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My neighbor ordered a new refrigerator and of course it doesn't fit where the old one did. Not that this hasn't happened countless times before to anyone of us 
His upper cabs above his refrigerator were about 5 inches too tall now. My neighbor saw me staining my mail box post and asked me what I thought. Luckily, having done this before, I had some idea of what could be done. I was full of thoughts and ideas as we removed his upper cab, but it wasn't until I got home that I was pleasantly suprised by what lay in wait for me!
His cabinetry was...ughh....particle board. I was really dreading what was in store for me...but luck prevailed. The glue they used some 20+ years ago had "let go" in most places. It was some brown glue that left behind an elastic residue. I can only conclude that it was some type of inferior polyurethane type glue?
The cabinetry had a face frame of solid oak, that was joined via pocket screws. They all readily separated, sans one that came apart via some gentle chisel work. Some quick cuts on the scms and some test cuts to set depth on the kreg pocket hole jig and the face frame was back in action - only shorter.
The formica door had oak trim top and bottom. I needed to remove that to cut the door height down. The wood trim piece was joined via a long tenon that fit into a mortise on the edge of the door. Luckily two came off with no effort thanks to aforementioned glue issue. I set up the bt3 and slowly cut so that the formica didnt chip - the very small chips that did occur were completely hidden by the overlapping lip from the trim.
With that done, it was to the cabinet itself. After pulling all the screws and staples and other hardware that could damage my sidewinder's nice freud blade, I set up my shop made plywood saw guide and trimmed all 4 sides of the cab. I was able to salvage the bottom "floor" of the cabinet from the cut off sides and back. Even though it was dado'ed into the sides, the small off cut sides peeled right off with just a few staples to pull.
Now to measure and set up the router to create new dados. I finished the corners with chisels. Reset router into table (if you can call it that
) and make test cuts for making the stopped slots in the edges of the doors to receive the trim's tenons. This was tricky, but as soon as I got my fence close by measuring with a steel ruler, I did a test and used 3 sheets of paper to "move" the workpiece forward to finnagle the cut. I guess i got lucky, all I had to do was turn the door around to reference the other face against the fence and I got a perfect fit!
Some careful layout and then to boring the new hinge cup locations.
Hinges done
Alas, I didnt take a photo before delivering the unit to my neighbor. It was an interesting job in that it went extremely well for what could and usually is a nightmare. I dont know if I am getting better or if lady luck was with me!
His upper cabs above his refrigerator were about 5 inches too tall now. My neighbor saw me staining my mail box post and asked me what I thought. Luckily, having done this before, I had some idea of what could be done. I was full of thoughts and ideas as we removed his upper cab, but it wasn't until I got home that I was pleasantly suprised by what lay in wait for me!
His cabinetry was...ughh....particle board. I was really dreading what was in store for me...but luck prevailed. The glue they used some 20+ years ago had "let go" in most places. It was some brown glue that left behind an elastic residue. I can only conclude that it was some type of inferior polyurethane type glue?
The cabinetry had a face frame of solid oak, that was joined via pocket screws. They all readily separated, sans one that came apart via some gentle chisel work. Some quick cuts on the scms and some test cuts to set depth on the kreg pocket hole jig and the face frame was back in action - only shorter.
The formica door had oak trim top and bottom. I needed to remove that to cut the door height down. The wood trim piece was joined via a long tenon that fit into a mortise on the edge of the door. Luckily two came off with no effort thanks to aforementioned glue issue. I set up the bt3 and slowly cut so that the formica didnt chip - the very small chips that did occur were completely hidden by the overlapping lip from the trim.
With that done, it was to the cabinet itself. After pulling all the screws and staples and other hardware that could damage my sidewinder's nice freud blade, I set up my shop made plywood saw guide and trimmed all 4 sides of the cab. I was able to salvage the bottom "floor" of the cabinet from the cut off sides and back. Even though it was dado'ed into the sides, the small off cut sides peeled right off with just a few staples to pull.
Now to measure and set up the router to create new dados. I finished the corners with chisels. Reset router into table (if you can call it that
) and make test cuts for making the stopped slots in the edges of the doors to receive the trim's tenons. This was tricky, but as soon as I got my fence close by measuring with a steel ruler, I did a test and used 3 sheets of paper to "move" the workpiece forward to finnagle the cut. I guess i got lucky, all I had to do was turn the door around to reference the other face against the fence and I got a perfect fit!Some careful layout and then to boring the new hinge cup locations.
Hinges done
Alas, I didnt take a photo before delivering the unit to my neighbor. It was an interesting job in that it went extremely well for what could and usually is a nightmare. I dont know if I am getting better or if lady luck was with me!
So much for us being modern.
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