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100K views 233 replies 83 participants last post by  Kentuk55 
#1 ·
Buffet and Hutch

My wife says I can't do anything else before I start on her Kitchen. Well except for her hall table and ??. Of course there is also the Summer Contest.

This is going to be a multiple phase project. I need to do something with the floor. We are on a cement slab floor and it is killing both of our legs. The kitchen had a Pergo floor when we bought the house, but we had a frozen water line before we moved in and the Pergo floor got curled edges, so it was all pulled up.

I don't' think I want 3/8" inch flooring and I'm leaning to solid hardwood 3/4" thick. Either on the cement or over a spacer board underneath. I don't know what I'll do yet. I'm still researching.

So in the interim I going to start to build a couple of furniture pieces that will be in the kitchen.

The first is a Buffet / Hutch. This is from Fine Woodworking Jan / Feb of 2007. I don't plan on making this exact design. I don't know if we will have glass in the upper cabinet. I want all drawers on the bottom not cabinet doors. But, the construction details are fairly solid.
. I'm starting to draw the full size legs with all of the mortise for the styles and rails. They used 1/2" plywood for the sides and backs, but I'll probably go with 3/4 and put some burl cherry veneer on it. The wood will be cherry. I'll get to use the 19" cherry board for the Buffet top surface. I'll have to glue on a 1 1/2" piece at the back to make it 21 1/2. Of course my planer is only 20" wide so I'll have to finish up the joint with a hand plane or scraper.

I plan to take down a wall that is beside the refrigerator to make it an "L" shaped kitchen. There is no dining room so it is an eat-in-kitchen. The previous owner took down a half-wall between the kitchen area and the eating area.

I plan to build a couple of furniture items 1) The Buffet and 2) A storage pantry for all of the can goods.

The floor area is approx 400 Sq Ft. after I take out the wall.

I'm waiting for a woodworker club member to finish assembling a pantry cabinet that he is building for a commission. I want to show it to my wife. She is not good at visualizing without pictures or actual items.

She wants the kitchen light, but I'm going to sneak in this Cherry Buffet while the color is still light and then let it age in her kitchen.

She's happy with Dave's Cherry Thorsen Table. So it might be a good match. When i start working on the rest of the cabinets we'll see what the wood becomes, and also the floor.

Any suggestions or pictures of a storage pantry would be nice if you have some.
 
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#2 ·
I have a 3/8" or so engineered hardwood floor on cement. I would agree with you to go with 3/4 and make it solid wood. We have a number of wear spots now and refinishing is really not an option. The floor is a good 5 years old now.

The cabinet looks great. She should love it.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the info Wayne. I made my own flooring for the kitchen in New Jersey. I resawed maple boards into 1/2" thick and surfaced to 3/8". I made tongue and groove and said never again for that project.
 
#4 ·
A piece of cherry 19" w. is almost a unheard of these days. Just watch for cupping. My grandparents had a very small walk in pantry with a curtain hung across the opening.

When I remodeled our house we had hardwood flooring glued down to the concrete and we haven't had any trouble yet and that was 6 years ago.

Good luck with all of your projects they all sound like this could take some time.
 
#5 ·
Karson -

Very interesting project ahead - I will enjoy seeing how you progress. The cabinet is beautiful and looks like a great place to start. Are you going to vacuum press your cherry burl veneer? I am just starting to experiment with a vacuum press (I saw you gave a class to the your woodworking association) so I will be looking forward to your future postings on this project (and of course I love cherry so I agree wih your choice of wood!).
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the comments. I'll try to keep a look out for cupping Rog. I believe it has air dried for 4-5 years.

David Yes I'll be using a vacuum press for the veneer.
 
#8 ·
Making the legs.

Well I started the Buffet / Hutch. If I don't get started I won't have anything to say without getting myself in trouble, when my wife asks me what I'm making in the shop.

I started out by making a full size template on plywood for all of the milling that needs to be done on the legs.



Can you believe that those two templates have all of the instructions for milling 8 surfaces on the legs?
Now you may ask what do you mean by 8 surfaces. This is the way that I was taught when you make a project with legs.



You number them. The right front is 1 and you go counterclock wise to 8. You only number the surfaces that touch another leg. Surfaces 1 and 8 are the front.

This allows you to make items like aprons and then you label the ends with the appropriate numbers. You might see the numbers on the shelf supports on the Thorsen Tables that I worked on.



When you dry fit a part you label it so that when you start to glue, you know that you have all of the appropriate parts, and the one's you don't need are put away. This keeps you from gluing the wrong part in at the wrong place.

After labeling the legs, I then put the marks for the mortises on the legs.



Then it was then on to the mortise machine to cut out square holes.



Cutting out the spaces between the ends of the mortise.



When you get done you better have matching holes in each of the adjoining pieces



Then it's out to the Horizontal Router to cut the long mortises for the side panels.



Note to self and others Router bits do break. This one just dropped to the ground and didn't go flying around. Praise the Lord! New router bit and complete the job.



Line up the ends in number order and verify that the cuts were made correctly.



Then match the other sides and check them out.



This is the pattern that I'm modifying for my kitchen. Fine Woodworking Jan / Feb 2007.



All done for tonight now to eat smoked chicken that was cooking with cherry wood smoke.
 
#19 ·
Buffet / Hutch Cutting the Stiles and Rails

The continuation of the Buffet / Hutch build. Today was a busy day, just not in the shop. Lunch with my wife, pick up the kids at school, etc. So when I got into the shop it was after dark.

I posted a blog on
Hardwood Lumber Grading
This is why. My best friend, who I moved away from when I moved to Delaware, and I went together to purchase some wood that was rated as Select. I was unable to go pick it up, but he went and picked up the wood.

If I had been there I think I would have walked away from the deal. It looks like to me that the seller cherry picked (not a pun on words) the select cherry and sold it to someone else or these boards were kicked out by a previous buyer. Here is the front of some of the boards. Yes they look like select lumber, Maybe a little light on the length.



But, here is the reverse side



The hardwood grading article has this statement when talking about No 2A Common: "The smallest clear cutting allowed is 3" by 2' and the number of these cuttings depends on the size of the board. If the poorest face meets the minimum requirements for Number 2A Common, it does not matter what the grade of the
better face is."

