# Kitchen and utility refit WIP



## Farmer Giles (21 Dec 2017)

When we first bought the farmhouse 17 years ago, we had to burn every bit of wood apart from the pitch pine beams in two rooms and the roof, otherwise every stick went on a huge bonfire, full of woodworm, many floor joists resembled weetabix in strength, and the wife accidentally dropped a lump hammer from waist height which went through a floor board without much resistance they were that rotten.

So we could move into the house and sell up in London, we fitted the cheapest kitchen we could find, I think it was from B&Q. It is now looking very tatty, it isn't what we wanted but was all we could afford at the time and we have coped with it for a few more years until the kids are of an age where they have stopped destroying quite so many things. I've bolted many of the hinges as the carcasses have disintegrated, the plinths are in tatters, plastic legs hanging off. It has done it's job.

The utility wasn't too bad, I gave it a major makeover about 5 years ago and used some Ikea cabinets which weren't at all bad. However I have just built up on top of the utility and some of the cabinets have suffered. Here's the utility as it was, the extension was complete back in the sixties, before that the back of the house was built into the hillside almost up to the bedroom windows.







The youngest daughter's bedroom is very small so the plan was to extend the utility up a floor. Here it is in progress, it persisted it down for weeks during the work so the utility room below got a hammering water wise, but we didn't care too much, we stripped out almost everything of value and managed to keep one corner dry for the washer and dryer.






And as of a few days ago, we finished the shell so I'm busy putting in floor joists as we have the windows being fitted in mid January then I can knock through from the daughters existing bedroom, her old bedroom window becomes a passageway to the new space, the old room will become and ensuite and wardrobe.






I haven't done this myself, I do the project management and some building work but I have had builders in to do the block work, stone work, roof timbers and stone roof. I'm under doctors orders not to do too much after cranial surgery back in August and I'm back at work so don't have much time. However I do most of the electrics, some of the plumbing and I will be doing all the second fitting and some of the first fitting like insulation and plasterboard etc.

So far we have most of the 6 x 2 floor joists in and I had the presence of mind to put all the 50mm insulation backed plasterboard, roof insulation and soon mill flags up into the bedroom space before we put all the floor down. Trying to get them up a winding staircase after dragging them through the house would not have been fun.

To be continued....


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## thick_mike (21 Dec 2017)

Subscribed. I would love to do something similar in my home.


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## Farmer Giles (24 Dec 2017)

Cheers Mike

Here's first drawings of the kitchen and utility, not full details yet, still discussing it. Utility room is relatively fixed but kitchen needs more discussion with the missus. All I wanted is the high level design at this stage. If you are wondering about the size of the "cavities" in some of the walls this is because in some locations they are 600mm thick and are not cavity walls but rubble filled. They are a sod to put pipes through but I have done all that the first time around.






Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (9 Jan 2018)

We have just about finished the heavy lifting in the extension, we knocked the wall out between the old bedroom and the new on Saturday and moved all the big bits of stone down between the floor joists and some big ones back up to match the existing sandstone head and cills of the window that is now the opening between the old bedroom and the extension. I've already moved the insulation backed plasterboard up into the new bedroom which means I can now put the rest of the floor down and start the rewire. New windows are being fitted in a couple of weeks then I can get the plasterers in.

I also managed to get a couple of 28mm pipes in between the existing underfloor heating manifold and the new room. This means I don't have to lift the existing oak floor to tee into the underfloor heating, I can do it at the manifold which is much easier. The 28mm pipes mean I can put the pex plastic pipe through later.

So apart from rewiring, fixing plasterboard and rationalising the old plumbing, I'm getting tooled up for making the kitchen units.

The radial arm drill is nearing completion, I have a new mitre saw and plunge saw, I already have small table saw, routing table and bandsaw, the last two remaining items are the large holey table to dimension the sheets of birch ply and a kreg pocket hole jig for attaching the face frame, not to make the frame, that will be dominoed. 

I will probably make the 8 x 4 holey top, I have a MF3 size top already, so as somebody suggested I will use that as a template to make the bigger one. 

From a kreg point of view, given I have the smaller festool domino machine, I don't think I need the all singing and dancing Kreg jig, I think either the Kreg mini or the R3 which is similar but dual hole and has a clamp adapter will probably suffice.

The idea is that I will have a flush face frame and inset doors/drawers. So the face frame will just cover the cabinet edges so there is no internal lip. My original plan was to make all cabinets out of 18mm birch ply, given I am making them in units, the frame width between two units will be 36mm. If I did the same spacing between drawers then that may be a bit heavy, but if I only have one drawer per unit with a door below then 38mm may look ok. I could make the sides of cabinets next to each other to be 12mm so the frame is 24mm wide, but that may be too small and then there is the impact on the internal cabinet width if you are buying commercial sliding baskets etc.

