The Quest
The kitchen is somewhat functional but waiting for its doors and drawers and pullouts. Allright.. it's not that functional.
Anyway, near the top of the list of 100 thinks to do around the house…. Build custom dishwasher panel.
The dishwasher I bought has a harness. Build a panel. Screw to harness. Attach harness to dishwasher and voila… Custom panel.
Here is a shot of the waiting bay for the dishwasher.
Murky water
The dishwasher comes with following "relevant" diagrams of panel dimensions.
Design
Something like this anyway. Basic door like my cabinet doors, but taller.
I decided to simplify the beadboard this time by putting slots on both edges and then milling splines to fit rather than tongue and groove. This cuts down the router runs by 2. I am also only v-grooving one face. Cutting down on one more extra set up. (though I have to mill splines.
Planning
I spent some time planning out cutlists and procedures.
Dishpanel Cutlist
Name
Number
Thickness
Width
Length
Bottom
Rail
1
3/4
2
23 5/8
Top
Rail
2
3/4
1 1/2
23 5/8
Filler
2
7/8
4
34 1/2
Bead
Board
7
3/4
3 3/8
27
baseboard
1
3/4
3 1/2
23 5/8
Spline
8
1/4
1/2
27
Procedure
1. Mill rail, filler and beadbaord stock
2. Beadboard
a. Cut slots ¼ x ½ on router table or table saw.
b. Cut edge "half" v-groove on router table
c. Cut middle v-groove on router table
3. Mill Splines to fit
4. "Domino" beadboard into rails.
5. Sand to 220
6. Glue up
7. Mill filler and baseboard stock
8. Finish
a. 2 coats red mahogany gel stain
b. dewaxed shellac
c. 3 coats wipe on poly
Motivate
I need to get going on this. Since work started again I have been very tired and not super motivated. But the list of 100 things to do must happen. So I am going out this afternoon to look for some stock in the pile.
That looks like a really cool project. I admire your thoroughness in planning it out before starting any of the milling, etc. I usally do it the other way around, and end up regretting it. Looking forward to seeing the completed result!
The drawings on these things are always a little ding-dongy ( probably lost in the translation) but I think you will get through it just fine. You have a plan.
Motivation
Wife: Just get out there and start working on it.
Good advice actually. I was dead tired after some yard work, but I went into the shop Sunday afternoon on Kristin's advice.
Board Selection
I made some changes to the cutlist to reflect a few new measurements. Also I did not have enough wide boards and wanted to avoid having to slice up any more beams.
Revised cut list
So I culled through my pile of old fir and pulled out some prime specimens.
I finished up Sunday by rough cutting my boards.
Shop buddy supervising
The rough length boards. The large stack of mostly vertical grain will become the beadboard field. The bottom two boards will become the rails. They are plain sawn with more prominent grain.
Milling
Tonight I set out for an hour to mill up the stock to finished dimensions.
I had already planed the boards when I cut up the beams a few weeks back, but I gave them a pass or two on the jointer and then thicknessed them to a little under 3/4".
One technique I always use on the jointer is to pencil mark the edge or face so I can guage progress as I work. You can hear it too, but I like the visual of the dissappearing pencil lines.
I finished up on the table and mitre saws and set then set out my pile of finished stock. I cut one too short, but had set aside an extra for such an occasion.
Milled and ready for joinery. I stack 'em for air circulation. Not sure how necessary this is.
Tomorrow I will route the grooves, splines, and v's.
In my cabinet project I milled up stacks of tongue and groove beadboard. I never even thought about making it with grooves on both sides and milling splines until I read an article on Finehomebuilding.com (which I highly recommend; get a subscription to their online content).
Cutting only grooves simplifies the joinery and set-up time by a huge amount.
Beadboard calls for just 2 bits, though you could run the grooves on the tablesaw and dispense with the slot cutter. This is a 1/4" slot cutter set to 1/2" depth.
Setting the height: I mark a line and eyeball it.
After a test cut, I needed to raise the bit.
Groovin. I run three passes. One lite pass away from the bearing. One against the bearing, and one on the opposite face to center.
V-groove
I had a break from work yesterday before Back to School Night so I headed out again to finish the beadboard field.
Setting the v-bit
I used a set-up block saved from a prior project to get the v-bit set. The edge groove is simple enough. Just set the bit height to 1/8 and then bury it halfway behind the fence. I climb cut first to get a smooth cut on the fir. The bit is barely exposed so it is a pretty safe operation though I use paddles too.
