The pantry cabinets are progressing, albeit slowly. The carcasses are done. The face frames are finished but not as perfect as I would hope. I think I need to find a finer mesh strainer for my sprayer. I kept getting crystalline bumps. I also need to accept that more of my supplies need to be considered "single use" items. The finish is good but it took two extra sandings and spray coats to get there. The shelves are all finished and I’ve order 140 shelf pins – 80 for this job and 60 for the next. The face frames have been attached using the same biscuit technique i used on the kitchen base cabinets.

Since the pantry will have inset doors rather than drawers, I used a trick I learned from a cabinet making shop. I lowered the face frame about 1/4" so the door would close against the bottom of the carcass. This required I cut the bottom of the carcass 1/2" shallow and then install a 1/2" piece of finish wood. I glued and screwed a complement piece of finish wood to the back side of the face frame at the top such that it hung down 1/4". When a pantry door is closed, it is now fully supported along the top and bottom so it will remain square and flush. At the bottom, it is advisable to add an extra strip of carcass material below the finished edge so there is something for the biscuit joints. Technically it is possible to get by without it but with a 1/4" reveal, that only leaves 1/2" of the carcass for the slot and biscuit joint and that was not enough for my comfort. (The insert at the bottom of the photo is a zoom of the bottom of the center pantry cabinet and highlights the technique.)

Next weekend, I will build the three large doors. If it stays warm enough, I might be able to cut all the parts over the course of two or three evenings. The rail and stile material has already made a pass through the router table to receive the panels. However, the panels are large so cutting them will be a task for when I have patients and am not tired. They will also need to be rabbited just a little since the plyboo is true 1/4" and the shaker panel bit set is made for undersized stock. (such is life)

I was supposed to work on the face frames for the pantry and in a way I did. I needed to clean the shop up a bit. So I did.

I knew I was going to cut some large stock so I needed my feed rollers. However, the feed rollers were in the paintbooth being inappropriately used as rack stands. So, I needed to build a pair or rack stands. So I did.

The weather looked to be one of the last good (enough) days to mow the new lawn for the first/last time. I needed the mower. It needed fuel. So I got fuel.

I also needed to clear a path out of the shop / garage. That meant using the Barrett to pick up and stack 10 of the pallets left over from the paver project. so I did.

I cut the long stock and then came the dicey challenge of figuring out the spacing since the pantry cabinets must go in as three separate units and then looked like one seamless piece. After a few different ideas, I finally did a test layout that looks to work.

I mowed the lawn. Found a soft spot – @#$&^$%#R@*#^! Ferris did a nice job all the same.

Today’s work and lots of prior kitchen cabinet projects generated a bunch of bamboo scrap. I decided I’d see if some of it might turn into something useful … perhaps even Christmas gifts. So, in between measuring and cutting for the pantry cabinets, I started gluing bits of this and that together … then planing down smooth … and more gluing … a bit of fill … then some sanding … a little router action … a bit more sanding. Mineral oil for the finish and WALLA ! An 18"x18" cutting board (with a two tone 3, 5, 7, 5, 3 stripe pattern).

I did manage to make some progress on the pantry. Tomorrow the face frames go into the paint booth which needed a thorough cleaning. So I did that too.

This weekend was dedicated to building the pantry cabinets. The pantry is tall (floor to 9 foot ceiling), wide (just under 8 feet), and shallow (interior shelves are just 12 inches deep). The last dimension means I won’t lose stuff to the back of shelves and it also means the light from the kitchen will illuminate the contents not matter how tight the shelves, so I won’t need to install lighting within the cabinets.

After cleaning the shop (it’s nice to start with a clean space), I set out to build the carcasses, and layout the shelving. The back fits into dados on the sides. The bottom fits into dados on the sides and back. The top fits into a rabbit on the sides and back. The sides were easy. I installed my stacked dado blades into the table saw and rand all the sides. Then I had a brain gap. With the sides and back being a full 8 feet, running a dado across was dangerous without a special jig and an extra set of hands. Then I remembered you can dado with a router if you have the right size bit. fortunately, my old router had an edge guide so after a bit of experimenting, I was set to dado for the bottom panel and rabbit for the top.

