I am currently quoting a bathroom vanity and the customer wants to “follow the grain” around the box horizontally. The box is 24 x 66. My concern is with warpage since he wants solid wood panels for the finished ends and doors and drawer faces. There will be no stiles and rails on either the finished ends or the doors. The vanity will be suspended with no toe kick so I’m probably looking at solid nailers also.
Am I looking for trouble or is this possible? This is to be a high-end vanity that he’ll be paying several thousand dollars to have built.
Replies
It is definitely possible, but it will require careful design and construction. Of course building it out of veneered plywood would make the job easy, but of course the customer doesn't want that.
I would suggest that you track down a copy of "Solid Wood Cabinet Construction" by Franz Karg. Karg directed a state woodworking school in Germany, and the book gives plans and very sparse text about 70 fairly sophisticated cabinets built by the school's students. The workmanship and design details are top notch, jaw dropping in some instances.
Each piece is photographed and is accompanied by very detailed drawings showing the construction details of each piece. If you are comfortable sorting through 2 dimensional plans you'll get a thorough education in how to build several versions of the cabinet your client wants.
The book is out of print, it was published in the U.S. by Taunton Press, the sponsor of this site. You should be able to track down a used copy on the internet. Karg also wrote another earlier book along the same lines but it isn't nearly as good as "Solid Wood Cabinet Construction".
Hope this helps,
John White
Thanks, John. I'll try to find a copy of the book.
After responding to you, I Googled the book's title and found they have several on Amazon starting at $17.00. The site allowed you to actually see some pages in the book.
John W.
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