Getting ready to build a kitchen? You MUST read this book...

 It’s been a long time since I wrote a book report - you remember those, back in grade school, right?

I’m reading an incredibly smart book on kitchen design right now, and I thought I’d write about it, for anyone in need of kitchen help. 

But first, let’s talk about kitchen design books in the last 35 years or so. (Yes, I’m that old. )

When I built my first kitchen in 1985 or so, this book was my guide. 

Back then, cabinets were mostly traditional face-frame cabinets, and this book -

Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets  by Jere Cary

 was instrumental in helping me along.  I did a few remodeling jobs here and there,  working on a lot of older homes, but in '88, I built a home and jumped on the frameless cabinet bandwagon. 

Paul Levine’s book - Making Kitchen Cabinets - was the perfect blueprint for me. 

In fact, it was so helpful, I bought the video that accompanied his book. It was the perfect one-two punch for making contemporary cabinets. His plan was detailed, right down to suggesting the exact cup hinge to use, or drawer slides he recommended. I build my own handsome kitchen using Paul’s book, and never looked back. 

As I started getting busier, kitchens didn’t interest me as much. They require a lot of time, with some very heavy lifting and the need for a helper. I prefer to work mostly alone, so I started working on bathroom cabinetry - smaller versions of kitchens, in my mind. They still demand some stellar design skills, and again - Paul Levine’s book was brilliantly helpful.

These days - I prefer building free standing furniture. My days of going to client’s homes and measuring walls and floors are over. A few nightmare encounters convinced me to give up making visits to anyone’s home, and... well... furniture is my first love, anyway. 

But lately, I’ve been considering building a home, and luckily - Nancy Hiller’s book recently arrived in my mailbox.  

It’s one of the smartest kitchen design books I’ve ever read. 

Kitchen Think by Nancy Hiller is... simply terrific, especially if you're a maker of built-in cabinetry.

First off - I love woodworking books with great photography. (I feel the same way about cook books, too, BTW.) This book is loaded with page after page of kitchens that Nancy has built - giving the reader SO much inspiration. These details are instrumental in showing her thought process, and...well, what a wonderful process that is!

Even better - Nancy details her design, cutting and assembly process for building cabinet boxes, and let me say - there was one detail about her cabinet building that knocked my socks off. For anyone who doesn't build kitchens, this detail wouldn't amount to much, but to me - the way she constructs her cabinet boxes is brilliant. 

And the way in which she describes scale and proportions of stiles and rails is so common-sensical, that I've never quite heard it described so well. 

Can you tell I'm a fan?

It's been a long time since I've dreaded getting to the end of a book, and though I'm almost done with Nancy's - I'll be thinking about it for a long time. She's been fighting some health battles lately, and I certainly wish her the best... I want more from this gifted writer / builder.

The VP's desk is almost cooler than the Resolute desk!

A few months ago, I wrote about the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. This beast of a desk was build from timbers that came from the Resolute, a ship that was sent to the Arctic Ocean to search for missing explorer Sir John Franklin.  

(You can read that post here.)

Imagine my surprise when I saw this recent headline: 

Navy Seabees Build VP Kamala Harris a Desk Out of Wood from USS Constitution

Check out this video!

Another hardware challenge solved....

There are so many new pieces of hardware on the market, it's always a challenge to build a piece using something I've never tried before.  I'm not sure if the real enjoyment is finding the perfect solution....

or if the real reward is installing it and making something cool. 

Either way, a few weeks ago, someone called me about building a low tea table. He'd asked about a small table that could be used to display photos or cards, with legs that fold up under it, so that the table could be hung on the wall as a piece of art, when not in use.

Also - he wanted to experiment with pouring epoxy resin, so he requested that the top be made of MDF, with a lip around it, so that he could pour resin on the top. 

Challenge accepted!

These folding leg brackets did the trick!  

They allow the legs to fold down flat, but also lock into place when the table is in use. 

Another plus? They're handsome, matching the walnut that I used for this build.  

