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Joe & Greg,
Thank you for the feedback. In furniture, proportions are everything. Not being a cabinet designer, I did not know if there were any rules or hard standards that helped me design the layout into a more pleasing appearance. I am teaching a class on design to our woodworking guild in a couple of months and started looking at our kitchen cabinets and the kitchen you used in the comprehensive videos. As George Walker talks about dimensions and Jim Tolpin used his workbench as and example; not everything needs to follow the standard proportions, but you still follow design procedures that we know for our inner sight that is programmed in us by seeing nature.
In my current house, we have one end cabinet that is larger than the others; it has two pullout drawers on full extension slides. It is very functional and my wife loves it because it serves her storage requirements for the pots and pans, but when I sit back and look at it, it seems out of portion to every other cabinet against the wall.
We are building a new house so that I can bring my mother to live with us. While she can walk, most of the time she is in a wheel chair. My wife and I visited a house that was designed to meet the requirements for her and we are planning on aging in place there. With my Army service and the units I was in, it will be a rambler because I know eventually I will be in a wheel chair. With my wife being short, we are going to build the island split like you did in the Martha LaBelle Kitchen so that she can use that surface for her food preparation. Also, my wife asked for two upper cabinets to come down all the way to the base cabinet top. The reason is because she cannot reach above the 2nd shelf and that is a design concept that they use in South Korea (think of a china hutch concept). That was the first thing she talked about when she got back from her last visit. All of this got me thinking about kitchen design and proportions.
Joe, while I knew cabinets came in two inch increments, I did not think about our appliances yet. My wife has already bought them and they are sitting in the warehouse waiting for delivery. I will have to get those measurements to ensure I incorporate them into my design. I have thought about the exhaust hood because I will be building a cabinet/hood cover around it to match the overall design. Thank you for your input.
Greg as you said, I look forward to feedback from the community. For those that use the program and do kitchens on a regular basis, please let me know your thoughts and experience. It would definitely help me in my design for the new house.
Lynn
Kevin,
I am glad that it is working out. With them sourcing the material, it should be less than what you would pay. The suppliers I deal with will only sell to you if you have an EIN (business tax number). I have one customer who uses me all of the time even though I tell him he could cut it faster on the table saw, but it would require more sheets because of the nesting optimization. He uses me because in the end, it saves him time. I provide the cabinets all labeled and all he has to do is assemble them and install the hardware. For him, I have to draw his cabinets in the software – previously my CAD/CAM program, but more and more in Cabwriter; I have a set of cabinets already designed and we pick and choose which one he wants and how many of each. I also use another program that has features that version 1 did not have. Please let me know how it goes and hopefully this will also help the community.
Afterwards, please tell us would you do it again (with this provider or possibly another one) based on the cost and time savings. Do you do many cabinets? If so how many which may impact other users’ decisions based on your feed back.
If there are any other questions I can answer, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. My email is [email protected] if you need to talk to me privately.
Lynn
Kevin,
In the sencond post from Greg, I also charge for both my design and CNC time. My design charge is $50. If all I am doing is importing a file, there is no charge, but most time it is not that simple. As Greg said, I have to create the tool paths which I use a macro to do and it reduces the total cost. If the customer is there and dose most of the sheet loading and cleanup of the spoil board during the process, I reduce my CNC charge from $65. For regular customers I do give them a break. they will call me and send me the files so I can do all of the work before they arrive. The last job for one of the customers, he had his materials delivered to me (a lower grade plywood that I do not use in my shop). He also has a CNC, just smaller, that he cannot run large sheets. He is the only customer that sends me the files that are ready to run and so all I have to do is load his load his file and run it; he also is fully functional on my machine operations so he does most of the work. I just charge him for the CNC time. I do have to check his file before we run them to ensure they are correct.
