My first two sets of kitchen cabinets

Wow! Great job for your first ones. all that with a one man shop. how long did that take? do you use cabinet software? i would like to do that in the near future.

Did you make any money? They look good but they will much better if you turned a profit.

Very nice work. You will probably find that you will get better and better with each new job. The only thing that I might would have done different, would be the pulls on the spice rack pull outs. Don't take it wrong, but something about them just jump out at me. I might would have fluted the fronts with out pulls and made them look like fluted pilasters. But I would say overall you did a nice job. The wine rack is a little over powering to me. Sometimes I get cought up in adding this and that and realize that sometimes more is not better.

Keep on posting your work, it looks like you are on the right track.

DW

Thank you for the nice comments thus far.

The first kitchen took much longer than the second for many reasons (learning curve, new tools to assemble and set up, larger, significantly more drawers/doors, ...). Not only am I a one man shop I am also doing this part-time - usually after the kids are in bed and sometimes on the weekends. Fortunately the customers were on board with the timing which worked out incredibly smooth. The first homeowner was doing his own tear-out, new flooring, ceiling paneling, wiring, ... so we were done at about the same time. The second kitchen was actually done several months earlier than the original plan but in the end all the logistics were worked out.

Unfortunately I had a hard time justifying cabinet software as I'm not sure if this will ever become a full-time gig. I did use my knowledge of some software tools that allowed me to draw the customers many 2 dimensional plans as well as help me in the shop.

As far as making money I was at first a little concerned about that because both of my customers were friends/relatives and they were probably looking for a good deal. I urged them to get several other estimates that would compare apples to apples on the features/design (as close as possible). Blindly I gave them my bid and they kindly shared what the other's bids were and I was right in the ballpark. They had seen some of my work on a much smaller scale but still knew they would be somewhat of guinea pigs for me to learn some new techniques which was much appreciated - we all have to start somewhere. After taking all the overhead into consideration and the time required in the end I was very happy with my profits.

I have learned a great deal from some books/magazines, a ton from this site, some from a few friends that are cabinet makers but mostly from actually getting my hands dirty.

DW: thanks for the detailed criticism. Regarding the spice pullouts and actually the whole hood cabinet - I was not real happy with the look but this is what the customer decided they wanted. The daunting wine cabinet is really a brute (made in two sections) but this is what was decided for the design after many many renditions. There were some hidden obstacles that needed to be considered as well. I couldn't talk him into glass doors originally because of a ceiling fan that would have been too close that he didn't want to move. Of course after I installed he decided the fan would need to be moved after all and now he wants doors. So much for taking the time to make an arched top rail.

Thanks again for the comments and I'd love to hear from more of you.

Shawn,
Great job!!! I can totally sympathize with you as far as getting into the shop after a full time job. It seems you definitely have what it takes. I have one small suggestion regarding your door hinges, I think your using too many. I can appreciate your desire to go the extra mile, but like dw said, sometimes less is more. Two hinges on the lower doors and three on those pantry doors would have been sufficient. Other than that, you have alot to be proud of!! Whatever your charging, charge more!! Pricing is half the battle!

Nice job Shawn. Doing this as a part time gig is quite a challenge, huh? I would caution you on the widths of your raised panels. Red Oak will move up to 1/4" per foot of width with changes in humidity...maple not quite as much. It looks like on your pantry your panels are around 20" wide, just make sure your cope and stick cutters will accomodate that much movement. I'm not sure about the maple and red oak mix....but to each his own. Great work again!

Mike, thanks a lot for the time to make some comments. I am very eager to learn. I always use only 2 hinges on the base cab doors except this one case where the door was wide and I had a concern with the home owner possibly hanging on the door as he reached in to get at the pullouts. The tall pantry door was certainly a little overkill but it seemed to be cheap insurance. Thanks again!

JT: Thank you too. Yes, doing this part time certainly makes it harder but it also solidifies my love for it - if I can justify sacrificing precious sleep to be making sawdust at 3am it must be the case. I do know when to call it quits for the night when I lose my concentration or seeing double - safety first. I have been making many many woodworking projects for 30 years but just not on this scale. The business side of this is where I am trying to ramp up my knowledge by reading the business forum here regarding all the do's and dont's and reading books recommended here as well as real life experiences.
Thanks for the advice on door panel width. Those actual doors (Pantry using Maple) were only 19" wide yielding a panel of 14 1/2 (exposed). I have made doors where the solid panels themselves were about 18" in Oak and if they were to expand up to 3/8" that would certainly blow out my doors as I leave only about 5/16" play which would certainly compress my space balls to nil and beyond. I have looked into outsourcing my doors in the future but am very glad I now understand the process by doing it myself. One of my concerns for outsourcing them however would be BECAUSE of the panel movement and the fact that I prefinish to make sure future movement won't expose bare wood. I've tried using compressed air to get the stain into the crack but can't tell until it's too late if it penetrated deep enough. My cope and stick cutters from Infinity Tooling are the deepest I could find for a 1/2" router (cringe) collet. I too questioned the Oak Island within a Maple kitchen but the homeowners insisted that it would help tie into the new oak flooring. Like you said "to each his own". Thank you very much again. Shawn

Nice job Shawn, I was wondering, did you use any reinforcement on your cope and stick doors? Or did you just go with the 1/2" or so tenon on the rail ends? Buck

Thanks for looking Buck. No I didn't use any reinforcement on the door joints. Actually the tenon is only 7/16" which is the largest I could find for my (cringe) router. Hopefully soon I'll get a shaper or God forbid, outsource ;) I just use glue and set in clamps for 45 minutes or so. I have a pin nailer that I've used to speed up the process while freeing up my clamps but I have enough clamps that it seems I keep busy assembling and doing other things while the glue sets. I believe the pin nails are not much if any reinforcement anyway. In my few short years of making doors I have yet to have any failures. Thanks again. Shawn

shawn, nice job indeed. there are lots of little details that make these two kitchens really nice. did you do the design as well? if your looking for free software for design you should try Google Sketchup and ecabinetsystems.com both are professional quality programs.