Going to reface kitchen cabinets - Band saw or Jointer

I have a medium sized kitchen and the cabinets are just ugly. The carcasses are in good shape and I just want to reface them and build new doors and drawer fronts. I'm going to build the door frames in a simple flat panel Shaker style.

I have a bunch of kiln dried but rough sawn cherry lumber. Most of it is pretty flat.

I'll need to resaw the 1" thick boards into 1/4" thick (after planing) 'veneers' for the refacing.

I really can't afford both tools at a cost of $1200. I can afford a nice jointer for $700 though.

I'm leaning towards getting the jointer now and resawing on the table saw.

Advice or opinions?

Thanks, Brian

Reply to
Brian
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I think I would go for the jointer too. Just keep in mind that resawing on the table saw has some limitations, not the least of which is need of a sharp blade. Also, most table saws are limited to about a 3-1/2" depth which means you can resaw about 6-1/2" - 7" wide stock. It can also be a little dangerous if you don't keep your brain attached to your hands; and you should use a tall auxiliary fence and featherboards (or a guide of some kind).

On the other hand resawing with a band saw works well, but it takes some time to master the process.

Both processes will leave an ugly surface that will have to be smoothed up. Obviously the jointer will help there but do you have a thickness planer?

Can you mooch band saw or surface planer time from a friend or local school or business? We have a local cabinet shop that allows folks to use the paint booth and certain tools off-hours. That is an advantage of small-town living but it also builds good will for the owners.

Just thoughts.

RonB

Reply to
rnrbrogan

I did this about 6 months ago for a customer. His cabinets were the typical builder installed particle board cabinets with a heavily stained unidentifiable face frame wood and similar stain on Oak door and drawer fronts.

I made the doors and face frame veneers from out of Maple.

I probably have some advantages, because this was a paying job I started off with S4S Maple and resawed the boards 1x6 boards into 1/8" thick veneers. I used a Laguna 16HD BS for this and easily got 5 veneers from each board. I cut the boards to 4' lengths for easier handling prior to resawing. Then the veneers went straight to the drum sander to obtain a consistent

3/32" thickness.

When ever I re-do a kitchen I always go back with concealed Euro style hinges and use the Compact Blum hinges. These hinges screw directly into the edge of the door opening into the face frame, I buy these style hinges in bulk. Also these hinges pretty much self center from he front to back of the face frame providing the face frame is 3/4" thick. The cabinet face frames I was veneering were a total of 3/4" thick after attaching the veneer. Had the face frames been 3/4" thick to start with the installation would have been more involved using the same hinges.

Something to watch out for, I used Titebond trim adhesive to attach the veneers to the cabinets along with a pinner nail gun to hold the pieces, the glue was relatively fast setting. I applied the glue to the first veneered piece and had bad results, the veneer cupped. I quickly found that applying the glue to the cabinet and then attaching the veneer solved the problem perfectly.

If I were to do it again I would buy the veneer ready made. I would prefer to use a preglued and thinner veneer.

If you resaw your 1" thick boards on the TS into 1/4" pieces you are going to have a "lot" of waste. Basically you will get "2" pieces from each board.

Reply to
Leon

For that kind of money you can buy all the needed materials to reface the kitchen and spend your other time and money on the doors.

An example:

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my opinion, to make any reasonable looking doors, you are going to need the three basic tools:

(1) table saw (2) jointer (3) planer

I assume you have > I have a medium sized kitchen and the cabinets are just ugly. The

Reply to
Pat Barber

Thanks for the advice. I do have a planer and table saw and plenty of wood. I think I could find a neighbor with a halfway decent band saw to do the resawing.

The jointer will certainly get more use long term as I do purchase rough wood a lot.

I'm headed to my local woodworking dealer today to check out jointers.

Thanks again!

Reply to
Brian

Something to think about. I have had a jointer since the late 80's and it has probably seen about 20 hours of work. Right now I am looking to get rid of it and not replace it. There are several ways to straighten and flatten a rough cut board with a planer and TS, that is what I do all the time. For long boards you need a pretty sizeable jointer for decent results.

Reply to
Leon

Agreed. I have a 6" jointer with a 48" (or close to that msmt) bed and I had some significant difficulty making a flat face on some ~7'

6"x3" white oak timbers I am working with. Just too tough to manage with 5' of really heavy timber hanging off the infeed bed. Even setting up some rollers didn't help. Finally cut things to near finish length (45" and 22") in order that I could joint them. 8" jointer with a 72" bed woulda prolly worked but I don't have the room to house it nor the coin to buy it.

D'ohBoy

Reply to
D'ohBoy

Agreed. I have a 6" jointer with a 48" (or close to that msmt) bed and I had some significant difficulty making a flat face on some ~7'

6"x3" white oak timbers I am working with. Just too tough to manage with 5' of really heavy timber hanging off the infeed bed. Even setting up some rollers didn't help. Finally cut things to near finish length (45" and 22") in order that I could joint them. 8" jointer with a 72" bed woulda prolly worked but I don't have the room to house it nor the coin to buy it.

D'ohBoy

I inquired about the larger 8" jointers with the longer 6' beds and those using them have even indicated that 7' is still difficult to do. IMHO the in deed needs to be at least half the distance of the board length, maybe longer.

Of course the way I do things is to prepare the stock prior to cutting to needed lengths. I suppose I could cut up all the rough stock in to approximate needed sizes and then flatten and straighten the pieces.

Reply to
Leon

If you're in a metro area, you might want to take a look at Craig's List. I got my Jet 14" bandsaw for $175, my Jet 6" jointer for $200 and my Delta planer for $160. All three were in excellent working condition and required little in the way of tune-up ... although I'm still futzing with the bandsaw.

Larry

Brian wrote:

Reply to
TD Driver

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

To make the job easier you need a thickness planer, joiner, and table saw. The joiner and table saw for stiles and rails, and the thickness planer for the panels. Resawing on a tablesaw can be done, but it is somewhat limited and time-consuming. The best tool for resawing is a bandsaw with the widest blade allowed--you'll save more wood too. Consider using 1/4" cherry ply panels. Many kitchens are demolished every 20 years anyway--I'll save my best solid woods for heirloom furniture.

Reply to
Phisherman

If you look (call) around, you should be able to find some one with a mini mill to resaw the wood for you, at a reasonable enough total cost.

Reply to
Matt

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