Craftsman Bungalow Restoration #21: Custom Refrigerator Panels 1

The Hole in My Kitchen
For the past two years we have lived with a hole in the wall of the kitchen where the fridge was. I was going to turn this into a pantry, but we decided to put the fridge back in.

We found a fridge that would accept custom panels. It is 36” wide. and only 24” deep to the doors.

We had to cut back one stud in the wall to accommodate the depth and reinforce the floor for the weight, but the hole/nook is ready for the fridge.

Design
I drew up several designs in SU and settled on the one on the right.

The panels are beadboard with domino-ed bread board ends.

Preparing Stock
I have documented this process several times in my dishwasher and cabinet progress, but here goes.

All stock is reclaimed fir headed to the dumpster and acquired for free from local construction projects.
I comb it with a metal detector and cut to rough length. Time: 2 hours. Cost: Free

I re-sawed all stock in half on the bandsaw.

I left the stock to acclimate for a few days.

I did not take any shots of the stock milling process but it is well documented on my other blogs.

Joinery
Using the table saw ran grooves on both sides of the stock to accept splines. (no pic) This time I sized the grooves to accept 1/4” plywood. Much quicker than milling 1/4” stock.

After crosscutting, I ran the center v-groove on the rounter table using a 45 degree bit. I set up the table with two fences. If the board were to kick away from the first fence the groove would get off center.



The grooves left by the bit are fuzzy in fir, so I ran the edge v-grooves on the table saw. These are really just half of the groove, but look like a full v when two pieces are set edge to edge.

Here is a picture of the milled b-board with grooves.

The breadboard ends are attached with dominos. Here I set the layout for the first piece. I need to trim the edge of the panel, so I placed the domino off center.

I reinforced two of the lateral joints on each of the upper doors where the door pull would stress the joint.

Here is the large freezer panel during glue up.

Afterward I trimmed it to fit and exactly center the beadboard pattern (more on the math involved here next time).
It was freezing in the shop this morning (for So. Cal).

Final shot: Glue dries on a fridge door panel.

Next time
Fitting the panels on the fridge

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne