John Pollman
01-23-2005, 9:55 PM
Hi all !
I've been thinking about taking on a project that's going to require a lot of cutting and dados. I'm thinking about making some new kitchen cabinets and my next door neighbor just finished up a MAJOR addition and remodel of their house. They had a custom cherry kitchen made and it came out beautiful. What the cabinet maker did was to build the boxes out of 3/4" melamine (white on both sides). The bases were made and attached to the floor and then the boxes were set on the base and attached. Then he made panels to cover the exposed melamine on the ends and exposed backs of the cabinets on the peninsula and island. The doors were made with solid cherry frames and cherry ply for the panel. The panels and doors all look the same. The panels were just screwed to the ouside of the box from the inside. When all was said and done they came out gorgeous ! I don't think I'll do cherry but I'd like to fabricate mine the same way with a minor change in the design of the doors and panels.
This is going to require a lot of cutting and dados. I do have a table saw but I was thinking that if I set up a work area I could possibly get away with using the Tru-Grip clamping system to do a lot of the panel cutting and dado cutting on the box portion of the project. I found a place that has a combo price with the 2', 4', 8' bars, a router plate and saw plate as well as a stop block. All of this for like $189 plus shipping. I'm thinking that I could use the guide bar and saw plate to cut most of the bigger pieces for the box construction and then switch to the router plate to cut the dados that I'd need for the boxes. I could use my router table and table saw to fabricate the doors and panels. This project is still in the "thinking it out" stage but I was just curious if any of you have used this Tru-Grip system and if so how you like it. I've seen it at a local plywood place where I get a lot of my materials and they want like $99 for just the 8 foot clamp with NO accessories ! Looks like I can get all three sizes and three accessories for a little over $200. Any input will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks !
John
I've been thinking about taking on a project that's going to require a lot of cutting and dados. I'm thinking about making some new kitchen cabinets and my next door neighbor just finished up a MAJOR addition and remodel of their house. They had a custom cherry kitchen made and it came out beautiful. What the cabinet maker did was to build the boxes out of 3/4" melamine (white on both sides). The bases were made and attached to the floor and then the boxes were set on the base and attached. Then he made panels to cover the exposed melamine on the ends and exposed backs of the cabinets on the peninsula and island. The doors were made with solid cherry frames and cherry ply for the panel. The panels and doors all look the same. The panels were just screwed to the ouside of the box from the inside. When all was said and done they came out gorgeous ! I don't think I'll do cherry but I'd like to fabricate mine the same way with a minor change in the design of the doors and panels.
This is going to require a lot of cutting and dados. I do have a table saw but I was thinking that if I set up a work area I could possibly get away with using the Tru-Grip clamping system to do a lot of the panel cutting and dado cutting on the box portion of the project. I found a place that has a combo price with the 2', 4', 8' bars, a router plate and saw plate as well as a stop block. All of this for like $189 plus shipping. I'm thinking that I could use the guide bar and saw plate to cut most of the bigger pieces for the box construction and then switch to the router plate to cut the dados that I'd need for the boxes. I could use my router table and table saw to fabricate the doors and panels. This project is still in the "thinking it out" stage but I was just curious if any of you have used this Tru-Grip system and if so how you like it. I've seen it at a local plywood place where I get a lot of my materials and they want like $99 for just the 8 foot clamp with NO accessories ! Looks like I can get all three sizes and three accessories for a little over $200. Any input will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks !
John