On my other post, I had it typed but just did not click the send button for until today – it sat there for two days.Lynn
As Greg said, meet with the company or individual that will cut your sheets. I do have a large 4′ X 8′ CNC and do a lot of outside work for customers. Any competent individual will be able to import the DXF files. With the updated features coming in CabWriter 2.0 – specifically the ability to have the tongue and grove – make sure the understand that and can execute that feature. Most DXF files will have that information embedded in the drawing and in my case it is just a macro that I need to run to ensure it translated into the proper dado or tongue depth. Also since 3/4″ plywood is not .75″ the programmer will have to measure the sheet to ensure they have the proper depth. When cutting with a CNC, you can either go off the top or the bottom of the material. On sheet goods, I always go off the bottom which ensures the tongue is always correct.
I would make a simple one sheet cabinet and let the individual run it to ensure it met my specifications – don’t use an expensive prefinished sheet, baltic birch plywood (5 ply) would do. Give the individual the measurements so they can validate their tool paths. Since I deal with wholesale companies that deliver to my shop, most customers just send me the files and I get the product delivered to me. Why would you want to handle the sheets twice. If are getting better prices, have your company deliver the product to the CNC shop.
One of the other questions I would ask is what is their lead time and if I had a rush job, how little time could they pump something out for me. I stay very busy and customers are always calling me for jobs; the first thing I as is what is their time frame. There are times that I have jobs already scheduled back to back and do not have a lot of leeway – the sheet breaks loose or I have programed it wrong and have to run a sheet again. The other day I did three doors for cut glass inserts and the customer somehow cracked a door and he needed to finish the job; I had to work him into my schedule so he was not late. That impacted my next job – I had to work extra hours in order to catch up.
Not that it makes much difference to you, but ask what software they are running. Someone specializing is just doing cabinets and running Mozaik or CabinetPro may not be able to import the DXF files, I am just not familiar with their programs enough to say. These are expensive programs with monthly fees or just cost a lot and only focus on cabinet designs and cutting.
I hope this helps from someone who has a CNC and cuts customer’s jobs. As I was typing this I got a call and have to call the customer back to get him scheduled.
Steve,
While I have been using SketchUp for over 6 years, I have been doing work on my CNC for over 8 years and work on my files there. With the DXF import and the ability to have everything automated, it makes it great. I use to do most of my design work in Sketchup but now use it with CabWriter. The ability to provide the customer perspectives as well as layout views is something that with the combination of the two programs, I had problems doing before. It was a learning curve but is well worth it. I had to draw many versions to get it right, but it is second nature now. Cabinets are not my primary business. I do more 2.5D work and contract out to other builders to do their jobs. I have a large shop by most standards – 2000sqf and I am building a 5000sqf shop, mostly furniture design and one of a kind builds. I will also start teaching again with the larger shop – between 4-6 benches. I also have a large format 100 watt laser that I do a lot of work with. With version 2.0, the support for dado/rabbet and tongue and groove carcass construction, including captured backs is a big thing for me. I do more raised panel doors than flat panels which is gaining popularity because of the simple lines that customers like. Like you, there were changes I had to make with their system – like the ladder base. I previously did my toe kicks with the bottom housed in a dado. The ladder sure makes it easier to level the base. I started with the pony face clamps and drilled my face frames together with that system. For the price, you cannot beat the features and speed of drawing once you learn the system. They listen and take your input, so if it is not there, it may be added at a later date as they continue to improve the system.
Steven,
I have the ability to export it to my CNC so I do the work in that program. I create a cabinet with the doors and since my pull outs are only two sizes, I open and export them into the DXF layout. Per my previous emails with them, I believe they do not support this for this version, it will come out in a future version.Lynn Hinman
Joe,
The front is shorter than the sides and backs to allow items to be place on it easier and provide support in the back. At the front it is 3″. The side has has a roman ogee profile curving up to the side height of 8″; the back is 8″.
I do no know how to add the image or file to this forum so I sent it to you in an email.
Thank you for the settings image.
Lynn
