Out of curiosity what are we assuming to be the basic kit of tools available to the cabinetmaker? I wouldn't consider myself a highly-skilled woodworker but definitely posses more than an adequate amount of skill to efficiently produce kitchen doors. The type of available tools really dictate the production process. I would argue that having a shaper / router table and a power feeder I have available at my disposal, I could produce cabinet doors (with various sticking profiles) as quickly as your method. Stock selection becomes a touch more difficult, but by taking thirty seconds to create a plan of attack (and I'm assuming because you mention grain matching, you're not going to paint the cabinets) this could be easily accomplished.

Now, if I only had a wide belt sander at my disposal.....

I completely understand the need for quickly (and more importantly, efficiently) made cabinet doors and biscuits definitely add speed to the construction but you'll need an extra clamp (or two) for pressure to be applied across the joints. MDF is much heavier than say a piece of similarity sized plywood and will definitely make tall upper cabinet doors more hefty. MDF is also more expensive than plywood.

And, regardless of quality/price, MDF is a bear to work with in terms of dust control and its effect on tooling.

I think I'm correct in saying that most kitchens are remodeled / renovated every 20 years or so--with that in mind, biscuits should hold up over that life time. But I don't think the strength of the joint was part of your argument.

just my $0.03

cb

Eric, I spent the past couple of years living in Atlanta and I know Peach State Lumber carries cypress. Our old shop purchased lumber from there quite a lot and cypress was one of the woods, I believe. Western red cedar is a good choice, as Dave mentioned, and so is Redwood and Spanish Cedar. We've used all three in our shop for storm doors and screen doors with good success. It is definitely softer than Teak or Ipe but I'm sure less expensive. There is definitely lots of cypress to be had in the south. If you know a guy who knows a guy, go ahead and buy the old growth salvaged cypress--it's beautiful.

We use Titebond III for our exterior projects (we have a 8' x 8' door / sidelight assembly right now made out of oak that we've assembled with that product). Glues like gorilla glue are a pain to apply as have to wipe the mating surface with water and ---argh, just too many extra steps.

And please, please, please stay away from pressure treated lumber. Not only will it make you sick but the dust is gross and lacks the more polished look of real hard woods.

best,
Charlie

Eric, I've found there are two tricks to having a successful outdoor project. Either spend the money on wood that weathers well (like the Ipe and Teak that Dave mentioned) or spend the time/money on a quality finish. Dave made some great suggestions with respect to both the wood and the finishes. Teak and Ipe, though beautiful, are pretty expensive woods. If the cost isn't a big concern, I would definitely lay the money down for some slabs of Teak. Just leave allowances, in cross grain situations, for expansion and contraction and let it go. It'll be the beautiful silver colour Dave mentioned in a season.

What ever wood you do choose, if quarter sawn wood is available, get it. Quarter sawn (versus flat sawn) tends not to change as much across its width as flat sawn wood.

If you want the bee's knees in weather-grade wood and finishes, think about boat. I know Dave has boat building as a hobby and could speak to this better than I could, but finishing teak with a spar finish is really, really pretty--but needs to be maintained every year.

Hazza,

Being a woodworker, I use sketchup with quite a bit of success. I, however, haven't bit the bullet yet to purchase the pro version. Tools such as layout look like they would help with documents immensely, but I just can't spare the cash. My boss isn't ready to pony up the dough yet, either. Hopefully someday. Someday, soon!

That being said, I definitely do not feel limited with the free version. The only plugin I use is CutList. I'm sure there are little things I'm missing out on, but I have been using the free version with success.

Dave, it's nice to see I'm not doing it incorrectly--my drawings, too, when zoomed to extents, look like a bunch of gobbly-goop with all the scenes strewn about the drawing.

I think I like the idea of being able to add text (dimensions, too?) in layout. That would make the ability to reuse scenes easier. I'll just keep saving my pennies for layout. In our shop drawings we are striving to include only as much prudent detail that is necessary to streamline the construction process. Personally, I tend to err on the side of over-information just to cover some of our cabinetmakers that require more instruction and supervision.

