As beautiful as our cabinetry is, the beauty only lasts as long as the quality of the construction and joinery dictates. Under normal use, our cabinetry will last for more than a hundred years.
The keys to the longevity of our cabinets are lumber selection, quarter sawn doors (where possible), mortise and tenon joints, miter and spline corners, sliding dovetails, dovetailed drawers and our hardware selection.
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Installed Kitchen
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True custom cabinetry means the cabinets are built to fit uniquely in your space. When and wherever possible, we try to make one continuous cabinet. This eliminates any visible seams or lines within a run of cabinetry. Nothing is pre-made; every part of our cabinetry is made to fit your kitchen, exactly.
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Individual Wall Cabinet
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Wall cabinets, base cabinets and tall cabinets are built in the same way. Mortise and tenon frames and doors, miter and spline corners and sliding dovetail joinery make cabinets as rugged and durable as possible.
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Individual base run cabinet
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By combining what would otherwise be several cabinets in a cabinet run, we achieve the cleanest and most seamless look possible.
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Cabinet doors in beautiful red birch
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Production on our kitchens starts with wood selection. Our painted kitchens are made of hard maple and we handpick our hardwood for our species kitchens, not only for the color and figure of the wood, but also for its stability and soundness. For example, red birch and cherry are selected from 10 to 12 (or wider) inch boards. This way, we may obtain a more uniform color and figure in the wood.
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Beautiful natural cherry cabinetry
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Our door, drawer front and finished end panels are made of the widest boards possible. Our panels are never made up of several narrow strips of wood, so all of the wood used in our panels is handpicked for its width, as well as, its color and beauty.
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Stack of un-milled hardwood
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We mill all of our hardwood in house and are able to get the wood’s width, length and thickness to within a thousandth of an inch… precise measurements for precise construction.
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Flattening is the first step when milling
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This step involves flattening the underside of a board. The board is fed through the top of our milling machine, over the blades, while the operator adjusts the amount of wood to be taken off.
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After flattening, boards are milled to a desired thickness
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After the board is flat on the bottom, it is then milled to a desired thickness. After the flattening and "thicknessing" is complete, one edge of the board is straightened on the vertical joiner blades. The board is then ripped to a desired width on the table saw.
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Thin door stripping going through the wide belt sander
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Once the boards have been milled to a desired thickness and ripped to a desired width, they are then fed through our wide belt sander to arrive at finished thickness and if the board is narrow enough, a finished width. If a board is so wide that its edges cannot be sanded through the machine, its edges will be cleaned up in hand sanding later.
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Thin door stripping exiting the wide belt sander
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All parts that have been milled, ripped and sanded are then ready to be cut to length.
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Cart of milled hardwood
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After machine sanding the boards are taken to the chop saw to be cut to length. Using an automated sliding fence, which is controlled with a digital keypad, all of the parts are cut to within a thousandth of an inch. While this is happening the parts are meticulously labeled for reference throughout production. The parts are then ready for joinery.
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A mortise and tenon joint
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The true measure of quality cabinetry is joinery. This is what sets us apart from most cabinet shops, and will determine the longevity of your kitchen. To join wood at right angles (face frames and doors), we use a mortise and tenon joint. This is a time tested technique where the end of one board is machined to fit into the side of another.
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Sliding together a mortise and tenon joint
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To allow the mortise and tenon joints to work correctly, we make miter cuts to the inner profiles of the frames and make haunch cuts to the ends of the frame parts to prevent twisting and warping.
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Setting up to cut a mortise into a door stile
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The mortises and tenons are all cut on separate CNC driven machines. These machines are quick and consistent, so the tenons fit into the mortises perfectly every time.
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A miter and spline joint
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Our furniture-quality outside cabinet corners are created using a miter and spline joint. In this joint, each side is cut at a 45 degree (or larger if need be) angle and spline slots are cut down the entire length of the angled face. A spline is then placed in the slot and the two pieces are glued together. This joint will never come apart or break.