Those brackets allow the legs to tuck below the surface. I can envision this piece being hung on one of the corners, so that it is diamond shaped, rather than square.  It'll be interesting to see what he decides. 

I can't wait to see what the top looks like after he  pours it - stay tuned.... I made him promise to send some pictures of it!

The importance of proper measurements

That rifle rack that I'd built was finally completed with a few coats of oil and a hand rubbed wax top coat. 

After applying some felt to the slots, so the rifle barrels would be protected, I shot a few photos.

 I can't tell you how many pieces get picked up before shooting pictures... and then I've lost all track of putting photos in my portfolio.

 So at least I got a few shots of this one heading out the door. 

That rack finally made its way to the owner's home, but mounting it on the wall proved to be a bit of a challenge for him.  

Usually, it's a just a matter of locating the studs, but in this case, the rack had two french cleats on it, so it was double the drilling. 

And double the chance for error.... OOPS! 

Luckily, when he mis-located a few holes, he had some walnut plugs to cover up the mistakes.

Innovation at its best.... ChopValue

If you're like me, you were cooking all of your meals at the beginning of the pandemic. But gradually, I started picking up carry-out - Chinese, sushi, Mexican, hell, even a fat, juicy burger every now and then. After a while, I'd notice my kitchen junk drawer was filled with plastic utensils and cheap wooden chopsticks. We always keep them for an "emergency" but that time never seems to present itself.

ChopValue, a Canadian company, wants to give those wooden utensils a second life as shelves, furniture, and countertops.

Check out this brilliant company!

Resolute Desk in the White House

About a month ago, when our new president was sworn into office, I kept hearing about the Resolute Desk in the White House.  It was repeated so often that I made a note to myself - find out what’s so special about that damn desk!

And whoa - talk about jumping down a rabbit hole!

Turns out this desk holds both historical and woodworking interest for me - check this out! 

Here's what I gleaned from a variety of websites:

On November 2, 1880, a large crate arrived at the White House. No one knew what was in it; they weren’t expecting any deliveries that day. 

 

This was in the days before the Secret Service... I'm guessing you can't just ship something there today, without making prior arrangements.

 

 President Rutherford Hayes stood by as workmen opened the mysterious package. Inside was an intricately carved desk, made from dark oak with repeating panels all around.  President Hayes didn't know who had sent it until he noticed the brass plaque accompanying it that read: “Presented by the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland to the President of the United States.”

The Arctic during the 1800s was still undiscovered territory. In 1852, the ship the Resolute was sent to the Arctic Ocean to search for missing explorer Sir John Franklin. 

 

The ship was built strong with three thicknesses of oak on her bow, but this did not stop her from becoming ice bound. After two winters stuck in the ice the Resolute was abandoned. For over a year she drifted as a ghost ship. Then American whalers spotted her and discovered she was the HMS Resolute (Her Majesty’s Ship) and brought her home to Connecticut.

Queen Victoria ordered that a desk be made from her best timbers. This was the gift that she sent to the White House. The desk, made from the ship that sealed a lasting friendship between Great Britain and the United States, has been in the White House ever since.

Originally, the desk was built with an opening in the center area, 

 

but when Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted to hide his leg braces, he had the privacy panel added. Later, the desk was moved into storage.

 

Fast forward into the 1960s....First Lady Jackie Kennedy, found the desk downstairs in the broadcast room when she was restoring the White House. John Kennedy, who loved the sea, loved the desk and was the first president to use it in the Oval Office.

 

Young John Kennedy Jr. and other Kennedy kids liked to play under the desk pretending the panel was a secret door.

Lyndon Johnson was too big for the Resolute desk, so he had it moved into storage once again. Nixon and Ford did not use it, but Jimmy Carter brought it back to the Oval Office. That makes sense - Jimmy is a woodworker!

 

 

Reagan had it raised a couple of inches as he was over six feet tall.

 

 

 

The desk is still in the Oval Office today. 

 

Imagine the stories it could tell...

