3 projects for a nubie

[Pvon]

A bump.  Spent last weekend working on a bathroom.  I cut and banded the faces for all the cabinets.  They came out much better than I thought they would.  (See picture below.)  I think they are a better quality than the ones they are replacing. 

A couple of new issues.  Boy it took me a long time to place the faces on the boxes and screw them on (from the inside of the box).  Any tricks to how you do this as I can't use any clamps easily and holding the face, the drill and the face doesn't work well.  Should I make some marks on the draw, take the draw out of the box and then attach the face?

Another issue:  In a few places in the house the side panels on the boxes are visible and in bad condition. They are joined by biscuits.  Can you reliably take a side panel off and rejoin with biscuits?  I guess another Festool product is in my future.  Any advice on how to proceed? 

Although the banding went well, it takes a lot of time (at least for me).  I iron on the banding.  Then I use a block to rub the banding down with the glue.  I snip the ends with the festool edge band cutter (I know it is expensive and overkill but it really makes perfect cuts).  I then use a couple of techniques.  One is to use my RO 90 sander held at a 45% angle to where down the excess banding.  I then carefully hand sand the band until it breaks along a smooth line.  After that I use a block and a hand sand paper to remove the excess glue. 

This weekend is on to painting with poly! 

 

[rljatl]

Availability of hardwood lumber would depend on where you live (and I couldn't find that you said where). Solid wood maple boards are available in varying widths and lengths in my area. However, unless you have a source for custom planing, you would need a jointer and planer to get them flat and the correct thickness. In the area I live, maple would be available from very narrow to fairly wide boards; probably up to 10". This means that you would also need to do glue ups for the cabinet doors at least.

I'm sure you can find unfinished maple veneered plywood. Again, in the area I live I could get sheets of plywood veneered with almost any hardwood.

Check out Rockler for the solid maple.  I am sure you can find it cheaper, but this is already surfaced on four sides.  Might be worth buying a few boards for testing purposes?

Maple by the Piece-3/4" Thickness

 

[Pvon]

Thanks. Nice photos.  I'm not sure why you sent them though.  I'm using plywood laminated faces to my drawers.  Please explain so I can learn.

 

[jools]

I mount drawfronts with 2 or 3 blobs of hot melt glue. When dry fix as normal. A hot melt glue gun is well worth room in your shop and useful for jig making, pattern routing etc
Regards
Jools

 

[Pvon]

Interesting idea re the glue mount.  Is it practical to replace the face if it gets damaged if you use glue?

So I used clear poly on the test bathroom and it came out great.  Will post photos when I am done. 

I ordered some buffing sponges for the RO 90.  Should I use them to buff the finish after the 3 coat or leave well enough alone? 

I found out (perhaps it would be obvious to those of you more experienced) that I need to buy a domino to replace exposed end pieces for the boxes.  Is it practical to just replace and end piece (not the rest of the box)?  Should I get the 500 or 700?  Any advice would be much appreciated.

Another discovery that puzzled me.  Looks like the boxes and the fronts were all maple veneered MDF.  Is that a good choice?  Better than real wood?  Or worse?  Wondering if that is why they degrading fairly quickly (12 years). 

Thanks again for all the advice. 

By the way, I have not posted to the other string, but so far I thin the track saw is better than a table saw to do what I am doing.  Having said that, I am a rank amateur that learns something new every step in this project.