Slideshow Gallery

Slideshow Gallery

Slideshow Gallery

Slideshow Gallery

Slideshow Gallery

Head-on view of office and desk. The closets are closed.

Side view.

Motorized closet doors opened by hidden switch.

Ornaments.

Below, we’ll take a look at the basics of refinishing and how to tell whether it’s a good choice for your cabinets. We’ll also suggest a couple of alternatives, including refacing your cabinets with veneer, and ordering new doors and drawer fronts through Rockler’s Custom Door and Drawer Front Program.

The Realities of Refinishing

Refinishing an entire set of kitchen cabinets is a significant undertaking. But if you have a preference for natural a wood finish (stained or unstained with a clear wood finish) and you’re cabinets can pass a basic refinishing “fitness test” it may be worth the effort. Here’s a little advice on determining whether your cabinets are a good candidate the refinishing process:

Check your cabinets over to make certain that the joinery is solid and in good condition, that the visible surfaces of the cabinets are not excessively worn, and that there are not numerous missing parts and repairs needing to be done. While you’re at it, decide whether the quality of your cabinets makes them worth refinishing.

A word of caution: Not all painted cabinets hide beautiful hardwood cabinets waiting to be refinished; look for unpainted surfaces on the cabinets to determine the species of wood, and consider stripping the paint off of a sample area to get an idea of what to expect underneath the paint.

If your cabinets fail this basic refinishing appraisal, a natural wood finish is still possible: Consider refacing your cabinets with wood veneer. This surprisingly easy project is outlined in Rockler’s article “Refacing Your Cabinets with Veneer”.

Custom Doors and Drawer Fronts

Whether you refinish or reface your cabinets, you will still have the doors and drawer fronts to contend with. Cabinet doors and drawer fronts aren’t very often candidates for refacing, and even if they’re in acceptable condition for refinishing, the task can be daunting.

One way to greatly simplify the process is to order new doors and Drawer fronts through Rockler’s Custom Door and Drawer Front Program. For less than you might think, you can have new doors and drawer fronts custom made to the size and style that suits your current cabinets, and delivered to your door ready to finish and install. For more information on this time-saving alternative, read Rockler’s article, “Using the Rockler Custom Door and Drawer Front Program”.

Refinishing Basics

To help you get started, we’ll cover the essentials of the refinishing process, but we won’t have the space to cover the finer points in detail. Since the quality of your refinishing job will depend in a large part on your refinishing knowledge, we recommend picking up a refinishing book for further study.  Brian Hingley’s Furniture Repair and Refinishing, for example, will take you through all of the steps in detail, from evaluating your cabinets to applying the final finish.

Removing the Old Wood Finish

The first step in your refinishing project is in all likelihood will be removing the old finish, which for practical purposes means chemical stripping. Most stripping projects can be easily accomplished with a “safety stripper” – one that contains none of the most caustic solvents used in stripping (methylene chloride and methyl ethyl ketone) like Citristrip Paint and Varnish Stripping Gel. For a really tough job, like removing industrial finishes or multiple layers of paint, you may have better results with a more aggressive stripper, such as Star 10.

Before you get started, make sure you have all of the “basic stripping equipment” like steel wool, rubber gloves, rags, etc. on hand. You can speed the process of stripping intricate decorative edges or moldings with a contour scraper like the Pro-Prep Scraping System. Remember, too, that if you are using strippers and solvents that contain toxic chemicals, to follow the manufacturers directions, provide adequate ventilation, and protect yourself with a suitable respirator and safety glasses.

Preparing the Surface for Finishing

Before finishing the freshly stripped wood, you will need to do a little prep work. Clean the surfaces with solvent or furniture cleaner as directed by the stripper manufacturer. In most cases it will also be necessary to sand the raw wood surfaces to take care of any grain that was raised during the stripping process, and to remove small amounts of old finish left behind. Norton 3X sandpaper is specially coated to resist clogging and is ideal of the purpose of removing residue and finish. Use contour sanding grips and abrasive cord to get into tight spots.

Finishing the Wood

Now you’re ready to pick out a wood finish. Here you have a lot to choose from. For more information on finishing and finishes, read . The most common approach for cabinets is to stain the wood with a water based or solvent based wood stain, followed by a clear finish like, General Finishes EF PolyAcrylic Blend. Remember to do a thorough job of removing dust from wood surfaces with a tack cloth or damp rag immediately before applying the finish. For better results, use a pre-stain wood conditioner before applying stain to difficult to stain woods . Also, apply many thin coats of clear finish - sanding lightly in between coats with 220 grit or finer sandpaper - instead of just a few thick ones.

