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 Post subject: Sticker shock
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 4:35 pm 
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Wife and I spent an hour or 2 trying to decide on pulls for the chest today. We have somewhat different tastes, but both of us were stunned by the price tags on drawer pulls, even simplest ones are $5 and up each, some as much as $20-$30. Neither of us are inclined to the bigbox selections, so that leaves places like LeeValley, Paxton, Horton, VanDykes, etc. Since I'll need 20 of them, it may turn out that the pulls cost more than the lumber! I may have to take out a second mortgage. :shock:

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 4:49 pm 
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Just got the new VanDykes catalog...20% off orders over $100

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 4:53 pm 
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Wait a minute!

That's your update for today?

That drawer pulls are expensive?

:D

I understand the shock. Wish I knew of a way around it to help you out.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:01 pm 
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I feel your pain. I had nearly $1000 into pulls and finish materials on my highboy. After a few years that pain went away, and now I'm glad to have sprung for it.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:40 pm 
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Have you thought about turning your own knobs and pulls out of wood? :D

Rog

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:00 pm 
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Rapid Roger wrote:
Have you thought about turning your own knobs and pulls out of wood? :D

Rog


Me: "I could ...."

Her: "Don't even think about it."

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:19 pm 
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I feel your pain, bought new kitchen cabinet door knobs a few years ago. But, no place to cut corners we found, if you are getting brass be sure and get solid brass. On the original ones we had, the finish wore off fairly quickly from constant use.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:36 pm 
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hebertoo wrote:
I feel your pain, bought new kitchen cabinet door knobs a few years ago. But, no place to cut corners we found, if you are getting brass be sure and get solid brass. On the original ones we had, the finish wore off fairly quickly from constant use.


I noticed that a lot of the metal pulls now are made of zamak. Brass has been getting pricey for several years.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:10 pm 
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alright I like the whip I admit it is that wrong?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:55 pm 
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Zamak? I have no clue what that is, something new...and maybe good?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:11 pm 
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hebertoo wrote:
Zamak? I have no clue what that is, something new...and maybe good?


I was curious, too......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamak

Verna

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:13 pm 
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We have a do-gooder store in our area where builders and contractors donate surplus materials from their jobs for use in good works. It is called the "Re-Store" and has an amazing variety of new and used stuff for sale at cheap prices. Ours has a large inventory of hardware from remodeling cabinetry jobs. Such a place might be worth looking at for your hardware.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:15 pm 
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Keep an eye on Craigslist. When I remodeled my kitchen last year, I stumbled across a listing for brass drawer pulls, knobs, and hinges. It turns out that a young couple bought a 100-year old farm house and remodeled the entire home. They saved all the hardware from the kitchen and pantry and sold the whole lot for $15. I imagine solid brass drawer pulls go for more than $15 each and I got enough to do the entire kitchen remodel for the same price. I didn't even clean them because the patina was too nice to remove.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:07 am 
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For some of the more basic pulls, places like Lee Valley and others mentioned on this forum can really bring the cost down, though $3-5 is getting hard to beat. But if you want sticker shock, go to some high end design center and check out how much you can throw at this sort of thing. For better or worse, we live near Santa Fe and occasionally check out the options at the various high-design stores. $20-30 per pull is the low end. We looked at some glass tile for our bathroom backsplash and almost died when the estimate for about 8 sq ft of tile was $1000. (not a typo).


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:09 am 
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I feel your pain, I need about 45 pulls, I check on them too and decided to hold off till summer when finances are better.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:33 am 
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Gene, Donald posted "Lawless Hardware" the other day.
I'm glad he did, cause I'll be buying from them in the future.
Their KV drawer slides are 40% cheaper than other online hardware.
They do have some nice pulls for your chest.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:02 am 
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Zamak (or zamac ) is zinc,aluminum, magnesium, copper alloy. Aka "Pot metal". Pretty soft stuff, kind of the balsa wood of alloys. Been around about 90 years in one form or another. Usually used in a die-cast process like those little toy cars you see around. I don't like it, because threaded parts strip out too easily.

Bob, thanks for the tip on Lawless. I'll check it out.

Mango, I din't know you were so kinky :wink: :lol:

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 3:27 pm 
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DennisS wrote:
I know it's a tough bullet to bite, Gene, but that chest is gonna be a knockout when it's done. This is no time to be compromising on the hardware. Find the hardware that you know belongs on the chest.


Especially when I'm already missing most of my teeth :shock: :D . I've already got about $500 invested in this project, so you're right about not compromising too much anyway.

The main issue is finding something that's at least somewhat unique rather than the usual styles (Victorian, Mission, Chippendale, etc. ). I've found a couple of sources that look promising for handmade unique pulls - one in particular that I liked - http://www.wolfgangforge.com/wfgraphics ... lhome.html . And another that stocks items from a variety of sources, some of which may work for us - http://www.shop4classics.com/cabinethardware.asp

Might be worth bookmarking these for anyone else in the market for this kind of thing.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:46 pm 
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I have bought a bunch of pulls from knobsandpulls.com for my outfeed table and router table. I found some solid hefty zinc silver pulls for under a dollar each. I have no affiliation with then . . . just found them once while searching for cheaper pulls.

Customer service was great too. They erroneously sent me two different finishes on an order once. After I contacted them, they sent me the correct finish pulls and told me to keep the others.

-Brian


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:01 pm 
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Hey, with all that money you saved not finishing the inside of the drawers you can afford the hardware! :D :D :D Sorry Gene the devil made me do it.

Sriously though, I would say that what you are making will probably end up a family heirloom. Make the wife happy now and another generation happy later and get the good stuff!

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