attic office built in

allen levine

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new york city burbs
finally finished painting the office, ripping carpet, taking down old paper.
Had my son here saturday afternoon, laid the laminate flooring(not laminate, its that allure stuff from home depot, easy enough, does the trick)
Put up most of the moldings, still need to put final coat and fill in nail heads, etc.......
but with temps up at 50 today, and 47 yesterday, its shop time.
Im timing myself with this build. Not rushing, but not looking to spend much time or money on this, since I never know how long Ill be in this house anymore and I cant take this with me.
Its going into the knee wall(learn a new word here everyday, I used to call it the bottom of the slanty wall in the attic)
7 leisurely hours total so far yesterday and today, heres where Im at.100_1298.jpg
(face frame isnt cleaned yet or sanded, just held up there to make sure I measured right)
this isnt being made for clothes, its being used for an office, so only 2 pullout drawers on left, to hold pendaflex files. What we really needed is just cabinets with shelf space to store a bunch of nonsense stuff.
All important papers go into a fireproof container, this is to hold ink catridges, current bills, alot of my leftover paperwork Im keeping handy from my old business, office supplies, computer supplies, just so it doesnt have to lay all over the place.
If I feel ambitious, I might make a simple cherry plywood desk to match the cabinet face frame.

simple stuff, 4 doors with cherry plywood panels(I have enough left over from kitchen to make these doors and I dont want to waste cherry lumber)
the top shelf is only 8 inches deep to fit in, I built it seperately and will attach it.(the face frame covers up the two plywoods)
The center on the top will remain open so I can stick a few photo frames in there, and the two sides will have doors to hide our junk.
like I said, nothing exciting, but I wanted to redo my office, so now its a good time.

Its been ok though, working in office and garage during the day, and turning pens at night.

I turned 2 funny looking slimlines last night, one pencil broke on me. One pen was gone this morning, wife must have taken it for someone at work.
Im tired of turning slimlines.100_1301.jpg
 
Looks like a nice little built in. Should work great. Seems like folks are on a cherry kick around here lately.:thumb:
 
Looks like a nice little built in. Should work great. Seems like folks are on a cherry kick around here lately.:thumb:

I have a nice supply of 3 hardwoods I could have used. cherry, ash, or walnut.

since walnut would cost me most to replace, I decided against that. Ash seems to keep going up in price, and the ash I have is so clear and beautiful, I figured Im never getting close to paying 2 bucks a bf again.

cherry is available around here, and I can purchase it privately from guys who cut and dry their own at very reasonable prices, so its easiest to replace.(plus I have enough cherry 1/4 inch ply to make the doors)
Although cherry is more expensive than ash, it was the plywood that swung my decision.
I believe I have enough handles left over from my sons kitchen for the doors, if not, they were HD hardware.

the worst part about building a cabinet this size, is that I cant carry it upstairs to make sure it fits perfectly. I left 1/4 inch on each side and close to half inch on top.
Its tough when I build big boxes and cant lift them or move them myself for whatever reason. Waiting for help to move the thing a foot can be a real pain.
 
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the worst part about building a cabinet this size, is that I cant carry it upstairs to make sure it fits perfectly. I left 1/4 inch on each side and close to half inch on top.

I hear you on that. The alcove my entertainment center is going in is definitely not square. The cabinet I put in there I left about 1/8" on each side at the bottom. Up at the top its more like 3/8". Sure the trim will cover it, but still...
 
allen you should make sure you can get the box up there threw the stairs the size can fool you sometimes and your mind say 32" no problem but the length and the width can get you on a turn ...
 
allen you should make sure you can get the box up there threw the stairs the size can fool you sometimes and your mind say 32" no problem but the length and the width can get you on a turn ...

I checked already, having had that problem once before.

Its only 15.5 inches deep,and 60 inches in length. Standing it on its side its easy enough for two healthy people to get it up the stairs. (My son and once of his friends wont have a problem)
 
Looking good so far, Allen. I really like the colors in that pen, too. :thumb:

although I made a goofy looking pen,(these kits cost me 2.75 back then, why not experiment and have some fun) I loved those purple acrylics also. I purchased several of them.
I lost another one tonight. Seems a bunch of acrylics I purchased from one guy back in 09 at the show, dont turn well. I lost 3 or 4 of them. I guess you get what you pay for, as I remember they were a bit thinner than usual and very inexpensive. The acrylic blanks I purchased from woodcraft, didnt lose any of them.
 
Im up to 12 hours in on this build, give or take 10 minutes.

I finished the rails and stiles and cut down the cherry ply panels for the doors.

