Any cabinet builders in the house?

[Scap]

Building some raised panel cabinets for my garage, with the intention of learning and practicing for doing some bath and kitchen projects at a later date.

Wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a hardwood to use. I don't want to go with red oak, it's way over done in my area.

Didn't really want to go to the effort of a raised panel just to paint them, but poplar is cheap and paints well.

Ash seems like it could be interesting, so that's a possibility.

Open to ideas, so let's hear what ya got.

Built two 36" bases so far. Going to build another one or two. Not sure if I want an island or put them against the wall, yet.

 

[Gavin]

I’ve been toying with the idea of building new cabinets, but don’t consider myself competent enough at this point. I’d love to see what you do with this project!

 

[George Scott]

Agreed on oak. I'm into dark cherry these days. Much richer in my opinion.

 

[Scap]

Agreed on oak. I'm into dark cherry these days. Much richer in my opinion.

I've always loved how cherry looks.
I did see some quarter sawn white oak with a jacobean stain that looked pretty good last night.

Doing tons of googling and crosschecking the price per board foot.


The workbench top is going to be "butcher block". I had planned to use cheap pine 2x4 from a big box stores, but after touring a local mill, I'm on choice overload!

 

[Devil Doc]

Cherry! Easy to work with, and not terribly hard on tools like red or white oak.

Doc

 

[smellysell]

Cherry! Easy to work with, and not terribly hard on tools like red or white oak.

Doc

And you can use the ends in the smoker!

 

[Scap]

And you can use the ends in the smoker!

Ha! I looked at apple wood, for that very reason....that stuff is expensive!

 

[Scap]

Cherry! Easy to work with, and not terribly hard on tools like red or white oak.

Doc

Ok, so that's two votes for cherry.

Off to the Googleator to see what stain options would go well with my floor...

 

[Devil Doc]

I wouldn't stain it. Buy it red and it'll turn dark, almost brown, eventually, but maybe not in your life time. Avoid heart wood which is white.The best finish I've ever found for cherry is Watco Danish oil. It's very easy to apply, but you have to worry about spontaneous combustion of the rags you use. Not a big problem, but a problem.

Ok, so that's two votes for cherry.

Off to the Googleator to see what stain options would go well with my floor...

Doc

 

[Scap]

I wouldn't stain it. Buy it red and it'll turn dark, almost brown, eventually, but maybe not in your life time. Avoid heart wood which is white.The best finish I've ever found for cherry is Watco Danish oil. It's very easy to apply, but you have to worry about spontaneous combustion of the rags you use. Not a big problem, but a problem.


Doc

Roger that. Sounds like how boiled linseed oil gets hot when it dries.

 

[Devil Doc]

Roger that. Sounds like how boiled linseed oil gets hot when it dries.

It dries a whole lot better than boiled linseed. You can put on multiple coats in a day.

Doc

 

[Scap]

It dries a whole lot better than boiled linseed. You can put on multiple coats in a day.

Doc

Sounds good.
What color/shade have you used?

 

[Devil Doc]

The clear. It's the only color I know of. You don't need to stain cherry at all.

Sounds good.
What color/shade have you used?

 

[PetersCreek]

I'm not really a cabinet maker but I am a woodworker and I like working with cherry a lot. It's pretty easy to mill and as mentioned, it's not too hard on your tools. Sawn and routed edges can be prone to burning, though. Properly adjusted tools with sharp, clean blades and bits can minimize it.

But since we're talking about a garage, poplar would be the more economical choice. For a little more, you could go with soft maple, birch, and as you mentioned, ash. In stained applications, maple and birch have the advantage of pretty closely matching sheet goods commonly available for cabinet making. Depending on the exact species, ash can be very similar to red oak in grain patterns, if not color. If you end up opting to paint, I'd probably go with a paint grade maple, which would also make for a durable butcher block top.

Watco Danish Oil is a wiping varnish that contains solvent(s), varnish, and boiled linseed oil. One of the solvents is naphtha, which flashes off much faster than mineral spirits, shortening drying time. I like and use Waterlox quite a bit, which is also a wiping varnish and I add naphtha to achieve a similar drying time. Watco has the advantage of being less expensive than Waterlox and it's more widely available. You could also make your own wiping varnish. Recipes abound online but here's one from the Wood Whisperer to get you started. Edit to add: you can also google keywords such as: Sam Maloof wiping varnish.

Watco is available in variety of tones including "cherry", which will give you a slightly richer, darker starting color. Time and exposure to light will darken cherry further.

 

[Scap]

I've been working on my layout this afternoon.

Going to be two 36" bases each with two doors and one wide top drawer, and two 18" bases with three drawers ( but look like a four drawer base ).

For the top I want to use soft maple...it's $4/BF

The faces and doors, as much as I want to go cherry ($5.60/BF), may be a bit hard on the wallet. Quick guesstimate is roughly 30 BF.

Poplar is $2.40/BF, which is looking like a better choice for something I'm doing for the very first time.

 

[golfgar]

Plus it’s in the garage right? And you live in a floodplain. Lol

 

[Scap]

Plus it’s in the garage right? And you live in a floodplain. Lol

Yes, it's my garage/workshop, but it's also a practice project to get my skill set honed before I do some indoor cabinets.

FEMA revised us out of the flood plain a couple years ago.

 

[golfgar]

Do you trust FEMA? I know a lot of folks around here who weren’t in a FEMA flood plain and were flooded, granted, rivers change with levees and such. I’m on the board of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance so perhaps I’m a bit skeptical.

 

[Scap]

Do you trust FEMA? I know a lot of folks around here who weren’t in a FEMA flood plain and were flooded, granted, rivers change with levees and such. I’m on the board of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance so perhaps I’m a bit skeptical.

I do...but I also have watched the water rise on my street through several floods and I seem to be at a high point.

I'm not saying I will never flood, but if I do, my garage is the last thing I'm going to be worried about.

 

[Scap]

Picked up about 90 board feet of white oak the other day.

Looks almost like pallet wood...


Until it goes through the planer...


Jointed one edge, then ripped the stock into strips just over 2" wide for my face frames.



Cut to length and layed out before fit up.


Face frame complete.


I'm going to play with some stains on the scrap pieces I have, and see if I can pick something that looks good.

Next stage of the build will be milling stock to glue up some panels for the doors and drawers faces.