Croteau's Custom Cabinetry

Tambour (Rolling) Breadbox:

I was reading a book about woodworking when I spotted this tambour breadbox design.  My wife mentioned that she would like one made out of quarter sawn white oak, which I had plenty of at the time.  The original design called for a drawer at the top but it was only 1 1/2" high.  Instead of the drawer, I chose to put a flip up top which allowed for the full 2 1/2" of space instead.   This way she can store larger bread or cookie containers. Overall dimensions are 15" deep, 18" wide by 16 1/2" height.

I made one mistake... on the tambour door... can you spot it?  Okay, look where I placed the button on the bottom slat, I should have put it on the second slat instead so your finger can slip underneath the button to help raise the door.  The next project will be the roll top desk that goes with this.

Check out the SWMBO enforcement weapon on the bottom left corner of this photo.

We already have a microwave, range hood over the stove so this spot built into the kitchen cabinets seemed to be the perfect place for her new tambour bread box.

Kitchen Shelf:

A friend wanted to put something between the kitchen cabinets and her stove so she could have a shelf or two available when she was cooking.  The apartment did not come with a range hood so there was a large space in between.  We came up with this design with a small lip on the bottom shelf so things do not fall off.  It measures 24" wide x 17" high made of 7/8" white oak shelves and frame, along with 1/4" Oak plywood back.  The top shelf is 5 1/2" deep and the bottom shelf is about 9" deep. I stained it Golden Oak with 3 coats of Clear Acrylic sanded in between coats.  I finished off the final product with a coat of Minwax Furniture polish and buffed to a glean.

Not bad for an amateur ay?

My Shop Animals:

We acquired a new animal for the household a few weeks ago - (Sept 2005 & Feb 2006)  They are finally starting to run around and explore the world.  No - not the dog Kiara, but the cat that's sleeping all curled up on the bottom shelf of the drill press stand.  I couldn't find her after working for several hours in the shop.  Finally I brought the dog into the shop and told her to find the cat.  She laid down - dam dog doesn't listen!  Then to my surprise I saw this bundle of fur on the bottom shelf.  The dog received a cookie and I returned the cat to the house.

Our cats named Gracy on the left, and Meeka (or something similar in spelling) on the right  Sisters!

One has to be vary careful when staining or finishing cabinets.  After an afternoon of staining a cabinet, I walked to the garage to find little paw prints (dirty dusty ones) all over the bottom shelf.  Thankfully, the finish had dried enough the prints were superficial and didn't stay.

My Shop Cabinets:

After a hectic summer, it is now time to clean up the shop and make it more productive.  My plan is to create upper cabinets - with doors eventually.  As you can see, it's a mess in the one corner because it is darker than the rest of the shop, I tend not to work there, just pile stuff up! 

I removed the existing shelving and cleaned up the wall a bit from the dust and dirt.  I measured off 30" from the bottom of the window trim towards the ceiling.  I found the wall studs and marked them.  I put 3" backer plates on the cabinets so I measured down from the top line the 3" inches in order to screw in some scrap wood to hold the cabinets up on the wall.  It is not necessary to put a 45degree angle on them, simply sitting the cabinets on top of the level plate will hold them temporarily.

Next I hung the cabinets on the wall side by side.  The left cabinet has two studs to fasten to.  Since the right cabinet only has one stud to fasten to, so I extended the load over to the left cabinet by screwing them together.  You would normally screw a series of cabinets together in any event.

I took the remainder of the afternoon to gather up all the little boxes of nails, screws I had sitting around the shop in various places.  Looks a lot cleaner already.  

Notice I moved the little light and placed it under the left cabinets.  The next job will be to make four more of these for my north wall and remove the shelving over there as well.  Now for the doors.  I took 1" rough stock white oak and started these doors.  I milled down the lumber to 7/8" and ripped them into 3" and 4" strips.  From here, I made a template to match the curvature of my kitchen doors so I could replicate them in the shop.  I cut the 4" stock for the top style with this template.  I suppose for the size of the door, I could have made them a little thicker to be more proportionate.  I used a plywood for the inside that has oak veneer on one side and pine on the other.

Using my new style and rail router bit I created the inside moulding for the door.  The bit leaves me with a 1/4" groove inside each style and rail to fit a 1/4" piece of oak plywood.  When putting these together, I do not put any glue on the back, only at the joints of the rails.  That allows for any movement with humidity and the wood will not split on me latter this summer. The finish is called "Early American" made by MinWax with two coats of varathane to provide a lustre.  Normally you would make 4 doors for a cabinet this size... two doors for each.  Since this is the work shop, I chose to simply make one very large door to save time and expense.

Now these doors are made from 3/4" Beach Nut hardwood.  A friend of mine had this lumber sitting around his house and wanted to get it off his hands. I used the style and rail router bit again, only this time I used a raised panel bit on the wood for the backs.  I didn't want to screw up some good oak since this was the first time I had used these bits.  I found a piece of 3/4" pine plywood in the storage bin and used that for the backs instead.  All four sides are 4 1/2" wide which is a good dimension for these large doors.  The finish on these doors is called "Sherwood" by Varathane.  Nice tones...

Here you can see both the finished cabinets.  I have completed the shop wiring to add another two 110 vac and one 220 vac outlets.  The three main high amperage users are the table saw (14 amps), the commercial vacuum (6.5 amps) and a portable construction heater (20 amps) for the winter.  Aw yes, under the work bench is another of my bugs - I'll be working on creating some drawers and cabinets there too.  I'll be busy this winter.

My Wood Shop Vacuum System:

Here are a couple of photo's of my 2 1/2 car shop -  you can see the vacuum dust collection system I have installed.  I use a 30 gallon shop vacuum (6.5 amp) with a 2" hose connected to 2" central vacuum piping with gates.  Most of the piping is clear - so you can see if there is any blockage.  I glued the lower portions of the pipe together but the main joints are still duck taped - just in case I need to take things apart to remove an obstruction.  You can see my wood storage bin on the back wall.  It is 36" wide - takes up a lot of precious space but it's worth it.  My wood is dry when I bring it into the shop and stays that way all winter.  If you look closely, the thermometer beside the fridge says 70 degrees and it's the middle of February.  Nice ay?

I installed 4 gates - one in each corner of the shop.  I can attach the source vacuum from either side of the system simply by plugging it into a gate.  As you can see below, I have the cyclone system on top of a garbage can to collect the majority of the chips and dust.  I'm impressed with this collection system - when it's 1/2 full or better, I simply take a large garbage bag and empty the can into it.  It saves on the vacuum filter as well since you can fill that canister very quickly when using the planer, jointer or router. Yes, I'm cramped for space - there is a touring bike behind the band saw... measures 4 feet x 8 feet long.  Good place for a lathe... hmmm...

Below is a picture of my 10" Craftsman table saw dust collection box.  I placed two 45 bevelled directors inside the box and the hose is about 1" from the bottom of the V that is created.  Once in a while I'll open up the box to remove thin slices that have dropped down inside the saw and cause me some concern with the amount of air flow through the sytem.