These boards are Select on the front face but maybe not even 2A Common on the back. If you were making a piece of furniture and you would see both faces then these boards are not acceptable. They classify this as flooring grade. On the buffet portion of this project, you don't see the inside so I'm trying to use up this wood instead of using better wood.

I had to make a story stick of the stiles and rails, in order to get the correct dimensions of this chest. See the previous blog about my feeling about the Fine Woodworking articles on making furniture.

So the boards were cut to length;



Then it was on to the jointer to true up one edge. I previously jointed the face and planed the thickness to get clear wood. This was done to allow me to see how these boards could be used.



Back to the table saw to rip to width.



The spots you see on two boards were the sweat of my brow, working in unfavorable conditions. I need to talk to the owner about that. I need Air Conditioning.

I stopped to figure out my tenons on these pieces, and the mortises on the rails for the stiles to fit in. I also wanted to post this blog. Tomorrow is toy making day (Wed) so maybe tomorrow night I'll get the tenons cut and then do a dry fit.

Again here is the Buffet that I'm attempting to build except mine will be all drawers in the buffet portion.



Picture Copyright Fine Woodworking Jan/Feb 2007.
 
#25 ·
Cutting the Tenons for the Stiles and Rails

Cutting the tenons and fixing the mortises.

In an earlier blog I was talking about story sticks and laying out the mortise cuts for the legs. I further stated that in my reply to Bob that: "The rails at the top and bottom have a 1/4" grove cut in them to allow for plywood for the insert. The top rail ended up with a 1/2" cut for the tenons, where it touched the panel, while the bottom one had still the 1/4" cut. Why the difference. ??"

Well I found out why the difference. I miscalculated the length of the mortise. When I tried to fit the tenons into the mortise slot I found that I was ÂĽ" off. So this is another result of Fine Woodworking articles not being to user friendly for making some of their projects.
Luckily I just had to lengthen the mortise. It didn't require replacing any cut wood.

But back to the beginning of the day.
I cut the shoulders for the tenons on my Sliding table on the table saw.




I then trued up the end of the tenons using the hand chisel,



Then it was dry assembling the ends of the buffet. The white wood assembled in the ends is Oak that I'm using for the drawer slides. This picture is looking at the inside of the cabinet view of the ends.



This view is looking at the ends as would be seen by the user.



You will note: (I'm sure that you already see it, but I'm just stating the obvious) the slots for the plywood are cut in the legs, but they are not cut in the rails.

I've now placed the rails for the back in place and the apron for the front under the drawers. This is also the obligatory clamp photo.




And


You might also note the liberal use of sapwood on the inside of the case. And the minimal use on the outside.

Now cutting the plywood groves in the end and sides rails, both upper and lower. Making sure that I don't cut it on the wrong edge. I also cut it on both edges of the internal stiles on the back. I use the horizontal router for this machining, using a ÂĽ" spiral carbide router bit.



I now reassemble the case, after having measuring and cutting the mortise slots in the upper and lower rails in the back. It looks like the plywood will only be off by 1/16" difference in width on one panel. The other two will be the same.




The only piece of sapwood visible in the outside of the frame is lower right of the back rail. about 1/4" wide and 6" long.

I think that's it for tonight. The next blog will one on veneering the panels. I'll try to be more hands on as I do that. (David this is for you, because you asked). I also have to go into an engineering phase as I determine how I'm going to design and build the center supports for the drawers.

Here is a sample of the veneer that I'll be using. My wife OK'ed it. It is a Cherry Burl.



See you soon.
 
#29 ·
Vacuum Veneering for the Buffet / Hutch

Well it's been a weekend, not a lot of work done, but enough to make you think that you've accomplished something.

Two screw-up's, two corrections, one modification. Only had to recut two pieces of wood, not too major. Could have been a lot worse, and re-planed 6 boards that were too thick.
I left off with the making of the lower case for the Buffet / Hutch. I stated that I needed to do some veneering and also some engineering for the mid drawer slides. I've done the veneering and done no engineering yet.

So these are the pictures of the veneering. It's going to be a long blog with lots of pictures.
These are the tools that I use for doing my veneering,



The yellow item toward the top is a 4' ruler with 150 grit sandpaper glued to the back



The items in order are from top left Straight edge ruler, you could also use a long straight piece of wood for edge work on cutting veneer. Next is an X-acto knife set. Put it back in the storage closet, you can't use it for veneering. The blade is too flimsy and will follow the grain of the veneer - Very Bad -. Below that is a 2" chisel, sharpened like you wouldn't believe. (It can never be too sharp). Beside that is a knife that I picked up at Harbor Freight, I don't know the product number, I just know it cost only a couple of bucks. It's great for cutting veneer and I use it more than the chisel because it's easier to hold. Also ultra sharp. A rotary cutter from your wife's seamstress basket, or a craft store that sells fabric. It is used to cut veneer, very effective for course cuts. They are all lying on a 2' X 3' cutting mat. It also is from the fabric store. You can cut into the top surface but will not go through both surfaces. This protects the cutting surface on you chisels. Below them are two veneer saws. They have a saw cutting edge. Do not use them on the mat use them on scrap plywood.

To the left is a block of wood with sandpaper glued on it. It's used for cleaning up the edge of veneer after it has been cut. Two smaller rulers. Lower left is a piece of cherry, planed smooth, with chromium oxide polishing compound rubbed on it like a crayon. To the left is red rouge, also rubbed on the cherry.
I believe that the chromium Oxide is the finer grit of the two. It is used to polish the cutting edge on the chisel and the knife. The polishing compound is in a stick form and is made with wax and polishing compound. You will note the black marks on the chromium oxide side. That is metal that was rubbed off as I polished the cutting edge and the back. Then there is a piece of veneer, this one is walnut burl. Then tape. I use packing tape and I'll tell you why later. I also use blue tape but not as much as I used to use. I also tell you why later. (If I forget to tell you remind me and I'll update the blog.)



Here I'm sanding the edge of some veneer that has been cut. I use a sheet of plywood on the bottom to slide the block upon. The veneer overhangs a straight piece of wood. (Straight is not relatively straight - but critically straight) The ruler is placed on top of the veneer with the sandpaper down. You press down on it as you sand the veneer flat to the bottom board (Don't sand your ruler, have it 1/16" back from the edge. You could also put a strip of sandpaper on the bottom board if your veneer want to slide as you are sanding it. You don't want it to move because you want a long straight edgr. You will know you have succeeded when you can put the sanded edges together from two pieces of veneer and you can't see any gaps.