So still thinking about this, I will be making a prototype for the utility room so I can play with dimensions and looking at similar cabinets on line and in the flesh.

Irrespective of the width of the face frame, the kreg jig will just be used to attach it to the cabinets.

I've had a look at the internal measurements of some older B&Q cabinets and some Ikea cabinets. The only thing they have in common is n x 32mm, the depth of cabinets are different and the "n" is also different when it comes to mounting holes. I will be walking around to a couple of neighbours to see what sizes they have, some have very expensive kitchens, some are a bit more basic. What I am aiming for is to drill all the holes in the cabinet sides in advance of building them so I can fit Hafalle/Hettich and Ikea accessories.

I have some Blum and Hettich drawer sliders and Hettich hinges on order to play with, I have some Ikea baskets and drawers so will source so Hafalle fittings then I can decide on cabinet depth and hole patterns.

Cheers
Andy


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## siggy_7 (9 Jan 2018)

It sounds like in many respects you're at a similar point to my own kitchen build, and thinking of a similar construction technique. What I've settled on is:

1) A grid of vertically placed plywood strips screwed down into the floor - this will form a level base onto which I can screw down the cabinets, and also forms the kickboard
2) 18mm plywood cabinet boxes screwed onto the base frame - these will basically be frameless boxes. Each cabinet will be separated horizontally by another 18mm strip of plywood, so the gap beween one internal face of one cabinet and its neighbour is 54mm
3) A sub-frame of maple (chosen because it will make a good match to the birch ply, both covered with clear sealer - I'm thinking floor varnish). I'm planning a horizontal top, middle (bottom of drawer height) and bottom rail that stretches the full run of each cabinet, making the whole assembly very stiff. The vertical parts of the sub-frame will be 54mm wide to match the cabinet spacing, leaving no lip. This will be nailed in place once the cabinets are installed (nails placed so that they are covered by...)
4) An inset face frame of doors and drawers. The maple sub-frame forms about a 10mm reveal when a door/drawer is opened. Will be using Blum Blumotion cup hinges for the doors and Blum Movento drawer slides. I'm planning to fit all the doors and drawers first, level them up along a run, then install the rest of the face frame around the doors and drawers. This will be done in painted beech

I got the idea for this from a kitchen design book "Rennovating a Kitchen" by Taunton. It's a bit American, but has some good ideas in it. https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/ ... edir_esc=y


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## woodywoodwood (9 Jan 2018)

FG - the house is beautiful. I would love to see some more pics of the work you are doing. We are due a refit, but after losing the main workshop the spare bedroom, study and dining room, as well as the garage, store room (s) and lock up are ALL full of table saws, work benches, spindle moulders, drum Sanders, bandsaw, overhead routers........ Well, you get the picture.
Hopefully you can inspire me. Now where did I put that morticer?????..... :shock: 
Thanks for posting.
Www
PS - regarding your foresight in putting boards upstairs before floorboards, today I had a fit in Rickmansworth. The surveyor did his job, few weeks ago, but in between him measuring up and my arriving to fit a bedroom, the stairs, complete with doglegs, went in. So, the easiest thing was to take out the windows, yep - the windows, to get the end panels in. Apparently my fault!!! :roll:


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## Farmer Giles (12 Jan 2018)

thanks for the kind words and glad to see others have the same thought processes 

I've been away working down south, which I do every week however this week my brother was down due his wife having a big operation. So I had two nights on the town, the first to keep his mind off his wifes operation the following day, the second celebrating what seems to be a successful op. 

Trouble is I think I overdid it and now I have the lurgy so laid up in bed really frustrated. All the hinges and sliders have arrived and all sorts of other stuff but I feel like death so will leave it until next week.


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## Farmer Giles (16 Jan 2018)

I managed to get time for a quick peek at the sliders and hinges I bought to try out. 

The Hettich Quadro V6 full extension under-mount sliders are expensive but ooze quality and will work with a flush face frame, I think. All I need to do is have a two part drawer front and make sure the front of the drawer extends down a little to clear the slider. So the missus can have full extension, soft close and nice dovetail drawers, lovely and I get a couple of mill of adjustment just in case my fixing isn't bang on  I'm still going to mock up a prototype before deciding for definite.

I bought a pair of flush face frame hinges, I only had a brief look but they looked the part and the soft close mechanism is nice, I'll give them a quick test this weekend before detailing what they are in case anybody wants some.

