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.....:no::swoon::swoon:
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.......:swoon:
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.....:no::swoon::swoon:
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.......:swoon:
