TheTiddles
Established Member
I thought I'd taken more pictures of this one, but it seems not, or the change over from one camera to another lost some in translation.
The construction is pretty simple and I think debated in another thread. Biscuits and screws, those black oxide carcass screws are good value but they squeal when they go in which isn't nice when you're trying to work at night.
The back, sides and base are 18mm MR-MDF. I made my own self-levelling feet by putting an M6 threaded insert into the front and back of the bottom edge of each of the 6 sides with a hexagonal threaded screw and locking nut to fix them. This was a rubbish idea, I should have used the levelling cabinet legs.
Despite being less than 6 months old the floor dropped by 8mm across the width of the room and it was a good job they could be levelled off in place with plastic packers, as the screw feet didn't work.
The circular saw on home-made guide rail was a bit rubbish, I wish I'd bought this before I started as it would have saved a lot of fuss.
There was a lot of carrying up and down stairs before and after primer and top coats, this picture doesn't show the one afternoon when I had every single panel on the drive with wet top coat on, just praying it didn't rain...
All the sanding except the edges were done with a random orbital with 180 to 320 grit, which set on a slow speed was great and didn't go through the paint at any point.
The doors are pre-veneered beech 18mm MR-MDF, I could have got all 6 doors out of a single sheet, but since this job has taken a lot of effort I didn't want to have poor grain matching, so used 2 sheets.
The lipping is solid beech, so much more satisfactory than tape and it gives a lot more meat to fit with.
The lips are trimmed flush with a router on an end-cut then a slight chamfer added after the doors are fitted.
This is the doors fitted, I've used flush fitting chrome hinges, I'd rather use polished chrome butts but considering 24 of them would have cost more than all the carcass materials put together, I though otherwise. They are, however, attached with slot headed countersunk steel screws from my Mike Garnham haul.
The finish is tung oil and then clear wax over the top. The shelves are white painted 18mm MDF with a poplar batten at the back for strength, and a beech batten at the front to look good and give the strength. they are attached with pocket screws as I wasn't sure they'd be strong enough. If they do start to sag I can take the nice wood off and remake the board part.
The shelf supports are simple 5mm chrome supports from Screwfix, a piece of MDF as a template did ok for this job, I was going to buy an expensive jig for this but then I bought the Mafele saw instead.
The handles too are simple chrome from ScrewFix too, though it should be noted that fitting handles to cupboards at 11pm after a long day at work can leave you with an irritating plugging operation to be done at the weekend.
Here's the finished result, well, almost finished as there's no latches. I will make some unobtrusive magnetic ones soon
Next thing... bookcases, headboard, repaint the room, carpet, lightfittings and we're all done!
Aidan
The construction is pretty simple and I think debated in another thread. Biscuits and screws, those black oxide carcass screws are good value but they squeal when they go in which isn't nice when you're trying to work at night.
The back, sides and base are 18mm MR-MDF. I made my own self-levelling feet by putting an M6 threaded insert into the front and back of the bottom edge of each of the 6 sides with a hexagonal threaded screw and locking nut to fix them. This was a rubbish idea, I should have used the levelling cabinet legs.
Despite being less than 6 months old the floor dropped by 8mm across the width of the room and it was a good job they could be levelled off in place with plastic packers, as the screw feet didn't work.
The circular saw on home-made guide rail was a bit rubbish, I wish I'd bought this before I started as it would have saved a lot of fuss.
There was a lot of carrying up and down stairs before and after primer and top coats, this picture doesn't show the one afternoon when I had every single panel on the drive with wet top coat on, just praying it didn't rain...
All the sanding except the edges were done with a random orbital with 180 to 320 grit, which set on a slow speed was great and didn't go through the paint at any point.
The doors are pre-veneered beech 18mm MR-MDF, I could have got all 6 doors out of a single sheet, but since this job has taken a lot of effort I didn't want to have poor grain matching, so used 2 sheets.
The lipping is solid beech, so much more satisfactory than tape and it gives a lot more meat to fit with.
The lips are trimmed flush with a router on an end-cut then a slight chamfer added after the doors are fitted.
This is the doors fitted, I've used flush fitting chrome hinges, I'd rather use polished chrome butts but considering 24 of them would have cost more than all the carcass materials put together, I though otherwise. They are, however, attached with slot headed countersunk steel screws from my Mike Garnham haul.
The finish is tung oil and then clear wax over the top. The shelves are white painted 18mm MDF with a poplar batten at the back for strength, and a beech batten at the front to look good and give the strength. they are attached with pocket screws as I wasn't sure they'd be strong enough. If they do start to sag I can take the nice wood off and remake the board part.
The shelf supports are simple 5mm chrome supports from Screwfix, a piece of MDF as a template did ok for this job, I was going to buy an expensive jig for this but then I bought the Mafele saw instead.
The handles too are simple chrome from ScrewFix too, though it should be noted that fitting handles to cupboards at 11pm after a long day at work can leave you with an irritating plugging operation to be done at the weekend.
Here's the finished result, well, almost finished as there's no latches. I will make some unobtrusive magnetic ones soon
Next thing... bookcases, headboard, repaint the room, carpet, lightfittings and we're all done!
Aidan