The missus has given me more info about the kitchen she wants over and above the basic cabinet layout. Near the cooker she wants a stainless steel worktop which extends all the way to and beyond the sink. She definitely wants function over form as she has asked for two chutes in the SS top, one for compostable waste and one for other food waste (meat, bones etc.). All of that is doable and given the wall is not remotely square I can make a template up and take it down to the local SS fabricators and get them to cut, bend and let in a couple of small SS sinks. The rest of the worktops will be a bit different, more later on that 

The wife has just planted 1400 trees and bushes in the field, hedging or for coppicing, but she already has some willow that she harvested last year and will have loads more for this year. So instead of wire baskets, other than the Ikea ones we already have that I will reuse, we are toying with the idea of willow slide out baskets. I'll provide a frame that slides out, she can do the rest.

There is a small "breakfast bar" type area, this she wants dual height so she can kneed dough more easily etc. She has asked for under counter storage and power, and somewhere to put the mixer. I've got a few ideas of how to incorporate this along with slide outs for scales etc.

So the mists are clearing, I'll have a tooled up warm workshop in a month with a bit of luck and by the time I have finished the bedroom and utility I think I'll be ready to tackle the main event. I'm quite looking forward to it 

Cheers
Andy


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## Halo Jones (16 Jan 2018)

Looking forward to the stainless steel counters. We are planning a large island unit with a stainless steel top. One thing I don't understand is the grades of SS as some types seem to get marked very easily. Is there a standard for kitchen use?


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## Farmer Giles (16 Jul 2019)

It's been a while but I have been tickling along the utility room build and the kitchen build is looming so I thought an update is in order. I'm on the weekly commute so my pictures are limited but I have a treat in store, I'm not going to patent my mop bucket cabinet design but open it up to the world 

I fitted a stainless steel sink in the utility first, I had this custom made with a big deep catering sink and 600mm drainers either side so I could get the washer and dryer either side. I then made a cabinet to fit underneath with a large pull out drawer with double runners to hold the bin. Pictures later. I haven't made any drawer or cabinet fronts yet, I need to take the missus out to a few places to look at laminates, the initial intention is to use laminated ply with an oak surround for the utility but this may change.

Next was the full height cabinet next to the sink that holds the microwave. The utility is going to be used to take a lot of stuff from the kitchen when I start on that build so for now I have repurposed some IKEA pullout baskets and moved the recycling bin from the kitchen. This will probably change once the kitchen is finished.






All made from 18mm birch ply, except the back which is 9mm. The sink is 700mm deep, I hate trying to squeeze pipes behind appliances, so the cabinet is 700mm deep too. You can just see the welded frame used instead of those horrible plastic feet. I first built the frame with adjustable feet to fit the space, levelled it with adjustable feet then the cabinets sit on it and are screwed to it from underneath.

Next, for your delectation is the innovative mop cupboard. I had limited depth to play with as the back door opens into the space to the right of the microwave cabinet, so I had to recess the back a little to gain an extra 30mm. That way I could get the annoying ironing board in there too.






And now the exciting bit, I had a eureka moment one night after a couple of pints of homebrew, or was I hallucinating? 






The incredibly accurately machined slot allows you to put the mop bucket under the shelf with the mop still in it and get it out easily without disturbing the junk above it! Revolutionary utility room technology 

I don't have a photo on me with the cabinet installed and in use but the missus seems to be happy and is using it. I'm sure all her coffee morning friends are jealous and getting their hubbies to install a bespoke mop bucket cabinet between the hot tub and the pot pourri.

Next is two more full size larder cabinets, 2100 tall, 500 wide, 700 deep. I'm making slide out tray style drawers for these, 600mm deep so I can install spice racks etc on the back of the doors. I made the carcasses at the weekend, just need finishing with water based poly and the 25mm steel box base frame welding up.

I've ordered 40m of 11mm x 100mm quarter sawn oak for the trays. I may post pictures of the sink, waste cabinet and the mop bucket cabinet in use but I'll make little progress for the next two weeks as we have various family events getting in the way. Once I have the trays fitted in the larder units I can move on to the kitchen carcasses. The first batch are 5 wall and 5 base cabs to make, all similar dimensions so should be able to knock these up quickly. The rest of the kitchen is all funny sizes and angles to fit weird spaces.

Cheers
Andy


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## Shaggy (16 Jul 2019)

We have a small depth cupboard in our kitchen that has the Hoover and mop bucket in that my wife wants me to shelve out so with your permission I'd like to copy your mop bucket idea and maybe adapt it for the Hoover too (hammer)  .


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## TFrench (16 Jul 2019)

Visionary!


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## Farmer Giles (16 Jul 2019)

Shaggy":11o4q4au said:


> We have a small depth cupboard in our kitchen that has the Hoover and mop bucket in that my wife wants me to shelve out so with your permission I'd like to copy your mop bucket idea and maybe adapt it for the Hoover too (hammer)  .



