide.

Here's a detail shot of some of the better features and curl.... I toned down the frames, as I could have had wild features throughout, but since I'm building this for resale value in the house... I decided to go slightly tame.
corner-1.jpg


After we got those assembled, we broke for dinner, and some tool maintenance. Planer blade changes can be such fun!
after all was said and done we wound up with this stack of timbers:
wavy.jpg


these won't all wind up as door stock, two with particularly beautiful grain/features will be cut for drawer fronts and the filler panel on the sink cabinet. This stock had it all, from birdseye to curly sections to ambrosia.
moreboards.jpg
 
Wow Ned, those are looking very promising. Nice figure in the maple.

purty aren't they?

Wait til you see the door stock... I'm having a 'hard time' not going for all of the figure and 'gusto' I can find in these boards. My inclination is to go for every bit of wild grain and ambrosia I can find. However, I'm building these with an eye towards resale of the house. So, I'm toning things down just a tad. Still, there is plenty of 'wow factor' even with the 'plainer' side of the boards showing. Sometimes it was a case of 'this side looks tamer than that side' but still showing a bunch of curl or ambrosia etc...
 
Plywood Problem

I stopped by the plywood wholesaler, and got both a frosty shoulder And at least a month before they will get any of the prefinished maple ply in. SO,
I stopped in at another vendor locally and they're going to check around for at least some Maple ply for me, and barring that, some Birch. Found another vendor as well, but I'll let the first one have a go.
 
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