My Kitchen Cabinet Project

Ned Bulken

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Location
Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
well guys & gals,
I'm not sure this is carpentry, but since it involves updating my kitchen this is where I'm going to put it. I'm trying to surprise my wife with new kitchen cupboards. We're going to be selling the house soon, however, so I'm going to do the work myself, enjoy the new cabinets til we move, then do the whole thing all over again at whereever we end up.

I'm currently between shops, so this is not as trivial a problem as just going out to the shop and making sawdust however. Thanks to a friend from over on the WWA, I got started on building my kitchen cabinets yesterday. I took some of my maple up to his shop and we made an awful mess of his garage shop. I've invited him to visit here, and hopefully he'll sign up and chime in at some point.

We started out by chopping all of the boards I brought into more manageable lengths: here is the result. 4/4 rock maple (with some ambrosia features as it turns out)
dressedtogo.jpg


Then, using this venerable old Craftsman jointer, we cleaned up one edge and face jointed some of the boards (time was limited, so we didnt' get to them all yesterday).
maplechips.jpg

Resulting in something that looked like this:
stackowood.jpg

and this:
jm2.jpg
 
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continued...
jointedmaple.jpg


and here is a hint of what was to follow

jm4.jpg


I had to rush to get home last night to put the lumber to bed (storage unit is gated, and has limited hours)

I can't wait to line up the newly thicknessed boards and show you how they turned out. hopefully later today, it is sleeting at the moment, however, so I'm going to go put on a cuppa joe instead at the moment.
 
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Hi Ned,
From the way you are going you must have a plan.:D It is some good looking stuff you are working with, will you be using any plywood or will the wider boards be solid stock too? Hope you find at day's end this day to have been a good one.
Shaz :)
 
Jim,
honestly I'm hoping to do two things with these cabinets.
1) increase the price we get for the house
2) get the bugs out of my cabinet skills.
They're going to be as nice as I can make them, but they'll be my first set, so I plan on learning and doing better next time. I do have one cabinet which I built that IS going to go with us, and it is why I'm going with the maple for the reno.
P1010001.jpg

I built this pantry cupboard awhile back, it is 84" tall, 36" wide and 26" deep. 3/4" birch ply from the borg with solid maple edges There is an upper and lower section, with room for our microwave and toaster in the middle.


The upper section also has storage cubbies
th_P1010004.jpg

I used to have access to the CMT rail and stile router bit set. (still do I think, but they're in my former partner's shop). The LOML didn't want raised panel, so the fields on the door is simply 1/4" birch ply. The finish was honey-maple stain with sprayed on poly.

P1010005.jpg


and here is a detail of the door handles, keeping with the maple theme:

P1010003.jpg
 
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Hi Ned,
From the way you are going you must have a plan.:D It is some good looking stuff you are working with, will you be using any plywood or will the wider boards be solid stock too? Hope you find at day's end this day to have been a good one.
Shaz :)

Shaz,
it has been about 10 months since I had to shut down my shop, pack up my tools and put them in storage. I am very lucky to have great friends who let me use some of their tools and their shops occasionally. Today is a great day, I'm less stressed out today than I usually am even on weekends, because I got to make some sawdust yesterday.

the plan is reno the kitchen, new single line of cabinets along one wall, paint and trim around the window etc...

The LOML doesn't know of this grand scheme yet, other than generally. I'm going to try and get them all but ready to install and then do a fait accompli and say 'ok honey, let's rip these old cabinets out and put in new ones.
 
well guys & gals,

We started out by chopping all of the boards I brought into more manageable lengths: here is the result.

Then, using this venerable old Craftsman jointer, we cleaned up one edge and face jointed some of the boards to .jpg[/IMG]

Hey Ned, that's not a bad old Jointer you're using there. I still have that same model (or at least it looks identical) in my shop, (but mine isprobably a little older). It didn't come with the Off/On switch or the stand, and only the in feed table is adjustable, but it has always worked pretty good since the blades are easy to set with the adjustment screws. I bought my Dad a Craftsman Lathe, Craftsman 10" Contr Saw, and the Jointer For xmas or birthdays all between 1958 and 1960, IIRC.:dunno: I still have the saw too, but traded off the lathe a few yrs ago.

Nice wood you got there, so I hope you've got a warm place to work on it, since it sounds like you've got some of the same freezing rain, & cold cruddy weather we've had for the past two days here in W. Tx. Have fun with the cabinets.
 
Both the jointer and the TS are my buddy's, but I learned to joint boards on a slightly newer model than that. It did a great job, just as this one still does. I would gladly have either in my shop (when I have a shop again).

Grizz' shop was nice and warm, until we opened the door to load up my pickup again. I'm just hoping I can get traction in the morning for the commute to work.
 
You should be able to make some killer cabinets out of that material. Such a shame that you are shopless. Ole Steve there knows a lot about that huh Steve??

Also a shame to build them and then move off and leave em. I build lots of cabinets and sell nearly everything I make. I like the $$:thumb:
 
thanks guys,
I won't be shopless forever. THen just watch that sawdust fly.

Plans are in the works, the 'move' is part of the solution to no shop. When the LOML and I relocate to VA one of the criteria for the new place. will be to have a garage/shop/workspace available. also, the new shop may well be part of the economic solution to our problems. Both the LOML and I are going to be changing our job strategies. Neither of us are 'happy' job wise, so this is our chance to move on and move up from 'bad' situations.
The thing that got me this past weekend, was just how Good it felt to be back in a shop, and to Know the process and to accomplish something. The stress and strain just evaporated until w*** reared its ugly head again. That's a whole other kettle o fish, however.

Also, I want to get the 'mistakes' out of the way, I Know that I can make some really great cabinets, vs what is there now. That will make the house more saleable, and until we move, we get to enjoy them. So, just a matter of perspective. spend a little, net some good looking cabinets until we move.
 
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I don't know if I'd do All that I build out of ambrosia, but I sure do love the look of it. I consider it a bonus feature, considering that I paid for simple rock maple. Honestly, since I'm doing this as a renovation, I'll likely build the face frames with the planest pieces I can manage, and then the lower doors/drawer fronts with more of the same. The Eye level doors, however will get the flashy pieces. Mind you they'll be at most 2" plus a 12" roundover /bead wide (see the above profile of the existing pantry cupboard.

I have to be aware of the 'next' owner to a point. In MY kitchen I'd be going for a maple/cherry combination of the funkiest wildesst knots and features I could find. I'll still add a bit of that in just because I think that's all I have on hand, but I won't go quite as 'far'.

Thanks for looking, though.
 
Is there a standard for how far above a stove a vent hood should be mounted?

I'm working up the cut list for my cabinets and I forgot to factor in the stove cabinet. The cabinet is just the basic 30" wide by 18" high, with a pretty simple fan/light combo unit. There seems to be about 22" from stove top to bottom of the vent hood.

When I get around to replacing the vent hood in a few weeks, is that spacing correct?
 
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