Would anyone with experience with this please comment on building drawers using the Grass Nova Pro system?
Would anyone with experience with this please comment on building drawers using the Grass Nova Pro system?
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Replies
Haven't used the Grass, have used the Blum. It works well. Blum used to push it as an upscale alternative, which I could never understand. We used it only on the extremely cheap kitchens with melamine doors/drawer fronts. Considerably cheaper than the drawers we would otherwise make.
The upscale customers agreed. They preferred wood dovetails, undermount glides.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Edited 8/18/2007 10:50 am ET by VaTom
What is your total cost to make a maple dovetailed drawerbox, 5/8 sides, 1/4 ply bottom, say 4-1/2 h x 32 w x 21 d, all finished, then mounted on the softclose full-ex undermounts of your choice?
I would agree that the products like Blum Metabox are a little downmarket, but I don't think that the same can be said of the products up in the class of Blum Tandembox or Grass Nova Pro.
For those that have to see the wood box and the dovetail joints, though, for their drawer to speak "quality" to them, they will never be satisfied with one of these, even if it opens, closes, and glides like the finest Lexus or Mercedes.
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Sorry for the digression. I'm reView Imageally looking for some Nova Pro users. It appears to me that the whole drawer can be put together with components, using ordinary hand and power tools, no special machinery or fixtures required.
To do Grass's Zargen drawers, you'll need one of the special-purpose combo multihead drill and presses, plus the fixtured ram press.
Apparently my browser really didn't like whatever you put into that post. Got some boxes with titles, one of them blocking your text.
I've been out of the box business for a decade. At that time, $70 if I can change the wood. Remember that it's also pretty conservative/traditional here. After my employers fired me, they bragged that I was still making them money. They got a commissioned house (5x median price) mostly on the fact that I'd converted their production to dovetails (from the funky interlock joint they'd liked, which took twice the time of dovetails and nobody appreciated). Oh, shop was shut down 3 mos later.
You're saying that the Grass is significantly different from Metabox? I didn't see that. I've got a couple here in my kitchen, samples. Work well. Nothing I'd buy. Less (visible) hardware strikes me as better.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
You ever have an employee surnamed Amero? Hadda ask, he's from your area.
Edited 8/18/2007 11:44 am ET by VaTom
Try it this way. Here is Nova Pro by Grass. The site I clipped them from is Crown Point Cabinets, which has blocks against a quick cut and paste.
Interior doors as would be used in a basecab or pantry.
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And an upper drawer with drawerfront. The up-down-tilt adjustments are easily handled by onboard features, making it quite easy to dial in equal margins.
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Don't know Amero, nor do I have (nor want) employees.
Thanks for the pix. What's the installed price?
Kinda slick. Wouldn't generally sell well here compared to this. Wood's sassafras, oiled.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
Hardware cost is about $50 per drawer. The melamine bottom and back, depending on the finish of the mel, could run $4 to $6, cut and ready. Assembly labor takes 5 minutes or less.
I'll not add in the cost of making or applying the drawerfront, because that is the same, whether doing a wood drawer or one of these.
The Grass Elite full extension undermount slides with Airmatic softclose, cost about $18 per pair, including the drawer clips. You can pay a little less for MeplaAlfit, or more for the Blum Tandems, each with the same functionality.
My problem is that I'm not a cab maker with a full pro shop and finishing line, so I buy wood drawerboxes, instead of making them. My average cost for a maple dovetailed box is up around $48, which makes the NovaPro setup come in at about $11 less per drawer.
My problem is that I'm not a cab maker with a full pro shop and finishing line, so I buy wood drawerboxes, instead of making them.
And without employees, you're not going to be fabricating much of anything, or finishing for that matter. You also didn't mention installation cost. I included that and the drawer front in the price. What I'd worked out was a way to quickly determine cost (per drawer, per pullout, per single panel door, etc.).
Not that the budget I was given was ever anywhere close to adequate. My employers learned that they could count on me to always upsell. Installed (and finished) price is really the only thing that counts when pricing. This was a small low-production shop, max 3 substantial houses/yr.
With strong protest, did a stint making melamine kitchens when one of the principals bought into a commercial redevelopment and needed 75 kitchens/baths. Big challenge in that shop, but we cranked them out, averaging $1200, including tops, uninstalled. Those sheets flew.
Grass was extremely crappy service here at the time. Blum was great. I used Alfit undermounts once. Liked them and couldn't get any more when the distributor discontinued the line. Pre-internet.
Your comparing NovaPro is exactly what I did with Blum's. How well you sell it is, of course, up to you. PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!