No problem, just subscribe to my none existent Facebook page and buy the slot template and plans . You will receive a bag of slots in the post plus carefully written beermat based instructions in code. To decode drink 4 pints of Atlantic Vanilla Porter


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## Farmer Giles (19 Jul 2019)

here's a few more pics

The SS sink in the utility, it was made to order by a catering company in Manchester. I looked on ebay and elsewhere for a large double drainer single catering sink, but all were too small to take an appliance either side.






And the sliding cabinet underneath pulled out, this will be for the waste bin. It snot sliding as nicely as it should, slight misalignment of the guides, probably when I drilled the pilot holes. Shall redo them now I have some decent self centring drills.






Mop and ironing board cupboard in use. The pipes to the right go underground to the boiler room around the back and will be boxed in with a false cupboard door.






And the final two cupboards for the utility, these are both 2100H x 500W x 700D and will form the pantry. Just need finishing and the box section base welding up before being put into position.






There is a box to build above the fridge to hide some cabling and a few other bit to do, but after that its onto the kitchen.

Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (31 Jul 2019)

Just got back from holiday so not much done but progress being made. I welded up the base of the larder cabinets this morning, it should have taken about and hour but with the kids off school it took me best part of 3 hours.






To keep the youngest daughter out of mischief I let her paint it, it will definitely only need one coat the way she puts its on  Here she is doing her Boris Johnson impression.






I'll attach the adjustable feet in the morning then we are nearly ready to install the cabinets, I just need to move a socket that is feeding the fridge first, it is currently directly behind where the larder cabinets are going.

Cheers
And


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## Farmer Giles (18 Aug 2019)

*Face frame dimensions....*

Utility room carcasses all but complete, I shall take pics later once they have a coat or two of water based poly.

We haven't completely nailed the kitchen drawer/door design yet, however its going to be a face frame. Face frame material will be 20mm thick quarter sawn oak.

I don't have to finalise the stile widths at the moment but, I need to get the rails about right as I'm making 5 carcasses now so will be fitting them soon.

I'm using 18mm ply for the carcasses with 9mm ply backs, when two are butted together you get 36mm rails, but if I put a 9mm packer in between you end up with 45mm. Most face frame cabinets I'm looking at seem to around 50mm rails. I could use an 18mm packer and end up with 54mm rails.

Any preferences?

Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (24 Aug 2019)

I've got a run of five 500mm wide base carcasses built from birch ply, four in a pile and one just about to come out clamps, sorry if the pic orientation is screwed, it's not me, its the website software.






Next, build the base/legs, 25mm box section welded. The legs will go on tomorrow, this is the main frame. The legs will have rivnuts in them to take the baseboard/plinth.






I'm going for a curry, kids are away with their grandparents in Anglesey so we can go for a few beers, may watch a gig later so that's it until tomorrow.

Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (25 Aug 2019)

I finished welding the base, first cut the legs






Weld them on, the front legs get a 11mm hole for the M8 rivnuts I'm using to hold the plinths on.






Now bend the frame straight, even with the frame clamped to the table, welding the legs on one side causes a bit of distortion. It didn't take long, I did have to pack each end up a bit more to get the necessary bend in the tube to counteract the distortion than shown in the picture






A coat of black hammerite and nearly there. Just need to add the feet and the rivnuts tomorrow.






If you notice that the "newspaper" being used is the Daily Fail, we don't buy it, the MIL does and brings it around. We use it for mulch and jobs like this. We bought her a Private Eye subscription for her 70th, she's loving it, so hopefully the supply of the mail will dry up....

Cheers
Andy


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## Trainee neophyte (25 Aug 2019)

Farmer Giles":2iie5xt9 said:


> I finished welding the base, first cut the legs
> 
> 
> 
> ...



There are two vitally important things missing from my life - welding kit, and the ability to weld. I shall sit here and be jealous, and impressed, in equal measures. Also your workshop. I have workshop envy - I never knew until now...


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## Farmer Giles (25 Aug 2019)

I'm an occasional welder so it's not great but passable for the stuff I make. Fortunately I know some really decent welders, so if I've got something where structural integrity is key, then I get them to do it. For example the hitch bracket on our wood chipper so we can tow it with a quad bike, I will get that done by a friend, taking notes while he does it 

I've settled on stile width, it will be 45mm, which is 2 x 18mm carcass thicknesses plus a 9mm ply packer.

The rails will vary, mid ones all the same but top narrower and bottom wider. I'll decide on them tomorrow when I put in the first drawer spacers in the carcasses to go behind the space frame.

Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (26 Aug 2019)

I finished the base this morning, or one of them, I have another run and an island unit to do after this.

Rivnuts are very useful, these are aluminium but you can get steel and stainless too.







They work just like a pop rivet, however instead of the disposable steel stalk, the screw thread on the tool is used to pull the back end of the rivnut against the material, here's a view inside the leg.






You have to be careful not to overdo or you end up stripping the thread out, just enough to stop the rivnut spinning. I always go round them with a tap afterwards to make sure there's no tight spots when you put the bolt in that could make the rivnut spin.

Here's the finished base, the rivnuts are quite high on the leg, no only because screw in feet could hit the rivnut, but the intention is to bolt the plinth on quite high up so the bolt is not visible unless you get very low down. The face frame will drop down about 20mm or so past the base of the cabinet which will also help.






Now back on the cabinets, once I have the drawer dividers in to support the face frame I'll finish them on the inside with a couple of coats of Bona Mega

Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (29 Sep 2019)

I've made a fair bit of progress. There was a bit of a design change, the missus wanted shelves in the plinth. So next job was to weld runners onto the frame.






Then make some drawers for the base.






Screw them to the runners






Then move onto installation. Here's half the old kitchen before ripping the lower half out.






The rip it out and start on the installation, first level the base






I made some bracket so the frame was bolted to the walls so the frame didn't move. Then add the cabinets, the old worktop will be used until we have finished the whole kitchen then we will replace all the tops.






The cabinets have 9mm ply packers between them the facilitate the face frame, so the rails are 2 x 18mm carcass plus 9mm packer so 45mm wide. I also packed out the ends to 45mm too. I have done more but the house is full of kids at the moment, so that will have to wait. The four base drawers don't line up with the five main cabinets, mainly because the base drawers were an afterthought, but I have dealt with that in the plinth, I'll show that later.

Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (29 Sep 2019)

So while the house is full of kids and its raining, back into the barn and make the wall cabinets. The kreg jig is worth the money for the shelf pin holes.






Four of the five wall cabinets assembled, the fifth has to negotiate a ceiling beam so I'll do that once the other four are up and I can measure the distance to the beam more accurately. They have had two coats of Bona Mega, just waiting for it to dry before adding the french cleat hangers.






Just finished lipping the front edge of the shelve in oak, one more coat of Bona Mega on the shelves and I'm ready to rip out the old cupboards.






And here's what this half of the kitchen will look like, approximately, it may change a little as we go along.






I've got all the drawer stock, all quarter sawn oak, I had a go on the Leigh jig last weekend and it went well so will start cutting this to size for the first 5 drawers.






Cheers
Andy


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## thick_mike (29 Sep 2019)

Great stuff. Thanks for documenting this. I’d really like to do my kitchen when I have the time, so I’m learning tons from the detail you have included.


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## Farmer Giles (30 Sep 2019)

I was contemplating whether I needed some parallel jaw clamps for making all the dovetailed drawers. The Axminster HD clamps are £45 each for 600mm, or I could go for the cheaper Axminster trade clamps for £23 each. I would need 4 per drawer so was going to forget it and make my existing clamps work.

But then two things happened, first i checked out Bessey UK, they have a sale on but still too much.

The I got a letter from the inland revenue, a rebate! Not huge but enough for some clamps, so bought four of their posh KRE100 clamps that came with some free Famag kit including a 125mm forstner bit extension which is about 30 quid which I have wanted for a while but thought was a bit steep.

If I only had five drawers to make then I would have forgot about it, but we have given up on baskets in cabinets, the wife wants wooden trays so effectively I need to make a bout 30 of them.

I managed to put the french cleat hangers onto the cabinets. I bought a couple of 2m length of steel french cleat to spread the load across the wall, far better than individual brackets especially if you get a bad fixing which is possible in an old stone house. The hangers are rated to 300kg per pair so should be good enough but I will probably put a small oak batten under the cabinets as I can use this to make sure the cabinets are vertical as the wall comes out at the top about 25mm.






Here's my first attempt on the Leigh jig, not glued yet, I still need to put a groove in for the bottom, this is for the daughters "secret" drawer on her bookcase.






Cheers
ANdy


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## Farmer Giles (1 Oct 2019)

I'm sat on the train, my weekly commute to the smoke, contemplating how to groove the drawers sides for the 6mm drawer bottoms without the groove showing on the drawers sides. I don't mind if the groove shows front or back as you can't see the back and I'm using through dovetails and separate drawer fronts, not half blind dovetails and integral drawers fronts.

I'm using the Hettich Quadro V6 undermount hinges, these need a 1/2" gap between the bottom of the drawer sides and the underneath of the drawer base. So I know the placement of the drawer bottoms, and its 6mm in depth.