With all of the time and care you’ve invested in your cabinets, it may seem a shame to reinstall their old, wear-worn knobs, pulls and hinges. We can help. Rockler offers abroad selection of knobs and pulls to suit all budgets and tastes. Be sure to read Rockler’s “Knobs and Pulls” article before you head for the knobs and pulls department.

New hinges are also worth considering. Many times, simply updating your hinges with self-closing, adjustable hinges can greatly improve the appearance of your cabinets, and make them more “user friendly”. Rockler’s article, “Understanding Hinges” will bring you up to speed on selecting the best cabinet hinge.

Often times Galoots go in for the collection and restoration of hand tools as much or even more than woodworking, though this is a matter up for debate. Think of Galoots as the “historic reenactment committee” of woodworking and you’ll be on the right track.

Before we launch into the essential tools for the Galoot woodworker we’d like to offer a few tips that could indicate that you’re a Galoot in training. So in case you ever had any doubts, here are a few of the ways you can tell:

1) You might be a Galoot in training if you have a working arsenal of power tools but still harbor a strange fascination with planes and chisels…

2) You might be a Galoot in training if you enjoy tinkering with your tools almost as much as working with wood. Especially that charming, captivating backsaw that your dad got from his dad’s woodshop.

3) You might be a Galoot in training have antique hand tools that you would never, ever use on actual wood and you find yourself believing completely with all of your soul that “they don’t build them like they used to”.

4) You might be a Galoot in training if you prefer to watch Roy Underhill to Norm Abrams. Enough said there.

If you somehow made it to the hand tool collection phase without realizing you were the member of an elite group then I give you my best wishes and hopes for the future as you discover your true family – the Galoots. Do a quick web search on the term Galoot and the OldTools mailing list. Presto, you’re home.

The 10 essential tools for the Galoot in training is something of a misnomer. Sort of. If you’re not a pure collector yet then you’re ideally buying these antique hand tools as you need them for specific projects you have in mind. Look at the following list then as a suggestion for what to use in place of all those expensive, high torque power tools you talked your significant other into letting you buy.

So here goes, and true Galoots remember we wrote this to guide home the lost and lonely of your tribe:

1) Chisels (Paring, Morticing)
This pair is crucial. The morticing chisel is used with a mallet and often to cut across the grain. The paring chisel is less often hit with a mallet and is more delicate. It’s used for taking thin shavings off of your work piece. Further, chisels are typically in wide abundance at flea markets and antique stores.

2) Wooden Mallet
You can well make your own if you like, or if you’re a collector then get out to those yard sales and dig through old boxes. Using a wooden mallet is crucial for not damaging your beautiful chisels…

3) Plane (Block, Smoothing, Jack, Jointer)
Planes smooth the surface of your work piece. The block plane is for shearing off the end grain of your piece, the smoothing plane is for very small shavings with less chance of tear out, the jack plane is a smoothing plane with more blade depth, and the jointer plane is a long plane used for flattening the joint face of a board.

4) Saw (Rip, Crosscut, Coping)
When choosing your saw pay attention to the rake – the angle at which the teeth are ground, the pitch – the number of teeth per inch and the set – the “wave” that the teeth have that gives the cut its width. Of hand saws you’ll find especially useful the rip saw, which has a zero rake for cutting down the length of the grain, a crosscut saw’s teeth will have negative rake for cutting across the grain, and the coping saw gets you cutting intricate designs and cuts inside a panel.

5) Brace and Bit + Hand Drill
Making holes in wood didn’t start with the invention of the electric drill. It sure got easier though. Get back to the roots of your tool using heritage with a tag team of the brace and bit for making large holes and the hand drill (or egg beater) for making smaller bore holes. You could also consider the Yankee push drill.

6) Measuring and Marking Tools
Accuracy is one of the chief hallmarks of good woodworking. Stay true to your cuts and to your love of hand tools with a combination square – look for fine machining and deep etch markings. A try square will get you into smaller spaces and is important for furniture making. A sliding bevel will help you transfer accurate angles from one working piece of wood to another. Folding rulers have been mostly replaced by the tape measure. Don’t let that bother you – use your folding wood rule with pride. Marking knives, gauges, and awls will keep your fine cuts as accurate as possible.

7) Your Tool Box and Workbench
Finally, we suggest that your first project as a Galoot is to build your own tool box (and then workbench), in much the same way that Luke Skywalker had to build his own light saber. This will connect you to the true force of hand tools. May the Galoots be with you.

Thanks to the work of Ken Smith, Tom Price and all the Galoots out there whose efforts were a great inspiration for this article.

Charlie Slagle and his ToolCrib team deliver discount power tool prices at ToolCrib.com! Visit http://www.ToolCrib.com for great prices on great power tools today!