David's Kitchen part four... (w/pics)

[David Eisan]

Hello everyone,

When we last saw David's kitchen the boxes were done and the face frames were built,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/ffdone.jpg

Since then I have painted and installed the face frames. The face frames are made of poplar (pocket screwed) and were painted with one coat of Zinser shellac based primer and two coats of oil based white melamine paint.

Next task for the cabinets, drawers.

I bought one sheet each of 5'x5' 5/8" and 3/8" Baltic birch plywood for the drawers and applied three coats of water based poly to each side. Finishing the sheets is much easier then finishing the assembled drawers.

I started by ripping the 5/8" sheet into widths for the various drawer sides. There are only 5 drawers and three heights, so it didn't take long. Here are the ripped strips with little tags as to what's what,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/rippedplywood.jpg

There was lots of machining to do to turn 20 pieces of ply into the drawer sides. Here is a shot of me rounding (breaking the edges really) on the top edge of each piece,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/roundingoverplywood.jpg

A shot of all the parts after all machining,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/plydrawerpartsmachined.jpg

All the parts for one drawer ready for glueup,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/plydrawerreadyforglueup.jpg

You can see the groove for on three sides for the ply bottom to slide into, the 1/4"x1/4" dado on the front of each side to accept the 1/4"x1/4" tongue from the drawer front for the lock rabbet joint and the 5/8" dado at the rear of the sides for the back.

The five drawers in clamps,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/plydrawersinclamps.jpg

Here I am screwing in the 3/8" ply bottom with 1" self tapping Kreg screws,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/screwplybottom.jpg

Next it was time to install the drawers onto the drawer slides. I am using 100lb side mount, full extension mounts from Lee Valley. Since I am using face frames, I also bought the face frame mounting kits for the slides rather than shimming out the sides of the boxes flush with the face frames under the slides like I did on my folks kitchen (there was no such kit for their slides). Since I never seem to use the same slide twice and don't have a lot of experience with any (and with no instructions), placing a thin piece of plywood under the drawer and pulling the drawer side up to secure it to the drawer seemed like the best idea,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/screwingdrawerslide.jpg

Worked pretty well actually...

Here is a fuzzy picture of the five drawers installed,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/plydrawersinstalled.jpg

And an overall shot of the seven cabinets that will make up my new kitchen,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/overalldrawersinstalled.jpg

Now all I have to do is make and paint 22 raised panels...

More to come, thanks for looking,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him.

[Rennie Heuer]

Wow! Huge undertaking, and well executed. Nicely done!

[Walt Caza]

Hi David,
Your kitchen project looks tight and tidy! Keep up the good work...
Thanks for sharing pics,
Walt

ps Thanks for your good advice and help, I am pleased with my DJ20
:)

[John Renzetti]

Hi David, Things are moving along and the kitchen taking shape. Looks. Keep posting the progress pics.
take care,
John

[Randal Stevenson]

Melamine paint?

I thought Melamine was a thermally fused process?
This could change the way I do a couple of projects, for the better I think. Can you tell me where you bought this stuff? (is it local, like the borg, or is it a mail order only)

Thanks!

[Paul Kinneberg]

Great job!! BTW I would be interested in hearing more about the melamine paint as well.

[Travis Porter]

Awesome job. One question if I may. Is there any reason you mounted the slides in the middle versus towards the bottom of the drawer?

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work!

May I hazard a guess that the "Melamine paint" is made to "match" the color/texture of the melamine-covered sheet goods?

[Corey Hallagan]

Looking great! Nice job David.

Corey

[David Eisan]

Great job!! BTW I would be interested in hearing more about the melamine paint as well.

It is supposed to be the most durable paint. You can buy it at any paint store.

David.

[David Eisan]

Awesome job. One question if I may. Is there any reason you mounted the slides in the middle versus towards the bottom of the drawer?

This is my third kitchen. I have no formal training and all three have been different materials and hardware. Not having been influenced by "norms", I am just doing things the way I like them :).

Thanks,

David.

[glenn bradley]

You are on a roll Dave! What a great project.