House of cabinets

[Travis Porter]

I am still working on cabinets. Kitchen cabinets, vanities, book cases, and a built in office. All out of maple, all dyed, and all finished with wb lacquer. Some of the pictures are dated as I haven't been on the site for awhile due to health issues with my family, having to work a lot, and so forth.

Some of the carcasses

Tilt out hinges for false drawer fronts for storage

Lots of drawer slides. These are Blum standard 3/4 slides. I would have liked to have used full extension concealed slides, but this is not a high end project and cost matters, so at around $5 a pair it is good value for the money. I am using full extension ball bearing slides on the pull out trays though. A bit more, but still a lot less than the fully concealed ones.

This little jig I got from Blum makes it much easier to align and mount the slides. Works on the full extensions and the 3/4 slides

The supports for the bar. Nothing special, just an L shape out of 8/4 maple rounded over and finished. This is just 4 of them as I made 9.

The outside of the "bar" area. The fit of the boards is good. I think this picture was before I got everything tied in. My daughter took a bunch of pictures and I think this is one she took.

And the inside kitchen area. My oldest daughter stayed with me during this part of the installation.

So far, I have all of the carcasses built and installed in the kitchen and the bathrooms. I am now making the carcasses for the office and the family room (four 4 foot by 8 foot units with doors and drawers on the lowers). Once I get all of the carcasses built and installed I will move forward with doors and drawers.....

 

[NCPete]

Looking good Travis! I see your help is flexing her muscles!

 

[TracyP]

Looking nice Travis.

 

[ScottM]

Man you have been busy. One question. Are you trying to keep up with Bas on narratives? I hope all the family issues are behind you. I can relate.

 

[Mike Callihan]

Looking good Travis. I see you are saving all the fun (Drawers and Doors) for last.:gar-La; Building all the cabinetry for a home is a daunting project, been there done that, but it looks like your well on the way. I applaud your project.:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

Mike

 

[Glennbear]

Thanks for keeping us posted on this massive undertaking, it is looking good. I noticed you bought the BIG boxes of fasteners, this project is well beyond the little BORG "handy-paks" :rotflm:

 

[RandyJ]

Nice looking cabinets, Travis! Looks like a lot of hard work. At least you were able to steal some of DaveO's elves to help out...:gar-La;

 

[JimmyC]

Travis,

The kitchen's looking great. I know it's alot of work having done one previously. So I've gotta ask, Are staying in the house for a while longer or setting it up to sell ?

Either way it looks great, and good luck finishing it up.

Jimmy:mrgreen:

 

[Bas]

Great looking cabinets Travis, and the finish looks exceptional! That's a pretty big job you have going there, fabrication and installation for multiple rooms.

So is your daughter showing any aptitude for woodworking/ carpentry/ DIY?

 

[skeeter]

Nice looking start to the cabinets. Finish looking good. Looks like everything is under control.

 

[DavidF]

Looking good Travis. I hope the health/family problems were not too serious and are now all done with. Maybe we need an Apex lunch club meet for a group hugccasion1

 

[Travis Porter]

The family health issues started at the beach when we were there, but seems to be better. Watching parents get older and feeble is a sad thing.

JimmyC - we are undecided about moving. We want to, but with the state of the economy, it isn't a good time to try and sell a house.

As for fasteners, I will be buying very little in the way of screws, fasteners, hinges, slides, etc from the BORG. Some stuff is ok, but screws are the pits and the slides don't work with some of the jigs/accessories that make things easier.

I am down to my last sets of carcasses and then I go into doors and drawers. I only have about 500 BF of maple and 15 sheets of plywood to go.

 

[Travis Porter]

A few more cabinet progress pics. Unfortunately, my narration skills are nowhere near par with Monte or for that matter our new chief narrator, Bas ;-), and my picture taking skills are the pits, so oh well. I am just trying to increase my post count anyway.

