Finally finished the kitchen (pics)

[John Preston]

Here's some pictures of the kitchen I just finished.

My first complete kitchen job, and I'm glad it's done. Started in April.

63 doors/ drawers, about 45 sheets ply, and about 900 bd ft 4/4 oak about 350-400 actual hours

I offered to help a guy that was building his house for 10$ per hour, and he took that to mean that I would build the entire kitchen.

It paid for my 22-44 drum sander, (then they went and dropped the price by half.)

Had to make the molding for 15 deg so it wouldn't overlay the corner units, had to remake 4 doors that ended up 1" too small. I screwed up the drawings on that one.

Used satin waterbased poly, and had some areas turn cloudy. I was wondering if anyone else had found a way around that, for the last 5 doors, I tried gloss up till the last coat, but couldn't tell if it made a difference.

[Jim Becker]

GREAT JOB, John!! I know your pain, too...this is a big job. But the end results are worth it and worthy of being very proud of the accomplishment. If there are any interesting details or unique things that you did, please post pics of those, too. Others who are contemplating a similar project will undoubtedly benefit!

Again, you did a wonderful job!

[Von Bickley]

John,

Great looking cabinets. Looks like the homeowner got a great deal on the cabinets.
Thanks for sharing the pictures.

[Bob Lasley]

Very nice job John. Whale of a project, but you did yourself proud! I'll bet the lady of the house is tickled pink.

Bob

[Brad Schafer]

that's huge. great work. the high top on that corner wall cab is an eye-catcher.

b

[John Preston]

Okay, here's some details:

1. I talked the customer into using European hinges, and he wanted to do face frame construction. I told him to buy one each of a couple of different types to show him that some of the hinges are less than awe-inspiring. After seeing them, he decided to go with the Blum Clip hinges. I recommend that you buy the hinges from Woodworkers Hardware (WWH) (no affiliation). The simple reason is that they have ALL the specifications in their catalog, and you know exactly what you're getting. Case in point, ordered most of the hinges from WWH, but had to get some other stuff from Rockler in the middle of the job. So, bought what they call 1/2 OL hinges. Not the same as the ½" overlay hinges I had been getting from WWH, different hinge, different plate. Still wouldn't work right, even after I got special plates. The owner came up with the idea of mortising the ff plate into the face frame. Worked like a champ.
2. Made pull out shelves. They would have worked much better if I had read the little diagram in WWH that shows the doors don't get out of the way of the pull out shelves with 120 deg hinges. Had to cut the shelves down, shim the sides, and reinstall.
3. Cope and stick doors. Bought a little toggle clamp to cut the copes on the ends of the sticks, and attached it to a little sled. That worked like a champ, much better than anything I had done before. He (customer) had purchased a Jesada door and panel set, but I couldn't ever get his cope and stick set to fit right. I used my cutters, which were the same profile. He hasn't sent his back to Jesada yet to get them fixed.
4. Pantry- The pantry is 30" wide, and 30" deep (same depth as fridge) I designed it with shelves on the back, and a vertical girder on the centerline. The girder was to support the two rotating shelf units (this is similar to a design in Rockler where they sell a premade kit.) I did all the design on CAD, and the thing worked great on paper. Installed the carcass, did the rest of the kitchen (they needed to move in to lock in their interest rate), then started on the swing out shelves. He measured the pantry interior- and they were too tall, they wouldn't fit. So, I cut one down with his skil saw, tried it, and now it hit those danged clip hinges sticking in from the face frame. Drat. (Later I saw that WWH even had that dimension in their catalog) Cut them both narrower (interesting job for bandsaw, cutting completed shelving units) so they'd miss the hinges, and installed the things, cussing and sweating standing inside the pantry. Good thing I'm emaciated. Turns out, she didn't like them anyway, and removed them. Said there was just too much going on in there. There was very little wasted space, and I don't know if I would have liked it either. So the shelves are in their utility room.
5. What would I have done differently? Tried to measure right the first time. I screwed up by an inch on two different walls, and that hurt. I was able to make it work on one wall, but had to build 4 new doors on the other. I tried to use story sticks, but didn't have the patience to use them the whole way through.
6. Trim- worked out pretty well, had a limited amount of room so that it wouldn't overlap the corner units which are proud on the face, so had to make it custom. Used a half round bit on the router table, and that was a pain in the tuckuss. Because the bit top is round, the wood would want to climb over the bit and burn. Had to run each 10 ft piece (there were 4) over the router table at least 12 times, maybe more.
7. Best investment: Kreg pro pack. Used the snot out of it for the face frames. Not what I'd call fine furniture, but darned effective for face frames. Quicker than biscuits.
8. Luckily, he was so tired of building the house, and she is one of those people that isn't worried about quality, that they're not complaining. The finish looks bad in a couple of places, where the stuff went cloudy, and caused the colors not to match. Had a drawer face that wouldn't sit flat on the face frame no matter what I did to it.