Note: Veneer matching can be done three ways: 1) Book match, 2)Slip match, and 3) Random. When you purchase veneer you should get a bunch of sheets that are matched as they came from the log. Meaning all of the pieces are very similar, and when you do book matching it means that you take two sheets and open them like the pages in a book and they look like mirror images of one another. Slip matching is where you take two of more sheets and you lay them down side by side with the left on the left and the right on the right. They are being slipped off like pages off your printer. They look the same, but they are not mirrored. Random is where you take sheets of veneer that are from different trees but are the same wood. If you work in an office you might notice that some of the doors are slip matched and others are book matched. You could also have rotary cut, which is what your construction grade plywood is made of. They cut the veneer on a lathe and you end up with a big sheet 8' wide and 100' long. You cannot buy big sheets of rotary veneer. You may find rotary veneer but it could be 20" to 30" wide.

Here I am sharpening the knife prior to cutting veneer



You can see the reflection on the back of the chisel.



I tend to slide the cutting tools sideways on the sharpening block.

Here is a book matched veneer that I took to a class taught by Jeff Jewitt on finishing. I won best in class with this. It was all done with French Polishing.



You need to get your veneer and lay it out, so you can measure width and length. You might need 1 sheet or multiple sheets, depending on what you are covering. In my case I need 17 ½" wide by 23" long. The veneer was 11" wide so I needed to use 9" on 2 sheets and book match them. I'm using Cherry Burl Veneer of this Buffet, with cherry lumber.



So I needed a total of 4 sheets for both ends.



You will note that all 4 sheets look the same on the visible edge. I lay the veneer on the cutting mat with one edge lined up on a line of the mat, the ruler is now lined up on another line. This will give me an approx. 90 deg edge.



I'm cutting the veneer to 24" so I have a little extra. I then separate the piece.



The sandpaper on the ruler keeps it from moving around as I drag the knife down its edge. The mfg cut on the original veneer was straight so I didn't need to sand it straight.



I use small pieces of packing take to hold the edges together. You press the tape on one sheet of veneer and pull the tape tight to the other sheet of veneer and then place the tape on its surface.



I then use the roll of tape and completely cover the entire seam. Press it down firmly to hold the surface together.



You now have a seamed joint.



Now as to why I don't use blue tape. If you put blue tape into the veneer bag it is pressed so hard that it actually compresses the veneer and you see marks where the tape was. Plus it is a bear to get off. The packing tape is so thin it leaves no mark on the veneer and it pulls of without taking a lot of wood with it.

Now it's a matter of cutting it to width.. You want the joint to be in the middle of the panel. Not an 11" on one side and 6" on the other. So I needed 17" so I'm cutting it to 18" wide. 9" from the seam



You then end up with a 24" long panel that is 18" wide.



Do be careful cutting veneer with surgically sharp tools. Flesh is real easy to cut sliding the knife down the ruler that is being held with fingers.



This veneer has a defect. As yours will probably have also. I will fill this hole with epoxy and cherry sanding dust and then sand it smooth to the surface. It will match the small void that is present.

When you get done you will end up with three panels, all the same size (these are for the back)



And some scrap. Don't cry maybe you will find a use for it later, but you should probably trash it and consider that you got the best and leaving the scraps.



Now I get my plywood and mark the edges of the veneer sheets. Leaving a gap between the sheets, or you could tape them together for easy of aligning them on the base. I'm using big orange box plywood called sanding ply. It's almost like Baltic birch (9 layers of wood in Âľ") and the face is being covered anyway so I don't need the birch ply.



I also mark the center line of the base so that it can be aligned straight with the veneer. I start putting on the glue not too thick because with this veneer there are lots of pores for the glue to come through to the next surface.



I've also use a small 4" foam paint roller to spread the glue. The roller sucks up the glue from the first panel and gives it up on the second panels. So it's harder to control the amount of glue that you need to put down.

I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures and get this panel into the vacuum veneering bag.



What I did is I covered the veneer and the base with butcher paper. It has a plastic coating that keeps meat juices from running out. In my case I want to keep glue juices from running out all over my veneer bag and sticking everything together into a solid block of STUFF. I have covered the paper with a product call a fishnet caul. This caused problem #1. This is the veneer press sucking down the veneer and my base wood.



Four hours later out of the bag



Problem #1



The caul didn't press down effectively on the veneer and I ended up with a big fold/bubble in the veneer at the seam.

What to do: Solution #1 Wet it down with water and put a piece of plywood on top to try and press it flat. #2 cut it out and put in a patch #3 leave it alone. (It's handmade, a carpenters mark) #4 Put new veneer on the back and start again. Of the three panels, two had a problem and the third one was ok.
Since the glue was not fully cured I started with #1. I took a water bottle and covered the appropriate places with water. I put the butcher paper back on top, I then put another piece of Plywood on top of the paper, and I then placed the fishnet caul on top of that. Back in the bag



The fishnet caul softenes the edge of the plywood so that the veneer bag is not punctured by a sharp edge of the plywood.

I left it in the bag overnight and in the morning low-and-behold. It's cured



The bubble is gone. I let it sit out while I glue up the next panels and the bubble didn't reappear.
The veneer overhung the base by ÂĽ" on one side and Âľ" on the other.




Both sheets of ply glued up with veneer. The two ends and the back panels. You can see the glue that came through the pores of the veneer. I'll use a scraper to take it off.



Now it's a matter of cutting the separate panels from the sheet and cutting the rabbit on the back so that the panel will slide into the dado on the legs and the stiles and rails.




Dry fitting the 3 back panels into the stiles and rails.



Now separating the side panels from its sheet.



The end panels dry fitted.



The inside of the end panels



I mentioned earlier having to re thickness plane six pieces of wood. You probably see them on the previous picture. They were too thick and wouldn't let the panel fit in. I had to make them 5/8 instead of Âľ" thick.

Oh! Why not. Dry fit the base so far.



And



The inside



Now it's time for engineering for the bottom and for the middle drawer slide.
We can talk later.
 
