Got pulled into a commercial cabinet install for a few days to get a jewelry store ready for a grand re-opening. Installed 56 island cabinets in one room. The cab boxes were 4 to 8′ long with 1-1/8″ sides and lots of heavy glass (except for the small, angled transition pieces).
Crazy Man, Crazy.
The floor was an inch and a half out of level…most shims I’ve ever used on one job!
No wall cabs to hang though.
Tomorrow I’ll run base and toekick in the showroom and I’m done (then I wrap up the train station brackets).
Replies
looks like alot of work.
hope it paid good.
How'd you mount them?
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Looks good.
Good money in fast track commercial work.
Chuck Slive, work, build, ...better with wood
Chuck,Thanks, it really went together nicely.Amazingly, that huge cabinet order, with all that glass, and nothing arrived damaged! Also with all the angles and odd cabinets, every cabinet was exactly like the drawing and nothing was missing.Cheers,Brian
Billing by the hour at $60/hr x 24 hours of cabinet installing=$1440 or about $25 per box (I do good and they get a good deal in my estimation)......plus a day of trim & toekick extra.It was a serious workout.Each group of 6 to 12 cabinets/transition pieces, weighed 300 to 1000 pounds so they are just attached to each other...gravity is holding them in place. Lots of 2" screws holding the cabinets to each other and they are very well shimmed. The base and toekick run tight to the commercial berber should also resist movement, as will the angled configurations.
that's what I wondered with those big commercial cabs.
if they just sat there.
when I do kitchen islands ... I always run a 2x across and screw the sides to it.
sometimes, if it's a small footprint ... I'll make a 2x box then screw sides, front and back.
suprisingly ... have had more than one kitchen designer wonder how we were gonna keep "this one" from tipping over.
I always say "just like all the rest"!
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
I do kitchen island cabs like you...I like making things good and sturdy.Those commercial beasts with 1-1/8" sides and all the heavy glass...4',5',6' and 8' long...man, it took two or three guys just to move one of them...then gang a few together--they ain't movin'.
Bass. A long while ago we got the contract for some Famous Footwear fixture installs. Man, unusual. Most everything was a knockdown display-rubber mallet them together. Thousands of lbs of PB-that we just beat the hell out of-but with dexterity. A few hundred sheets of slatwall and we were off to the next one.
Interesting repetitive work. Didn't take long to get the hang of it. And like yours, well laid out-little guesswork.
The first one we met the installation manager-young guy-he'd done many many b/4. His job-meet and hire the contact-show them the layout-monitor the progress, answer questions and make sure it was done to their specs. Normally he would hire local outfits to do one. We must have impressed the boy, he used us on several more here and in S. Mi. Was fun for a while, but travel didn't thrill us.
For about 4-5 yrs we did alot of mall work. Usually building the space-on occasion outfitting the store. Good thing to learn.A Great Place for Information, Comraderie, and a Sucker Punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
http://www.quittintime.com/
I met a trim carp a dozen years ago, who traveled all over to trim out Wendy's burger joints. He liked it.Not sure how much I want to travel for work on a regular basis, but occasionally it's cool.Commercial work is not a regular gig for me, but I have enjoyed most of the jobs I've had.I've done cab, counters and trim etc. for a few restuarants
I do very little commercial work.
went on one job to run trim.
ended up staying to help framing the elevator shaft then hanging the "shaft liner".
talk about shifting gears ...
one week making nice little piles of saw dust ... the next ... hanging off scaffold 5 stories up in a concrete block death trap!
at least our set of doors lined up ...
the elevators guys got up to the 4th floor ...
they were all over the place. we read the prints ...
dropped a line to the first floor and yelled up.
high tech stuff line that!
Jeff
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Ever see them plumb a 50' hydraulic cylinder for an elevator? Keep in mind that it is 50' in the ground, and if it ain't plumb, it won't work.
Nope.
string or lazer?
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Piano wire with a chunk of steel tied to the end.
Danski has it. If the cylinder is 6" diameter, they use a plate just smaller than the cylinder. A string runs through the center of the plate and it is balanced so it hangs level and has a light underneath it. They have a jig that sits on top of the cylinder and the string hangs from dead center. Then they drop the plate down and look for the light. If the light is visible all the way around the plate, it's level.
cool.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
lol: high tech stuff like that. Variety is good.
