New Oven

It's been five years since we remodeled the kitchen - at the time we didn't replace the oven. The one we had looked old fashioned, but it was fully functional so we kept it. Even though it has carried on working all this time, it turns out that this may have been a false economy.

Here's why: The old oven was hard wired into a 220 Volt/50 AMP electrical circuit. And, while the new one is also 220 Volt, it comes with a plug and only requires a 20 AMP circuit (i.e. 40 percent of the power of the old oven). We use our oven a lot, so the cost of running an older appliance for five years would probably go a long way towards the cost of a new oven, if not cover it entirely. Oh well...

Converting the hard wired connection to an outlet at the back of the cabinet was straightforward, and I replaced the 50 AMP breaker at the panel with a 20 AMP breaker. This way I don't have to replace the cable between the kitchen and the circuit breaker panel. 

The other difference is that although the new oven has the same interior space, it comes in a much smaller package, which means the opening in the kitchen cabinets needs to be reduced. I started by building some blocks for the oven to stand on - the appliance will be aligned at the top and center of the existing opening:

I have a lot of scrap walnut plywood kicking around in the workshop, so this was a good opportunity to use some:

The next step is to glue supports at the base and sides of the opening to which the new edge pieces can be attached:

Same at both sides:

Next step is to add the sections which will be visible, which were mounted flush with the existing cabinet front:

The next picture is later after the glue has cured, small gaps have been filled with automotive body filler and the the face frame has been sanded to 220 grit.

Rollered on some primer...

...and two layers of top coat:

With new oven installed: