Wood 'n' Soul

The cabinets are finished!! We [the owner’s husband and I] installed them Saturday - the new owners seem to be quite pleased with them.

I’ll have to get some better “installed” shots to show how really magnificent they are. I decided on granadillo pulls and they turned out very well, The complimentary interplay of the granadillo, mahogany and leopard wood is simply, elegantly, beautiful.

More later, I think I’m catching what my boys have had for the past few days [bleah!].

More later today/tomorrow! I still have to do the closet.

Carcase glue up is just about finished. I need to glue in the drawer rails and doublers and kickers tomorrow, and the top cleats. It will all be done by noon. Then do the base, and then finishing, and more finishing. And the drawer fronts - it wouldn’t do to forget them.

Today was a bit of a short one as I had to go to the doctor again about my arm - seriously vexing, not to mention very painful! Acupuncture and now cortisone -hopefully it will help!

I got the drawers sized -the picture says it all. The “Sons” of Holeman & Sons really like it when I do finish work - I do it with planes and sanders, thereby generating lots of shavings and saw dust - both held in very high esteem by the “Sons” as you can see. The drawers are fit and slide pretty well - there will be another round of finish fitting before they leave the shop and they will glide like ice [they’re pretty close right now].

A bit more sanding than I anticipated prior to final glue-up - but I should be finished gluing tomorrow noon - hooozzaaaahh!

More pix then.

Started final glue up today - drawers first and some small items. Yep! I'm finished cutting everything for the cabinets - now it just glue and finish!

Some pix of the new drawers. They are pretty spiffy, IMO. The doublers and kicker are ready for gluing into the base. The doublers are poplar and the kickers are of Lyptus - much harder, very stable!

Tomorrow the shop will look like some sort of spiked trap - and it will be!! Last glue up, I bonked my head on the end of a clamp - fortunately I didn’t damage the clamp - my head?? Well the jury is still out on that one.

More tomorrow!

Well, I couldn’t leave it alone...

I made the drawers out of Lyptus and, well, I hated them! They’re heavy, unwieldy and, they just feel and lookwrong - they don’t work for me at all. They lack something - not sure what, but it is something missing. So I trashed them, and made new ones from Poplar, and they are just the ticket. Fitted with the baltic plywood bottoms, they will be just what drawers ought to be! I’ll have pix tomorrow.

Looks like final glue up will be on Sunday - yikes!!!

The drawers are cut and dovetailed waiting for bottoms and, of course, final fitting - you can see them stacked on top of the cabinet.

I cut and biscuited the top cleats for the counter top as well.

As you can see in the pix, the apprentices are eager to get into the job...

Tomorrow I need to thickness the drawer guide bases and some Poplar for doublers and kickers.

It is a bit later than “tomorrow”, but I worked a good deal of the weekend.

All of the drawer runners are cut and assembled; the drawers are all final cut and some test dovetails cut. All is in readiness for cutting the final dovetails tomorrow morning. Then I’ll cut a groove in each side for the drawer bottom and glue ‘em all up.

Then, it will be a matter of cutting and gluing the doublers to the kickers and runners; then gluing it all in place. Next is a final fitting of the drawers - each one individually until they slide like they are on ice.

Then the doors need final assembly [frame] and hardware, and hanging.

Then I’ll spend a couple of hours - ok maybe a few more - doing the final finishing.

I’m planning on having some pix of the drawers tomorrow.

Started on the drawers in earnest today as the pix show the drawer base in the cabinets. They are made of mahogany - stable for the slides.

You can see some of the cutouts in the back and side panel - allows plumbing for installation. It is much easier to cut it now than to try and deal with it during install.

I have to go to Petaluma tomorrow morning, but should finish the drawer slides/bases tomorrow or Saturday - then I’ll cut the drawers for a rough fit. They won’t slide yet, but soon.

One of the things I think about while I’m building pieces is where to sign it - I don’t like to make it obvious, but it I don’t want it to be totally hidden either.

More tomorrow.

I did the excess panel cut-outs today, and finished the biscuits for the inside panels - they are the trickiest to get just right and take some time.

Interesting about biscuits - they are stronger than the wood around them - I’ve seen lots of failure tests and the simple biscuit joint always comes out right alongside the mortice and tenon - my other favorite joint.

I’ll post some pix tomorrow - I need to go back and get some work done tonight.

I’m not sure why, but everything seems to take just a bit longer than you plan for... I got the wood for the drawers and thicknessed them to 1/2” . The blades needed changing, so the planning took a bit longer than I had anticipated.

But overall things are moving pretty well. I have the large cabinet “taped up” with the internal walls, ready for biscuiting first thing on the morrow. Then I really will need to cut out the back and internal frame.

I met some nice people today from Santa Rosa. They are interested in a couple of mantles. They have a stylish, modern look in their house so we’re going to work up some ideas that fit that concept. Clean and elegant is going to work best I think.

More tomorrow!

With my wife’s 40th birthday party over the weekend, I wasn’t able to get a lot done - on the cabinets - the party was a big success, and a surprise too.

But I made up for my sloth this morning. I was able to get the biscuits for the small section cut, and it is ready for drawer building - rails, kickers and such. The large section will be done tomorrow and the drawer building process will begin on it in earnest, as well.

I will also get wood for the drawers tomorrow, thickness it, and start building them most likely on Wednesday afternoon. I’m going to try and use Lyptus for the drawers - it is a very stable wood and should look very cool with the rest of the cabinets. Poplar is also a very viable option. We’ll see on the morrow.

I made a decision to cut the excess from the panels tomorrow or Wednesday. Much as it will look like a lot is getting done and make me feel really good, it just isn’t the highest priority.

I got a call from the top manufacturer late this afternoon - the counter top is finished an ready for pick-up. I really would like to get it all done this week, but realistically, it will be about middle of next week before it is ready to go...

Pix tomorrow!!

I finished finish cutting the out today and most of the routing to fit as well.
It is starting to come together and look like a cabinet now. I enjoy these days - there is a real sense of accomplishment when you’re putting the big pieces together. And it actually begins to look like something usable - it is still a good ways from finished, but it is moving along nicely now.

The floor is dadoed into the sides for strength and I will biscuit the other panels together. I will cut out some of the back and side tomorrow or over the weekend. . No need for all that weight when installing and it doesn’t add any to the strength. Not to mention getting the plumbing in. I will also cut out the kicker recess at the bottom. The front piece of the kicker space will be mahogany.

After that, the drawer slides will be built, then the drawers [they will be fit to the space where they fit]. Frame the doors and hang them and voila` a bathroom cabinet - oh, I forgot the hand rubbed finish on the whole front... that does take a little time - but it is oh so worth it!!

Supposed to be a nice day tomorrow - rained hard all day here and really, really gray as well - very gloomy, but not in my warm, well lighted shop!!