#37 ·
I just installed the first cabinets for the kitchen in Delaware

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted any work on this series. The Buffet/Hutch is not completed. It's in the state that I showed last. The last post was 473 days ago.

I just installed the first cabinets for the kitchen in Delaware.

Old Picture. You can see my Greene and Greene Thorsten table that was entered in a LumberJock challenge.



New picture.


The counter top is from the old cabinet. i plan to put down Corian. I'm doing it myself so I'll do some fill-in first until I get the shop emptied a little.

I built one upper cabinet and one lower cabinet. A lot of other wood has been cut and the pieces needing veneer have been mostly covered. I was attempting to determine the math to be able to do the rest of the cabinets easily. The pieces (I hope have all been cut large)

The veneer is Eucalyptus Burl from Australia that I bought on eBay, and Yellow Birch that I got in New Jersey.



The doors are assembled as a unit and are then cut apart to make 2 doors. And the design matches the design for the end panels.





The desigh is Greene and Greene with my cloud lifts and the Ebony pegs.

My plans are to have the white sap wood stripe across the top of all of the cabinets and all the rest to be heart wood that is pink. The veneer and the yellow birch both have a pinkish cast.

The base has not yet been created for the bottom of the base cabinet. And the drawer fronts have not yet been created. I'll probably wait until all cabinets are built and installed before I make the drawer front.

These cabinets are 24" wide and were made to match the ones that were there previously.

The finish is Conversion varnish that is a varnish that requires a catalyst just before spraying. The finish dries to allow sanding in 20 minutes so it can be recoated quickly.

These cabinets required a quart of finish so I probably need a couple more gallons before I'm finished.

I've got lots of pictures and I post some blogs of the construction and the jigs that I created. And I've got lots of building to do.
 
#53 ·
Cabinet building continues

Well I've still been busy building additional cabinets.

I'm working on the lower cabinets, because the upper cabinets need to match placement of the lower cabinets and I'm now working myself into a corner.

That's the sink corner. Old picture. It's just to the right of the range.


So what I've accomplished is building the cabinets to the left of the range.

The range is being moved about 18" to the left so the cabinets that I'm building are about 30" longer than the cabinets that I'm replacing. The white cabinet was stuck in there when we moved into this house to give her a little additional storage space.

My wife seems to be ignoring the mess that I made of her kitchen.


The end cabinet on the new left return has the veneer and framework being placed on the two outside surfaces.


The cabinet that starts the left return will have 5 drawers, each about 5" high.


The end cabinet will have 3 drawers. A 6" 8" and 10"


So when installed they look like this.


The return cabinet that fits against the wall is 27" wide. That is so I will have a 3" corner space on the 24" deep cabinets. I glued some homemade veneer of the Yellow Birch and glued it to the spacer pieces so that the opposing drawer will slip by the opposite drawer handle.




I then put in a 24" cabinet that is between the return area and the stove.


I then put another 24" cabinet to the right of the range. in order to make it fit I took out an 18" cabinet that was under the sink counter top that is visible in the first picture.


Again no drawer fronts have been designed or made as of yet. I'm trying to make the lower kitchen cabinets built and useful before I spend extra time making drawer fronts.

I'm also waiting on making the upper cabinets until all of the lower ones are made and installed. My mother in law is coming in 2.5 weeks so i got a little work to go.

I did give her a little bonus tonight. I brought in a piece of Corian to cover over the open tops of the cabinets, even though she thought that the open top did have a great functionality.



The count as of now is 22 drawers under the counter surface and 2 additional sliders that will have trash containers and a pull out drawer under the sink for dish cleaning supplies.

The flowers were a little gift a couple of days ago.
 
#54 ·
Hi Karson;

Let me be the first to say your wife must be very patient, but I guess she knows how good it will look when your finished.

I can't wait to see the pics.

Lee
 
#69 ·
My first try at Corian

Well this was my first try at assembling a Corian top for the base cabinets.

I didn't take any pictures of the actual gluing because I wasn't sure of the amount of time I'd have as i was doing that process. Now that I have a better feel for the amount of time it takes, I'll take some assembly pictures for the rest of the counter top.

I started with the corner cabinet that is 24" X 24" and is where we currently have a microwave and toaster.

New cabinet with the old top that We've been using. The drawer fronts have not been made yet, but the cabinet is in use.



The underside of the Corian top with a 1/4" gray stripe and a 1/2" Fog stripe that matches the top surface.




I've not put in any wooden blocks to the underside of the top as of yet. I was wanting to find out how much space that I'd have to fill. It's 1/4 + 1/2 so a 3/4" block would fill it but the ply is under 3/4 so I'll have to engineer what I use maybe MDF is the right size or some OSB board. I'll use silicone to stick to the underside of the corian top and use it at the edges to allow me to screw the top down.

The top in place temporarily.





The wife didn't want any backsplash on this cabinet, so wall repairs will be necessary. This top is also 1 1/4" thick at the edge, normally edge treatment is 1 1/2". But we only wanted a 1/4" stripe and not a 1/2" stripe, I'm also not sure that I'd want a 1/4" strip at the bottom either. There is a seam about 3/4" in on the side of the last picture. It is not visable. The glue disolves the Corian and makes an invisable joint.

The edge was sanded with a belt sander 80 grit to make the edges of all of the surfaces even and to get the glue squeeze out off the surface. The glue squeeze out that you see on the underside pictures was also on the outside edges and it was a little rubbery, not a hard surface, but it didn't stick to the sandpaper. The sandpaper did not load up.

I used hand sanding on the edges up to 220 grit and then went to 320 and 400 on a random orbital sander. I also did the random orbital sander on the top surface with the same grits. I used a laminate trimmer router with a 1/4" quarter round to round over the edges on the front and side.

I then went to my 6" Rigid sander that has a variable speed and I used Abralon disks for the top. I bought some 180 but didn't use it since i already used up to 400 grit dry.

The Abralon disks are hook and look and have about 1/4" of foam rubber between the hook and loop and the sanding surface. I started with the 360 grit and worked up to 2000 grit. My wife wanted more of a Satin/ semi gloss surface so I didn't buy the 4000 grit disks. You can see the reflection off of the top and see the wall in the reflection. But it's not a real gloss shine.

