top on and handles trimmed

well, i actually finished this off last week but just getting to posting now, sorry. anyways, i'm really happy with the result. slots for the handles could have been a touch wider and fingers crossed that the handles stay true. the oak looks great though and i'm happy i made a better filler panel than piecing together some parts. maria and nora seemed happy as well, samer was at work. the install took a little longer than i hoped and i was a little worried i was bothering little nora, but she'll get over it. lots of lessons learned on this one and i'm moving straight from this into another set of cabinets. this time i'm making the doors. only thing left is that pesky kick plate.

cabinets installed!!

whew - after way too many hours, these cabs are out of the house and in the site. spent all day today dialing them in with the fantastic help of samer. there was kicking, beating, sweating, and bleeding going on; but they eventually relented.

and just as i imagined, they are looking good. maybe even better than i imagined. there was some weird problem with the right side door not closing. but after an eleventh hour adjustment of the hinge with a screw driver, it all worked out. lots of soft closing doors and tight handled drawers.

the amazing thing about the new cabs is that it actually changed the whole feel of the room, we all agreed on that. essentially one under-the-eve-area that was used for ad hoc storage is now an entire wall of bespoke drawers, doors, and storage. its like it was a bathroom makeover at a fraction of the cost of a new bathroom. pretty cool and actually unexpected from me. i'm new to this!

so now the only thing left to do is cut, stain, and install the top shelf. i wanted all the cabs in place before finishing this last step so that the measurements would be absolutely spot on. once we have that dark stained oak with the oak handles nesting into them, its going to look pretty tight.

stay tuned...

missed a day

damn. yesterday was all about getting these cab handles sanded and installed. everything good. all except for one handle, which i have had to remake two times. no good reason, just user error. third time is a charm. these handles are a trick though. the clamping and glueing them up is precise biz when you are doing it on your own with some gerry rigged tools.

glen (aka subscriber numero uno) stopped by the shop too. he seemed surprised by the high quality. what's up with that!? expect nothing less from chachito's worldwide industries.

i also spent the day doing some drawings for a house addition. zeroing in on the details of chevy chase.

watching paint dry

how exciting is this blog? yes, that exciting. today we are watching paint dry. well, stain and lacquer. last night christine came out to help me with some sanding and dusting which was great. i routed the last two handles while she did that, and then we quickly applied the stain over the handle notches. after drying over night, they were and are ready for the polyurethane. put on a first coat this morning after a final sanding and cleaning. just waited 4 hours and now i'm ready for the final coat. woo hoo. tomorrow we attach the handles and then go for the install. everyone is happy with that.

cabinet work of the day

went up this morning to the clients house to make sure that the slight projection on the drawerpull will still work and we don't have to put the drawers in a less desireable location. everything seemed to fit. phew.

came back home and worked on the last two handles then in question. after that i experimented with routing a 1/2" X 2" (X 1/8" deep) groove in the handles to provide a slightly better grip for pulling open the door or drawer. i built a really sketchy little jig to do this. obviously i need a router table. but its just running these little thin handles over the blad and it seems to work pretty well. everything has to be done very slowly, very intentionally, and very carefully.

the grooves are now all cut except for the two handles which were stained before. i should have cut first all the handles, then did the staining. did that backwards. now i'm just waiting for the stain to dry and then will cut the last two grooves on the handles, poly them all. and then attach the handles to the doors. each part of the process is relatively small, but all this drying time makes it slow going.

bathroom cabinets

so i've been working part time on these cabs for a few weeks now. slow going despite my best efforts.

the project: a bathroom in the top floor of an old farmhouse in tacoma park maryland. the bathroom is tucked under the roof and has a sloping ceiling as a result. the cabs tuck into this space below the ceiling to make the most of the awkward area there. as a result they are shallow at the top and get deeper as they go down, to a final cabinet depth of 29". the cabs are 45" tall and 72" wide (in three units, 2x21" & 30" set of drawers.) its a white bathroom and the cabs are gloss white with custum made oak handles stained dark chestnut.

to save time (which was important), off the shelf parts were used as much as possible while still striving for a custom look. i figured ikea drawer pulls and hinges were fairly economical and would be a fast way to go (the client lives near an ikea.) the blum hardware ikea uses is some pretty nice stuff and gloss white doors are pretty much gloss white doors, or so i thought. the cabinet boxes themselves were of course purpose built, out of prefinished gloss maple 3/4" plywood.

of course all was not as easy as it seemed. the handles are 1/4" x 1 1/2" and attached by being screwed into the side. this created the biggest problem, the cabinet door would split from the side as they were attached. i've overcome this after trying a few different ways, after pre-drilling i then clamp the area on either side of where the screw comes in. this clamp compression causes the screw to bite into the wood versus just splitting it open. its cumbersome and awkward, but its the only solution i've found that seems to work. the cab doors were on the low end of the price at ikea and thus probably the low end of the quality too. the savings was too much otherwise, $315 versus a more expensive door which ran up to $700 in materials (and these were not the cheapest either.) in the future i think i would just make the door. the time savings were not that great, and probably the same money, better quality, and at the end of the day - probably not that longer to make. plus the more handmade stuff i'm doing the better. for everyone.

first day of the blog - cabinets

i've never done a blog but here it goes. i was out in my shop listening to NPR today and they were talking blogs. as i was working and thinking of how to get my work out to the wider world, as well (and this is crucial) as get some feedback, the radio program came into focus and little angels starting singing in heaven.

so the point will be to document my process of woodworking and hopefully get some feedback and discussion. since i'm new to woodworking as well as blogging, i'm looking forward to hearing from folks who know more about either and can offer constructive observations.

i've been doing the woodworking semi-professionally for about 5 months. during that time i've built and installed a big closet with handmade 8'x3' doors, about 8 shelving units for a few clients, installed a kitchen (with premade cabs) and i am building a custom storage unit for a bathroom. the construction and woodworking takes up about 40% of my workload at the moment.

i'm an architect by training and recently started Artisanal Design, LLC to combine my architecture background with small scale, hand built woodworking and construction projects. the other 60% of my workload is involved with the architecture. with Artisanal Design i've designed a house to become a 2 unit property on capital hill, a kitchen in tacoma, and currently a large addition in chevy chase, dc.

with this blog i'm hoping to improve the process of the woodworking and construction. i've worked construction in the past, built a bunch of furniture in my home and for friends, and basically worked with my hands over the years. now that i'm actually taking new clients, charging money for it, marketing and doing this alone, the blog seems to be a way to escape the vacuum of doing this all alone. hopefully i can get feedback from folks in DC and around the country. i know a bunch of stuff i'm doing in the shop is pretty homegrown, isn't what they teach in textbooks, not totally professional, and sometimes probably dumb. but thats the reality of starting small, teaching yourself, and making best with the limited resources at hand.

i'll list some of the tools i have in the shop that will be put to use. i'm not writing this to bore anyone or fill up spaces, but to to show you what i'm working with. if i'm using a hand drill and should be using a drill press, someone can yell, 'hey dummy.'

hand drill (rigid)

drill press (ryobi)

table saw (rigid)

circular saw (skillsaw)

worm drive saw (skillsaw)

reciprocating saw (porter cable)

mitre saw (dewalt knock-off?)

hand planer (ryobi)

biscuit joiner (ryobi)

router (milwaukee)

nail gun and compressor (bostich & husky)

bench grinder (craftsman)

wish list: planer, jointer, bandsaw, a good dust collection system

so thats the first post. i'm totally new to the blog thing and have no idea how anyone will read this. any suggestions on how to get this out to a larger woodworking community would be appreciated. thanks.