Initially I thought I would need to stop the groove before reaching the end of the drawer sides or ends, which is certainly doable but time consuming and means I have to use the routing table.

So using the picture below, I think I have a method that although uses a router table, doesn't need the grooves to be stopped so I can mass produce the components far quicker and take the first pass on the saw table.

If the groove goes where the line is shown, but on the inside, i.e. where there is a tail, I won't be able to see it on the sides, just the front and back which I don't care about. This may seem obvious to some of you but I've never done this before 






So I will pass the drawers sides over the table saw once to take out some meat and allow easier escape of waste, then pass it over the router table with a 1/4"/6.3mm router bit to finish it to size.

So next bit is to work out how to mass produce the cut-outs at the back of the drawer for the drawer sliders. Probably a template and the router table, the cutouts are like the following pic, interestingly half blind dovetails are used in this image from the internet. I will experiment with them later as only a few drawers have false fronts, most will be trays in cupboards so the front will be seen so maybe going HB dovetails for all is the way to go.






Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (7 Oct 2019)

I did a bit more at the weekend, I removed the old B&Q wall cabinets and put in the new ones. Again, all birch ply.






Then set to fettling the plinth drawers. As drawers in the plinth was an afterthought, there's 4 drawers and 5 cabinets so they did not align, so looked a bit weird. The solution was to have one front on two drawers and put a walnut pillar in the middle as a separator.






I think this looks ok, I have to remove the bit of oak skirting on the far right and replace it with another bit of walnut. The plinths are 18mm ply covered in walnut veneer.






I also added most of the support for the face frame and the LED lighting. I used slim profile aluminium strips with clear diffusers to contain the LED tape. Plain white under the wall cabinets, RGB under the base cabs so I can have any solid colour including white. I bought a controller with music input so it can be used as disco lights at a party. A bit cheesey but the kids forced my hand 

I'm not keen on the wire baskets so they will get swapped out with oak dovetailed trays and sliders. The wire baskets will have a new home in the workshop.

Cheers
Andy


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## sammy.se (7 Oct 2019)

Looking nice Farmer Giles! Very neat.

I really like the look of birch plywood carcasses against hardwood / painted wood. 

What brand LED lights and controller did you use, if you don't mind me asking.

The reason I ask is that there seems to be hundreds of varieties and I never know what's good and what isn't....

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk


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## Farmer Giles (7 Oct 2019)

Hi Sammy

I used https://www.wholesaleledlights.co.uk

For the wall cabs I used their lowest power daylight LEDs, a 3m roll of 4.8W per metre 4000K, 60 x 3528 LEDs per metre. Still plenty bright enough.

I put them in their slim aluminium profiles with clip in diffusers, nothing worse than lighting dangling down.

I don't intend to dim them so a standard 20w LED driver would have done it but I went for a 60W as I intend to run the plinth lights off the same driver.

I haven't got the plinth LEDs yet but I have bought 3m of their lowest power RGB tape, 30 x 5050 SMD, 7.2W, 165-510 Lumens. And to control them, their RF Music RGB Remote Controller.

So I can control the driver from the standard light switch for the wall cabs, and if I want to turn on the plinth lighting I will have a separate switch on the output of the driver to the RGB controller. At least that is the plan 

Regards
Andy


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## sammy.se (7 Oct 2019)

Thanks Andy, for the detailed info!


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## Farmer Giles (24 Oct 2019)

I've added the face frame to the wall cabinets and started filling in the gaps in between 

I needed somewhere to hide several power supplies, cabling and other gubbins so created a space on the end cabinet. This is the door to it.






and here it is fitted, its a pity I haven't got more wood so I can pick and choose the grain a bit more wisely, it is a bit random.






The slots are for phones, there is a charging lead inside each one. The black panel is a 7" touch screen with a raspberry pi mini-computer on the back paired with a small 20w amp driving a couple of Cambridge Audio speakers. I can stream Internet radio, and it will have Spotify on it soon. As it has a browser it can control the heating system, pull up a recipe etc.

Cheers
Andy


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## sammy.se (24 Oct 2019)

Loving that build in screen! Very modern

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## Farmer Giles (10 Mar 2020)

Its been a while since I updated progress on the kitchen. With the carcasses one side of the kitchen fitted and face frame added I started on the other side. Here's a view with temporary worktops.






Its the same build methodology. First I welded a 25mm box frame up with adjustable feet, levelled it then dropped on the birch ply carcasses. I didn't need any pipework space behind cabinets except in one corner where the main water pipe from the borehold resides, and behind the dishwasher. I made the sink unit full depth and the pipes come in through the side of the cabinet and are clipped to the back of the unit.

