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Questions For Cabinet Builders

Started by David Freed, September 21, 2016, 08:48:59 PM

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David Freed

Are your face frames 3/4" or 13/16"?

What thickness plywood do you use in the sides, floor, and back of your boxes?

What do you use for a nail rail?

Any reasons for why you use any of the above?

Trahlin

3/4" plywood sides and top/bottoms.  Back is 1/2" plywood.  I cut dados so that all stresses are distributed throughout the case.  Back is set into a dado 3/4" so the nailer is hidden behind the back.  All joints are glued and screwed.  Use pocket holes where necessary.  My cabinets are definitely overbuilt as far as strength, but are less costly to build than Home Depot cabinets.  I refuse this use MDF or particle board.  Only use Baltic Birch plywood.  Minimum of 9 layers thick.  I actually buy my sheet goods from Menards.  Few voids, and affordable.  I only build for my wife.  She only likes white oak face frames and doors.  Euro hinges with 1/2" overlay.  Full extension sliders.  Think about as you age, and not having to get down on the floor to get to get to the pots at the back of the lower counters.  It may be wrong, but it works for us.
You only truly fail, when you fail to TRY!

Den Socling

Wow Trahlin. Can you show us some pictures? White Oak fronts sound pretty!

5quarter

Hi David...I'm guessing you're talking kitchen cabinets? Drawer boxes are all solid wood, finished inside and out. usually Hackberry, Sycamore or Maple, whichever I have the most of at the time. All sides 5/8".  I use ½" maple or birch plywood for the bottoms. Backs and bottoms are dadoed. bottom floats like a normal panel and the back is inset 1" and glue blocks installed in back outside corners. top edge of sides and back get an ogee profile and the drawer front is attached with 4 pocket screws, one at each corner. Face frames are all 3/4" and I build them first, along with the doors and drawers. Cases are always built last and built to fit the frames. Be sure to dado in your adjustable shelving strips before assembling your cases (don't ask how I know  ;)). My cabinets are almost always inset or raised inset...I have never liked overlays.
What is this leisure time of which you speak?
Blue Harbor Refinishing

BurkettvilleBob

When I worked in a shop we used 3/4 for sides a bottom, the top was a web of 3" wide 3/4 strips. The sides were glued and screwd into rabbetts in top and bottom. Then 2.5 " x 3/4 cleat in the back, screwed through the sides and glued and screwed to the top and a 1/4" back. I supposed you could used 1/2 for the sides, but I like the stoutness of 3/4. I don't see a need for anything thicker on the back, it's just adding rigidity to the carcass. I guess we used 13/16 ff for inset doors and 3/4 for overlay.

Babylon519

Whenever I want to build a cabinet, I consult my collection of VHS recordings of New Yankee Workshop. What works for Norm, works for me!  :D :D
- Jason
Jason
1960 IH B-275 - same vintage as me!
1960 Circle Sawmill 42"
Stihl MS440 & a half-dozen other saws...

David Freed

Thanks for all the replies. All the shops in my area make their cabinets the same way. I wanted to see some other methods before I start building.

woodworker9

All of my cabinetry is built with 3/4" plywood. Veneer core only, North American made only.

For face frames and doors, I use 7/8" finished thickness stock.  For painted cabinetry, I use soft maple stock.  I used to use poplar for years, but after 20 years in business, I was getting requests for repairing collision dents in doors and drawer fronts.  That's when I switched to soft maple, as it's about 50% harder, and takes a finish equally well.  It does move a little more, so you have to allow for that with raised panels.

I install all my raised panels using tiny rubber inserts in the grooves.  This keeps the panels centered, and also prevents the doors from rattling or sounding loose when they get shut hard.  They're called panel buddies, or space balls, etc.....google is your friend.

All cabinet doors are mortise and tenon at the corners without exception.  If they're for your own use, and your not hard on your cabinet doors, and don't have small kids, you can get away with rail/stile bit joinery.  For the custom work that my customers are paying for, I have to make the doors bulletproof, standing up to the rigors of kids slamming doors for 20 years straight.
03' LT40HD25 Kohler hydraulic w/ accuset
MS 441, MS 290, New Holland L185

Greyhound

Nothing is "standard" in my cabinets.  I use what I can get out of the 4/4 rough stock for face frames.  I only use solid wood for face frames, so there is essentially no difference between 3/4" and 13/6".  Mortise and tenon for frames and "space balls" to hold the panels in place work great.  However, bridle joints for the frame are quicker and easier and just as strong or stronger than M&T joints if you want to substitute.



Faces and doors are walnut.  Secondary woods are soft maple, sassafras and/or 13/16 th oak veneer plywood.


woodworker9

Most of the pictures of my work is stored on my --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- account, and I can't figure out how to download those here.  My last computer had the hard drive blow up, and I lost about 20 years of work pictures.

Here's a couple that I took recently, and I will learn, one of these days, to back up my hard drive:

This is a 24' long and 10' high bank of cabinets and fireplace surround made from curly and birdseye maple



This is a 12' high and 15' wide set off office bookcases for a pilot made from Knotty Alder.  The entire case was outfitted with his collection of memorabilia from "Doolittle's Raiders" from WW2 bombing of Tokyo.  The globe in the middle is his prized possession, and is made up completely of gem stones designating all the countries around the world. 



Jeff

03' LT40HD25 Kohler hydraulic w/ accuset
MS 441, MS 290, New Holland L185

David Freed

Thanks for the info and pics. I'm a little distracted building a shop now. Hope to be building cabinets soon.

Quote from: woodworker9 on October 14, 2016, 03:58:10 PM
Most of the pictures of my work is stored on my --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!-- account, and I can't figure out how to download those here.
It is a lot more complicated to get a picture in a post here, but with this method, you don't end up with "photo not available" down the road when someone deletes it off their hard drive.

Quote from: woodworker9 on October 14, 2016, 03:58:10 PMMy last computer had the hard drive blow up, and I lost about 20 years of work pictures. Here's a couple that I took recently, and I will learn, one of these days, to back up my hard drive:
I use SugarSync. It takes a little bit to set up, but once done, everything is automatically saved. I am downloading 7 gigs of info and pics from the "cloud" right now onto a new computer because my old one just broke a couple days ago.

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