All of the boxes are assembled with pocket holes. I have had my jig for many years and I need to go through and do the upgrade to it that a member gave me the parts for, but I just have not had the time with family issues and trying to get all these cabinets done. Still, I want to upgrade (imagine that) to either a Kreg Foreman, a Kreg floor model, or a Castle pocket hole machine. The Kreg and the Castle each have their pluses, but I am leaning more towards a Castle as it is not as important to having a clamping table with it. Still, if I find either for a good deal, well you know.....


Note the T molding edge banding. Need to add a small edge bander to my list. ;-)

Of course, you need a nice driver to drive all those pocket hole screws. :gar-Bi I happened to pick this one up at the Woodworkers supply sale. Got $30 off and a free flashlight. It isn't as strong as a cordless drill, but it can definitely get the job done. I can drive a 3 1/2" screw without issue, it has a LED light, and charges in 30 minutes. I give it an A minus only because it doesn't have bit storage.

When you have lots of small parts to finish, attaching them to something helps. I just brad nailed these to a scrap piece of plywood to make it easier to handle.

Here I am doing one of the mass finishings. I have done about 3 of these so far. This was a small one. The finishing routine is to spray a coat of dye mixed with water, let it dry for about an hour, scuff sand, spray another coat of dye, wait 30 mins, spray a coat of wb lacquer, wait an hour, scuff sand, and then spray 4 more coats of lacquer. I can get a round of finishing done in about 4 hours if I can do it outside.

 

[Bas]

Excellent progress report Travis, and good looking pictures. I like your approach to finishing small parts - duh! So obvious.

That finishing schedule makes my head hurt. Sounds like a lot of work. Hauling everything outside (and back in....) must be a pain as well. You don't need a bigger shop, you need a finishing room! But the color looks great.

OK, maybe a bigger shop too

 

[DavidF]

Nice write up Travis. So the little Bosch is ok is it? The specs seem to imply quite a bit of power for the size, What Battery size?

Is that pocket hole construction "Normal" with a face frome cab as opposed to rebate and glue the case sides and the FF holds it all from racking? Never made one my self, but that looks like a lot of work.

 

[Travis Porter]

Love the Bosch, but it is not as strong as a drill. It is good for driving screws. It struggles a bit on 4" screws, but works. It is a 10.8 volt.

Pocket holes are fairly common for face frame construction. The big cab shops use dowels and dowel insertion machinery for the carcasses though. Me, I don't plan on going to that level, so a standard pocket hole machine will work, plus there is so many other things you can do with it besides cabinets. I don't think the pocket holes take that long personally. Having a drill ready and just moving the pieces down the line goes pretty quickly. As for rebates and rabbets, I used to do that with cabinets, but I have since quit. In my opinion, the racking is just as bad with dadoed and rabbetted cabinets as it is with pocket holes. The thing that really strengthens it up are the nailer/screw strips and finally putting in the backs.

Nice write up Travis. So the little Bosch is ok is it? The specs seem to imply quite a bit of power for the size, What Battery size?

Is that pocket hole construction "Normal" with a face frome cab as opposed to rebate and glue the case sides and the FF holds it all from racking? Never made one my self, but that looks like a lot of work.

 

[dick541]

Travis, just off the top of your head, How many doors and how many draws? lookin good, hope you get done before christmas.
dick

 

[Travis Porter]

Travis, just off the top of your head, How many doors and how many draws? lookin good, hope you get done before christmas.
dick

I think around 40 raised panel doors and around 30 drawers.

I will be done before Christmas. I intend to be done in August or early September.

 

[cpowell]

Pretty work and a nice write up, to boot. :icon_thum

Your workmanship has always been quite good and your finishes have always been good but in the past year or so you just seem to have gotten so much better on the finish side. I like to look at your work.

Chuck

 

[Gofor]

Beautiful work, and an awesome task!! My hat is off to you for your patience and persistence!! If I were doing it the quality would be getting sloppier by this time, but you just keep getting better and better!:icon_thum:icon_thum:icon_thum:icon_thum:icon_thum

I like the T-banding. Good solid edge that will handle about any abuse.


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