Another built in Finally fitted!

[mailee]

After tidying up the shop today I made a start on my next job. It is another built in wardrobe set in MRMDF. It is 13' wide and will house hanging rails,shelving, chest of drawers and pull out shoe racks behind a set of sliding raised panel doors. I started by making the chest of drawers carcass and plinth.

Then cut out all of the drawer fronts. The drawer boxes will be in softwood.

 

[mailee]

I got most of the build on the shoe cabinets done today. Had a dry fit to make sure everything worked as it should.

 

[No skills]

13'? bet that's going to be a few sheets worth, lots of edges to sand and finish too :shock:

 

[doctor Bob]

Looks a bit of a contraption, not sure that will ever look pretty even with a lick of paint.

 

[Woodmonkey]

How does the shoe thing work, will that be on its side?

 

[porker]

I really appreciate your build logs and especially built-ins as I have a load to make for a house we have recently moved into and already picked up a lot. One question I have is how much clearance do you allow for for things like drawer fronts etc? What I mean is if your carcass was 4' opening and you wanted 4 drawers, I'm guessing you would not cut 4 drawer fronts 12" high but allow a bit for clearance. Hope this makes sense.

 

[mailee]

There is more to add to this yet Bob and it should look much better once finished. This is the way the cabinet will fit in the wardrobes Woodmonkey. This unit will have a door fitted to the front and the frame will be fitted with shelves for the shoes. It depends on what runners I am using as to the clearance around the drawers but with the bearing runners I am using it should only need a couple of mm clearance for them.

 

[mailee]

Well over the last couple of days I have been making the shoe racks. There was a lot of work involved in these so I got set up for a production line with the tools and machinery. So by mid day I had them both assembled.

Then a test inside the cabinet.

With everything lined up I then got on to building the door which as usual took a bit of setting up on the spindle moulder. I have now got a set of gauge blocks for setting it next time.

I am using dowels in the back of the door so I can assemble it accurately on site.

Next I have a lot of sanding to do and recess the screws for the racks. I shall then be starting on the main doors and the drawer boxes.

 

[doctor Bob]

I'm still struggling to see why you made these, wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to buy chrome shoe racks in. you could have ones in the cabinet and ones on the door to use all the space.
For me, labour is my most expensive item, making those up must be way more expensive than buying in chrome ones, plus chrome ones would give you much more storage and the opportunity to accommodate boots .

 

[mailee]

I couldn't find any racks of the right size Bob. My customer wanted the slide out racks so the rack has to be front to back which is only 600mm deep and the cabinet is 550mm wide. If I could have found one to fit I would have as they were a pain to make and as you state took up too much time. :roll:

 

[mailee]

Over the last few days I have been getting the shoe cabinets ready for painting. As you can imagine there was a lot of sanding to be done but they are ready now. I also got all of the six sliding doors made for the wardrobe. They are made out of 18mm MRMDF and will be hung from a rail on rollers which now begs a question. These doors are 6' tall and around 2' 6" wide do you think I should inlay some dowels at the top to screw the hangers into? There is a fair bit of weight in them due to the size but I am not sure if the hangers will be ok screwed into the MDF?
Here they are ready for priming.

 

[mahomo59]

How's it looking Alan, any chance of an update...

 

[mailee]

Sorry I haven't updated this recently but have been having some problems. My van let me down and has gone Kaput so I have had a mad panic to scrape up the money to buy another 'old' van. As you may know I had a 2002 Ford Transit, well apparently the fuel pump gave up and it was going to cost me £600 for the part and then another £200 for fitting! :shock: The van just wasn't worth it so I ended up with a 2003 Iveco Daily instead. I have also had to ply line it out and remove some lettering so my time has been taken up with this. i did manage to get back on the job in hand today but was too busy to take any shots with trying to catch up. I shall get some more pics and an update tomorrow as I have just completed the drawer boxes. Needless to say it's going to be a tight Christmas this year! :roll:

 

[mailee]

Well having got back onto the wardrobe job I managed to get the drawer boxes built.

I will stain these before fitting the bottoms to them.
Now as my luck has been a bit thin on the ground this month it was inevitable that I would make a mistake somewhere and here it is:

While building the drawer cabinet I had forgotten to allow a gap of 18mm at the front to allow the drawer fronts to be inset! :roll: I had to add some 18mm sq onto the edges.
I then made a jig to rout the design onto the drawer fronts.

By the end of the day I had the drawer fronts ready for some finish.

I had hoped to get more done today but the day started badly with me losing my keys after dropping them out of the van while posting a letter! :roll: I made it all the way to the timber merchants and then realised what had happened, I re-traced my steps and luckily found them in the middle of the road. Roll on 2015 my luck may change.

 

[mailee]

Not much progress on these at the moment as my unlucky streak is still running! I started sanding all the doors this morning ready for priming but my compressor developed a fault and it took me most of the day to rectify it! It is now fixed and I can get all the parts sanded ready for a finish at last.

 

[No skills]

Bummer, hope you get finished up and get some cash coming in. Have a better one!

 

[mailee]

My compressor is still working I am happy to say and I have everything primed and sanded and am now starting work on the finish. I shall get some pics up once they are painted. :wink:

 

[mailee]

I am finally on finishing at long last. I have almost all of the panels painted now. I have the back of the large doors to paint along with the shelf and divider and then it's done ready to fit. I re assembled the drawer unit today so I could fit the drawer fronts now they are painted. (no doubt they will need adjusting once in place :roll: )


I hope to get the shelf and divider painted tomorrow and a couple more doors. Being so large and being on my own I can only paint two at a time.

 

[mailee]

I have almost finished painting this lot.


Hoping to get them ready for fitting late next week......finally! :roll:

 

[mailee]

Had a final fitting today to make sure everything fits as it should. I am waiting for the handles at the moment and hoping they arrive before Tuesday! I know I should have ordered them earlier but had to wait for the customer's approval. If they arrive in time then I shall be fitting these on Thursday.