Night Stands Finished!

[Leon]

I have not worked on these for probably a week, the varnish on the tops was drying. The marble tops are heavy, 70~80 lbs, they make a 45 lb bag of dog food feel lite!

Any way one piece of marble was a touch too wide. The top fit snugly over it and normally that would be perfect but you are never going to want to pick up a 60 lb night stand with a slab of marble on top of that too. The marble on one fit snug enough that when you lifted the wooden framed top the marble would lift too. I could see some picking that frame up and the marble falling out of the frame on to some toes. Sooooo I used the Rotex and some 120 paper to sand away some proud spots on the edge for a slightly looser fit.

Anyway here is the finished product waiting to be delivered.

Yes this one is slightly different. ;~)

[Lee Michaels]

Very nice! I have used small pieces of marble myself on pieces many years ago. There was a building being torn down in the neighborhood and there was a lot of marble laying around. So I and others did a little recycling. I glued them down with some silicone caulking.

Did you glue it down or are the tops loose?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Very nice. How thick is the marble? It is 173 pcf

[Leon]

LOL, Absolutely no need to glue the marble down. It only moves after the top frame is removed and with a more than moderate effort. The wood frame captures the marble, which is 13/16" thick and it captures the perimeter of the cabinet. So if you bump into the cabinet top frame it will not slide off of the top cabinet.

[Leon]

Thank you. 13/16" thick. I do not know what 173 pcf is. I think the pieces were left over scraps from a bathroom remodel as the pieces match the bathroom counter top. LOL

[Leon]

Oh, and Thank You! ;~)

[OFWW]

Very Nice, I was wondering how the tops would look, like counter tops or what, but that is much nicer. Now you should get some Ice Skating figurines for the her side, and ice hockey setup for the his side. :)

Are the drawer pulls Marble too or porcelain?

[Ed Pawlowski]

173 pounds per cubic foot. At that thickness it is about 16# per square foot.

Marble is nice in the bathroom. I remodeled both of ours in the past year and used marble for a very wide and deep window sill, about 11 x 60.

[woodchucker]

[dadiOH]

Are you saying that the marble and its frame are not attached? If not, what keeps them in place? And if so, how does the itsy-bitsy wife move them to clean around them?

Nice job. I always admire the crispness and precision of your work. And I note with interest the manner in which you minimized the end grain on the frame. I assume you are familiar with the continuation of that joint in which one miters just the little tongues? Doing so to the outboard side is easy, the inboard one less so because of the care needed to limit the depth of the miter which is why I've never done one. I just glue a thin strip over the whole shebang :)

[Leon]

What is this ice hockey you speak of? ;~)

They are a flash back to the 70's. I would guess porcelain. Not a perfect match but close enough I guess. I always have my customers pick out and pay for the knobs and pulls. I install for no extra charge.

[Leon]

Thank you

[Leon]

Yes the marble and frame is not attached. Gravity keeps them in place. ;~)

Actually the frames are 1.25" deep, they cover the sides/edges of the marble and past to cover the upper end of the cabinet by 7/16" so the frames will not slide off.

Concerning the wife, I was thinking the cabinets would be lighter in weight to move around if the frame and tops were removed. I suspect that each cabinet weighs in excess of 100 lbs. and they sit on carpet, so there would not be any scooting the cabinets around any way. ;~)

And I

Like this?

[dadiOH]

Yeah, like that, Mr. Smarty :)

How do you limit the one miter to PRECISELY the depth of the straight cut out? Measure? One little difference in anything and you are screwed :( Sneak up on it? Cut almost all the way & chisel/hand saw the rest? Do tell...:)

[Leon]

;~0

This will be covered in my new $75 book. LOL I wish.

Take a look here, click to zoom in to the bottoms of the cabinets. These are the bottom moldings on the fronts and sides of the cabinet bottoms. I don't like for these type moldings to be shallower than door and drawer fronts. So I simply make the sides longer to push the front out enough so that it is proud of the fronts of the doors. Actually I cut the sides a few inches too long and trim on the back square end.

Anyway what appears to be what you think you are seeing, ;~), is not what you think you are seeing. You actually see 2 sides and 2 fronts pieces. The flat ended spacer piece is an extra piece attached to the back of the front. I made up a jig to hold the sides and front pieces in place as they would fit. Then I cut that spacer to bit between exactly between the side pieces. Before gluing the 2 front pieces together I drilled picket holes on both ends of the spacer to hold the joint closed. Then I attached it to the front piece while in the jig so that it ended up precisely where it needed to be.

[J. Clarke]

Do your setup on scrap and once everything fits right then cut the good stuff.