House of cabinets

[Travis Porter]

The house of cabinet project continues....... And continues....

I have the majority of the doors finished and installed and have a lot of the drawers made. Thanks to Doug Robinson coming over and helping to work on drawers, but that will be another post as I didn't get all my pictures uploaded last night.

Here are a few work in progress pictures.

Sink area


Lower cabinets by stove


Upper cabinets by stove


Over the fridge


This isn't all of them, just the pics I uploaded last night.

Not shown
2 - 5 ft wide 8 foot tall entertainment center/bookcase units
2 - 72 inch plus vanities
1 - 7 ft cabinet over the washer/dryer
2 - 4 ft wide 8 foot tall bookcase/cabinet units

This has been a BIG project. Too big. In total there are 38 raised panel doors, 42 drawers 8 of which are pull out trays in the cabinets, and 40 drawer fronts 4 of which are false fronts.

Anyone care to guess what the total cost (actual cost) of this is? And, what the total cost from Home Depot would have been?

I have made and finished all the drawer boxes. I still have to install slides on 15 of the drawers, and tonight I am going to start making the 40 drawer fronts. Then I have around 40 shelves to make, 14 ft of formica to install in the office, and a LOT of crown molding to put up.....

I have also started a lessons learned about building cabinets like this. Any comments/suggestions anyone wants to add would be appreciated as I may be confused on some of this as I have been doing it too long.

Make your boxes small. Don' t build kitchen cabinet carcasses with over 2 doors in an assembly.

Make sure you know and understand your hinges. Euro hinges are SWEET, but know your overlay, and know the stlye of hinges and how much reveal, bore distance, etc up front.

Make a jig to drill all your cabinet door handles. Make sure it has a left side and right side.

Do not drill door handles until the doors are installed.

If you are going to make drawers out of plywood, only use baltic birch. Accept nothing less as it is a ROYAL pain. DAMHIKT

If you can, use the 32 mm drilling system. It makes hinges, drawers, etc much easier. It takes a little time to learn, but the benefits are well worth it.

Get your drawer slides up front and ensure whoever is getting it knows what they want. I ordered all the drawer slides up front to hear it would be nice to have the soft close/automatic close and told him it was too late. Then he went into sticker shock when I told him how much those types of slides cost.

Personally, I prefer full extension ball bearing slides. Hidden is the best, but side mount will do when cost is an issue. Mail order them and shop around. Prices vary from as much as $8 a pair to $25 a pair depending on where you get them.

If you can, build your toe kick assemblies separately. Makes it easier in figuring the stuff, and makes it easier in drilling holes for adjustable shelves.

I used pocket holes to put all the boxes together. Dadoes and grooves in building the boxes are nice, but overkill in my opinion.

Allow 1 inch on the sides, backs, etc for crooked walls. So far on this project I have had walls up to 7/8" off over a 42" distance.

Make and install all of your spacers (sides of cabinets) on your cabinet/boxes before finishing whenever possible. That way you don't lose them and know what you have and what you need.

Inset your backs by 1". Walls are crooked, 2x4's are bowed, and you need the space. The loss of depth in the cabinet is unfortunate, but it is not your fault that whoever built the place used crooked lumber.

Screw and use no glue on your spacers so you can remove them if you need to. Look at the picture of the cabinets above the stove and the cabinet to the left and you can see the bottom piece isn't there. The wall was so crooked (7/8" off over 42") that I didn't allow enough for that piece and have had to remake it. I only allowed 3/4" for scribing on this one. I was trying to maximize cabinet space and paid the penalty. The loss for spacers is well worth not having to remake the stuff and once the cabinets are in you forget about what you lose.

Get a good compass and use it to scribe your spacers. Get one that uses a pencil not lead. The accuscribe is VERY nice as it hugs walls well and has a built in pencil sharpener.

Sharpen your hand planes and use them to help trim your spacers. A belt sander works, and so does a jig saw, but I find I get cleaner lines with a block plane.



Lets see..... There is more, I have just reached an impasse. I need to key in all the opening sizes and get my drawer fronts figured out now. All 40 of them.......

[Keye]

This is why I will shoot anyone that tells my wife that just because I build furniture I can build cabinets.

[skeeter]

Originally Posted by Keye

This is why I will shoot anyone that tells my wife that just because I build furniture I can build cabinets.

That has to be a website secret.

[Alan in Little Washington]

Looking really nice Travis!