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A sliding dovetail joint
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The box or carcass parts of our cabinets are joined to the face frame and each other using sliding dovetails. The female dovetail is cut into the face frame (or 1 of 2 faces of a box part) and the male dovetail is cut into the edge of a box part that will be attached to it. The male dovetail is slid into the female dovetail, thus locking the parts together. These parts are not only locked in place, but are also glued and screwed.
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Precisely cut sliding dovetail joint
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Our sliding dovetails are cut on two separate machines. One cuts the female dovetails on the fronts on backs of parts and one cuts the male dovetails on the edges of parts. The female dovetails are positioned using an automated sliding fence to ensure the perfect cut in the correct place.
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Applying glue to a rail tenon
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Once the joinery is complete on the frames and doors, the parts are glued together and left to dry; usually, for at least a week.
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Gluing up door in glue racks
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Once the frames are glued up, they are taken out of the glue racks and then the entire frame or door is sanded to its final thickness through a wide belt sanding machine.
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Routing profile edge onto a wood counter top
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There are always specialty items to every kitchen. Drawer fronts, baseboard, wood counter tops, brackets etc. are also all made in house.
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Solid wood brackets
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A variety of machines and tools are used to create all the specialty parts of a kitchen. To do all the things that machines can't do, we rely on the craftsmen and craftswomen in our shop to execute the necessary tasks.
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Care is taken to ensure the reveal around a door is always consistent
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Because we specialize in inset cabinetry (the doors and drawer fronts sit inside the face frame), the next step after sanding the parts to thickness is fitting.
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Consistent margins are a hallmark of quality cabinet making
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We fit each door and drawer front to its specific face frame opening. This is done by hand and eye to ensure the most uniform fit possible.
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Stack of plywood cabinet case parts
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The floors, sides, backs and partitions of the cabinet boxes (carcasses) are made of three quarter inch plywood or solid wood.
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Stack of plywood shelves
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Our shelves are made of 3/4" plywood or solid wood with solid wood noses. We do not use iron-on tape for the fronts of our shelves, our noses are attached to our shelves using a tongue and groove or a spline joint depending on the size of the nosing.
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Plywood case parts attach to the face frame with a sliding dovetail
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As mentioned previously, these are attached to the face frames and corresponding parts using sliding dovetail joints.
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Stack of custom drawers
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The drawers are all built using 5/8 inch thick solid hard maple and are joined together using half blind dovetails. These drawers are completely custom and can be built to fit any size drawer opening in the kitchen.
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Installed custom drawer
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A half blind dovetail joint means that the dovetails are only visible on one side of the drawer. This allows the front of the drawer to be one consistent flat face. This makes attaching the drawer front easier and provides a tighter fit.
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Sanding door profile by hand
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The next step before finish is hand sanding. All pieces and parts are sanded, by hand, to enhance the detail cut into the wood and to rid the parts of all tooling or saw marks.
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Hand sanding
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Hand sanding is time consuming. In fact, it is the most time consuming process in cabinet production. It may also be the most necessary. Not only do the parts get sanded for the best look and feel possible, but hand sanding also allows for close quality control.
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The drawer box, drawer front frame and drawer front panel were all painted separately
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Each part of the kitchen is painted individually. The panels are painted separately and put into the frames and doors afterward to eliminate paint seams and unfinished areas.
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Painted corner base in assembly
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After all of the parts of a kitchen have been finished, the parts are then assembled by hand. Using sliding dovetail joinery, the cabinets are made as rigid and sturdy as possible.
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Red birch cabinets in assembly
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Assembly also provides an opportunity for quality control. Each cabinet is inspected to make sure all of its components fit and work perfectly.
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Painted cabinets in assembly
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The final step in assembly is making and reviewing a checklist to ensure all parts are accounted for and all necessary work is completed.
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Cabinets ready to be wrapped and sent out
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After assembly, all parts of a kitchen are carefully wrapped and prepared for shipping.
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Installed Cook & Cook kitchen
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A lot of careful planning, careful building and careful finishing go into all of our cabinets. And the reason is simple… we don’t know any other way.