Beadboard detail
Running the center groove is a bit more complicated. To get the bit in the center I draw a line on one board and use that to set the fence.
The challenge with running a v-down the middle of a board is to not have it kick away from the fence. Otherwise you will draw a squiggly v-groove. (Ask me how I know). So I set up a secondary fence to trap the workpiece and prevent it from kicking back. I learned this technique from the CMT window sash directions.
Running the center "v" with two fences.
Another view
Success!
Splines
I resawed some fir down to a bit over 1/4" then tested/planed/tested/planed…until I got a nice fit.
Spline test
I ripped the splines down to a hair under 1"
The splines installed. I cut them under the length of the b-board so I wouldn't have to monkey with them during assembly.
The beadboard panel dry fit.
Weigh in
To attach the top and bottom rails on my doors I used a very time consuming method of stop-slotting the rails
and running tongues on the beadboard.
the old method_
This time I was going to use my domino to attach the rails. Sticking a domino in each beadboard end. Gluing the 2 on the end of each rail, and letting the middles ones float.
I also though about just pocket screwing it from the back since the back is completely hidden.
Any other ideas. Or am I on the wrong track altogether?
Why not just make the end of the panel one long tenon and then make one long mortise with the router table stopping it a half inch from the end of the cross board(bread board?). You could make the mortise 1/4 inch longer than the tenon for expansion and glue it in the center and put in screws from the back to hold it on. If I remember correctly this is a panel to go on the front of the dishwasher and no one can see the back.
Domino
This is only my second project using the domino. This time I set the fence on top of the workpiece instead of setting both on the work surface. I was trying to center the tenon. It worked, but I am not sure if I mastered the technique since some of the parts are not perfectly flush. Possibly I rocked it on the narrow breadboards. I should have put a support piece behind the work piece. It is only a hair from flush though.
I set the domino for exact width cuts (8×50mm dominos) on the outer mortises and wide on the rest. All of the beadboard pieces received exact cut mortises. It took less than 20 minutes (lots of being cautious) to cut all 32 mortises.
I glued only the outer tenons. The rest will float (my attempt to account for future wood movement).
Assembly
No problem. Just a little mallet persuasion.
Scribing
I took Todd's advice and scribed some hardboard strips.
The first two strips did not fit well, but then I switched from the jigsaw to the bandsaw for cut out. It went
so well that I decided to just go ahead and scribe the real trim, since it was lighter and easier to see the pencil lines.
Here I have the trim board tacked up level.
Here I am setting the compass to the distance that the board needs to lose material. I was shooting for 1/8" below the top of the cabinet face frame. It washard to shoot photo and hold compass still, so the actual compass distance was set to the bottom of the trim to about where you see the lead.
I need a darker pencil next time. Look closely.
I bandsawed the two pieces of trim and cut a scarf joint.
Fitting the trim was trial and error.
Clean dishes?
We dragged the diswasher in from the shop in preperation for the install.
First I had to reduce the dishwasher opening by 1 1/2 inches. I previously milled, fitted, and stained two boards for this purpose. Just needed to tack them in.
I set the dishwasher into place and test fit the panel.
Sweet!
I ran out of working time though, as we had dinner plans. Today I finish.
The first step: nailing a steam shield to the bottom of the counter.
I spent a lot of time leveling and fussing with the machine. Here you see me marking the plastic templates that come with the machine. It helps to set the height of the panel. It is marked and then attached to the metal harness.
Finding the centerline on the back of the panel.
Setting the harness. It is alligned along the center line and the marks from the plastic templates (now attached to the harness).
Pre-drilling the harness. Tape depth stop.
I slid the panel on. It fit. (No photo) I attached the hardware. It is actually a brass screen door handle, but it seemed to look right to us. I wanted to be able to grab it overhand, which you can't do with a bin pull. I use slotted screws for all of the work (phillips were not used at the time of my house's construction). I always use handtools for hardware attchment (too many accidents with the drill).
Testing the door.
A shot of the controls.
Done?
I cut the rail to close up the bottom of the panel. It is just pushed into place now, but I will attach permanently.
Well the majority of the work is done. I still need to permanently install the bottom rail, stain the trim. Also the diswasher needs a repair (good times). Tech comes on Wed.
That is really beautiful work! Excellent installation. Congratulations!
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