The corian was cut on my table saw with carbide blades. I've got a sliding table so the sheet slide across quite well. It was 144" long X 30 " wide when I bought it. I took a battery operated skill saw to the store and cut the sheet in two. The longest piece was 102" and it fit in my van standing on edge. So I transported them home with no problems.

10/11/10 I've had many people ask me where I bought it. So I went looking It's Dupont's salvage building at 1001 Lambsons Ln, New Castle De 19720 I don't have there phone number, I've been unable to find it in my receipts.
I found the address on my GPS.
The Corian was bought at a DuPont salvage depot in Delaware. These sheets cost $80.00 each, which is a bargain. The color is Fog, which is a color made for Lowes and has since been discontinued. This color was not sold by any other vendor. The glue is color matched to the Corian, and DuPont said to use Dawn Beige. I bought the glue from a store that was recommended by the counter man at the DuPont salvage depot. I used maybe 1/3 of a tube on this assembly.(That was one of the questionable items that I had in my mind) I've bought 4 tubes and may need more. The price is 19.00 per tube and contains 50ml of glue. The tip is a mixing tip and the ratio of 10 to 1 comes out automatically as you press it. I bought an adaptor that allows it to fit in a regular caulking gun.

I started the glueing at 12 noon finished by 12:45, Ate some lunch with my wife and was back working on it by 1:15. I was all finished by about 3:00.

Pictures of the adapter and the mixing top will be posted in another blog.
 
#94 ·
The Corian installation continues.

Before we get started, I stated in the previous blog that I'd let you see the cement tube that is used to bond the Corian pieces together.

The glue tube with two separate compartments, One for the fill material and the second for the catalyst. The plunger is part of the adapter kit that allows it to be used in a regular caulking gun. Your option is this, or a $80.00 to $150.00 gun. I opted for the $4.00 part.



The small plastic piece beside it is an adapter that allows it to be used in a regular caulking gun.



Somewhere in my pressing the plunger i split the plastic piece so I wrapped it with Duck Tape. A real *********************************** thing to do.



The tip that is attached to the front of the cement cylinder has a waffle pattern that mixes the two products together.



Now on to today's entry.

I took a piece of Corian and brought it into the house to sit on top of the base cabinets so my wife would have some place to put things.

She said that she wanted a rounded end. So i took a pencil and drew the curve on the end of the Corian. I took a jig saw and cut it off.



I said is this what you want. She replied yes.

I made a 1/4" mdf pattern of the curve and sanded it smooth so that it would be a router template to put the edge on the Corian.



So I cut the edge with a jig saw to within 1/8" of the line and then I used the router template to cut the edge of the top piece of Corian.

I then started cutting small pieces to make the edge.



Then sense kicked in and I figured out that I didn't want to glue in all of those small pieces.

So I glued on a big rectangle piece on the end, and the edge banding around the edges.





I then started on the smaller piece of Corian that would be attached to the large surface. Drew my line.



Started to cut it with a Ryobi Lithium Battery skill saw.



The blade is quite thin and cuts a great cut to break down the Corian into manageable sizes. This is what I used at the salvage depot when I bought the Corian.

I then cut it on my table saw to 25 1/2" square.



Getting ready to glue the edges on the small piece but I also needed to make a gluing brace to join the two pieces of Corian together. This is a chunk of Corian the goes across the seam so that both surfaces will be glued to it. Here I'm glueing it to the large counter top.



Now the for real glueing. I found out that you need to practice the glueing process before you open the cement, because that is not the time to go get the clamps that you need. My practice run noticed that I was tipping the Corian glue brace and I needed a better bonding clamp. Therefore I used Bessie clamps.



I then glued the edges on the small piece.



I only need edges on two sides. I don't need any on the back nor on the side that is attached to the large counter top.

While the glue was setting up I started to work the edges on the large surface that was glued up last night.

I turned it over and this is the view of the large pieces that i glued on the edge.



I cut to within 1/8" with the jig saw.



I then used the router to trim up the lower pieces to match the previous cut edge.

It was at this point that Greg3G showed up with his wife from W. Virginia. So we had a little visit. After he left I didn't take any more pictures but what I did was clean up all of the edges by using a piece of 1/4" Corian as a straight edge and used a pattern router bit to clean up all of the edges instead of using a belt sander. It's faster with a router. I also used the MDF pattern of the end and trimmed it back another 1/16" to clean up some glue. Hand sanded the edges with 100 grit sandpaper to get rid of any router divots.

I then carried it into the house to see how it fit in its intended spot. The two pieces are not glued together yet.




The edges are still square and have not had the rounder over edge put on it. I'll wait until the two pieces are glued together so that the final edge cuts can be made. The mating edges where they need to be jointed are a perfect fit. It should be able to come together with no visible seam.

That's tomorrows work.

I bought 4 tubes of glue, I've used 3 so I will need somemore. The tips are a throw away piece, because once its been used, you can't clean out the glue. You throw it away and start with a new tip. I got 1 tips with each tube. I bought 4 extra. So my tip supply is good for now. You get all the pieces that need glue ready, before you start. You don't say I'll glue these up and then get these ready to glue later. The tube can be resealed so you don't lose the rest of the tube, just the tip, $1.50 each.

One thing that Lee Jesberger told me is this stuff is messy. He is right. Dust everywhere in the shop from the table saw cutting. Everything else has been done outside on sawhorses. and there is non-biodegradable plastic everywhere.
 
#95 ·
Karson,

Really looking good! Thanks for all of the helpful information.

How did you learn to work with the Corian? Is there a web site or DVD that provides information?

Lew
 
#108 ·
The Corian installation continues #3.

Well I took the counter top back out to the driveway today to glue the two pieces together. (See previous Blog in this series)

I set up the Corian on my sawhorses in the driveway and pre set all of the clamp that I'd need to hold the pieces while the glue dried.




The long MDF strips were to keep the surface from bowing while the two pipe clamps pulled the seam together. A piece of maple was put on the edge to keep the pipe clamps from breaking off any pieces on the edge.

I then put on the glue and clamped it together.



The seam seemed to have some glue pop through the top surface, which is what I wanted.

I then took some time to make a Router Offset Jig to allow me to route the edges better.


After the glue setup I took off all of the clamps.




The seam had some flow out. You need that to get an invisible seam when finishing it.

I took a 100 grit random orbital sander to the top to clean up the glue line. It was 80% a great job, and 20% pretty good. I can tell where the seam is but others might not be able to.



