Road....worthy

Finishing up the cabinets!

Building cabinets from scratch is hard but rewarding.  I was gifted the quartersawn oak face frame material by my friend Adam - who passed away recently.  So these cabinets are going to be all the more special....(& I'm trying really hard not to screw them up)

 List of stuff I did for the first time on this cabinet project:  built cabinets of any kind, used pocket screws (kreg jig), used shellac, used a biscuit jointer, used vinegar & steel finish, assembled cabinet drawers, installed recessed hinges, etc, etc.

I ordered the drawer boxes from Barker (link: http://www.barkerdoor.com/Baltic-Plywood-Dovetail-Drawer-Boxes-p/drawerbox-baltic-dovetail.htm )  These were perfect and you can order them in 1/16" increments.   I ordered them unassembled and unfinished.  They went right together with a rubber mallet and bit of glue.  The boxes do need some sanding and then I finished mine with "emmet's good stuff" which was leftover from finishing the raw edges on my butcherblock counter.  Lots of other products would work just as well.

 In case you're wondering about my "shop" - for most of the work, it has been this bench I built in my garage out of 2x4s and plywood.

 You can see that the floor is now in.  It's a sheet marmoleum product.  Abbey flooring in Missoula installed a 3/8" subfloor and the marmoleum for less than $800 total.  Then, I wrapped the curved booth with 1/4" wacky wood from intermountain wood products.  I'll come back later and finish the face with a quartersawn oak veneer to match the cabinets.

Here you can see the hard rock maple butcher block, 2 burner stove, stainless sink, faucet, faceframe,  and drawer boxes installed.

(Another view)

Looking towards the rear.  You can also see the electrical system tie-in work starting to happen.

I chose to go with recessed, soft close hinges.  Honestly might not be the best choice in the long run.  The hinge mount is super solid in the door but there is only one screw holding each hinge to the face frame and even those are slotted mounts that can move.  After having mounted them, I expect them to fail at some point and am already thinking about what I'll do when they do fail (no good ideas yet)

Here I am mounting the drawer faces to the boxes.  If it isn't clear from my blog, I highly recommend this order of process; 1) Mill all of the face frame material to the exact same thickness 2) The doors and drawer material needs to be all the same thickness too.  I did everything at once and made it all 3/4" thick.  3) build the face frame with a kreg jig and pocket screws with glue  4) build the doors and drawer faces  5) Install a cabinet floor  6) build the cabinet ends and dividers - I mounted a sheet of 1/2" plywood to the aluminum wall so that I could put screws anywhere and not worry about hitting wires, plus it gave me a nice and square top lip for the counter that I squared the end panels and dividers to.  6) Mount the face frame and square everything up.  7) Cut the countertop to length and install.  8) Once mounted, cut the holes in the countertop for sink, stove, etc.  9) Mount the hinges to the face frame and either run a piece of material (wood) to the back so that the hinge is supported  or use a hanging bracket that is normally optional with the hinges.  10) Assemble and install drawer boxes flush with the face frame.  11) install drawer faces, recessed hinges and doors  12) I haven't done it yet but looking forward to installing knobs/pulls/handles next.

 Here you can see the first two drawer faces and the first door going in.  so far, so good...














Here's the final product!!!  (I'm really happy with how this has turned out so far.  Still needs pulls and the new (atwood xt) furnace isn't working, so I'm waiting to install one that does before finishing the under sink cab)

Veneer backing in curves?

Anyone have a good recommendation for a thin backing material for the base of my booth/dinette/couch/sleeper?  I'm putting a "U" shaped booth in the front of my 67 Streamline Duchess.  I've framed in some three curved radius along the base.  My plan was to use 1/8" door skin material and then use a real quarter sawn oak veneer.  The doorskin can handle the radius (~ 6") and I'm looking for alternatives that will be a good backing for my thin veneer material.  Recommendations?  Ideas?

Here you can see the basic shape outlined in masking tape. 

 This is a drawing with measurements of what I've framed.  Pics of framing below.

This shows the beginning of the frame and the black metal table legs.  This is a cool design that swings down to sleeper height.  It also is mobile and can go outside.

