[Strawbale] Natural, inexpensive kitchen cabinets

[Chris Green]

Andrew Lund wrote:
> So, instead of making separate solid boxes, you kinda "stick framed" them and then sheathed them as a whole? 
No, each 2' x 2' part was a separate box. Only two exposed end panels 
had the plywood, as did the doors. One end box also had shelving which 
was facing a   hallway that had formerly led to the kitchen, but this 
part was not accessible from the kitchen itself.  The other end faced 
the dinging area and former living room space where my firends' mother 
did her art work, so I placed ply in that since it was visible. There 
were no infill panels between the individual cabinets .  All the edges 
where the frame parts met each other were glued and nailed with small 
brads.
> Did the wall paneling brace them well? 
Because the glue is so strong (about 3,500-3,800 psi, according to Lee Valley Tools' catalogs, and there are a lot of square inches of contacting surfaces), and because of the brads, the frames didn't need the extra strength. The cleats just held the ply in place.


> When you mentioned the metal mesh, would that be a base for like a stucco? 'Cuz we've have good results with our wood lath and earth plastered interior walls...
>   
No, I had envisioned something much like a screened door. This would 
have been a modern version of the old pie safes with punched tin panels 
in them.
Here's a photo of a metal cabinet something vaguely like I was thinking 
about, one with screen doors:
http://marketplace.hgtv.com/Product.aspx?Lid=691-82649_CHA
But, oh boy, that price....
> As far as salvaging wood, we can get pretty much all the air-dried or green pine scraps from a local lumberjack friend of ours who owns a sawmill.. Dried hardwood is harder to come by here (in the U.P. of Michigan). 
>   
That's a surprise: I thought Michigan had hardwood forests...pine is 
fine for kitchen and other cabinet carcase construction.

My Pine Poem...
"I love-a to work
with da sugary pine,
it cutta so good,
and  smella so fine..."
> We have thought about trying to glue together a laminate wood "butcher block" countertop from scrap hardwood... It would take awhile , but perhaps we could throw up something temporary in the meantime. Would this be a feasible option for a do-it-yourselfer?
>   
Yup. Reclaiming scrap hardwoods will require some equipment, at the 
least a fairly decent planer (with spare blades if there's grit in the 
wood). I have a 12" Ryobi, but if I were buying one now I'd go for the 
new DeWalt with 4 corner posts (wider planer head-15" I think-and 4 
posts give better stability for the planer head) since these are now 
showing up on construction jobs around here.
If you don't have a planer, but have a friend who does, you might want 
to clean up the wood with a hand plane first, although that will amount 
to a lot of work, or supply a new set of blades. Sand pounded wood can 
really mung the blades up (speaking from experience here...)
If your wood supply is a bit warped, you can straiten the wood out with 
the planer by ripping 1 1/4 to 2" wide strips, then glueing wood on the 
edges so you get an H-shape if looking at the end.
These "riser strips" on the edges can be pine or spruce or whatever.

Run these through the planer, flipping them over every time you've 
changed depths: do all the tops, change depths, then do all the bottoms, 
and so on in a systematic way. Any twist in them will eventually be 
planed out evenly on both sides and all the pieces will be the same 
thickness when you're done. Say, 5/8ths inch if it all works out ant the 
pieces aren't too twisted. .
You then cut the riser strips off,  and you should have something like a 
big pile of  5/8ths by  1 1/8th to 1 7/8ths wide stock to then glue up 
into panels.  You will want to have extra stock prepared, since some 
will end up being firewood, so perhaps count on 44-48 pieces to end up 
with a 24" panel, if that's the width you're shooting for. The longer 
the glue-up is, the more clamps you'll need.
Lots of them.
No woodworker alive has enough clamps... :-)
Once the panel is glued up you'll have to clean the top up. It might 
just be faster to take the blank panels to a pro woodworking shop and 
pay them to power sand them. (Not many DIY'ers can afford to buy a 24" 
wide planer..or a sanding machine. )

Alternately, you can make 8 or 12" wide panels and edge-join them after 
they're cleaned up.

To square the panels, you should make a cross cutting sled for the table 
saw. Instead of me trying to describe one of these handy dandy devices 
in way too many words, I found some links with photos. The first one is 
excellent and can be scaled up for larger panels.  Shoot for 38" so you 
can trim panels in both directions. Note that the doohickey on the 
operators' or infeed end keeps the saw blade covered.
 
http://www.imaging.robarts.ca/~amulder/wood/j.sled2/ 
<http://www.imaging.robarts.ca/%7Eamulder/wood/j.sled2/>

The second link shows a simpler, "quick and dirty" version.
http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/etip030822wb.html

Ah, a third one: Better instructions and photos here.
http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=18191
This one's a nice looking bit of woodworking, and this page shows some 
adaptions which will make the cross-cutting table saw sled more useful.

This link shows a different approach, but also shows a fine tuning/ 
microadjustment feature so you can get perfect 90 degree cross cuts. 2nd 
photo from the top.
http://www.whitemountdesign.com/MiterSled.htm
Notice the guy's hardwood floor in the background... birch, I think (?)


The following site shows a variation called a Miter Sled. With this you 
can cut perfect miter joints, such as for picture frames, molding, fancy 
trim pieces, etc. If you happen to make one side 44.75 degrees, it 
doesn't matter much because the opposite side will turn out to be 45.25 
degrees and the two will still add up to 90 degrees. As long as the 
guide on the sled is 90 degrees, that is...
http://www.newwoodworker.com/mitrsldpln.html


Cheers,

Chris Green.