New skin for an old funeral - our home's renovation(s)

Snav · 10-16-2011, 04:10 PM

Absolutely - I'll document that completely.

So all the upper cabs are up!

Wall-D (same as before - but we added the cab above the fridge nook)

Wall-A: this is the stove-wall . . . stove will be placed as you see here when we're done.

This is the only photo I could take that had them all in it (from inside the diningroom) - you can see the unfinished side of the arch/wall in this view.

Snav · 10-18-2011, 02:00 PM

The cabinets on Wall-D have been skinned with a birch 1/4 ply as a veneer. I can cut straight but getting the 45's to meet up nicely was a bugger. . . I think I did pretty well for something that's the hardest thing for me to do right.

twinAK · 10-18-2011, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snav

Well so far that's been the easy part - I'm on plans to bend the framing for the doors into shape. This will get interesting.

Snav,
I built a couple boat-style book shelves and had to custom bend the trim rails that follow the curve of the sides. Maybe you could use the same technique. I outlined the shape I needed on a big piece of plywood then glued/nailed small pieces of scrap to the inside of the bend in several places. Then I ripped 1/4 thick strips, longer than needed to go along the side. I glued several strips face to face and clamped them down to the blocks fastened to the plywood. Leave all the clamps just a little loose because as you clamp it down forcing the strips to bend they will need to slide against each other. Once you have it all clamped in place you can do a final tightening on all the clamps. I just used Elmer wood glue and they hold well. I don't have any pics since it's been a few years. Hope this helps.

Snav · 10-19-2011, 08:19 AM

Ah - good idea. So you just layered thin cuts of wood and made your own laminate (pretty much). No steaming - that's cool. I just might do that.

I've read up on all sorts of methods of wood bending and have had a hard time deciding what would be best for this part of the project - my project isn't extremely intricate but each door has a different size arch so it'll be time-intensive to do each one individually (etc) - and I want the arch and frame to be all one piece for each set of facing doors - and then split it in two. So that means, if I steamed it all, I would have had to build a huge steam box for the pieces to fit into. The scale of it - being a diyer with only a carport to work in - was daunting.

twinAK · 10-20-2011, 12:53 AM

Yep, I just laminated thin strips without steaming them. If your curves aren't too extreme you should be able to get away with it. If you need to steam them to get them into shape what about making a small tent with some plastic and putting a vaporizer inside. Every Mom has a vaporizer.

Snav · 10-20-2011, 08:18 AM

- yep - every mom has a humidifier.

I'll take your approach - sounds doable.

Snav · 10-21-2011, 11:18 PM

Well right now I'm still working on the face-frame. . . I have the pain pieces cut and now I need to take some time to form the arches which will top the door-nooks off to enable us to have arched tops on the doors that are flush to the cabinet facing.

A new sketchup of the kitchen with these arched doors and color changes in place

Snav · 10-24-2011, 02:46 PM

Ok - well today's the last day for working on the upper cabinet door facing . . . oi! What a pain in the tukus!

But I'll show the rig I made to get the job done more quickly - since I don't have a table saw I had to get crafty. Took me frustration over two days and failed attempts at cutting the face-frame to figure this out. But once this came to mind the process went a lot more accurately, smoothly and by far more quickly.

It's simple: Constructed of some 1x4 pine and ply scraps.an even-width space between two 8' boards acts as a channel for my saw-blade when rip-cutting. A stop at the far end permits me to rip cut cleanly through the end without stopping.

At the other end is an L-shaped bank-board to enable me to cut the ends of my framing pieces square - by placing the piece in the channel and using the L-Board as a guide for a straight line it saves me the annoyance of the saw tilting to the side or the board spitting out from behind.

shumakerscott · 10-24-2011, 03:17 PM

I'm sorry Snav but I don't follow your description with the pic's posted. dorf due...

Snav · 10-25-2011, 10:12 AM

I took some more photos for clarity on what it is. I built this for a few reasons: #1: to build my face-frame I had to rip-cut my strips from 1x4's and 1x6's. #2: I had to take those more narrow strips and cut them down to the correct length. #3: I'm using a circular-saw and for this to cut vertically without tilting it needs to be fully supported on both sides.

These three problems aren't an issue if you have a table saw or other such large item like a miter saw (etc) - which I don't have.

In this picture the jig is flipped over so you can see how it's constructed. Two 8' 1x4 strips are spaced apart which forms a 1-1/2" "cutting channel" in between. These 1x4's are held in place by a series of plywood strips - it's all screwed together.

In this photo the far-end of the jig is the 'rip-cutting end' and the end at the bottom of the photos is the 'L-shaped channel cutting' end:

At the far end in the previous photo is the rip-cutting end:

The space between the two 1x4's of the jig provide a channel for my saw blade to glide through - the piece that is to be rip-cut lays on top and butts up against the rip-stop end. Using this setup I can rip-cut very narrow pieces - something that was challenging without the jig.

Rip stop end:

Board to be rip-cut. I've highlighted the rip-cut line in blue - this sits over top of the 'cutting channel' to allow the blade to freely move through without destroying my jig in the process.

The rip-stop affixed to the end is shorter than the boards I'm cutting so it acts as a support but does not prevent the saw from moving forward.

The opposite end of the jig makes use of the open-end of the 'cutting channel' - the long piece that sticks out forms an "L-shaped cutting guide" for my visual use when using my saw.

I draw a cut-mark on the piece to be cut and set this piece in the "cutting channel" - with the penciled cut mark lining up with the end of the jig.

Then I can set the saw in place and use the measurements on my saw-house to follow through with my cut - two photos of this (before cut, during cut.)

The wood I'm cutting in this picture is the same thickness as the 1x4's - so the surface is flush and flat which prevents my saw from snagging and 'jumping' when I cut.

Here you can see that I'm using the protruding "L-shaped cutting guide" to continue through with my cut when the penciled in line is no longer visible.

Most of the time when using this L-shaped cutting end I didn't have my saw flush up against the jig like in these photos - I was able to space it away 1/8" (or however far I wanted) by using the measure-guide on the front of my saw house. . . which helped me spare my jig from getting nicked up.

Snav · 10-27-2011, 02:10 PM

Ok - finally. Felt like it too forever but the face frame WITH the arches is done and in place!

It's all pine - with some heartwoods (of pine) thrown in.

Moving forward . . .

SeeDBee · 10-27-2011, 03:47 PM

I'm very impressed!

Snav · 10-27-2011, 04:08 PM

Thanks.

I was so excited to move forward I started conditioning the wood - and after one cabinet was done I realized "oh - I can't just condition it all first and then stain later . . . " So after I get the kids from school I've gotta run in there and put some stain on so I don't have to redo the conditioning.

And i also cut the handles off my brushes to make this a little easier (access wise) - I didn't think about it when I bought them but the longer handles do nothing but get in the way.

Blondesense · 10-27-2011, 08:40 PM

Awesome!

TimAllen37 · 10-27-2011, 10:25 PM

it looks great. enjoyed looking at the pics through your progress