KD Kitchen

[kevin]

Here is the kitchen we did just before Christmas. There were a lot of renos in there. A wall was removed and it made a huge difference. It reminded me of when I used to work in Montreal. 95% of the kitchens were renos with walls removed. The guys in the shop say this was one of their favorite kitchens. Even though there was no island work nor fan. You can see a trend here with my kitchens. All upper cabinets are 36" with 6" crown. All drawers are made with the shop bot. I think it is crazy to outsource for drawers when you have a shop bot. Nobody in my area seems to care about dove tail drawers. All made with cabinet parts. The program kicks ass. Ryan recently updated the program and his nesting is way better. Most of the drawers that I do is from wasted material. We did all the renos: the floor, extended the partition. We did not do the lighting. We offered to put in pot lights but they were a little old fashioned, as you can tell by the countertop. Not my job to ram down what I like.
Customer was happy, ecstatic. She had 15 people over at Christmas and cooked with room to spare. As you can see in a lot of my work, I try to put drawers on the left and right of the stove. Same thing with the pot drawers in the pantry. They are functional as hell. Of course the fridge is always flush with the cabinetry. You can see that there is removable facing around the fridge because she has an undersised fridge. Most fridge heights, not built-in, are 72".
The big expensive appliances are not here yet. Reminds me of Montreal 15 years ago. I think that will change within a year or two. It's really about being priced right for your market.
PS I HAVE PERMISSION TO POST PHOTOS

[wberminio]

Nice work,Ken!

[gc3]

Nicely done. Thanks for posting. One thought...on the smaller drawer fronts I would have gone with 1.5" or 1.75" rail to balance out the raised panel and put the pulls in the center. But the client is always right!

[myxpykalix]

Another beautiful kitchen kevin! You know with as many talented woodworkers we have here who have "specialties" that they excel in we ought to try to figure out how to put together workshops using the bot and their expertise.

I would be interested in paying for say a weekend workshop on making cabinets or doing like Joe Crumley did by doing a signmaking class. The guy teaching could certainly charge a reasonable price and us students would learn valuable information.

[loriny]

Very nice job Kevin. Are the interiors a prefinishep plywood? Looks like through the glass.
Lorin

[kevin]

Thanks for the compliments.j
Lorin, I used silver back maple, 11/16" thick. I get them for about $44. a sheet. We pay through the nose compared to our american friends. I sprayed tinted clear coat, basically what you are using. I saw your photo. I can't get prefinished maple or any prefiished in my area. All solid wood edging 1/4". The guys in the shop are getting faster at it. It is a big selling feature. I signed 2 projects because of it. Every customer has that experience with edging coming off and they don't seem to mind spending more money on solid wood edging. I know I am going to hear about the hot glue. But it works for us.
Jack, a kitchen is just glorified boxes. What is really hard is the install. We are doing one now in the shop. I have it down to a science. If you are interested in seeing pictures, I will post them. The other thing Jack, I think I am getting a brain freeze with the indexing head. It is tougher than I thought to get going.

[myxpykalix]

kevin email me off the forum and explain to me what you are trying to do and i'll see if i can't help you whip that beast into submission!

[michael_schwartz]

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing.

[blackhawk]

Kevin - Great looking kitchen! I would like to take you up on your offer to Jack to post pictures. I wouldn't mind seeing some pictures of the upper and lower cabinets in your shop without doors. Also, post some pictures of your drawer boxes. I would like to see your construction method.

I have used CPP to make a couple of garage wall cabinets for myself. They turned out well. I haven't tried any base cabinets yet. I am still scratching my head on some of the options for those in CPP. I really don't understand all the cabinet terminology.

[chiloquinruss]

"I really don't understand all the cabinet terminology" Ditto! I would love to see a photo essay on doing a very simple set of cabinets. That way I could match the photo with whatever terms were being used. I love the Aspire tutorials for just that reason. I have no idea what the words mean but I can sure look at the photos and see the results. Thank you for sharing and your willingness to post. Russ

[kevin]

Heres a couple of links
Tomorow I'll post photos from the shop
Its all european construction

http://www.kdunphy.com/mtrembault.htm
http://kdunphy.com/angleokitch.htm

[gc3]

There are some excellent knowledge based articles at woodweb.

http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase/KBCabinetmakingCustomCabinetConstruction.html

http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/forums/cabinetmaking.pl

[kevin]

explanation will come

[kevin]

I took a look at Gene’s links and I did a couple of searches for kitchen cabinet books and it really depends on who you talk to. You probably will get a couple of hundred answers. Most of it is geared for the hobbyist. Most big companies started out with Termowood and their sales staff. So there is nothing out there for CNC. With that said, it comes down to 3 elements:
-Design
-Construction
-Install
It is impossible for me in this forum to touch on everything. Design, if you are stuck you can go down to Home Depot and ask them for a design. And they will print it out for you free of charge. If you are just doing 1 or 2 kitchens, it would be a waste of time to learn design software.
Construction, You really have to be super organized for a kitchen. It is basically furniture on steroids. You hear about face frame and European construction. Face frame, I don’t want any e-mails correcting me, with this type of construction; you will never have that furniture look. European construction is just basically putting a door on top of a box. I assume you have the basic knowledge; I am not going to write this for a hobbyist. I am using cabinets parts pro. It is a superior program. I don’t have to do libraries. I just have to punch in the size of my cabinets. It doesn’t get simpler than that. You really have to keep it simple or you will get confused. I saw Russ’ trains. If you can do that then this is a joke for you. You will notice in the pictures, that I don’t use stretchers on top or on the backs. It cheapens your cabinets. People appreciate a well-built cabinet. Most people don’t have a clue about dovetail drawers. Maybe if you are in West Palm Beach or something. But, they will pay for a well-built cabinet because they always have that flashback of trying to screw together an IKEA cabinet and you can push it over with a finger. I left hints in my pictures of how I did it. The bases are built separately which makes it easier to install. I make all bottoms cabinets 30” high and I also punch in the drawers at the same time subtract the material and 1” less for the slides. I did a little modification on cabinets parts pro. I do through dado and it just makes it an easier assembly. That is the easiest way. Don’t even worry about full cabinets, drawer cabinets or any **** like that. I just use one model for everything you see in the pictures. I see Jack working with an indexing. This is kindergarten for you guys. Install, This I am not going to get into. A lot of the stuff they show you on TV is wrong. You can run into a lot of problems. I would have to show step by step pictures. Install is the hardest part to learn. Anybody is welcome to come up to my shop if they are serious and I would take them on an install. It would be free for somebody who is serious and is trying to start up a cabinet business which is a super competitive business. It is a hard business to make it in. But to a rich hobbyist, I can give a one on one install training for a price. I have been making kitchens long before I purchased a shop bot so I already had everything simplified. The shop bot was just a missing piece to the puzzle.
I would like to thank everybody who helped me get the shop bot going. Jack, I got a handle on the indexing head. You just have to spend the hours involved.
Kevin

[chiloquinruss]

Thank you. I'm going to do some cabinets for the local church and this will help me along, thanks again. Russ

[kevin]

Russ if its for the church call me if your stuck 709 596 8303