Here you can see the finished frame with 3 radius corners.  Still trying to figure out the best way to support the table top.  I've thought 1x2" oak in the straight aways but then am not sure what to do in the curves.  Ideas?

Working on where to put the seams in the plywood & cushions.  I want them to line up so its easier to access under seat storage.  Thinking I'll permanently mount seat plywood in the corners and then leave the three other sections as access. 

 In this section, I'm thinking one big piece of plywood/cushion.  Not planning to put in a hinge, just a small lip to keep plywood in place and then velcro the cushion.  

One last overall look at this phase.

Build cabinets from scratch? Sure, why not...

While this blog is mostly about fixing up an old trailer, it could easily be titled, "A bunch of skills I never thought I'd learn."  In that spirit, I can now add custom cabinet maker to my growing list of trades I didn't know I wanted to learn.  Lots of advice out there saying not to build the doors or drawers or whatever but I jumped in with both feet & built everything except the drawer boxes, which I just ordered from Barker.

This is what my cabinet area looked like a few weeks ago.

Here is a picture of my little helpers.  They are applying a vinegar & rust stain that oxidizes the white oak and turns it black/blue/brown.

  This is a picture of the effect caused by the vinegar solution.  If you use this technique, I'd advise 1) apply the solution to everything at once  2) do not sand it after applying the vinegar & steel.  I tried it and it turns into a disaster.  3) Seal it with some kind of top coat as soon as it has the desired look.  The solution will rust and change color if you don't.

 This picture shows the wood still wet but in rapid transition.

I used the cheap Kreg jig pocket screw kit for assembling the face frames.  It worked great!  Link:  https://www.kregtool.com/store/c13/kreg-jigsreg/p169/kreg-jigreg-r3/

This is some of the raw material that is partially milled.  Most of these pieces became doors and drawers.  Big thanks to Home Resource in Missoula!!!!  Home Resource is a local non-profit that takes building material donations and offers them for sale.  In my case, they were good enough to mill my rough material into consistent thickness.  They also milled face frame 1x2 material into consistent width.  Affordable & quality work.

Here are the door frames going together.  I didn't have the right tools for cabinets but we have an amazing local non-profit tool library that has made this project possible.  Many thanks MUD (Missoula Urban Demonstration Project)!!!!  Because of MUD, I've had access to table saw, biscuit jointer, clamps, edge jointer, table top belt sander, etc.  For these face frames, I cut the material to width with the MUD table saw and then cut grooves in them for the 1/4" panel of quarter sawn oak plywood.

This image shows a drawer face being glued.  I used the MUD tools and clamps.  Turned out great and I barely had to sand the finished product.

 Dry-fitting one of the three doors.  Holy crap, this might work!

Work in progress shot...

 Gluing up a door.  

Here is an image showing the face frame with vinegar & rusted steel.  Not sure if you can tell in the picture but the finish is rusting and turning red.  I also don't like that it is washing out the cool grain in the quarter sawn oak I'm using...

Two finish doors.  Not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Super pleased with the results.

Drawer front with awesome grain.

 Finish is even more red now.  I don't like it but am committed.

Applying the vinegar & steel finish to my favorite drawer front.  Looks like shit, so I sanded it off this drawer and the two face frames.  

 This is the same drawer as above after having sanded off the vinegar solution and added a quality stain.  

 In this shot, I'm applying teak oil to a stained drawer front.  Finally doing this beautiful wood some justice!

 Stained with dry oil.

Finishing up the cabinet with several thin layers of shellac. 

 Light isn't doing this justice but everything is looking great.  I left the black edges on the face frame from the vinegar & it gives a cool effect.

Face frame is installed and just need the barker drawer boxes to complete.  Just ordered them last night and they have a 7 week lead time!   Never expected that, guess I'll be working on other parts of the project for awhile...

Sink & faucet...

Starting on the funnest part!  Starting to pick out the finishing touches.  This cool sink from Ikea has a  built in drain pan and several components like dish drying racks, cutting board and colander.  I also like that I can set a hot pan on it if I go with wood or other temperature sensitive countertop material.  Currently thinking butcher block maple from lumber liquidators but I might still go with formica or solid surface if I can find product I like better.

 This is a cool Ikea faucet.  I like that it's small, has single handle operation and an integrated spray head.