Deep Singh

Not for kitchens though. I need a whole variety of cabinets, some for av kit some to hide meters/boilers and some for decorative purposes in the lounge.
Just wondering if anyone has used a cabinet maker to produce bespoke ones?
Is it really expensive? I don't want to spend more than I would for mid range cabinets in the shops. Will they have a full range of colours/finishes available? Anybody care to share any pics?

Thanks

boxst

Hello

I used one in Poland -- he chose a tree, cut it and shaped it into the furntiture that we wanted: Book cases, cabinets, chest of drawers etc.. It was about the same price as IKEA etc.. but solid wood.

Steve

Hoppy

I know a superb cabinet maker/restorer in Cambridge. Not far from you?

He'll make anything you want, any way you want it, provided you're not in a hurry and have a fat wallet.

Alec Anness, Brewery Road, Pampisford, Cambs - 01223 834631

Richard.

sti-04!!

I used a joiner for my purposes, the guy i employed worked for himself & he has & still is working wonders on the house with its uneven walls.
Suppose its down to the individual thats carrying out the work

Deep Singh

Thanks Rich, but wallet is not fat for this task! Need something medium level rather than a master craftsmen

Deep Singh

Where is this joiner based mate?

OllyK

Plenty of them on here

Deep Singh

Thanks, but would really prefer someone who came recommended.

sti-04!!

Lanark, 20 miles south of Glasgow.

A bit far from you deep

Deep Singh

Aha. Didn't realise you were from Scotland!

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Decent cabinet makers are usually pretty expensive.

Mid-range hifi cabinets are pretty cheap in the scheme of things. Think somewhere between £20 and 30 per hour for design, manufacture and fitting. That pretty quickly adds up to a lot of cash. We had a tiny box cupboard (a press in Scotland) fitted with custom shelves for around 1000 cds, 300 DVDs and 500 LPs - it cost a lot more than a midrange storage system!

Olly

Hi Deep,

Been a cabinet maker/wood butcher all my working life. Not many Scoobynet cabinet maker threads, so suppose I'd better contribute Trained as a bench joiner, but there isn't a lot I can't make if it involves timber.

Funnily enough, just made 2 cabinets to house some bloody expensive looking TV & stereo equipment. One with 2 oak framed glazed doors to house 8 separates, and the other splayed 45 degrees in a corner to house a sub. Both in oak & oak veneer. Around £2k + VAT for the pair.

Anything bespoke involves cost. Not sure of your budget, but some bought in gear from a shop might be of better quality than something your local chippie may knock up in the back of a van with his jigsaw and some MDF if a cabinet making company is not an option.

Anyway, now for some ***** waving. A few bits I bashed together:

Bubba po

That curved stuff is impressive, Olly. Did you bend the various components?

Also, How's that landing being kept up without the newel extending to the floor? Is there a cladded RSJ running through?

Deep Singh

Hi Olly, thats some pretty impressive stuff! I think I'm getting what you mean. I can't afford £1000s and £1000s (I have about 4-5 cabinets needed) and if I get someone cheaper to make it there is no point as I can get better built stuff off the shelf? Is that the point?
Its just that whenever I watch those wretched home improvement shows they seem to knock up custom built cabinets from a bit of MDF in about 3 hours and it looks ok. Maybe it only looks good from a distance and won't last?

Thanks
Deep

Chief Constable Gene Hunt

Nice work Olly .......

sti-04!!

Staircase is fantastic

Olly

That's exactly what it is Deep: looks good on your 17" portable telly for a couple of seconds, but in reality... Handy Andy and his chums are better than any comedy on the telly.

And that yankee Norm fellow on Sky is always worth a giggle. Here's something you could make at home- with around £150k's worth of woodworking machinery that is. And how he hasn't lost his fingers is beyond me.

Might be better to buy something off the shelf, and have a chippie modify it a bit: add a couple of shelves to suit your hi-fi stuff, that sort of thing.

Olly

Hi Bubba. Curved stuff is actually not too bad, just time consuming. Frame & door rails are thin slivers of poplar (tulip wood) laminated around a former. Frame stiles are flat, door stiles are gently curved and done by hand with block plane and cleaned up by hand. Tenons on all rails are cut by hand, curved rails are grooved for the panel on our old overhead router, and panels are bendy ply primed with high build filler primer to fill the grain. Quirk moulds on frames are done on the spindle ring fence, keeping a close eye on your fingers!

Staircase was a good one, had to scratch my head a bit on this one! It's all timber, no RSJ's used. The flight of stairs were installed, then the main 10 x 3 oak landing beam (running left to right) was trenched into the wall on the left, and halved into the newel & string on the right at the top of the flight, all the load taken by the newel on the corner of the turn. Second landing beam then cantilevered off the main beam, cross halved together, and trenched into the wall again: third one (on the left) was again trenched to the wall and tenoned into the 2nd beam and wedged (you can see the tenon & wedge on the corner). 9x2 oak battens were screwed to the wall to support the 25mm MDF landing floor, and the floor rebated into the main beams. It works, there is almost zero deflection, even when 2 fat joiners jump up and down, and 2 years on not a creak or squeak in sight. Better pic:

Well you did ask

+Doc+

Being in the shopfitting business I have had numerous cabinets made for the house.
I recently had a nice unit made to house all the electrical items and to sit my LCD on with pullout shelves so I can access all the damn wires!
If your looking for cost effective finishes then you cant go far wrong with Melamine Faced Chipboard and Laminate to the surfaces that need to be hardwearing.
For value you cant fault Ikea.
Do you know the designs you require?

Hoppy

Very nice work Olly

CrisPDuk

That'll be you and Brenton then

Simon C

Chuffing georgus stairway

POC

Nice work Olly, I'm a bit of an closet joiner (< that sounds wrong) myself and love to see finished products of serious tradesmen. Would love to have a workshop and £££££ worth of pro tools, but alas not for a while