Ranney Kitchen 3
While I was waiting for the clients to choose a sink, which was necessary before the final four cabinet boxes could be built, I began milling up some Alder for all the face frames. Each of the boxes required four pieces to build the face frame, all 7/8″ thick, with a shallow dado cut into the back to ensure a perfect alignment with the cabinet box.
The first step to any milling operation is to flatten one side of the board. If the operator skips this step and proceeds directly to the thickness planer, there is no way to make sure the board will be flat because the planer just follows the existing surface of the board, which, if it started out cupped or bowed, will come out in the end with two clean surfaces that are cupped and bowed. Flattening the surface of the board is accomplished on the jointer and a fresh set of blades ensures that the final surface is clean and chip-free.
With the surface jointed flat, I fed the boards into the thickness planer and 7/8″ thick stock came out the other end.
After the boards are all surfaced to 7/8″ thick, I compiled a list of all the face frame widths and lengths, and began cutting them out on the table saw.
After all the face frames were cut out and dadoed, I dry fit them onto the cabinet boxes, cut them down to their exact lengths, sanded all the surfaces, screwed and glued them together, and sent them to the finishing room.