As an aside, in your FWW drawings (maybe even your personal drawings) do you draw all the hardware (soss hinges, barrel hinges, knife hinges, etc.) to full detail? Or is there an available online resource that I'm missing out on?

tooold, I, too, work in the custom woodwork/mill work field and find plywood to be one of the least consistent (unless you expect it to be inconsistent, then it would be consistently inconsistent, but i digress) materials that you get to work with. I sympathize completely that gaps are undesirable but 2 mm (roughly 5/64ths?) is not the worst thing in the world. Obviously, strive for perfection but you have accept some of the limitations of the materials available.

Even if you are doing the finest of beaded face frames with inset cabinet doors, you are going to need a gap of 1/16th around your doors for them to function. Could you not account for that 2 mm difference in plywood in the fitting of your doors? Pilasters can cover gaps between cabinets if you follow a more modular format of construction (and are doing more traditional cabinets).

When fitting lengths of cabinets across an elevation, I've found that your plywood being what it is (3/4" or 11/16" or 23/32" or their metric equivalents) can be accommodated through your construction techniques. Maybe I'm stating the obvious, and please stop me from rambling, but, for example, if you want a 24" wide cabinet (let's assume Euro, frame-less construction), and you are milling rabbets / dados to assemble the boxes, instead of milling a 1/4" deep rabbet in the plywood (which would leave 7/16 in 11/16 plywood or 15/32 in 23/32 plywood) mill your dado so it leaves 1/2" of material left. This will leave your outside dimensions consistent and you can accommodate lengths/widths of other components in your shop drawings.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if I should elaborate further or just keep quiet

best,
cb

Again, I love it. I'm a huge fan of traditional building techniques in this ever-growing big box world. These pictures alone make me want to go back and buy a complete set of the Fine Homebuilding magazines and search for these gems.

I don't know it it is just a commentary on the quality of the Taunton publications, but it seems articles like these are now the exception to the rule with their recent editions of their publications (no offense to you, Dave, your sketchup posts at FWW are spot on). Maybe it is just my personal bias toward less contemporary aesthetics.

Dave, I'm happy to hear that I'm at least doing it the most correct and fastest way with scenes and layers; the process just becomes a little tedious. I'm sure Layout would make things easier. I was hoping it would make the process faster was well.

PKast, I have some familiarity with drawing in AutoCAD but find that SketchUP fills my needs sufficiently. As most people are, I'm just looking for ways to hasten and streamline the process because, obviously, the faster I can finish the drawings, the faster we can build whatever piece of custom woodwork / millwork that is required.

I see your point about the perspective and isometric drawings not being to scale. That's understandable and beyond the need of shop drawings. In the shop all of the drawings should only be 2D details with maybe one general 3D picture to give a "feel" about how the project is supposed to go together. I much prefer construction details in 2D. Maybe that's just a personal preference.

I still have to say I loved the drawings of the coffered ceilings. Are you an architect by trade?

best,
Charlie

PKast, those are amazing. I use sketchup quite a lot but haven't yet tried the layout tool. I haven't been able to bite the bullet and jump into the pro version. The most tedious thing about building shop drawings is having to create individual scenes and layers that show specific views/details that need to be conveyed in order to construct a piece. Would layout expedite this process? I'm trying to convince my boss to use it for bidding projects as well, but, again, we haven't quite got that far yet.

If Layout would help me create shop drawings (and Dave, I would LOVE to see what you've come up with), I would most definitely make the upgrade. Thoughts?

Thank you for the quick responses. Gaieus, I tried doing something similar to that. Unfortunately, it did just as DaveR said it would and changed the overall width of my stiles and making a cutlist has now become much more difficult.

I guess I was looking for something quick and easy when, obviously, quick and easy is never the best solution.

DaveR, I'll give that a today when I get out of the shop. Our customer gave us the old panels from which we've gleaned some information but they're in pretty rough shape (water damage over many, many years). I'll see if I can guess the mitre angle and hopefully things will work from there. I cannot tell you enough how I'm not looking forward to putting mitred rails through our shaper. Oh, and as a side note, Dave, thank you for the wonderful work you produce over at your FWW blog. I've enjoyed following the instruction both you and Mr. Killen have been able to provide.

I shall keep you posted as to my progress.