Tags:

My wife, Michelle has been wanting to revamp our kitchen for quite a while, because the cupboard doors are getting rather worn and stained. They are laminated, and in several places where the doors and drawers bang against each-other, the top layer is wearing off. In some places, there are track marks where screws from doors are rubbing on the fronts of adjacent drawers, and in other places splashes that should be easy to clean off have left stains we can't get off. Anyway, after looking at the cost of a new kitchen, she's decided we can't afford this at the moment.

So, she's been looking through blog posts about people who have made upgraded their kitchens cheaply, and found some who have made them out of pallet wood. As I have made quite a lot of stuff out of pallets, she got to thinking... and inevitably, out comes the question:

"Could you make us a new kitchen out of pallet-wood?"

She showed me some pics - some were amazing, and others were... let's say, a bit shonky. Being the sucker I am, I replied in my best Jarvis Cocker voice, "I'll see what I can do", and then quickly added "but I'll need some tools...".

Now, as far as Michelle is concerned, I already have loads of tools... maybe more than I need, but she does accept that I save us a lot of money by doing things myself instead of paying someone to do it. "What do you need then, and how much will it cost?"

After doing some quick ebay searches, and a back-of-an-envelope calculation, I came up with "probably about £500" for a some power tools and miscellaneous bits and pieces. She agreed that this was significantly cheaper than the approximately £10,000 to £20,000 for a new kitchen, so I could go ahead.

It's obviously a long-running project - I'm going to have to learn how to use these tools, and get things set up in my workshop, and I'm going to have to build some of the tools too, because bought ones are way too expensive. I already have:

Cordless and corded electric hand drills and drills/bits
Compound mitre saw
Bandsaw
Electric plane
Lots of manual hand tools
Multi-tool/oscillating tool
Recipricating saw
Vice
Workmate bench

So what do I think I need, and what do I think I'll use them for?

Router - for trimming, grooving, forming joints and so on
Router table - for things like tongue and groove, rounded edges and finishing edges
Router dovetail jig - for making proper furniture joints
Drill press - for drilling accurately at 90 degrees
Thickness planer - for making consistent thickness planks from inconsistent pallet wood
Table saw - for ripping pallet into consistent widths, though I can use the bandsaw for small quantities
Dust extraction facility - something better than the vacuum I'm currently using
Inevitably more things I haven't thought of yet

I'll break down how this is progressing in subsequent posts.