Cabinets, and lots of them...

[Dave Zellers]

I am still behind where I wanted to be but I guess I should be glad with my achievements so far.

I don't know... Any regular Super Hero would have had that done by now.

Me, I'd still be standing frozen in front of that stack of plywood and thinking "Oh crap".

Awesome job.

You do understand however, since you bought the doors, you won't be able to say, "I built this".

[Paul Cahill]

Lovely job!

[mreza Salav]

Thanks folks.

I don't know... Any regular Super Hero would have had that done by now.

Me, I'd still be standing frozen in front of that stack of plywood and thinking "Oh crap".

Awesome job.

You do understand however, since you bought the doors, you won't be able to say, "I built this".

I know, I guess I can only claim "I built this" for a few other things in the house

[julian abram]

Amazing project undertaking. Your work is A-1!

[Jerry Olexa]

Very nice results on a BIG project!! Well done.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Nice work, very inspiring. (And tiring, just thinking about it!)

[mreza Salav]

Thanks again, I appreciate the comments.

[Mike Berrevoets]

Mreza - First, that is a bunch of nice looking cabinets! You must not sleep very much. I'm cringing at the amount of time it will take me for the next kitchen project coming up in our house and I probably don't have half the cabinets you have.

Which leads me to my question(s)..... (If this is a hi-jack someone say so and I'll start a new thread.)

Did you choose the Domino and screw method to save time or is it based on what tools you have available or it's a better, more durable method? (Or all of the above?) The last set of kitchen cabinets in our old house I used dados, glue, clamps and some 18-guage nails but I'm looking at alternative methods for this next set. And if a Domino is faster/better then I can justify the expense of a new tool to the boss (wife).

I thought I noticed in one picture that the cabinets were screwed through the face of the ply into the edge. if that's true did you have any splitting of the ply? We will have all applied end panels so screws through the face are fine aesthetically. I've kicked around Kreg jigging the cabinets but if the edge of the ply doesn't split then I could save some time not drilling with the Kreg jig.

Thanks - Mike
(PS - If you are too busy to answer I understand. )

[mreza Salav]

Mike,

I like to do the best possible job (it's for myself); having said that I have lots of things to do (or I should say had lots of things to do). So time was an important factor as well.
Given that my sheets are pre-finished ply using glue on the edges would have required a bit more work.
I found a combination of domino and screw both fast and very strong. My initial thinking was to use dominos mostly for helping alignment when I put the boxes together (alone), althought hey add strength as well. For each lower cabinet, on each edge at the bottom (deck) I use 4 dominos and five 2" screws; there are 4 dominos and 6 screws on each left/right side of the back as well (so in total I think I use like 20 dominos and 36 screws in that one box). It is probably way over-kill (as most my other things) but so be it. For uppers I use 3 domoninos on each edge of top/deck (plus 4 screws) and 4 dominos on each edge of back plus plenty of screws. I think the boxes are very sturdy and I have managed to put them together fairly quickly.

As for screws: they are R4 #8x2" GRK screws that are self drilling. They work fine in plywood without pre-drilling, except I noticed that if you drill into the edge that is close to a corner (say 1.5" away) then they may split. For those locations I pre-drill.

[rudy de haas]

Everybody:

Back about Dec 30th I happened to be in Edmonton and Mr. Salav gave me a quick tour of his house. At the time the cabinet pieces were in boxes - but the house itself is huge and solidly built. Of course, I got somewhat lost getting there, didn't have enough time, etc etc, but all of the work -and, in particular the front door and the curved stairway railings - is as impressive as these pictures suggest.

So thanks for the tour - and, by the way, why aren't the two curves continuous? (I thought they were when I was there, but they aren't - that landing offset is just too big- right?)

[Chris Padilla]

God? Is that you? Seriously, Dude, I need a nap between READING your posts of all the work you are doing. I'm still dancing around getting the cabinet doors done for my master bathroom! Maybe I should stop dancing, eh? Incredible work as always, Mreza.

[mreza Salav]

I had a laugh, thanks Chris. Honestly the cabinets are going much faster compared to the rest. Although I had done a lot of the work earlier it is still less time than I anticipated. I hope to put all the boxes including island in the next few days. Then it will be trim work, bulk-head, a curved range hood (which seems complex) and a whole bunch of drawer boxes...

[eugene thomas]

I hope ya plan to make video of the whole project when done....

[mreza Salav]

Thanks Rudy. I suppose you mean the top of the railing where it becomes horizontal, right? if I was to continue all the way to the post it was too high or I had to set the railing over the stringer too low (like around 31" high).

Eugene, I'm not sure about a video but I'll definitely take some good photos of the whole thing when done.

[Mike Berrevoets]

Mreza - Thanks for the domino/screw build details. We won't have prefinished ply since almost all the lowers will be drawer units but I think I could used the dominos and run a bead of glue on the edge and use the screws. My wife likes the frameless cabinets too which makes things a little quicker for me to build.