A Bad Case Of The Cramps

After I installed the temporary dining counter a few months ago, it became obvious that it intruded too far into the family room. It just felt and looked cramped. So, with hammer in hand, I ripped out the drywall and moved the steel support assembly over, into the kitchen two feet. We lost some cabinet space, but there is still plenty for our needs. The kitchen area was quite large to begin with and now, it seems small but it is, probably, still larger than the average home has. Though it doesn't look like it in the photos, there is about eighteen inches of space between the three drawers in the old cabinet and the edge of the counter. The drawers will be moved over to the left and the dishwasher will go in their place. The permanent counter will be eight inches narrower than the wooden one and, maybe, eight inches longer. Things are moving along quite well now. I think we have our final configuration nailed down. Two more cabinets to build and we'll be ready for counter tops. What will it be? Granite? Tile? Formica? Marble? Stay tuned.

Things Are Looking Up

I finished the, final, upper cabinet today. Not without the usual grief. I had used an existing grout line, in the tile, as my reference point. When I measured for the cabinet I wasn't paying attention and measured to the wrong grout line, so it came out 6 inches too long. I was lucky and was able to cut it down without screwing things up. I didn't even scratch the finish. Took me a few hours, but it was not as traumatic as it could have been. Note the raised panel end. There is one, just like it on the other end as well as the previously installed corner cabinet. It looks so much nicer than a flat panel

Exhausting Work

I've been busy, working on this cabinet, the past few days. It would have been done sooner, but I screwed up a couple of pieces and had to do them over. No big deal and little material was wasted. I wanted to eliminate the black hole that most corner cabinets, like our old one, have. I got rid of the wall between the main cabinet assembly and the little wrap around portion on the left. Now we can see into the corner. The end of the short section will get a raised panel cover, that matches the, upcoming doors rather than a plain, flat panel. The exhaust hood still needs to be connected to the roof vent. I'll try out my tin knocking skills tomorrow. I do have lots of duct tape.

Spicing Things Up A Bit

One of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons is the one where Homer builds Marge a spice rack. It is less than he had hoped for. While I'm waiting for the new range and hood to be delivered, I built a spice rack to go inside of the pantry. In typical "Bigger is Better" theory, this is what I came up with. We buy a lot of spices in the big jars from Costco, so the little racks that we built in junior high wood shop ain't gonna cut it. This one is four feet high and almost eighteen inches wide. Plenty of room for those big ol' containers of basil, oregano, chili powder and the other essentials of the fine gourmet cooking that takes place, here at The Fongderosa. Hop Sing cooks up a mean bowl of red.

Life Inside The Pen

I mentioned, a little while back, that I had been given some of my uncles tools and stuff. One of the tools was a Jet mini lathe. They're a neat little tool for a hobbyist. Not big enough to turn anything large, like table legs, but perfect for small artsy fartsy projects. I have not run a wood turning lathe since junior high school, but simple turning is fairly intuitive, so I thought I'd give it a shot. He had been making pens and mechanical pencils and there was a box of wood blanks that he had cut for future projects. So I grabbed a pair and drilled them through the center, glued in the brass tubes that are supplied in the kits, of which there were about 10 or 15 in the box, and put them on the mandril. I don't know what species of wood I chose, but it has a nice reddish hue and it smelled real nice as I was cutting it down. Once I got it close to finished size, I sanded it and then steel wooled it in the running lathe. I dabbed on some shellac and rubbed it in, again with the machine turned on. The remaining pieces of the pen were pressed in and, Voila!!, one functioning ball point pen, ready for the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. I think it came out pretty nice for my first try. Heck, that was so much fun that I went down to the shop and whipped out another one. I got fancy this time and made the two parts barrel shaped. The concentric rings on each end were done with a piece of wire, held against the spinning parts in the lathe. It burned in the rings in a few seconds. Cool, huh?

Today, I knocked out this cabinet for the space above the refrigerator. To call it a cabinet is a bit much. It is just a shelf with a face frame. It took about an hour to build. It is a little short, but it is wide and deep so we can stash a lot of stuff in it, that will never see the light of day again. It, too, will get doors later on.

Building Boxes

I finished the first of the cabinets today. This one has pull out shelves. I will put them in all of the lower units. I hate getting down on my knees to search for a particular pot or pan, so this will make life easier. My knees, especially the right, are a bit worn out. All of the shelves and drawer interiors are covered with Formica. It makes a nice finished surface. I will wait until all of the cabinets are built and installed before I build the doors and drawer faces. That way I can set up the machines, cut all the pieces and assemble them all at once, rather than making them willy nilly, one or two at a time. The lower doors will be raised panel style. The uppers will have glass panels, much like the pantry door.