Just a quick note tonight...
The cabinets are 99.7% done...finally. I cut and fit the doors today. All that's left at this point is to paint everything, put the doors on the hinges and the hinges on the cabinets. Pictures at eleven...
The MDF carnage continues...
Thought it was about time to post an update to the cabinet saga. I now have four carcasses built, face frames and all. Now it's time to engineer some doors...
Here are three of the cabinets awaiting some paint:
And the last cabinet, freshly unclamped. This one is going to be the guinea pig for the door making process, which should be an adventure in and of itself... On top you can see the three shelves I made for inside the cabinets...more MDF with a piece of poplar attached to the front with biscuits and glue. Needless to say, the biscuit joiner has seen some serious duty on this project.
I chose to make the face frames out of poplar. As everything will be painted white, I thought that it would be a waste to use oak or another expensive hardwood, but that pine would be too soft to stand up to prolonged usage. The face frames were put together with pocket screws (that pocket jig is cool!) and attached to the carcass with biscuits and glue.
I finally got around to taking some pictures of the cabinets I am building for Amy. Not a whole lot to write about here...I haven't put the face frames on them yet, nor have I built the doors yet.
As you can see, these cabinets are made from only the finest sheets of termite puke. They are going to get painted white anyway, so I didn't see the need to go to the expense of using, as Norm puts it, "cabinet grade plywood". They shouldn't be exposed to any moisture, so I'm not too concerned about them swelling up. Besides, if the downstairs rooms get flooded, I have bigger problems than losing a few $20 cabinets.
Also pictured here, making her debut on amateurtermite.com, is Mazy, one of our four cats. She likes to play shop cat, along with her younger sister Emma, at least until either the dust collector or any of the power tools come on at which point the both run for the hills.
Well, after a long break, so to speak, from being out in the shop, I finally made my triumphant return. Amy and I have been busy remodeling our bonus room so that Amy can use it as an office/studio. So, we've been busy pulling up carpet and laying tile in that room and the adjoining hallway.
If you don't believe me, Amy has pics on her blog.
As part of the remodeling effort, we decided to put in countertops along two of the walls, creating a large work area for Amy to do whatever she's working on at any given time. We looked around for cabinets to put under the countertop for general storage and support. Needless to say, most of the cabinets we found were entirely too tall to be of much use. As such, I was commissioned to build four cabinets.
Now, I suppose I should clarify the title of this post...you see, I wasn't technically ruining wood, but rather ruining termite puke, otherwise known as MDF. That being said, I can now continue this post with a clear conscience.
At any rate, I spent the afternoon building the first cabinet. I cut the MDF to rough dimensions outside in the driveway with my circular saw. I then trimmed everything up to final dimensions with the table saw. The cabinet itself is held together with biscuits and glue and a couple of screws.
All in all, it turned out better than I expected. I still need to put a face frame on it and make a door for it, but I thought it best to try to build the remaining cabinets first.
No pics just yet as Amy has been at work all evening and she has the digital camera in her possession. Will post some later.