Blue Pine Garage Cabinets: Build

[iamnothim]

All these frequent posts must drive you guys with Notify On batty.  sorry.

Another lesson.
Already knew this but obviously forgot it.  Sand the linear gaps as little as possible, so as not to loose the crisp straight line.  Not very happy about that one.

I see Bondo in my future.

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[Clweed]

Luke,

The only way I can see to avoid the gap at the miters would be to do the mitering before the contours.

 

[iamnothim]

Luke,

The only way I can see to avoid the gap at the miters would be to do the mitering before the contours.

Lee, you are brilliant.  That makes too much sense for me to do it.  It also make the sides a lot easier. 

I sure hope someone completes a project like this.  I'd love to see different implementations.

 

[blaszcsj]

Luke,

The only way I can see to avoid the gap at the miters would be to do the mitering before the contours.

Didn't Jory do the miters after contouring with the track saw?

 

[iamnothim]

Didn't Jory do the miters after contouring with the track saw?

Now that you mention it, yes he did.  See photo in past post.  That said his miters came out better than mine and I chose to use a miter saw since the height was small.  Interesting.  In this application, after making the returns, I think it would have come out better to miter the returns before contouring.  A huge headboard.... Just like Jory.

Today I found a bargain at Austin's.  A single 6' plank of 8/4 tiger maple in the 4/4 sale bin.  $6.50 a board foot.  As compared to 8/4 birdseye with some figure at $17.

That baby will solve two problems.  1) I will make a 30mm header with returns from it.  2) Through the magic of the band saw, I will rip 6mm x 125mm thick planks to panel the right side of the cabinet.  AND, unlike buying a chunk of veneer, I will book match the planks and do some subtle contouring (maybe).

Incredible figuring!

A great find.

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[iamnothim]

It was a difficult day in the Mulch Factory.

I wish I could say that I planned on the deep chamfer on the right side of the drawer and header, but that would be a lie and this is a full disclosure thread.

Why did I cut it wrong?  Naturally, because I marked it wrong.  See I may measure for a mark four times, but somewhere between the first time and the fourth time I get mixed up.  So it really doesn’t matter how many times I measure, because I always have a 15% failure rate. 

Every one of my projects has mitering and every one has the same 15%.  The frustrating part is there are only two choices parallelogram or trapezoid.  15% of my planned parallelogram are cut trapezoidal.

There is some good news in this is…. kinda… by cutting off the right corner there are “no sharp corners”  (ya right) and to make it work I ripped the return so it’s only half as proud to the right side. That looks better.  I am not going to cut the left corner.  The ends will remain mismatched as a monument to my ineptitude.  Note: I have more monuments than Yankee Stadium.

I was able to get six 6mm thick planks for the right side of the cabinet from the remainder of the 8/4 piece I used for the header.  I still have another three feet of 8/4 for something else.

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[iamnothim]

Guys.

I would like you to weigh in with your opinion on the header.

Do I leave the header Block?
Or do I Contour it?

Thanks

Luke

 

[rvieceli]

I like the contrast. I say leave it. Looks great.

 

[bertv]

Keep in mind that when you build other pieces of furniture for your shop a ‘blocked’ counter with similar thickness on everything will pull it all together… Same as having a common height for stuff.

I am a designer and may be a bit a*al that way : )

 

[travisj]

I also like the contrast of the block.  Depending on what you are doing on top of the cabinet in the future, a straight (vs contoured) may be beneficial.

 

[iamnothim]

The polls are now closed and after record participation the unanimous choice is blocked.  Blocked it will be.  Finished gluing the side planks to the right side.  Presently it's not worth a photo.

 

[iamnothim]

Keep in mind that when you build other pieces of furniture for your shop a ‘blocked’ counter with similar thickness on everything will pull it all together… Same as having a common height for stuff.

I am a designer and may be a bit a*al that way : )

Hi Brent.
Thanks for the input.  The top will match the Roubo top.  Maple.  8/4 thick and most likely hard maple this time.  8/4 is the same thickness as the cabinet header.  As such I think I should use some spacers so there is a gap between the header and the counter top.  I'm thinking 5mm.  I can play with the toe kick height.

I should take the time to learn SketchUp so all this isn't by the seat of my pants.

Luke

 

[iamnothim]

It was a better day in the mulch factory.

The header has been secured, the sides are paneled, trimmed and sanded, I contoured the edges of the top drawer front and it is ready to attach to the box.  I will trim back the returns after all the fronts have been installed.

What isn't pictured are the miter gaps.  I've been experimenting with fill and I haven't come up with anything satisfactory.  I may just leave them alone as a shadow line rather than a filled line.  It's still a line among curves, filled or not.

Watched a video on attaching drawer fronts.  They used screws in the corners of the box.  I think not.  Since the fronts are over an inch thick and the box is 3/4"  I am thinking of aligning the front with double sided tape and putting two large domino's clean through the inside of the box.

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[Cheese]

Why not align the front with double sided tape and then drill and insert box screws with the oversized heads to finalize the install? The combination of screws and double sided tape would secure the positioning of the parts relative to one another without the additional steps involved in using and registering the Domino.

 

[mike_aa]

Why not align the front with double sided tape and then drill and insert box screws with the oversized heads to finalize the install? The combination of screws and double sided tape would secure the positioning of the parts relative to one another without the additional steps involved in using and registering the Domino.

Plus the screws allow you to slightly adjust the position of the fronts if needed.

 

[zapdafish]

If you are using drawer pulls you can  pre drill the holes into the drawer front only and attach the front to the drawer. When everything is in place, attach from inside the drawer, remove the screws from the front, finish drilling the holes for the pulls and attach them.

 

[butzla]

Luke, it's a no brainer.  Use drawer front adjusters

 

[iamnothim]

Luke, it's a no brainer.  Use drawer front adjusters

Jim,
Are you referring to the Blum adjusters pictured below?  It might be hard to bore the holes in the fronts because there's only one flat surface on the fronts and that's the side that gets bored. Thus, I can't use a drill press, because the holes will be skewed, and boring by hand might not give the best results.

Why not align the front with double sided tape and then drill and insert box screws with the oversized heads to finalize the install? The combination of screws and double sided tape would secure the positioning of the parts relative to one another without the additional steps involved in using and registering the Domino.

Once they are aligned, to permanently secure the fronts to the box, rather than using screws, I can keep the panel and box static while I bore a domino thru the box and into the front.  No registration required and no screw head.

If you are using drawer pulls you can  pre drill the holes into the drawer front only and attach the front to the drawer. When everything is in place, attach from inside the drawer, remove the screws from the front, finish drilling the holes for the pulls and attach them.

I will not use hardware.  The drawers will open by reaching to the right side and pulling from the edge of the return.  The Blum Tandem guides can handle the skew force of pulling them from the right.  I will dish a little finger pull on the edge of the return.

I included an image of the miter gaps.  The solution is to cut them correctly in the first place.  I might try to fill with maple shims (you can see I used one as a partial fill) or I can play the "it's the garage" card and do nothing.  I'm not liking putties and fillers.

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[butzla]

Yes, they're fantastic!

 

[iamnothim]

Yes, they're fantastic!

I modified my response to you above....
EDIT
I found the cams I bought but it appears I didn't buy the markers.