Are those cabinets Cherry or Cherry stain over (?)

[Glennbear]

Thanks for the continued sharing of this massive project especially the listing of pitfalls. You definitely qualify for the perserverance award

[Joe Scharle]

It's been awhile but I'm guessing $10,000 vs $30,000.

[Canuck]

Lookin' super nice there, Travis!!!!

Now I can see why you are so happy to see the end in site. That is one huge cabinet job!

The finish really does look sweet!

Thanks for sharing all of tips. (I think that I will file them away for reference......not that I see a project this large in the future; but great stuff to keep in mind.

Thanks

Wayne

[Bas]

Travis, great looking cabinets! And thanks for the lessons learned, the #1 item I'm taking away from this is - DON'T BUILD YOUR OWN KITCHEN CABINETS. At least, not until you're (a) retired (b) have a smaller kitchen and (c) are in no hurry.

Look on the bright side - you got to buy some tools for this project

[Bigdog72]

I'm with Joe. about $10,000 your cost vs about $25,000 at HD not including tops. I would really like to know what you are charging for labor.

I feel a glow of pride!! I know how to build cabinets but suck at furniture!!

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!

[Douglas Robinson]

"Are those cabinets Cherry or Cherry stain over (?)"

Alan:

They are stained and somewhere on here is a thread where Travis explains what a PITA the staining was. Tonight I am hopeful that together, Travis and I can finish the drawer fronts. As soon as this project is "DONE"!!! He and I are going to officially start our rocking chairs! Whoooo hooooo!!!

Doug

[Travis Porter]

These cabinets are maple. They have a very dark reddish brown dye (two coats) and top coated with 5 coats of satin Target USL. It is a very dark color and being waterbased I have to scuff sand and then scuff sand before the final coat.

Building cabinets really isn't that bad, but I have limited the time I work on them by myself. This is a freebie project and I have spent many days working by myself on them and I am now doing them at my convenience. If I had been diligent and worked on them like I normally would, I could have been done a long time ago.

As for the lessons learned, I have a few more that I have remembered.

Regardless if staining or clear coating put a coat of finish on the panels for raised panel doors before assembly

When doing large projects SPRAY THEM!!! Get you a cheap HVLP gun or something, but spray them. You will not regret it.

When spraying finish, get some brown paper to cover and protect your drop cloths. That way, you don't ruin your drop cloths and you can throw the paper away.

Don't waste your money on sanding sealer, shellac, etc as a first coat. It is more trouble to switch over and it doesn't give a lot of benefit.

Before you spray your final top coat lightly sand with 400 grit and vacuum. Ultra nice and ultra smooth!

[Steve W]

Nice work, Travis!

Actually, Bas, I found building mine (previous house -- built in 1927 and definitely not straight) to be fun and I learned a lot.

Many of the lessons learned that Travis has enumerated are definitely things to keep in mind. I would say that about 80% of them bit me when I made mine.

I agree with using separate bases for the toekick area. These can be simple 2 x 4 frames nailed or pocket-screwed to the floor. You put on a finish veneer after you're done. My kitchen floor was out over 2" over the run of the cabinets and being able to shim the bases and then cover up with scribed 1/4" material later made it not so noticeable.

I pocket-screwed the faceframes to the carcases using pocket holes in the sides of the carcases. These were being covered with finish panels anyway.

I used 1/2" maple for all four drawer sides, with machine half-blind dovetails. It looked nice and wasn't that much different in price from Baltic Birch plywood (I only had 10 drawers, though). I like the look of the thinner sides better.

Having said all that, I did buy my cabinets for this house when the time came. I didn't want to put my wife through another prolonged remodel.

Steve

[DavidF]

Great looking job Travis. I am amazed at how constant you have managed to get the colour throughout all the doors, nice going! Interesting comment on the Shellac, sanding sealer. I did notice with the Target Shellac that it did warm up the maple I was using, same with the cherry. Something the top coat WB doesn't do, but then I wasn't staining.

[Trent Mason]

The cabinets are looking great Travis. Consider yourself lucky that you can take on such a big project. Can't wait to see them all done. Beautiful work.

[Gofor]

As previously said, you are doing an awesome job. Thank you for all the tips. I have started a word doc (actually openoffice) copying all your tips for future reference. Not that I'll take on such a task unless someone wins the lotto and wants to sponsor a new workshop, but it will be a good reference in smaller projects of the same nature.

You ROCK!!

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