I tool my new offset jig and started to route the edges.






I cleaned it all off and random orbital sanded 100 grit the whole surface, then 220, then 320 and final 400. This was all a dry sand with regular sandpaper.

I then dug out the Ridged 6" random orbital sander and used my Abralon sandpaper which is hook and loop mounted to 1/4" foam and then a micro mesh sanding surface.



I went through 360 grit, 500 grit, 1000 grit and finally 2000 grit. My wife didn't want a super polished surface so I didn't buy the 4000 grit discs. I used water with a little dish soap to make a foam, I wiped off the surface with clean paper towels between grits.

I didn't do the edges, I'll do them by hand. I didn't want to use a sander on the edge.

I then turned it over.



You can now see the glue block that is used to glue the two pieces of Corian together. It is a piece of Corian that is glued to one piece let dry and then glue the 2nd piece in place. This allows for edge matching on the two pieces.

I'm now going to put in the filler blocks which will allow the counter top to rest on my base cabinets. I used 3/4" MDF. Put it around all of the edges and across the middle where it matched 2 joined cabinets.

When my wife got home, we transported it to the house for the last? time. We wheeled it to the front door on a 2 wheel dolly, put it on top of a rug and drug it into the kitchen.

it was placed in place on top of the cabinets.




You can see a small amount of gloss in the reflection of the coffee pot.

The edge is a Ogee cut. It has not yet been sanded or polished. I'll do all of that by hand, instead of watching TV.



Base cabinet for the sink to be assembled, Old cabinet to be removed, New one put in its place, new disk washer to be installed, and then probably old top back on so she can use the sink while I do the Corian on sink cutout and Corian sink.
 
#116 ·
Continuing with the base cabinets

I built the base cabinet where the sink would go. It's the same size as the one that is being replaced with the exception that the existing cabinet didn't go into the corner. It stopped just past the sink. I guess cost cutting on the previous owner.




The sink is not normally mounted upside down in the bottom of the cabinet. I had it here to find the correct positioning to cut the hole in the counter top.

This is sitting in the kitchen in front of the cabinet being replaced.



I ripped out the old cabinet. Had to remove a disposal, dishwasher, and water line to refrigerator.




I mounted a 12" cabinet that will be used to store cooking sheets. The drawers have not yet been made. i ran out of Baltic Birch.



I then put in the base cabinet.




Now on to the Corian counter top with the sink.
 
#126 ·
More Corian work. And, yes Todd was right it is just like glass

Well the base cabinet is in place and the position of the sink was determined so I drew an outline of the sink and I put a 3/4" line around the inside.



I cut the straight lines using the battery operated skill saw, and the corners with a jig saw.



I used hot melt glue and put down wooden blocks so that the sink could be placed in the correct position and be able to placed in position fast.



To take the blocks off you just whack them with a hammer (Sideways).



I write on the bottom the positioning of the extra parts to be put on. The edging goes on the front and on the stove side.



Turn the counter top over and the sink didn't fall on the ground. So far so good.




When doing routing of Corian you get many, many pieces of plastic that look like Ivory Soap Flakes.


I did a round over of the Corian on the inside of the sink edge.


I turned the counter top over and put on the drop edge and all of the other pieces of bracing.

I had my wife come over to the shop and help me turn over the piece one more time. We started to pick it up using the corner as the starting to lift place. As soon as we did that I stopped and said that we can't do that it will crack. 2 seconds later we did it again and it broke.

I guess that short term memory failed. My wife started to think of all of the possibilities, Buy a new piece of Corian, Buy a new sink, Start over. (And this was all within 5 seconds of it breaking). Todd said handle like glass and I guess he was right. Thanks Todd for the insite or I wouldn't have even said, "Don't do that, or it will break!" I guess that you should have told me twice. But, experience is a great teacher.

My craftsman/creator kicked in and I grabbed the tube of glue and glued the crack line and put my 10' pipe clamps that were last used for my deck to pull the pieces together.




I came into the house to feel very dejected.

Two hours later I went back and found that the glue had all hardened, I cleaned up the edges, Put on the Ogee edge, sanded and polished to 2000 grit.

Brought it into the house and installed it.




The crack is not visible. But, we were very careful putting it in place, making sure that the end was always supported.

Now for the return and installing the plumbing, dishwasher and sink.

Mother-in-law in three days, I may make it yet. At least functional.
 
#127 ·
Well, you did the right thing.

These things happen, even to the pro's. One of the good things about Corian is that if the snap is pretty clean, it will repair very nicely. After a bit of worry and sweat on the brow, nobody will know anything ever happened.

Your work flow looks pro and the project does too.

The true face of a craftsman is seen under those times of great pressure and challenge. You pulled off the repair like a true craftsman for sure.
 
#140 ·
Finishing the Corian, I wish.

After I got the counter top in I did the thing which makes your heart beat fast. I cut a hole in the top of the sink.

It was planned, but it doesn't make it any easier.



Once that hole is there, there is no going back.

So for the next 3 hours, I put in the faucet.



Hooked up the new Dish Washer.



And put in the cabinet that will hold the trash containers.

And what do you get. A plumbing nightmare. The drains from the two sinks are at a different height. and are a different height from the original sink. The water line for the dishwasher wouldn't fit so a new flexible hose was used. The drain line for the dish washer was too short to fit the fitting on the disposal. So the disposal had to be turned 90 deg. and then all of the waste lines had to be put together.

I was only able to make everything fit by using 2 flexible drain pipes. Of course the hot and cold water lines had to be replaced for the sink because they were all different lengths.

So here is the view. Only use one eye.



So that was all last night. I went to bed tired. I got up this morning with my wife telling me that she doesn't like the new faucet. Of course the hole is already there. Our options are cut down. She wanted a higher /taller faucet. I knew she did, and I was surprised when she picked the one that she did. Maybe she was going for the price!

She went to the store and I went outside to work on the last piece of Corian. This will be the return that goes over the dishwasher.

It's small 43" X 25 1/2". The only thing that is a little different from the one that was removed is it's longer, because my base cabinets are 4" longer.



This is the space cadet that has been doing all of the work. Hearing protection, Dust protection, Safety glasses and a full Tyvek Haz-Mat suit. It was 32 deg this morning in the driveway and the Tyvek suit keeps me warm. I'd hate to use it during the summer.

