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I decided to build my own kitchen cabinets from scratch. I only had my small townhouse in which to build them. They eventually came out great, but it took 2 yea

I decided to build my own kitchen cabinets from scratch. I only had my small townhouse in which to build them. They eventually came out great, but it took 2 years to complete them. The lesson I learned is to make it easier to abort large projects. Even if it delayed me by 6 months, I should have found a rentable workshop.

peter422 4y ago
Yes, having built a ton of cabinet doors before for a similar project, I realized the allure of the cost savings (the raw materials are so cheap!) blinds you to the massive amounts of labor involved.
- michaelcampbell 4y ago
  (One of) the old woodworking mottos; why buy it when you can build it for 3x the cost and 10x the time?
  - giantg2 4y ago
    Hehe, yep. It's taken me about 10 months to make some wall plaques. I had some beautiful black locust heartwood from cutting down trees for a friend. The worst part was not having a band saw or similar to cut them into boards. They were small, so a chainsaw jig didn't really make sense. I ended up splitting them down the grain and building a jig for a router to trim them flat. Probably about 1 of 3-4 tools/jigs/etc that I had to build to get them done. Just working on a nice oil finish now. Although to be fair, I have no idea what something like that would have cost since I've never seen heartwood this dark before.
  - jasonhansel 4y ago
    Only 10x?
giantg2 4y ago
I won't cut parts for beehive frames again. What a pain using 2x4s, and slightly dangerous with such small pieces.
- manfre 4y ago
  It's an easy decision also by being cheaper to buy the precut from places like brushy mountain.
  - giantg2 4y ago
    It was actually much cheaper to use 2x4s (back then anyways). You could get about 10 frames out a $3 2x4. Also, I made frames for a warre hive. Those are extremely expensive if you can find them.
- analog31 4y ago
  Completely an aside, but consider using hand tools.
  - giantg2 4y ago
    Not for making 100+ frames.

peter422 4y ago

Yes, having built a ton of cabinet doors before for a similar project, I realized the allure of the cost savings (the raw materials are so cheap!) blinds you to the massive amounts of labor involved.

michaelcampbell 4y ago
(One of) the old woodworking mottos; why buy it when you can build it for 3x the cost and 10x the time?
- giantg2 4y ago
  Hehe, yep. It's taken me about 10 months to make some wall plaques. I had some beautiful black locust heartwood from cutting down trees for a friend. The worst part was not having a band saw or similar to cut them into boards. They were small, so a chainsaw jig didn't really make sense. I ended up splitting them down the grain and building a jig for a router to trim them flat. Probably about 1 of 3-4 tools/jigs/etc that I had to build to get them done. Just working on a nice oil finish now. Although to be fair, I have no idea what something like that would have cost since I've never seen heartwood this dark before.
- jasonhansel 4y ago
  Only 10x?

giantg2 4y ago

I won't cut parts for beehive frames again. What a pain using 2x4s, and slightly dangerous with such small pieces.

manfre 4y ago
It's an easy decision also by being cheaper to buy the precut from places like brushy mountain.
- giantg2 4y ago
  It was actually much cheaper to use 2x4s (back then anyways). You could get about 10 frames out a $3 2x4. Also, I made frames for a warre hive. Those are extremely expensive if you can find them.
analog31 4y ago
Completely an aside, but consider using hand tools.
- giantg2 4y ago
  Not for making 100+ frames.