Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Chris, found a couple of pics of my new kitchen. Made all the cabinets myself including doors cdrawers and finishing.

The one over the stove/oven/fridge was a monster, made it as all one cabinet. Installed it by myself even.......YES BY MYSELF!!!!!!! Used some of the old base cabinets to hold it up part way while I raised and blocked it. Final lift done with floor jack and post bracket made to fit in microwave opening.

BTW, installed cabinets first, then installed doors so I wouldn't have to tweak afterwards like typical installation.

Not to shabby for an amateur!!
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Wow, good job.

Is that a mix of quartersawn and plain-sawn oak? Hard to tell from the pictures.

What type of countertop?

Do you have a full shop? Jointer, planer, bandsaw? Or what?

Thanks Chris, still have some detail work to finish up. Still I am quite pleased with the overall outcome.

Is a bit of a mix, mostly quartersawn. I bought a whole "unit" many years ago. Got a deal and since then I've made two kitchens and a bunch of cages from it.

The countertop is granite, verde butterfly. One of the only things I didn't do. I had a texture guy in to retexture the ceilings and fix some bad wall joints. Had the double pane windows installed in the whole house. and had the granite company in for the countertops/backsplashes. All the rest I did and mostly by myself.

Doors - cope and stick, arched raised panels, solid oak
Drawers - 1/2" ply with white vinyl bottom, all rabbited
cabinets - designed entire kitchen around new built in
appliances. Face frames solid wood, carcases out of
3/4" oak plywood. No particle board used!
floor - Manington laminate flooring, pretty easy to install.
Plumbing - Repiped Kitchen in copper. Added fridge outlet for
water/ice maker. Raised floor house was no fun
crawling around underneath.
Pocket door - replaced door and all jambs.

My shop was paid for by selling rodents to a pet store

Pretty much have a full shop:

Delta Unisaw table saw - that baby is sweet!!!!!!!
Shaper
Planer
bandsaw
drill press
scroll saw
router table
chop saw
Don't have a jointer but my shaper can edge joint.
Lots of misc stuff Kreg jig, biscuit jointers, door jigs etc. etc.

I took my doors to a local cabinet shop for sanding. Was funny, my father in law is a retired cabinet maker, he took me to his buddies shop to get the doors sanded. They were giving him crap about the doors....poor quality etc. Then they found out I made them and their tune changed, they were just busting his chops.
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Too many things to comment/ask about. Sensation overload, LOL.

But I do have to ask...

Don't have a jointer but my shaper can edge joint.

How long of a board can you edge-joint? I thought about setting up a router table on my table saw extension. I figured go ahead and splurge a bit to get a nice router fence for edge-jointing. But with my snake projects I'll likely need to edge joint some pretty long boards (you know, huge face frames).

I might have to set up a jig and do it by hand. I just can't see getting an 8" jointer just to handle 8' boards needing an edge-joint.

I also recently saw a jig for a table saw that looked intriguing.

Or I could just get rid of the table saw and go with a festool or EZ guide saw system.

I don't plan to work with a lot of rough sawn lumber so I really don't want to go full bore on a shop. I just can't see a bandsaw, jointer & planer just so I can mill rough wood.

Np Chris, glad to help......

As long as you have a decent fence, and infeed / outfeed support, ypou can edge joint as long as you need.

But, for face frames, edges jointing is not necessary? Edge jointing is only really required for edge joining boards to make wide panels like in raised panel doors. Not understanding why you'd edge joint the face frame components.
I do have a really good table saw and it makes clean rip cuts, close enough for face framing.

My table saw IMO is my primary tool. Most of my work is done there. A really good table saw with a great fence is a very versatile tool. And it doubles as a workbench, I made a top to protect it and when it's on, presto, large flat work surface.

I rarely use my bandsaw. Good ytool but I just don't do the types of woodworking where it's necessary.

I too don't work with rough wood. but the planer is good for getting all the stock to the same thickness and cleaning up surface dings.
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I realize that you don't absolutely need to edge joint boards for face frames but there are many woodworkers who recommend doing so. If the two edges of the board of straight and parallel to each other then your cross cut measurements are much more acurate. Makes sense. If you have two boards, both cut at 36" long, but one has a bit more curve than the other it will be longer than the other board when it is straightened while being attached to the carcass.

And, or course, some of my face frames will be quite tall along the lower edge to act as substrate dams so I'll need to do glue ups anyways.

Still, I think I'll just do such edge-jointing with a hand-held router and a straight edge.

I recently saw a home made work bench with an aluminum jig recessed into the top just for this purpose. It was pretty slick.

Just clamp your board to the bench and run your router along the jig. Voila -- you have just edge-jointed an 8' board with a tool you can use for other things!

INCREDIBLE!!!

I'm only 20, but enjoy working with wood and building. I don't have much experience under my belt, but I can appreciate all the time that went into those.

I bet it feels spectacular to walk into your kitchen knowing you did most of the work.

Yeah, was an insane amount of work / hours.

Is really cool knowing it's "MY" kitchen.

And the really cool part, seeing the look on peoples faces when they find out I did it myself. And the even more incredulous look when the find out I actually made the cabinets, not just bought them.
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats