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curved doors and drawer fronts

8/22/21       
michael foster Member

I have to build a kitchen with curved and flat fronts. Two of the curves are convex and have radii of 14' and 10' 2". The other is concave with a radius of 8' 2". The drawer fronts and doors are to be built of 1/4 sawn mahogany. They are 2 cabinet doors that have a convex curve and all of the rest are concave, convex and flat drawer fronts. The grain of the wood is to run horizontally. The doors are flush no panel or frame in the door. The fridge has a curved panel on the front.. The main stipulation on the job is that it must be made of all local material and Barbados does not manufacture plywood. and does not have a veneer mill. I could make my own plywood, once I use local material.
You may be able to tell me more but I think I have 2 choices.
(1) making a set of veneer pieces the size of the curved panel. Then gluing up these pieces using a vacuum process with curved forms.
(2) Building a thick enough flat Panel out of solid squared edged wood. The pieces of wood could be 1.5"x3" by the width of the drawer face. Then take these panels and cut the front and the back into the required curve with some kind of jig and a router..
Is this second option at all possible and if so, can someone describe it to me?
I need to be clear on both processes before I decide which route to take.
For the drawer faces that are curved out in particular it may make sense to cut the front of the face into a curve and leave the back flat and affix it to the drawer box.
Would you give me the benefit of your expertise and experience?
Michael from Barbados.

8/23/21       #2: curved doors and drawer fronts ...
BH Davis  Member

Website: http://www.bhdavis.net

Michael,

I would go with your first option of making your own veneered panels. This will give you a clean look and good grain pattern.

If you stack curved pieces cut from solid wood you are going to have a stacked board grain appearance plus you will have a lot of exposed end grain. Every cut that curves through the board is exposing end grain into the face. This can make for variations in grain, color tone and staining nightmares. Think of the difference you typically get when staining the butt end of a board as vs. the face.......even when the butt end is fine sanded.

BH Davis

8/24/21       #3: curved doors and drawer fronts ...
michael foster Member

Thanks BH
I would have to make the veneer and this is something that I have never attempted.
The project has to be built from all local material. And there is no one producing veneer over here. Some one on the site suggested that I build the curved drawer fronts out of vertical staves and then veneer the fronts and the end grain at the top. I am weighing my options

8/24/21       #4: curved doors and drawer fronts ...
Keith Newton

I'm with BH as well, as for veneering.

Well since you have to use local wood, then there must be some local sawmills. Try to locate someone with a small band mill to saw the veneers about 1/8" thick for you. If you start with a smooth surfaced board, then that can be the face. and if the saw cuts pretty smooth, it may be good enough for the glue-lines. I like use epoxy for projects like this, thickened with colloidal silica to about latex paint viscosity. This will fill any gap from the saw marks, and epoxy likes a thick glue-line.

For the gentle curves you mention, and since this isn't a long production run, I would not bother building a solid form that will withstand the pressure of going inside the form. I like to just put just the wood in the bag, then bend it over a simpler form that can be banged together out of any kind of scraps. The sides of the form will of course have the inside radius of the bend, with ribs across about 4" apart. Make sure your form is longer than the actual doors you need, because when you bend wood, it will not bend all the way to the end. I think 8 times the thickness will always be straight, so if the laminates are 1/8' thick, that would be 1", but I would go more.

If your sawmill wants to cut straight from the log, it is well known that stacking and stickering thin laminates will induce sagging between the sticks. What I've done when sawing for bending laminates like this, is to stretch some lines out, then hang them up like clothes on a clothesline. With a well behaved wood like Mahogany it may only take a day or two in the Sun to be air-dried. Will this be going into an air-conditioned space, or is that even needed out there on the island?

Have you ever vacuum bagged before?

8/25/21       #5: curved doors and drawer fronts ...
michael foster Member

Keith
I have never used a vacuum bag before and I have never seen one being used over here.
I have veneered a kitchen years ago with Zebrawood but we used a white glue that set up and functioned more like contact cement. They are two mills that have done work for me in the past. I would have to ask them if they would cut some veneer for me.
The room will be air-condition but this would be used on occasion and more during the summer months. The temperature differences are small during the year but sometimes there is no breeze and the heat accumulates.
i am trying to show 1/4 sawn on the face. The biggest drawer will be about 10" tall. with the grain Horizontal. I have to do
a curved fridge door along with the back of a curved 8' peninsula so I will have to joint pieces of veneer to make up the height. I am not sure how this process works.
Thanks for your input so far.
Michael

9/7/21       #6: curved doors and drawer fronts ...
SG

I concur with BH and Keith that veneering will yield a better result, and if you are able to produce veneers which are on the thick side, say 2.5-3mm, working with it will be more like solid wood than thin commercial veneers, which take a fairly specialized set of techniques to use effectively.

Though using vacuum is a great way to ensure even pressure, it is by no means necessary to do this sort of thing if the surfaces in question aren't particularly wide (the island and fridge door would be the exceptions). Building forms for clamping, using extra material on top of the veneers to distribute pressure from thicker battens, is a perfectly good way to do this.

Do you think on the wider surfaces that you might introduce a modest design element that would allow them to be made up of independent parts on a framework? This would allow a bit of seasonal movement and also make your life easier in constructing those panels. Something like a shiplap joint with a 6-9mm stepped reveal can make the design more interesting and be helpful as noted. I can draw this and send if that would be helpful.

I'm interested to understand the motivation behind the local material only specification, esp. given the extremely limited wood resources on your beautiful island. Seems not only impractical, but possibly counter productive from an environmental standpoint. Nevertheless, if you want some help, I'd be happy to fly down for a month or two this winter. My wife and I were there just prior to Covid and can't wait to go back.


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