The drawers are self closing and the narrow centre cabinet is for storing cookie sheets and all those large, flat, awkward to store items that you struggle with storing in other places. The unit itself is 36” high which is a standard height so it works well with bar stools you can find anywhere.

The ends of the unit have a 9” overhang as part of the eating bar.

The oak braces are merely for decoration. The top is 1.5” thick and needs no support. The back overhang is 12” which makes for comfortable sitting.

Needless to say every cut was measured and tested 100 times before making the cut. You could see beads of sweat on my forehead as I routed the profiles knowing there was zero room for error. I know I know, if worse came to worse I could have made another trip to the lumber shop but you guys know the feeling.

Here is a photo of the current status. The drawer gaps look off in the photo, I think that is due to lighting. I used a technique I learned here … I positioned the drawer face with doublesided tape and business cards to set the gaps. It worked like a charm. The gaps are all 4 business cards wide … I think that’s roughly 3/16” but at least they are equal. Don’t know who posted that tip but my thanks if you happen to read this.

Next step is finish sanding then on to the large 36×60” top with a 12” eating bar along the back edge.

I was completing the drawers for the kitchen island and had dry fit everything together. The drawers looked good so I went ahead and glued the joints. I was in the process of clamping when I noticed one of the drawers had a slight 1/16” gap in the joint. The panel for the base of the drawer was slightly too long and I didn’t notice it in dry fit. It only appeared when I added the clamps. “Aw nuts!” I said to myself … ok my words were slightly different but lets stick with that for the blog.

The glue on the joints probably had several minutes before it would begin to set, so I had time. I whipped the drawer apart and slid out the 18”x20”x1/4” bottom panel. I quickly took it to the table saw. My Ridgid table saw has a wonderful guard and splitter that works well and goes on quickly without tools. I rarely use the saw without it but the last thing I had done was s dado so he guard was off. The clock was ticking on the glue covered joints over on the work bench. It’s just a 1/16 trim cut off the edge I thought, so for the sake of time I positioned the fence and blade.

I switched the saw on and started the cut. I was about 3/4 of the way through when I felt something go wrong. The board had started to twist. There was NO chance to correct the situation. Suddenly there was a BANG as the panel was ripped from my hand, and at over 100 mph it impacted me right at the belt line. Bouncing off me it flew into the far wall of the shop. The blow knocked me back, hard, and threw me off balance. It felt like I had been hit by a truck!

I regained my balance and turned the saw off. Quickly assessing myself for injury, I realized that I was very lucky. The board had actually hit my leather belt. An inch higher or lower would have been really nasty. For a couple hours it was quite painful but now a day later, I’m still a bit bruised but I learned a valuable lesson about kickback.

My errors:

I was in a rush! It would have taken less than 30 seconds to mount the guard on the saw. My attention wasn’t completely focused on what I was doing, I was distracted, thinking about the drawers and drying glue rather than on the panel I was running through the saw.

Here is a photo of the panel showing the classic arc that kickback causes. I’m going to stick this on the wall of my shop as a reminder!

Yes, i did give that option some thought and here are my reasons for not finishing prior to assembly.

1. There are no “plans” for this project. I am designing as I go. As a result it’s not possible to pre-cut all my pieces, apply finish and then assemble.

2. Without plans I avoid measuring cuts as much as possible, I use the already assembled parts to transfer my marks for cutting. As an example if I’m going to cut a piece of trim, I don’t pull out a tape and measure the length, transfer the measurement to my piece, then cut. When i do that, often the workshop gremlins change the numbers on my ruler around because even though i measure twice and cut once … the piece still ends up too short. Instead I take the trim to the already assembled part where it will be installed and mark off the cuts. I find that approach is better for me with fewer errors. As a result of this there is no big stack of pieces all neatly cut to size. I cut as i build so to pre-finish means I would have to work with a can of finish by my side the whole time. I would also have to wait for the finish to dry on that part before moving onto the next part. With this project, that means I would be done in spring of 2034!

3. I’ve not had a lot of success with finishing prior to assembly. On projects where I’ve tried this, the finished pieces get coated in dust, get scratched or dinged while being knocked around in the shop. This means they need to have the finish cleaned or repaired after assembly. Dust in the finish has also been a problem for me when pre-finishing. I hate finishing so I don’t want to do it twice!

4. When you prefinish you have to be very careful not to get finish on the joinery surfaces. I tend to forget that part and end up with finish on some joints which means a fix or replacement of the part.

5. In this project we want to showcase the natural beauty of the oak so we won’t be using any stain. The final finish will likely be a natural danish oil which will be easy to apply after assembly.

I understand the advantages of finish before assembly and applaud those who do. However for me, as a general rule I sand to final grit, then assemble with finish applied last. Having said that i should add, with some projects, I will finish certain parts prior to assembly. This is the case when it would be difficult to access the area or awkward apply the finish afterwards, especially if using stain. An example of this is the interior of small boxes or areas with tight corners such as the interior of a bookcase.

