# Alcove cupboard and drop down desk



## dance (29 Jul 2018)

Hallo!
My wife and kids have gone away for the week and left me at home with the brief of fabricating some alcove shelving for our (very wonky) living room. The house is from 1910, and the floor isn't level and the walls aren't plumb or square! I've got four sheets of MR 18mm MDF on order (due in Mon/Tues) and am kitted out with a track saw, router table, Domino etc etc...

What I'm wondering about is how to approach this job. I'm very short on time (as I'm working during the week during the day!) so really only have maybe a day during the week + evenings and Saturday to get the job finished. 

I gather it's going to be quicker and perhaps even more modern to go for frameless cabinets and kitchen cabinet full overlay type hinges - are there any other tips/tricks advice you guys can think of? Particularly the hardware for the drop down desk...I'm wondering whether to use gas stays, piano hinges and/or the Hafele plano medial flap hinge - also whether I need any support in the form of extending arms UNDERNEATH the flap to support someone leaning on the desk to write? 

Also for the cabinets themselves - whether 18mm MR MDF is going to be strong enough not to sag on its own? I've been watching Peter Millard's truly excellent YouTube videos and he doesn't seem to reinforce his MDF with any angle iron but maybe I haven't watched enough videos yet to see it! My widest gap between the alcoves is 866mm (34") so they're not spanning gaps THAT wide...

Thanks guys

(Pictures below: the room as it is now with old shelving ripped out, and a Sketchup screengrab showing what I want to do...)


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## custard (29 Jul 2018)

Honestly, the best advice I can give you is don't burden yourself with an artificial and impossible deadline. 

Like you I decided to make alcove units for my Edwardian property with the usual wonky walls.














But despite being a full time cabinet maker with a full equipped professional workshop, it still took me far, far longer than the time scale you're proposing.

The fact is anything you build will be there for years for all your friends and family to see, and if your work is comically bad then you'll be the butt of that joke. So take your time and get it right.


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## dance (29 Jul 2018)

Thank you ! Good advice. Like the idea of log storage, too.


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## dance (30 Jul 2018)

Got my plinth made and level (took AGES to get it level, the floor is a mess) - does this look OK? It's higher than I would ideally wish but not ridiculously so. 90mm off the floor to the top of the plinth. I'm wondering if I need to add a couple more horizontal boards to give a greater surface area. Will be using angle brackets tomorrow to secure it to the floor. Still wondering about the drop down desk, too.


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## sunnybob (30 Jul 2018)

Why is it higher than youd like?
Surely the whole point of custom work is to build what you want.

It would be very simple to remove wood from the lower edges at the rear to close the front gap.
And those supporting legs look as though they are just nailed on to the sides. If so, they are going to sag once you have the whole weight of the cabinet on them.


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## AJB Temple (30 Jul 2018)

Definitely do not live that big gap all along the front. Is the intention to cover it with a front piece? 

I am not sure why you need to use angle iron when you could do a neat and effective job with wooden blocks screwed to the rails and the floor. That would also deal with your nailed on legs problem.


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## dance (30 Jul 2018)

Sorry for being unclear.

Yes, the intention is to cover the plinth with a scribed cap on all visible sides. I'm basically so far following this video.

I am also not going to leave it pinned, that's just a temporary fix while I sought guidance on whether the gap was too big. I'll use a piece of scrap wood as a spacer and scribe a cut line on each supporting leg.
Thanks!


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## petermillard (31 Jul 2018)

Hi Dan. I usually use 4x1 redwood for the plinths, so a finished size of around 95mm. I do try to keep it as close to the fooor as possible though; if you’ve seen my vids you’ll know that I tend to level up the plinth with thin wedges, so there’s usually not that much of a gap. Yours shouldn’t be an issue, provided you can get a good fixing on the ‘feet’.

WRT the rest of the build, a span of 860mm is fine for the cabinet carcasses, but I’d beef it up for any shelving - going for either 22mm and/or a softwood lip on the shelves will make a big difference.

For the drop down desk, I used gas struts from Ironmongery direct on the recent ‘big job’ video series, and they worked well - https://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/pro ... ver-145974

They are quite big physically though, so may get in the way if the desk space is tight. I used them with unsprung Blum concealed hinges to get a clean shut-line to the doors, but again I’m not sure I’d suggest these for a desk; piano hinge or butt hinges would work, though obviously you’ll see the hinge knuckle.

And I’d just echo what Custard said further up the thread; don’t put yourself under the pressure of a ‘false’ deadline; that’s at least a solid weeks work for any one-man-band, there.

Let us know how you get on 

Cheers, Peter


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## Woodmatt (31 Jul 2018)

If I were you I would either rebate the vertical pieces so that a section of the block is carrying the weight of the plinth plus whatever goes on top or cut and fix to the existing uprights an additional piece that is the size of the gap between the underside of the plinth and the floor which will do the same job.


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## johnnyb (2 Aug 2018)

I really like adjustable threaded legs with a clearance hole and threaded inserts for this work. It can be done in the workshop as well.
Unfortunately I came unstuck once as one of the threads was faulty and I only had 4 legs!


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## SteveF (2 Aug 2018)

what is the minimum gap you have underneath?
you have done the hard part of levelling now
get a scrap piece the same thickness as the minimum gap
use this scrap to go around again and fit new "legs"
you can then remove the original " legs" and lower the frame a bit more
or
turn it upside down and use your temporary legs to scribe around the base and plane it down so you dont need legs

Steve


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## Roughcut (5 Aug 2018)

For what it's worth (and that's not a lot!), I usually level the plinth up with wedges or plastic shims and then plug and screw the plinth to the wall/s.


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## Teejay (6 Apr 2019)

How did this work out? Can we have more pictures?


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