Fun with routers - cutting with template bushings

Every now and then, someone will contact me about building something for them, and the challenge is too much to refuse.  In this case, I was asked to build a rifle rack, made to hang on a wall and hold around 15 rifles. Like this, 

but with an angled side, like this.

The usual transpired, but in this era of Covid, the design process became a back-and-forth email blitz, rather than a shop visit. How big, what wood, what finish… after a week or so of emails, we finally wrapped up the details and locked in the order. 

But I spent a night or two pondering the only part of this piece that gave me trouble - the upper stretcher that is scooped, to hold all the rifle barrels. Simple enough during normal times - I might have asked my buddy to CNC something for this piece. But Covid changes everything, and I needed a different solution. 

I’ve been doing a lot of laser work lately, cutting a variety of shapes and gizmos for customers, and one evening when I was trying to figure out how to cut all those scoops for the barrels, the light finally went off in my brain…. cut a template on the laser, and use it for pattern routing. 

 I’m not sure why that didn’t come to me sooner!

I use a pretty simple drafting program called MacDraft. I’ve been using it for so many years, I can design a piece in my sleep. So it was pretty easy to draw those “scoops” and space them evenly. After cutting the template, I did a few tests before routing the actual wood. 

I clamped the template to a piece of scrap 

and cut a sample. 

The scoop that I cut was a little too wide, 

so I switched the router template guide, which will change the size of the offset. You can buy a set that looks like this, 

so I had a few different sizes to test. 

I finally found the right combination, and it cut a perfect 1 1/4” scoop for the rifle barrel. 

The template I cut with the Glowforge had five scoops in it, so I had to cut a section, them move it over and cut five more, 

and finally - all 15 slots were cut. Perfect, and perfectly spaced. 

I’m not sure why I was sweating cutting these - this turned out to be one of the easier parts of this wall rack to make! 

I'll trim this piece down a bit - I made it much bigger than I needed, so that it could be cut down when I actually start making this rack. But for now, the hardest part of this build is done.  

Whew!

The world's largest pencil sharpener

This week reminded me of something I haven't thought about in years - hames!

Yeah, that's not a misspelling.

Back in the day, woodworking catalogs sold hames for attaching to the top of a walking stick - a way to personalize your stick. They were available in a variety of designs - anything from eagles 

to dragons,

 dogs, you name it!

Years ago, I taught a class where we made walking sticks, and basically, we attached a hame to a stick, did a bit of carving, and wound up with something like this.   Compasses were really popular! 

 

These toppers have really gotten fancy - like this one that converts to a telescope,

 or this one that has a really nice compass. 

 

 

To be honest, it was a simple project - just whittle the end of the stick down to a 3/4" dowel, and attach the topper.  But - getting that stick to a perfectly round 3/4" end was a challenge. 

Enter the world's largest pencil sharpener!  

Well, not this big. 

 

Or this big!

 But this... a 3/4" tenenor from Lee Valley.

 

 I'd forgotten that I had one, until someone came to the shop and asked if I could tenon some sticks for them, as they were making a small stool that needed some 3/4" tenons on each end. 

 

I haven't pulled out this tenon cutter in years, so I wanted to test it first. I've found it's best to clamp everything firmly in place,

 to avoid any mishaps.  This cutter worked perfectly! 

 

  

 

Like I said - the world's largest pencil sharpener!  

I wound up with a perfectly tenoned end. 

Since I had an old rubber mallet head in the shop (in need of a handle), I'll spend some an afternoon shaping the handle to fit my hand. 

Here's the sad truth - most woodworkers are tool junkies. 

We buy various tools because they have potential for future projects. 

I'm talking about everything from dovetail jigs to wood threaders to tenoners, inlay kits to chopstick making jigs. The list is endless. 

We squirrel away these tools until the right moment presents itself, and then we pull them out, and hopefully remember how to use it! 

Luckily for me, and the woman who wanted those tenons cut this week, it was easy to remember how to use this tool!