It'll be a few years before I feel like tackling another.

[Joe Tonich]

John,

Real nice job on those cabinets. One question, are those 2 separate doors on the bottom (inside corner) cabinet or is it 2 doors hinged together that open as one? I'm trying to make the latter but for some reason keep screwing it up. Don't want hinges showing or that empty space between the doors where they meet in the middle if I can help it.

Thanks,

Joe

[Lee Schierer]

The only time I've ever seen water based finishes go cloudy was when I left too much on the surface.

Kitchens are major projects and give you plenty of room for mistakes. One should take such a project on only if they have the time it will take to do all the work. Looks like you are worn out from your project. It looks great though!


Lee

[Doug Jones]

John, nothing short of amazing,,,,this is what I hope to graduate to some day. Your work is truely inspirational.

[Lloyd Robins]

Very Nice! Thank you for the inspiration for one of my next projects. The LOML tells me that our kitchen needs a face lift, and she is right. I hope that mine comes out close to yours.

[Dennis Peacock]

<B><font size=+2>Great Job John!!!!</font></B>

Thanks for sharing the pics and the details. My cabinets here in my house "suck" big time as they are cabinets bought from a local lumber supply company that were already premade. Doors are warped, stuff is falling apart and the such. Needless to say......in the next year or two, I will be doing new cabinets for our kitchen and will be looking for pointers when that time comes.

Wonderful job and great work.....

[John Preston]

John,

Real nice job on those cabinets. One question, are those 2 separate doors on the bottom (inside corner) cabinet or is it 2 doors hinged together that open as one? I'm trying to make the latter but for some reason keep screwing it up. Don't want hinges showing or that empty space between the doors where they meet in the middle if I can help it.

Thanks,

Joe

Blum sells hinges made for this purpose. They're fully adjustable, with only a little gap between the doors. Installed them backwards the first time, because I didn't have the directions, should have looked at the WWH catalog closer, because they show how to do it right. I like them a lot better than piano hinges.

[John Preston]

The only time I've ever seen water based finishes go cloudy was when I left too much on the surface.

Kitchens are major projects and give you plenty of room for mistakes. One should take such a project on only if they have the time it will take to do all the work. Looks like you are worn out from your project. It looks great though!


Lee

I used satin finish. I ended up putting on at least 4 coats, and I think part of the problem was that the flatteners in the satin finish block out the stain color or something. On some panels, I had to reapply the stain as a glaze to get the color to come out anywhere close to everything else.
I once sprayed a tabletop with some epoxied knots, and the strangest thing was, it changed the color of the whole table top with that bluish tint, and made it vaguely cloudy, but in the ares with the epoxy on the wood surface around the knots, it's perfectly clear including that nice amber tint. Go figure.

[Jim Becker]

I used satin finish. I ended up putting on at least 4 coats, and I think part of the problem was that the flatteners in the satin finish block out the stain color or something. On some panels, I had to reapply the stain as a glaze to get the color to come out anywhere close to everything else.

Some of the finishing guys I know from another forum generally recommend spraying gloss for all of your under coats. The last coat can be the satin material (same brand, etc) or another coat of gloss rubbed out to the desired sheen. They claim it preserves the clarity better.

[Ted Shrader]

John -

AWESOME JOB!

Well laid out despite your trials throughout.

Want to come to my house? I'll give you $10.50 an hour.

Ted