I finished the glue ups of the three cabinets and did a little more cleanup with the plan to start face frames on Sunday. However, that plan was premature.

Each pantry cabinet already weighs about 60 lbs and given the size, they need to be assembled inside the kitchen. So, I decided I would layout the necessary blocking and spacers for the eventual cabinet installation. This will help with the rest of the manufacturing and will let me separate the three to move then into the kitchen while insuring they will go back together with nearly invisible seams. The blocking also helps keep the cabinets true given their large size and minimal internal support structure along the front.

I took advantage of the relative mobility of the separate cabinets to drill for all of the shelf pins. Some of the shelves will be rather close together given the pantry will hold canned goods. There will likely be as many as eight shelves (plus the bottom) in each cabinet. That will provide better than 50 square feet of shelf space. this does not include the long term storage in the bin that will go above the pantry cabinets.

Each row of shelf pins has 19 holes. That makes the math 19 holes per row, by 4 rows (front and back for left and right), and 3 cabinets. My wrists are not happy but the job if finished. If you drilling more than just a few shelf pin holes, the jig is well worth it. The plastic is not the valuable piece by itself. You could make that yourself from scrap wood. The sleeved, self centering drill bit is what makes this work.

I also built the base (not pictured).

I’ll spend evenings this week building the shelves. They will consist of a 3/4" of the same prefinished plywood used on are carcasses and will have a 1" front edge of bamboo. The extra 1/4" will create a small lip on the under side of each shelf and add additional strength and stability for canned goods and other heavy storage.

This past weekend, the countertops were installed (finally) and the drawers were install (sans the one missing drawer front), and the bin pulls were installed (the 3rd set I purchased). And here area couple of pics …

Direct from the supplier, the soapstone looked its typical light gray with small variances. After it was placed on the base cabinets, seamed together, sanded to finish, and then oiled, the white and green really shown as the field of gray turned nearly black. As the oil seeped in, the sheen subsided and took on a satin finish. The green looks almost like jade and is a nearly perfect accent to the warm hues of the bamboo. The brass reproduction Eastlake bin pulls look right at home.

I am very happy with the results “thus far”. There is still much work to be done. There is still the issue of the one missing drawer front and that will be addressed next along with making the panel front to the dishwasher and the drawer front that goes in the bottom portion of the sink basin cabinet. I managed to align all the plumbing under the sink so there is ample space on either side. I have built two drawers and will link them together with a single drawer front.

I will use traditional blank for the toe-kick area but the end and back of the peninsula (on the dining room side) will get a full skirt to the floor for a more furniture look.

December will be set aside for completing the pantry cabinets and planning out the upper cabinets with their glass panel doors and stain glass soffit lighting.

The kitchen base cabinets are being installed and they still don’t have handles, knobs, or bin pulls. It’s not that I don’t have them; rather, I don’t have ones that look right. Let me explain …

First, I need 36 “handles” for the base cabinets and my preference is for classic bin pulls.

I’ve shopped the two “big box” home improvement stores and found nothing and I live in an area that does not have many options so I went to the web. I found a few choices for the base cabinet bin pulls but was not ready to shell out a few hundred dollars for the ones that looked right. I found two options that looked equally nice and were close-out sales so, I figured for the price, I could afford to buy enough of both. So I did. They arrived. And well …

The simpler ones were darker than I expected and more plain that I really wanted. The nicer ones had a redder tone to the copper finish than I expected and it clashed with the yellow tone of the bamboo.

So, I’m not really happy with either. The quality of each design is very good and they are heavy and solid brass / copper – not the cheap zinc knock offs. Given my total for the two lots was comfortably under a hundred dollars, I’m not unhappy to have these in my “spare resource” collection. Still, it leaves me with cabinets and no handles.

I’ve ordered my “first choice” bin pulls at their very reasonable but not cheap rate and they should arrive in a week. I hope I’m happy with them or else this will start getting expense … perhaps I should go into building custom cabinets ….