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

[David F. Eisan]

Hello everyone,

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

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,

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,

shot of all the parts after all machining,

the parts for one drawer ready for glueup,

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,

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

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,

pretty well actually...

Here is a fuzzy picture of the five drawers installed,

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

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.

[Highland Pairos]

Nice work and nice documentation as always David. One question though. Why do you use lock rabbet joints (my new favorite joint) for the drawer front, but not the back? Is it simply because you want the front at the end of the box and the back can be inset?

SteveP.

[Leon]

Very nice Dave. When do you plan to move the kitchen out of the living room and back into the kitchen? I remember redoing our kitchen years ago. I was still working my regular job and only worked on the new kitchen cabinets on weekends. 18 months later the task was completed. We ended up with a kitchen twice as big and it was well worth the time involved.

[Leon]

Typically the front of a drawer carries the load and has more stress from being opened and shut. A better joint is call for. The back only has to keep the contents from sliding out of the back of the drawer. Additionally you seldom see the joint on the back side so a fancy joint would be wasted for appearance sake.

[Swingman]

Additionally

My recently deceased BIL left SWMBO what is apparently an older Drexel chest of drawers and bedside table. While carting them up the spare bedroom last weekend I noticed that all the drawers had through dovetails on all four corners ... machined, but still not all that bad.

While the quality was not up to what even a newbie wooddorker would produce, I was a teensy bit impressed by the thought, if not the execution.

Betcha they don't do that anymore?

[Leon]

Typically I see sliding dove tails on the front and stapled dado's on the back and the silly drawers are only about 12-14 inches deep. I usually DT both ends as I am set up for the operation anyway and it is a prize for those that discover and appreciat that kind of detail. What eats me is seeing drawers on Blind DT's and the manufacturer does not even bother to sand the joint smooth. A DT does more than add strength, it should show the pride you take in you work.

[Bob the Tomato]

Really well done, David. Where do you buy melamine paint? What brand is it? (Nice machining on those drawers, BTW.)

Bob the Tomato

[David F. Eisan]

No, idea really. Lock front and back would have been easier, one less set up. I guess I like the look?

David.

[David F. Eisan]

Any paint store should have it. It is supposed to be the most durable oil paint.

David.

[David F. Eisan]

I hope to move the cabinets from my folks living room to our place in a week or two. Shop elf is off to see family in Croatia for Christmas and I hope to have it done by the time she gets back. Likely wishful thinking....

My folks kitchen took over two years. Only the best materials and joinery were used. My house is a tad more modest. I am just tuning it up for sale in the spring.

David.

[Geo]

David, this all looks real nice. Questions for you about the paint. What is the exact brand that you used? What resemblance does it bear to the standard laminate white cabinets that one would get from a cabinet shop? Thanks.