Island, or continent? (was, bowed plywood)

Bill Lantry

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Well, dang. This is what happens when you put off a project too long, finally decide to do it, go out and look for the materials you bought who knows how long ago, and find out your storage methods were less than ideal! Rats! That plywood was 40 bucks a sheet. :doh:

I was determined to not be defeated! :rofl:

First step: clean off the 'assembly table!'

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Then I built some four foot I-beams:


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First piece of plywood. Look at that bow! Imagine using that as a bed for setting tile! I'd be divorced in three minutes flat!

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Both pieces set up:

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Glued and clamped.


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Added some weight. And popped it in a few dozen places with 1 1/4 inch nails. "Until the glue dries!"

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More weight!

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Took a few pictures of springtime while the glue set up.

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Finished. Nice and flat!

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This time, at least, I survived the struggle. And so did my marriage... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
So, if you've forgotten (and yes, it's been a while :doh: ) this is what I'm replacing. It served us well for years, but nothing lasts forever:

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I'm going to reuse those cabinets, but she wants them completely reconfigured. The middle one, "B," becomes A, C moves to B, A becomes C. Makes perfect sense, don't you think? :doh:

It means I have to reface the fridge side of what was B, and the opposite side of what was A. Darn it. And rewire everything, etc.

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A peek at the guts.

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What kind of joker built this, in the first place? What a doofus!

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It gets worse:


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I guess it made sense at the time?

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This is what happens when you look under the rug. *Never* look under the rug! If you look closely, you'll see a can of baby formula. James is now six! :rofl:

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Careful, structured, well organized planning is the key to a successful project! ;)

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But no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. In this case, the enemy is hand-made tile. Every single one is different. Three hours of layout and rearrangement, just to determine where to cut the underlay!

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Don't worry, it's about to get worse. Way worse! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 

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It's OK guys, I brought enough to share...

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You can (and will) get 'er done, Bill. :thumb:
 
Thanks for the popcorn, guys, but I'm on a diet. Doorlink's orders! ;)

Anyway, back to it. The island had to spend a little time in the shop, getting cleaned up and getting the new end panels fitted:

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Back it the kitchen, those panels look pretty good:

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I seriously thought I had more clamps. I think a six year old squirrel got his hands on a few.

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Mind this gap: it's gonna be important later.

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Now, which screws to use? You'd think I'd have every kind known to man!

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And I've got two drawers with even more. Dang! Finally settled on some exterior screws I had left over. They're the right length, and they'll blend in. Kind of. Oh, and they don't break off in face frames, the way stainless steel
screws do! :doh:

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Clamp firmly. Drill nice deep pilot holes. Dip the screws in wax. Use the right bit. May as well, it comes with the screws... ;)

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Now's the time to use those expensive countersink bits you bought...

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Of course, they didn't work. Back in the box they went. Used a larger drill bit for the countersink. Inelegant, but it worked.
 
There's more trouble. How this happens, I'll never know, but the faceframe slipped a little, even while it was clamped. She'd notice that in a micro-second, and I'd never hear the end of it!

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Dang! It's off by at least 1/64th of an inch!

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Take the screw out, reclamp, redrill, rescrew. Much better.

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But what to do about the hole? Put the screw back. If she notices, tell her it needed extra strength! :rofl:

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Finished just in time! Notice she's still smiling... :eek:

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That gap I mentioned before? It's half an inch. The cabinets are designed to be screwed into a back wall. Without that extra support, they get pretty flimsy. They're just half inch ply, after all. So I need something that fits exactly between them. Like maybe some half inch MDF, raised off the floor in case of rising water levels.

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Need to cut a hole for the fan. No-one will ever notice it's not round!

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Ready to lower into place, and screw together:


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This is actually the second one. The bessey clamps hold the whole thing together, but I'm using the trigger clamps to take an existing bow out.


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And we're done with this part. Looks good.

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Next up, electrical connections, etc...

Thanks,

Bill
 
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So, I started rewiring. Big hassle, but got it all done. GFCI, 12/2 w/g, the whole nine yards. Doorlink approved the placement of the outlets. I even used wireclips to keep the romex nice and tidy, even though no-one would ever see it.

Not good enough! She didn't like the new work box, even though it was blue. And she certainly didn't like seeing the romex. So its undo everything, and off to the depot for a new art deco box, and new wire track. Long story short: two days to rewire one silly island. Dang!

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Went to measure for the new back panel, and found the whole thing was out of square. More clamps!

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The work continues, even as Easter dinner is cooking. That's not a manual, that's Julia Child! With notes!