First I trim off the lower pieces to be flush with the top surface. I use a pattern router bit with the bearing on the top.



I trim off the support pieces that level up the Corian top to the cabinets.




I then do all of the Ogee profile, sand it and polish it and bring it into the house.



Visible is the glue block that supports the glue line and bonds the two separate pieces together.

Also visible is the wooden blocks that I've put on the surface with hot melt glue. I put a square against the wall so that all of the blocks would be straight in line with the glue line and each other.

I spread the glue and slid the return piece into position. And I put on the clamps.



You can see the glue squeeze out that is required. This is not woodworking. You want the squeeze out that that tells you the the seam is not glue starved.

You let everything harden, about 2 hours. I take off the clamps.




I sand the seam with 80 grit, 220 grit, and wet/dry Abalon sheets at 360, 500, 1000 and 2000. The Abalon sheets were used with soapy water.



I did a little fancy routing and I had to cut into the molding so that the Corian top would fit in.



We bought the new faucet so I guess I'll go now and complete it.

Tomorrow is Mother-in-law day so I'll be offline for about a week.

Have a great week.

Back again. I got the new faucet installed. it wasn't too bad, same MFG. but a couple of different connections.



I'm telling my mother-in-law that we are going for the new open look, so you can always see what is in the cabinets. She might accept that. I know my wife won't.
 
#158 ·
The Veneering gets going again

Well it's been 232 days since I last posted on my Kitchen remodel. It's not that I haven't done any work. It's just that I haven't posted.

I'd built the base cabinets and installed them in earlier blogs and it was time to get the drawer fronts created.

Let me say this, "My wife is a trooper, she is willing to live with the mess (begrudgingly), but she still puts food on the table and doesn't make me take her out to eat until it's finished.

I started the veneering. I cut plywood that would cover a complete cabinet - all drawers. That way I could do the veneer matching and sequencing that was required. I knew that my design of the drawers would mean that the entire drawer front was not covered in my designed veneer and so i was able to fill in the edges and the pieces between the drawers with mahogany veneer. The regular veneer is Eucalyptus Burl veneer. I bought it about 6 years ago.

This would be the drawer fronts on a 4 drawer cabinet.



This was the back (inside) of the drawer fronts that will never be seen by anyone. Normally you use backer veneer, but to me that would mean buying some more so i used some maple veneer that I already had. This was quilted maple.



Then the drawer fronts are all separated into their individual pieces. I marked on the back the cabinet number and the drawer number so that I would be able to get them installed in the correct sequence on the cabinet.

!

It was in the middle of the winter time and so I moved to the bathroom of the shop which I keep heated. I set up a small work surface on the laundry sink that is in the bathroom.



The strips are Yellow Birch and are about 1/16" thick. I cut them on my bandsaw and sanded them on my thickness sander.

The clamps are rubber bands cut from truck tubes that I got free from a local tire repair shop. Why they would keep old blown out tubes are outside my realm or wondering, but I'm glad they had them and I got them free.

Here's my blog on these clamps

Here are the edge banding on the drawer fronts.



The edge banding could be installed on both ends at the same time, but you could only do one side at a time. So it became, do one edge then trim, do the other edge then trim, do both ends.

The trimming was first started on the router table, but I was experiencing some chip out so i went to the table saw to finish them all.



I them made my jigs for doing the cloud lifts for the drawer fronts. these were 1/2" mdf with 1/4" mdf as the support base.



The drawer applique would be installed in the jib and I would draw the cut lines so that it could be cut down.



The piece would be trimmed on the bandsaw to almost the final dimension.



I used a top bearing 15 deg router bit to trim to the final size.



I used double faced tape to hold the pieces so that they could be trimmed to final size.




In a couple of cases the tape didn't hold.



But when cutout and installed they came out great.

I used sapwood on the top piece and heart wood on the bottom and the sides. The edge banding also followed the same rules.



The ends of the top and bottom pieces also needed to have the 15 deg cut also. I made another jig to hold the pieces for trimming.




The applique covered over the mahogany veneer that was placed around the edges of the veneered up pieces.



I used paper clamps to hold the pieces while glueing.



And also spring clamps.


The pegs for the drawer fronts were made with Blackwood. 3/8" square



The holes were cut with a mortise machine.



Installed in the fronts.



Now the drawers fronts are semi complete.

 
#171 ·
The drawer fronts

Once the weather warmed up I was able to go outside to spray the drawer fronts.

This is the back that will be screwed up to the drawer and so it will never be seen again. So here is your last chance. It's quilted maple veneer.



I used it because it was big and i had a lot of it and I wasn't sure that I'd ever use it so now some is gone.

I can't believe that I never took a picture of the drawers being sprayed. But, here they are installed. on the drawers.

The 5 drawer cabinet in the back of the island.



The 3 drawer cabinet in the island. These drawers required book matching veneer on each of the drawers.



The 4 drawer to the right of the island and left of the range.



The 4 drawer cabinet to the right of the range.



The cabinet to the right still doesn't have drawers made.

The 3 drawer cabinet beside the refrigerator.



19 drawer fronts all installed. The top drawer is the same size on all cabinets with the exception of the 5 drawer cabinet. The 4 drawer cabinet have all drawers the same size. The 3 drawer cabinets have drawers of approx 7", 10" and 12".

So now I made a jig to drill the holes for the drawer pulls.



The jig is mounted on top of the drawer front and centered on the drawer.



All drilling is from the front.

The drawer handles are made to match the cabinet and drawer fronts. They are Yellow Birch heart wood for the mount and sapwood for the handle.



These drawer pulls are like the pulls that Darrell Peart is using on his cabinets that he posted here on LumberJocks.



I asked Darrell about the pulls and he referred me to James Krenov

The pulls are shown on one of his cabinets in this video.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/823619053

Smitty also posted this on LumberJocks and he had the pulls that I liked.


Here is a piece made by Bibb



So I made the pulls. They are 1 1/8" high 1 1/4" wide and 13/16" thick. The rod between them is 7/16" and was cut with a doweling jig. I thought I'd posted it before but couldn't find it so I guess I'll have to make a new post or review.