Jeff, will you be paddling the river a bit this coming summer? Your boy is old enough to have his own paddle, no?
he won't get out on our three rivers ...
they're too unpredictable below the surface ...
but he'll certainly find his way around a coupla lakes.
I don't mind lake canoeing ... I know lotsa people hate it.
but I like the exercise ... plus the chance to stop and float where ever.
we didn't get out once last summer due to my work schedule, so we are dead set on camping this year. Still have the tent I bought "for" last summer that's never been set up once!
still checking ebay for that deal of a lifetime, but lotsa places around here with nice rentals .. so you ... he'll get out.
thinking of trying him in a kayak too.
that's more the wife's thing ... I'm more comfy long term in a canoe, but I think he'll like sitting down low and paddling away ... for at least 3 or 4 minutes!
went over my Sis's for easter ... the BIL got the 2 boys new fishing rods.
I got the boy a nice set up ... again ... for last season ... but the one the BIL got him is another nice little zebco on a much shorter rod. I think it's about 40" long.
will be great for areas with overhanging trees.
he could cast his little Snoopy reel out a good 20ft ... so he's fine with a short rod.
and his old paddle will go to the baby ...
years ago got him a promotional Old Town little wood paddle. Maybe 18-20" long.
put it on a line and attached a clip ... so he could lose it overboard every 30 seconds!
thinking the little monster ... uh baby ... will love that idea! She's 14 mos this month.
man ... whole different baby than he was ... she's gonna be work taking her camping!
glad we got a responsible 6 yr old to help herd her in.
him we could trust ... her ... she ain't getting outta the truck at the lake without the life vest on! Should be interresting.
can 22 lbs of trouble capsize a canoe?
thinking me and boy will get alot of "guy time" together just to keep us all safe!
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Elevators would be interesting to work on, that is something I know nothing about.You mentioned reading the plans...the jewelry showroom job had track lighting and cans in soffits above all the display cases. I knew the owners would want the cases well lit and aligned with the light arrays as much as the walls.Turns out my worry about following the lighting rather than the plan dimensions was quickly put to rest...the electricians could definately read a plan and a tape measure...they were accurate in centering the lights within 1/4" in 40' (less than 1% error), even though they were hanging down several feet from the ceiling on threaded rods.The sparky probably hung it perfectly and someone bumped it putting in light bulbs (though he did surface mount an electrical box inside a cabinet with screws about an 1/8" longer than the thickness of the cabinet. Put two little holes in the laminate and pushed it away from the PB, like two tent poles in a ridge tent.Found out yesterday, that that showroom will be featured in a regional jewelry trade journal...I'll have to get a copy.
<that that showroom will be featured in a regional jewelry trade journal>
That's the best thing - seeing your work in a magazine.
Forrest - still waiting for that
Forrest - still waiting for that
You got your arm in - your fifteen minutes are up!
That will be very nice to see.Yesterday was interesting in the jewelry store. They buy gold jewelry and with the price of gold in the stratosphere, all kinds of folks were bringing gold rings and other loot in. Some didn't like the look of a ring, so they had the goldsmith there, remove the stones, which they kept, and sold off the ring.I'm having the goldsmith scarf joint a ring for me (to avert degloving or decapitating injury). They lazer weld and polish the joints and they are invisible.
that'll be cool to see it in a mag.
Guy I've done some kitchens for is always getting his stuff printed.
some regular mags ... some are the "advertiser magazines" ... where he pays for a magazine article about himself.
but most people think they're real mags.
and I've got to see a coupla projects I've worked on in them.
last year was waiting in line at HD and on one of the advertising mag's he puy himself on the cover ... got to point it out to my boy and show him a pic of Daddy's work on a cover!
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Looks good. In a movie, you would have built in some secret compartments and devices that would allow the cabs to "eat" some display pieces and hide them 'til somebody came and 'received" them.
Forrest
That's so funny because as I was reading this title and the posts that follow I was thinking the same thing. Come back about a month later to "check" how the job is holding up and find the hidden treasures. Ha haha.
Those displays contain dozens of thousand dollar plus jewelry...millions of dollars of inventory in that store.Each night, they empty out dozens of display cases and it all goes in the safe...the next morning, they set it all back up in the showroom.I joked about placing my helpers lunch in the museum case (cube with 5 glass sides) with the alarm. ;o)