Here's the corner unit , this is L shaped to avoid the bore hole pipes, its a funny size so no opportunity to make better use of the space with fancy pull outs, but the wife is happy with it. She can store those things you don't use often in the right hand part of the L shape so not too fussed about carousel's etc.






The wife and kids wanted a fold down worktop that is lower than usual, this is so the wife can kneed dough easily and the kids can cook without using steps. I found a couple of big stainless steel drop down hinges on ebay and was pleasantly surprised at how good they are.


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## Farmer Giles (10 Mar 2020)

Then on to oak face framing, the other side of the peninsular is done too, there are similar cabinets on the other side, 400 deep, except the far left on the far side where the cabinet is almost 850 deep, this was going to be where we kept the fold down occasional chairs but the wife has other ideas now.






Sorry if the image sizes are up and down, just bought a chromebook so getting used to the image tools.

And the first cupboard door, or rather a decor panel for the dishwasher, simple Domino at each corner and the usual floating panel. I covered this in my review of the Rutland panel clamps.






Then my first drawer for spices. This is my second drawer made on the Leigh dovetail jig, the first was for my daughters bedroom cabinet. I made some ramps from 9mm birch ply for the jars to sit on, the jars are about twice the capacity of your typical supermarket spice jar and you can get a teaspoon into them.






I have built one more cabinet for the left of the cooker but I don't have pictures on me. The worktop people came yesterday to template the top, we should have steel grey granite worktops in about a week. The fold down worktop will be a piece of 20mm grey quartz that they will supply, but I will fit, it will be screwed to a piece of 18mm ply. Quartz is reconstituted stone, so has a little more give in it than granite, and will be slightly lighter. If it cracks then I will get a bit of dark laminate worktop. It will be hidden behind a pair of doors so colour is not too important.

Once I have the worktops in place I will make all the plinths and start on more drawers, I need to order more oak for the doors.

Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (25 Sep 2020)

A lot has happened since the last update, I have built quite a few cupboard doors, and lots more drawers, most of them internal to the cabinets, completed a lower folding pastry worktop and all the granite worktops have been added.

The following cabinet goes all the way under the peninsula. So rather than access the corner space from near the sink using some kind of carousel, I just made the cabinet 800mm deep and accessed it from the other side so long bits can go in there.






The packers on the right are so that the drawer misses the inset door. You don't notice them when the doors on.







As you can see quite deep, drawer runners for these are 750mm Blum Tandem undermount, 50kg load. The drawers are 800mm deep to maximise space usage. The drawer runners stop 50mm short of the front so there is an additional spar underneath for the Blum clips to screw to. The rest of the drawers in the kitchen use Hettich Quadro v6 runners.






I have the last large drawer for the kitchen under clamps now, so far I've made 21 drawers, 5 will be with traditional fronts, the rest are internal to cabinets. The drawers with fronts have the front and rear clips to allow more adjustment. The internal only have simple front clips and a hole in the back of the drawer back to accept the runner.

I have another 12 small drawers to make for the kitchen, these will be half blind dovetailed. So before I set up the leigh jig for that, I will make 14 x 650mm deep drawers. I've made a prototype so I can be sure I get it right before knocking out all the components. The oak is all the same 100 x 10.5mm section so its easy to get a production line going. I have two routers, a big 1/2" DeWalt for the dovetails, and a Milwaukee 18v battery router for the pins. I love the Milwaukee, as there is extraction on the leigh jig it is completely unfettered, whizzes through the timber and stops immediately. With the DeWalt its still spinning by the time I have changed the timber and put a new backing packer in 

After cutting the pins and dovetails I cut the slot for the 6mm birch ply base. I stop the groove in the dovetail so no slot shows once glued up







I then sand the ply base and the insides before dry assemble each drawer and do any tweaking before gluing up and clamping. I use some ply "combs" I knocked up on the bandsaw to put pressure on the pins and tails. So far they haven't stuck hard to the drawer, I usually leave them in clamps for about 2 to 3 hours, but sometimes overnight. I have two sets of 95mm depth parallel clamps so I can clamp up two drawers at a time, at a push I can assemble 6 drawers a day but that rarely happens with dads taxi, work and other commitments.






The dovetails are not perfect, I occasionally get a bit of break out, but I can usually hide that around the back of the drawer and use a smidgin of filler here and there. Plenty good enough for the kitchen though. All drawers are finished in satin Polyx oil. Two thin coats, if it was furniture I would rub them in very thinly but as they will get a bit of hammer in kitchen they are a bit thicker. I like the easy repair of oil over varnish.