The pulls had a pilot holes drilled in the back with the same hole spacing as the drawer front spacing. The jig that I used to drill the holes also Set the spacing for the mount blocks.

The first one mounted.



I ratchet drill to put in the hex head screws.



Drilling the holes in the drawer fronts.



The 5 drawer cabinet in the back of the island.



The 3 drawer cabinet.



And the 4 drawer cabinet.



The 4 drawer cabinet to the right of the range.



The drawer pull up close.



19 drawer pulls installed.
 
#207 ·
Mini Cabinets and Soffit upgrade

I built two mini cabinets (Spice Racks) that are beside the microwave and fill in the space between it and the two cabinets on each side.
Cabinetry Property Furniture Countertop Wood


The original soffit was about 12" high like the builders put up. I tore them out and made them shorter so the cabinets could be taller.

I did fine a couple of water pipes and a sink drain so I couldn't make a totally flat ceiling but I ended up with a 4" soffit. Two 2X4's and some drywall.

I then decided to cover the front of the soffit with the same veneer and wood that was used for the cabinets.

I glued veneer on 3/8" popular boards and nailed them to the 2X4. Then I came back and put the style and rails up with a micro pinner. Thew were held in place with tape as I installed them. The style and rails allowed me to cover any gaps between the ceiling and the veneered board. I also put a piece on the bottom of the soffit facing to go back over the drywall and cover any gaps there. The style and rail material was cut about1/16" thick. All of the design has sapwood at the tops of the doors and on the face of the doors and drawers and then heart wood on the sides and bottoms. The sapwood on all doors is two tome, white on the bottom and heartwood on the top. On the drawer fronts is was all sapwood. It was getting tougher to find pieces that were two toned.

Wood Floor Wood stain Wall Flooring


Wood Sky Hardwood Wood stain Composite material


All up.

Property Cabinetry Building Countertop Wood


If you notice one busted handle I guess I must have cracked it during installation. Need to install another support piece.

All the cabinets are done I need to put just a little edge on the spice rack drawers to keep items from wanting to fall out when the drawers are opened.
 

Attachments

#208 ·
Mini Cabinets and Soffit upgrade

I built two mini cabinets (Spice Racks) that are beside the microwave and fill in the space between it and the two cabinets on each side.
Cabinetry Property Furniture Countertop Wood


The original soffit was about 12" high like the builders put up. I tore them out and made them shorter so the cabinets could be taller.

I did fine a couple of water pipes and a sink drain so I couldn't make a totally flat ceiling but I ended up with a 4" soffit. Two 2X4's and some drywall.

I then decided to cover the front of the soffit with the same veneer and wood that was used for the cabinets.

I glued veneer on 3/8" popular boards and nailed them to the 2X4. Then I came back and put the style and rails up with a micro pinner. Thew were held in place with tape as I installed them. The style and rails allowed me to cover any gaps between the ceiling and the veneered board. I also put a piece on the bottom of the soffit facing to go back over the drywall and cover any gaps there. The style and rail material was cut about1/16" thick. All of the design has sapwood at the tops of the doors and on the face of the doors and drawers and then heart wood on the sides and bottoms. The sapwood on all doors is two tome, white on the bottom and heartwood on the top. On the drawer fronts is was all sapwood. It was getting tougher to find pieces that were two toned.

Wood Floor Wood stain Wall Flooring


Wood Sky Hardwood Wood stain Composite material


All up.

Property Cabinetry Building Countertop Wood


If you notice one busted handle I guess I must have cracked it during installation. Need to install another support piece.

All the cabinets are done I need to put just a little edge on the spice rack drawers to keep items from wanting to fall out when the drawers are opened.
Karson,

Everything turned out beautiful. Great looking cabinets and I like the way you did the soffit, ties everything together…
 

Attachments

#227 ·
Its been 2445 days since I last posted on my Buffet build

Well it's been 2445 days since my last post on my buffet build. As I stated in the first posting my wife said that you are not doing anything until I get my kitchen.

I got up to blog entry 5 before the kitchen got hot (You know what I mean). So then blogs 6 through 16 were on the kitchen cabinet build. That finished and so I started to clean up my shop and I had my son-in-law help me to move a table saw to the middle of the shop and move a portable workbench to the wall area where the saw had been.

Where the saw was sitting I could only rip a 16" board until I hit the wall. This was not my main saw, but it became one I was wa using more and more. So it was moved to the middle of the room where I could cross cut and also rip as needed.

I had stored a few boards under the partially completed buffet and so I needed to find out what they were. There were stretchers for three of the shelves. There were cleats for the aprons at the front and back for the bottom. I need to cut 12 drawer slides for the four rows of shelves and the drawer glides that attach to them.

So I basicly have to assemble all of the pieces so that I can measure the length of the slides and then cut the mortise and tenon on all of them.

Here's what it looks like now that it's been moved.
Wood Floor Wood stain Hardwood Flooring


Property Wood Shelving Wood stain Floor


Now to install a few pieces and measure.
 

Attachments

#228 ·
Its been 2445 days since I last posted on my Buffet build

Well it's been 2445 days since my last post on my buffet build. As I stated in the first posting my wife said that you are not doing anything until I get my kitchen.

I got up to blog entry 5 before the kitchen got hot (You know what I mean). So then blogs 6 through 16 were on the kitchen cabinet build. That finished and so I started to clean up my shop and I had my son-in-law help me to move a table saw to the middle of the shop and move a portable workbench to the wall area where the saw had been.

Where the saw was sitting I could only rip a 16" board until I hit the wall. This was not my main saw, but it became one I was wa using more and more. So it was moved to the middle of the room where I could cross cut and also rip as needed.

I had stored a few boards under the partially completed buffet and so I needed to find out what they were. There were stretchers for three of the shelves. There were cleats for the aprons at the front and back for the bottom. I need to cut 12 drawer slides for the four rows of shelves and the drawer glides that attach to them.

So I basicly have to assemble all of the pieces so that I can measure the length of the slides and then cut the mortise and tenon on all of them.

Here's what it looks like now that it's been moved.
Wood Floor Wood stain Hardwood Flooring


Property Wood Shelving Wood stain Floor


Now to install a few pieces and measure.
I can relate to the space problem Karson. There never is enough.
I usually work outside the workshop to gain more space.
Your with should be happy Karson. Gotta keep the boss on the right side mate.
 

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