I have to clean up alot of burn marks, having some trouble with my router speed and feed rate, couldnt seem to get it right today.

Its obvious I need to get a new tablesaw blade. Ive resharpened both of my ripping blades once, and I think Id rather purchase a new one at this point.

I dont have any glue, so I didnt bother cleaning up and glueing up doors this afternoon.

Im way ahead of myself, having finished 85% of the office, now moving along nicely on this cabinet. Im free from any build obligations until june, so between some work in my sons home, some touch ups here and there, Im going to start cutting and making chairs for the summer so I dont get bogged down in june when I want to work on my attic bedroom.
 

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18 hours of work in so far.

I worked on the doors this morning and afternoon. I had a few nicks, not sure why, probably just carelessness. Im not 100% sure Im going to try to repair most of the small nicks. one pic shows a nick,100_1306.jpg one of the more noticable ones, most are in the inside.

Sanded the doors with 80 grit. After I remove and take off hardware, I will sand down a bit more to higher, 150. stain and poly. Id like to spray lacquer, but I wont have warm enough temps until april , and I dont want to spray without doors open, even if its water based. Not a big deal for this unit.

I purchased these one piece hinges, not fond of them. I will stick with salice or blum one piece for now on, worth the extra 60 cents or so, as I dont think these adjust enough.
They do the job, but I wont be ordering them again. I dont even remember who I ordered them from, but I still have 20 or so left.

What I forgot, is that these one piece hinges, have a lip on the back also, since theres only one frame mounting screw, and I put in strips to hang slides on, and I had to chisel out space on one side for the hinge lips.100_1305.jpg kinda funny, bad eyes, shaky hands, but a nice sharp chisel got the job done ok.

heres where Im at. FF is stained, Ill be working on finishing this week hopefully and purchase some 1/4 inch ply for the back.

The left bottom door will have two simple plywood pull out drawers which I will put 2 metal pendaflex frames into. simple and easy. Ill use 1/2 ply for the bottoms since they will be holding alot of paper(weight)
 

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Looking real good. Nice job Allen.

Are those the Liberty brand hinges? I just got back from the store and bought a 10 pack. I need to whip up a couple of doors this weekend, but have some shop cleanup scheduled before I do.
 
Your getting there Allen. The blum compact hinges like the ones your using don't have much adjustment to them either. As for the tabs I ran into the same problem as you did with my shop cabinets. All I did was grind the tabs off.
 
24 hours into it.
doors have first coat of stain, going to go put second coat of stain on them shortly.
Case is fully assembled, internal 2 drawers are made and installed, and I applied first coat of poly to outside of case.(decided not to use latex paint, since I have alot of 1/4 cans left of different polys, rather use them before I dispose of them) I put a bead of indoor/outdoor silicone around all butt joints to seal it tight before I applied poly to just give the wood some kind of sealing.
I dont think Im going to apply any finish to inside of cabinets. If I decide I want too, I can always apply satin finish with rub on poly or brush on laquer when its warmer and I can open windows.
I have 4mil plastic barrier I was going to also put on outside of cabinet, under the silver faced insulation, but I think its unnecessary.
My attic is over a bedroom, and the insulation is poor, old house, the attic never gets that cold.
there were some built in shelves, and when I took them out, I saw the back was not sealed, not coated, nothing, just some some old pine and plywood nailed together, and there was never mold, so I think Im safe for now.

My son agreed to come here saturday to help me bring the unit up the stairs and into the office. Im hoping the poly has cured enough that it wont smell too bad, usually 3 or 4 days the smell is pretty much gone.

I also dont believe the two of us will be able to get the unit up the narrow attic stairs. Its very heavy, and I dont think Ill be much help, so I might have to make calls to find out whos home saturday. Problem is, all the young healthy people are not interested in moving furniture saturday afternoon, they are either sleeping off friday night, or getting a nap before going out for saturday night.
Ill probably impose on my new neighbor for help if hes around.

after I install the cabinet, Ill make another frame to put around the faceframe of the cabinet, install some base molding along the rest of the wall, and that will be that for builds for awhile.

I must get busy in my shop and start upgrading and improving things. Im going to bring all my bits and blades in for sharpening, make a ton of backer blocks, clean machines, take apart some things to clean them right, repile all the wood, pulling out all the short pieces. Maybe make a new cabinet with more smaller drawers for things, and most of all, straighten things out.
Really straighten things out, its a total mess in there. Just thinking out loud here.

I have to run over to ace, I have a 20% off all merchandise coupon, and I want to pick up a bunch of painting supplies and assorted cheap items Ill need in the immediate future.
Everytime I get the coupons, they expire before I use them.
 
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