Over the years I’ve written about what custom means in woodworking.  The line blurs.  Do you buy doors or drawers and still sell custom jobs?  Anyway – I think I found an interesting custom example of custom.  In the accompanying video I use SketchList 3D as custom accessible kitchen design software to create a functional kitchen for anyone in a wheel chair.  Or at least I started!
Friends of mine bought a downsized house where all living spaces exist on the first floor.  Great idea.  As I visited,  my friend brought out a three step stool and started to climb to its top.  She wanted to get something from an upper cabinet.  Whoa!  So maybe buying a one level house isn’t enough of a safety ove.  Maybe the very layout of the kitchen needs to be re-thought.
I did some research.  The American’s Disability Act publishes online information about the required layouts, distances, and clearances for handicap access.  I’d rather read the tax code!   I found the web site InspectAPedia a very helpful source.  LINK

The Process

I began just laying out a bit of a u-shaped kitchen.  I knew that the cabinet heights should not exceed 32 inches.  But that was about all .  My first design positioned the stove so that someone sitting in a wheel chair could not access the back burners.

I moved the stove and placed two shallow shelving units on its sides.  This gives access to the back burners.
The sink needs no obstruction underneath it so someone in a chair has full access for washing.  The dishwasher is right next to the sink.
Starting with a full height refrigerator but replacing them with lower the drawer types refrigerator and freezer improved access.
Storage shelves act as pull out drawers providing access to the back of the shelf.  Note the kicks are either 9 high and 6 deep for wheelchair clearance.  Power wheel chairs require more height – 16 inches.
A last minute adjustment dealt with not enough clearance for maneuvering a wheelchair.  The round rug like shape has a diameter of 60 inches.  That is the required/suggested clearances.  In SketchList 3D I made the shape and dragged it between the cabinets.  this pointed out the places where cabinets needed to moving.

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A few years ago we conducted a survey on what SketchList 3D users were designing.  While of course kitchens were at the top of the list, a bookshelf cabinet with doors was a close second.  Who can’t sue more office storage?  Sometimes they have door and drawers, a television, of computer equipment.  So it’s a general category.  One thing about that type of work — it really can challenge you in terms of custom work.  And custom work presents the challenge of selling your client – since it’s harder for them to vision unique rather than cookie-cutter work.

A shop owner, Trent Tedder of Old Mill Custom Woodcrafting, [Link ] wanted to address this difficulty of selling custom work by learning to use SketchList 3D the segment of his business that provides bookshelf cabinet with doors and doors.

Trent emailed a copy of a hand drawing of the job he was proposing.  In a one hour session, he shared the SketchList trainer’s screen and creates the model.  This post shows what happened.

Drawing to modeling – the big switch over.

The bookshelf cabinet with doors and drawers might have been more of an office – since the center contained a drawing table / desktop.
Here’s the image we used for our effort.  It gave us a starting point with Trent filling in the missing dimensions and details verbally.

This is the result as we completed the session.   (We did not ‘install’ the top of the bottom cabinets since that material had not been selected yet.)

This model was completed in just over an hour.

The shop drawings, list, and optimized material layouts included – because they are integrated with the design process.

In this hour – social pleasantries and business questions included – Trent learned the 3 – 4 SketchList 3D concepts, the 3 tools used for all designs, how to output the reports, and the three steps in every design.  These three steps repeat constantly:  insert, size, locate.  He also saw how tools like clone (space, and mirror included) and align speed design times.

The work we did.

Working together we model the lower unit on the left – at least the box and face frames.  After about the first 20 minutes Trent was given control over the mouse and keyboard.  He then modeling the drawer in that unit, and cloned a copy and located it.  Then he cloned another drawer but this time making the height 6 inches.  Clone and mirror that first unit and the two lowers were done.  He did that.

On his way to expert – he cloned the lower left unit, deleted the drawers, inserted the doors, resized and located it.

The center unit was ‘build from scratch’ but by this time Trent knows the 3-4 concepts, 3 steps, and how to use the 3 tools for sizing and locating.  He ‘built’ that upper center bookcase in 2 or 3 minutes.    Remember – his first time using SketchList 3D for his bookshelf cabinet with doors and drawers.
Now what he wanted at the beginning of the training was to give his prospect a non-hand drawing with dimensions.    So here that is.

Ongoing process

And his work goes on.  So in order to ingrain what he learned in this hour, he will re-create the model on his own computer. if and when  he gets stuck he will ask for guidance from SketchList.  As of today  – no contact from him.  Must be he’s getting along well.

If you run any type of woodworking business and want to save time, generate better proposals, and have the detailed reports necessary to minimize production errors – you should use SketchList 3D.  The barrier we hear – not enough time to learn  – goes away completely with the JumpStart training session.  Make the change today.  Call in. Get online and sign up.  Take advantage of this powerful way to get you moving in the right direction.

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Jerry Wees is a  woodworker who designed his project to build a desk in SketchList 3D.  This post provides before (SketchList images) and after (photographs) of various views showing his fine effort to build a desk.

This is a very elegant desk, nicely finished, great proportions, and very functional.  It is also a fairly complex undertaking because of all of the shelves, drawers, and pullouts on seemingly every side of the desk.  Another views shows some of this complexity.

Notice the way the two wings of the L come together in the corner.   And in the view you can see a few of the shelves and pullouots used for supplies, a keyboard, and a printer.

Images and models

This would be a difficult piece of work to pull off without detailed plans or the ability to test various alternatives on the computer screen.  For Sketchlist 3D that looks like this.

And the second view looks like this model.

The design is very functional with pull out sliders for the printer and other equipment.

In SketchList 3D the model for this follows.

By carefully modeling the design to build a desk on the computer screen, you can check if drawers and pullouts will fit before you cut any stock.
Of course there is a file drawer!   In SketchList 3D it is complete with 2 sides, a drawer, a front and back, and a bottom.  The panel on front even includes some nice detail. If you are going to build a desk – do it right!

One very nice detail is the pop-up mechanism for the screen at the back of the desk top.

In the model that cutout fits the hardware used for the pop-up.  The actual top was hidden to show the parts underneath.
In fact, speaking of parts underneath look at this exploded view!

Reports

Wow it’s a good thing there are drawings and reports to help put this together!

Multiple shop drawings can be created in minutes.

And the cut list is always there.  Every time you add or change a board in the model that change is instantly added to the cut list.
If you a are going to build a desk – wouldn’t you like to have a complete set of plans and drawings to help you? Better yet if you build a desk – wouldn’t it be nice to absolutely customize it to your customer’s needs?
Here’s another example of a desk model in Sketchlist 3D.  LINK

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