Here's progress as of a couple of weeks ago, we have changed the door knobs since then. I'm working on the other side of the kitchen at the moment. After I apply finish and install the last 4 large kitchen drawers and cut the dovetails for the utility drawers I will be on kitchen doors, I have 14 more to make. Then I will tackle the 12 small HB dovetailed drawers then start the tiling and decorating. it must be completed by Christmas!






Cheers
Andy


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## sammy.se (25 Sep 2020)

Looks great Andy! Lots of hard work has clearly gone into that, and it looks very good indeed!


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## Farmer Giles (27 Sep 2020)

I've finished all the through dovetail drawers for the kitchen, I still need to make 14 more for the utility, all the same size so I can mass produce the components. I still need make 12 half blind small drawers for teas and other odds and sods though,






The packers to one side of the lower two drawers are because they will have an inset door covering them, and you need to make sure the drawer will pass the door.

A simple jig helped keep my swear word count down. It holds the top slider in position and level while I bang my head on the top of the cupboard.






Next job is to fill in the gap above the top drawers behind the top rail. If not I can guarantee as soon as I fit the drawer fronts the kids will jam something in the drawer.... I left this until the guys fitting the granite worktops had been in case they needed to fix through into the worktop.

Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (4 Oct 2020)

Next job is the utility larder cupboard drawers. I fitted the carcasses last year and they have been full of various junk while sorting out the kitchen, so not all the kitchen drawers are complete, the missus emptied the carcasses so I could set to. I sanded them down and gave them two coats of Bona Mega, then installed all the Blum sliders, they are all 650mm long 50kg rated.







These cupboards are not inset so no need to use packers, but there is a door frame on one side, and the larder fridge on the other. So 110 degree hinges will do, before I go much further I will mock up a couple of "doors" with some scrap ply and make sure everything fits. I have made one drawer so I can slide it out and make sure it misses the doors.

The wife wants full height doors, so I'll use 3 hinges per side, the doors are 50mm wide. The first hinge will be above the bottom drawer, the second just below the middle shelf and the final one just short of the top.

The wife wanted somewhere to put laundry baskets, she was using these carcasses as they are opposite the washer and dryer. So I have 3 shelves under clamps now, I've lipped some 18mm ply with oak, These will go into the adjacent cloakroom, just to the right of the carcasses. next job is to find the studs in the wall to attach battens to so I can mount the shelves.






Cheers
Andy


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## Farmer Giles (25 Jan 2021)

Time for an update I guess. I have added doors to the opposite side of the kitchen, I'll post pics later, at the moment its like a bomb hit it. My two daughters are doing a spot of cooking....

I bought the wife some decent kitchen knives for Christmas, she likes them but wanted me to get rid of the current knife block and magnetic knife rack and use a drawer instead. So I set to, first I found some interesting timber, its a bit of oak I had planked a few years ago, this was from almost the outside, the back of it is part bark and has knots and splits. I also has some off cuts of ply. The two cuts in the bottom bits of ply are intentional as the cleaver and another deep knife will live there.






This oak was glued with PU glue to fill some of the voids underneath. At this point I was going to fill the cracks and knots with resin, but I got a message that the delivery was delayed so the slots for the knives on the top shelf were cut, big mistake, I should have been more patient. Then a bit of quarter sawn oak left over from the kitchen glued on below it. You can see the slot on the right now lines up.






The slots for the lower shelf were now cut and another bit of oak added including a bit of burr oak I had knocking around.







I then filled the cracks with resin as it wasn't delayed, it arrived the next day - doh!. Suffice it to say that the slots for the knives didn't help 

I ended up using masking tape and some packers to stop the resin filling the slots, it largely worked, but it would have been a lot easier if I was more patient. It was sanded to 400 grit and the photo below is after 1 coat of Osmo satin, it was still wet.






The cleaver goes on the far right, the little square of burr oak is for the handle to rest on. These are generic Chinese "Damascus" steel knives with a Japanese steel core. They exceeded my expectations for the money, and so far have taken a sliver at the end of the wife's finger off and the eldest daughter now has the utmost respect for the bread knife 






And here it is in situ in the kitchen drawer, the kids haven't put the second from right knife away properly  The four knives on the left are the wife and kids favourite knives, ones they feel most comfortable with. About 10 of the old knives are now retired to the barn anticipating the next BBQ.







As this was kind of designed while being built, I'm happy with it, but if I made one again I would do a few things differently. All the wood was offcuts so all it owes me is the resin, which was probably about £4 worth.

it was also a pleasant change from making drawers, I've just made 7 for the utility with 6 more in progress. That will leave me about 7 mor full size drawers and 12 "tea" drawers to make and I can retire the Leigh dovetail jig for a while.

Cheers
Andy


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