I’m sure there are LJ’s who wouldn’t do it this way, but for me, pre-finishing wasn’t an option with this project.

Hope that answers the question.

Jim

I also installed the Soft Self Closing Drawer Slides. They are really nice and super easy to install. I simply cut a 60 mm strip of 3/4” ply as a guide. I set it on the bottom of the drawer space along the side wall where the slide is going, then placed the slide on top. The ply strip temporarily holds the slide in place, nice and square. A few screws and it’s done. The drawer slides will support 100 lbs and they are also self closing. That means you push the drawer most of the way but then in the last 2” it self retracts. Now my kids can’t slam the drawers and they also can’t leave them hanging slightly open.

I made a slight design change today. The face frame was originally to be flat and flush with the inset doors. It was bugging me because it looked like it was too plain and missing something. I installed a 3/4” x 1/4” strip of oak rounded over on the edges along the face frame between the doors and drawers as well as between each of the doors. I thought I would try it to see how it looks and instantly realized this is just what it needed. It gives some depth to the face of the cabinet.

Tomorrow, drawers and drawer faces.

Jim

We were originally going to use a raised panel door but decided to go with a flat panel. It matches our current kitchen doors and we liked the very simple and clean design.

This narrow door (the one still in clamps) is for the center of the cabinet. It will hold cookie sheets, pizza pans and all those assorted large metal trays that will be nicer to store vertically instead of laying on top of each other in the bottom of a drawer under the stove.

Another view of the joint. I went with a flat panel in the centre of the door instead of a raised panel. Shari liked this look better and it saves us a lot of oak.

We cut all the rails and stiles for the raised panel doors, only to realize we forgot to include extra material on the rails for the coped tenon that goes into the stiles. We’ve never worked with rail and stile bits before so this will take some trial and error. We’ve also decided to go with European Blum hinges instead of the regular inset door hinges we originally planned. The extra easy adjustment of the Blums will make it easier to fine tune the gaps on the inset doors.

Putting the unit upright on it’s 4 legs we were pleased that everything is dead level and no uneven legs.

Next step is to finish the base skirt trim and then start work on the raised panel doors.

I don’t have any formal plans for this project. I searched the internet for free or paid plans but there isn’t much for kitchen islands of this size and nothing similar to what we wanted. I drafted up the basic cabinetry with all the measurements and cut plans myself, but there will be a fair amount of design-as-we-go in this project.

First stage is complete with the carcase construction done. It’s made from 3/4” double face oak ply. I used pocket hole joinery for all the assembly and am totally sold on it for cabinet construction where the pocket holes can be hidden. It makes things so much easier because you don’t need a million clamps for the glue up. Everything was dead square.

We then cut dados and panels for the dust frame and vertical cabinet dividers. Did some redesign along the way. We were going to have an open bookcase for cook books in the middle but then realized the amount of wasted space in behind the cookbooks. That was when we decided to put a narrow cabinet in the middle specifically for cookie sheets, trays and all those annoying large flat objects that normally bang around in the drawer below the stove. Had I been thinking better, I would have kept the bookcase part open in the back so you could store books on both sides. However this will work well we like the idea of having a vertical cabinet for those trays.

The top will be much larger than the sub top you see here. The actual top will have a 12” overhang on the back of the cabinet to serve as an eating bar and also overhangs 8” on either side. There will be turned legs and I will be turning the door knobs myself on the lathe. The front will have a solid oak face frame with inset doors. At least thats the plan, lets see what it looks like when I’m done.

We were just going into a meeting when Jaye gives me this hunk of wood … of course she knows I am a woodworker and enjoy wood turning. She enthusiastically presented me with this gorgeous piece of beautifully grained wood, which I accepted as the beautiful gift it was.

Another person, Jean who was also attending the meeting, asked curiously “Is it a cutting board?” To which I responded, “Nope just a piece of wood”. I was oohing and awhing over my new prize, project ideas filling my thoughts. All the while Jean scratched her head, puzzled about why I was so excited about a hunk of wood. Shaking her head and looking bewildered Jean finally returned to preparing her papers for the meeting that was soon to begin.

In walks Grant, a fellow woodworker, who is immediately drawn to the Parota. Grant immediately begins fondling and affectionately running his hand over beautiful grain. Jean became even more perplexed at the sight of us drooling over “a hunk of wood”. Not finding an answer to our currious enthusiasm, she finally tossed her arms in the air and exclaimed “I give up, I don’t understand, I must be missing something!”.

Grant and I chuckled as I tucked the Parota away to carry on with business.

A couple projects made from the Parota are in my projects including a Parota Pen and Clock. More are yet to come.