After I completed the master bathroom cabinet doors, I moved on to the upstairs bathroom. This cabinet consisted of 4 doors and 2 drawers. I would apply the lessons I learned from the master bathroom’s cabinet doors. It was also my first attempt of refacing the drawer fronts.
There was a couple of issues I encountered with these doors. First, the router bit was getting dull. I ruined one stile as the bit tore up the edge and split the wood through the grain. I fortunately had enough wood available to save a trip to the home improvement store. However, I had to disassemble the frame and replace the stile. I did not plug the screw holes yet, so re-drilling and re-assembly was easy.
It seemed peculiar that the bit was dull after only two doors. I decided to reduce the depth of my cuts and made a couple passes as I routed the frames and panels. In the back of my mind I knew I needed to sharpen the bit (or replace it) soon.
I still did not have a bench sander, but I came up with a solution to help sand down the plugs so they would fit. If you remember, the Kreg® wood plugs that hide the screw holes were too long. I needed to shorten them so they were flush with the rails. With the master bathroom doors, I used my bench grinder. My new solution was to use my Sears Craftman® belt sander. (Not recommended for those DIYers who believe in safety.) I clamped the belt sander upside down onto the bed of my table saw. I installed the 60-grit sandpaper belt to make easy work of shortening the plugs. With the belt exposed and turning about 800 FPM, I would sand down one plug at a time. Carefully with the plug pinched tightly between my thumb and forefinger, I pushed the plug down on the belt. I would apply pressure as needed and stop to check if the plug would now fit. I would insert it in the screw hole and see if the plug was now flush. If not, back to the sander to shorten it up. I would have 32 plugs to shorten. This method was far better and quicker than the bench grinder, but not necessarily safer.
I decided to sand and stain the front of the panels, so they matched the door frames. Even though the oak grain was prominent on the doors, overall the finished product looked better than the master bathroom doors.
Since I abandoned the use of the existing screw holes of the old doors as a template, I needed to devise a way to install the hinges. I came up with the idea to use the screw holes on the cabinet and mount the hinges there first. I would place each door in its opening resting it on the bottom rail of the cabinet. I then put a pencil mark on side of the door next to the top of the hinge.
I removed all the hinges to now install them on the doors. Keep in mind the doors were not centered up and down in the opening. Since the inside routed size of the door were about an 3/8” smaller than the opening, I needed to place the hinges 3/16” lower than the mark. On the double doors in the middle of the cabinet, it was essential that these doors lined up. I started doubting the marking of the hinges. My fear was I was not precise when I made my pencil mark. The 2 outside doors were installed without any problems, but I decided to take a different route with the middle doors.
I mounted the hinges on the left-hand door first. I then installed that door. I did not install the hinges on the right-hand door, but instead rescrewed the hinges back on the cabinet. I took the right-hand door and put it in the cabinet opening and lined it up with the other door. With the top of the doors lining up, I double checked my pencil mark. Not even close. I placed new pencil marks for both hinges. I removed the hinges from the cabinet, installed the hinges on the door and re-screwed the hinges to the cabinet.
For some reason, the doors were hitting. I applied the same method of fitting the doors by banging the doors with the palm of my hand until the doors closed properly. I could not get the doors to close tightly to the cabinet. For a just okay DIYer, it was good enough. I would install little round felt bumpers on the corners anyways.
To reface the drawers, I needed to cut off the edges of the drawer face to install the new drawer fronts. Using my table saw, I cut off the routed edges of each drawer. Since the new drawer fronts were 3/4” thick flush oak panels, I would need to rout the new drawer front edges like the cabinet doors. I clamped the new front panel to the front face of the drawer and from the back, I would use two Kreg® screws to mount the panels.
I went upstairs first to make sure the drawer would fit into the opening. I encountered a problem. The doors bottomed out in the back of the cabinet. I needed an additional 3/4” and I had about 11/16”. I took out the drawer and checked the door slides. I could not see anything obvious to rectify the problem. I did replace the drawer and tried a couple good hard slams. That did not work. I pondered. Nope, I would live with it and address the problem when I redid the 12 drawers in the kitchen. Again, I would install little round felt bumpers on the corners anyways.
I went back downstairs with the drawer and finished up on the other drawer. I was fortunate to be able to use the 2 existing holes in the old drawer fronts to drill out the holes for the handles. I installed the handles without an incident.
Upstairs I went and I put the drawers in place and easily mounted the sink panel. I had more room to maneuver under the sink for this cabinet. I placed the little felt pads on the doors and drawers. I cleaned up my mess of wood shavings and tools. I installed the newly spray-painted satin nickel light above the mirror, and I was done.
I stepped back. Wait for it…that DIY Zen moment. And like all my DIY projects, I would walk by it throughout the day and week to admire a job well done finished.
