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philpolish

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Hi all
I need some advise please, I make freestanding pine furniture and occasionally get asked to do fitted things. My question is how do people with more experience in fitted stuff go around the obvious problems. I want to construct as much as I can off site, or is it better to make it fit on site. My first idea was to measure openening take off 10 or 20 mm construct cabinet off site fit into gap then trim it with architrave or a fillett to cover unscribed joint.I know the best way to do it is to add extra width onto the stiles but not sure how I would scribe them in .
Thanks in advance
Phil.
 
When I make fitted stuff I use what we call "tick sticks" There are other names for them. But basiclly it two 1x1 sticks you put between the walls at what ever positions that are critical and mark them and add what ever notation you feel is necessary. (can't ever be too much). What you basically do is have your self a copy of the area that your trying to fit . I do this a lot with things that don't have to be fitted. Including whole kitchens. Lot less measuring and better accuracy. You can layout stiles, rails joints drawer sizes. doors. Pretty much anything.

Dave
 
I prefer building fitted kitchens or bedrooms off site, and to facilitate this i will take all the vital measurements and go back to the shop.

These measurements will include the size of cooker, fridge/freezer, sink and any other appliance's that the client will be using on the floor plan of the kitchen.

I then get a friend of mine to feed all of the information in to his pc. which has a software program that allows him to show different kitchen layouts.

When the customer signs off on the layout that she/he wants, i will build the kitchen in the middle of the workshop floor. To aid me with this i use 8x4 sheets of ply to act as the kitchen walls and mark any windows, doors and appliances on them, and the cabinets will then be built around these.

I hope this helps

Regards

Woody
 
When making built in cabinets I do as you suggest, make the carcase a little smaller than the opening and have trim pieces/face frames that have a scribing allowance on them. I usually cut a rebate on the back of these so that I only have about 6mm thickness to scribe which can easily be done with a block plane.

I build them up dry in the workshop then dismantle into manageable size bits for transport and ease of getting into the site, upstairs etc as I work on my own.

Jason
 
Woodythepecker":qvblv9e9 said:
When the customer signs off on the layout that she/he wants, i will build the kitchen in the middle of the workshop floor. To aid me with this i use 8x4 sheets of ply to act as the kitchen walls and mark any windows, doors and appliances on them, and the cabinets will then be built around these.

blimey! Do you have a workshop in an airport hangar?!

:p :mrgreen:
 
JasonB":r2e98g32 said:
When making built in cabinets I do as you suggest, make the carcase a little smaller than the opening and have trim pieces/face frames that have a scribing allowance on them. I usually cut a rebate on the back of these so that I only have about 6mm thickness to scribe which can easily be done with a block plane.

I build them up dry in the workshop then dismantle into manageable size bits for transport and ease of getting into the site, upstairs etc as I work on my own.

Jason

Same here.

Beware non vertical walls - if you allow an inch or so on either side, this can quickly disappear if one of the walls (or both) deviate from vertical by 1/2 an inch. Make sure you measure the gap width at least top, middle and bottom.

Cheers

Tim
 
Wizer, almost its 50'x40'

Jason snap, most of the time i also build them dry and then dismantle them before they to the customers house.

Regards

Woody
 
Sounds like bestoke woodworking :)

However, flat packs have always worked for me , 4 kitchens in the last 30 years :oops:
So it is possible, the last flatpack I had to reduce the width of a couple of units and accomodate some pipework through the back of the top wall units to take in the expansion pipe.
 
Phil, if you have old copies of Furniture & Cabinetmaking and can find issues 85 and 86, February and March of 2004 you'll find my article on strategies for dealing with exactly this situation.

Essentially I prefer to make built-ins off site and install them in a day or three (depending on the complexity) at the end.

As others have said it's easiest to build carcases that are too small for the opening and use fillets to fill the gap. I make a 'map' of the space which is measured with telescoping sticks that are later turned into rods to carry all the essential dimensions. Using telescoping sticks to get your measurements ensures that there are no errors in reading measuring devices.

The telescoping sticks jam into the hole and that's the critical dimension. You simply find the narrowest gap that the sticks will register and you make sure your cabinetry is made less than the smallest measure or your carcase won't go in. I usually make the cabinetry smaller by 50 mm as it allows an attractive fillet, but that figure does depend on how far the walls are out and what the punter demands.

I could recreate my article here going through all the essential strategies, but I've already written it so it would be counterproductive to repeat myself. If you can't find my article in the F&C magazines I've suggested get back to me here and I'll email you a copy of my original text with low resolution images. The whole caboodle is about 800 kb which is fine if you're on broadband like me, but a bit slow to transmit on dial-up. Slainte.
 
Thanks everybody for your wise comments. Unfortunately Slainte I have not got those copies you mentioned I would appreciate it very much if you could email me a copy. I will have broadband as from tomorrow so no problem there.Another thing is do you guys make all doors to fit in workshop so everything is ready to go.

At work I make freestanding pine furniture which is obviously not up to your standards there is not much rigity in the carcases. Occasionally we make kitchen cabinets just glued and pinned together just in a rebate I would not like them myself.
I have noticed that there is a lot of movement especially when doors are fitted. Do you make your cabinets so rigid they dont move for instance when you screw cabinet to wall. I bought some cheap carcases from b&Q for a kitchen I fitted doors in workshop got to site and by the time I had anchored one to the wall everything was so pineappled I had to remake the doors. I have learnt a lot through these mistakes so that is good. Thanks again.
Phil.
 
I make and fit all my doors off site, if you are pulling the carcase out of shape as you fit it then you are doing something wrong (even though B&Q are a bit flimsy with loose hardboard backs). A lot of my stuff has inset doors not lay-on so there is even less room for error.

One thing to watch for with rods/measuring sticks is that iff both walls of an opening are off in the same direction the width between the two could be the same but you will need a gap at the base of one and at the top of the other to square the parallelograme up, I always take a 6ft level with me to check the amount of run out in walls and floors. A folding square is also useful if building into a corner.

Here is some of my fitted stuff if you are interested

If you have no luck with the F&C articles I have got them and can scan them for you.

Jason
 
Cheers Jason I was looking at some of your furniture last night that computer station very impressed . Yes when i fitted the b&Q thingys just didnr scribed in properly on my firsr unit and all went to pot. I have just started out, so all these problems are good to learn from i guess. Got to go wifey nagging to get ready. Cheers Phil.
Scan of the F&c article would be great.
 
I'll need an email address to send it to Phil, and I don't see yours anywhere.

If you click on the WWW button at the bottom of this message you'll be directed to my website from which you can send me an email. I can then send you a copy of the original manuscript.

Or you could simply post your email address in a reply to this message, although I personally never put my details out in the open like that. Slainte.
 
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