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Caution. Doorlink at work!

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Cutting the back panel from some nice maple ply.

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Final trim for the island top / tile base. A good reason to have the festool 75, instead of the 55.

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The top in place.

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It's giant!

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You could land a light aircraft on that thing.

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The island that ate the kitchen!

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Oh, boy. This is trouble. Again!
 
Much hemming and hawing. Finally, the decision arrives: one row less of tile across the length, one less across the width. Since I can't lift the top by myself, I decide to trim it in place:

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It raised a little dust. More than a little.... ;)

When I got the festool, I wanted the little dust collector attachment. But it was three or four hundred bucks, so that wasn't happening. Anyway, as soon as I started cutting, a few words were said, just loud enough so I could understand them through my hearing protection! :rofl:

The star of this picture is not the pretty girl, but what's behind her: the vacuum cleaner. Turns out the hose fits the festool exactly! Problem solved. :thumb:


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Last time I cut a hole like this, I used a jigsaw. Of course, the blade deflected, so the cut wasn't plumb, and the line wasn't exactly straight. No such problem with the festool at hand. Perfect. Except at the very corners. Even though I set the saw to its deepest plunge, it left a little arc of wood at the bottom of each corner. Neander time!


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The cement board going on. Makes a good underlayment for the tile. But how to keep it from drifting while I get the screws in? Got out my 23 gauge pinner, and popped the pieces into place. Worked like a dream!


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I love those little litium ion drills, but they're not up to this job. Hammer drill time! With an actual cord, and a real chuck. Now, that's a serious tool. :eek:

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A good shot of the new size. The work went quickly, even though I drilled pilot holes, then hammer drilled the special screws in.



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The temporary edging has to be exactly the right height if the tile's to be set well. Later, it will be replaced with curly maple, but that would get trashed by the tile setting process.


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That hammer drill makes a ton of noise, and the air nailer that puts the edging on ain't quiet either. But #5 Son was facebooking through all the commotion! ;)

I couldn't stand the noise without my ear protection, but nobody else seems to mind. Actually, since my worktunes attaches to my android, I was listening to Carlos Fuentes talk about his new novel through the whole process, via podcast... ;)

Next step: laying out and marking tile...

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This is what happens when you look under the rug. *Never* look under the rug! If you look closely, you'll see a can of baby formula. James is now six! :rofl:

Bill,
Since you found that baby formula, that means your gonna have another little one on the way, right?!
Hey, don't blame me! You're the one that uncovered the 'formula', so you know the saying..."if you find it, they will come" or something to that effect from the movie 'daycare of dreams'... wait, maybe I got that wrong again...:huh:

Well, let us know if it's going to be a boy or a girl!!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

(Whew! I better be careful before I get myself in trouble here!:D)

BTW, those cabinets are looking great! Wonderful work!
(am I out of the woods yet?):p
 
Yes, it's tile time. This is supposed to be the easy part. Like, how hard could it be? Everything's been measured and remeasured, calculated three times, cut precisely. Three practice layouts of tile, each one taking several hours. What could go wrong? :rofl:

See, I lead a charmed life. It's a combination of good karma and right action. Follow the eight-fold path, and your tile layout will look like this:

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See what I mean? Perfect! The gods of kitchen renovation are smiling upon me.

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Now, I want you to listen to me very carefully, folks! Never build with handmade tile! It is the invention of the evil one, fabricated by malevolent demons who mock our humanity from their fiery pits! :doh:

This end is *exactly* the same width as the other. Same number of tiles. Look at that gap!

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Dang! The work of demons, I tell you! :rofl:

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I resisted the temptation to break out the saw and go medieval on the thing! Once I calmed down, I just looked for wide tiles instead of slightly thinner ones. They can vary by a full quarter inch. Soon (actually, after a couple hours of work), all was well:


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Tried to make the accent tiles as random as possible:


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But with a grid, there's no such thing as random:


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Then I got Doorlink in, and she moved them around some more, until she was satisfied:


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Next up: setting the durned things...
 
Of course, when getting ready to set them, it's not enough to just pick the tiles up. Each one needs to be carefully marked, for sequence *and* orientation:

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And stacked neatly in piles:

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Once you start, it's best not to stop. You're gonna be there a while... ;)

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The next day, it's time to grout and seal:

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Ever drilled a freehand pocket hole? I need a way to hold the thing down, in case rough-housing boys decide it's a launch platform for testing their superpowers:

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There *is* some beauty to symmetry:

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Next up: dropping in the appliances. What could go wrong? :rofl:

Thanks,

Bill
 
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