# Cabinet Questions



## Rpfarm25 (Apr 17, 2012)

Hey Everyone, Im a little new here and new too smaller woodworking, however I have been a home Builder for about 7 years now and have done a lot of large scale framing and have installed kitchen cabinets many times as well as hardwood flooring and stuff but this will be my first time attempting to make my own cabinets. I know this seams like a big step but my house doesnt have the largest kitchen and Im very confident with all kinds of power tools. Anyway so I wanted to run my plan of attack with these cabinets through the forum first and I was hoping for some tips and pointers before i get started. 

So here it goes, I was going to do a frame-less front with hidden hinges with a shaker style door with square edges. Nothing too fancy at all, now I'm planning for a cappuccino brown stain on the outside and then a lighter cream color stain on the inside of carcass and shelves. I guess my biggest questions are, what type of wood to go with, It doesn't need to be anything fancy so i was thinking like a 3/4inch birch or maple plywood for the carcass and then just use edge-banding on the front edges. For the doors I'm Guessing Ill get strips of solid wood for the stiles not plywood so i wont need too go crazy with the edge-banding and have a 1/4 inch piece for the center of the door. 



Any feedback would be great for pointers and I'm guess there's a lot of things i probably didn't think about. Thanks


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

Welcome Stephen. Best thing for you to do is go to the "Community Search" box above, and put in the box, "Cabinets" and you will get TONS of info. I myself are in the middle of building my own cabinets, and I'm sure you will find my post w/pics, and earlier questions, when I was first starting out. Plus much much more.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Although you can get real wood edge banding. to me it still looks like edge banding. I would go with a small piece of solid wood instead. You could do the same with the doors. I think you might find the 1/4" a little flimsy. You can just glue a flat piece on the edge but there are a number of bit sets that are made for doing this a little better. The Burgess set is the best in my opinion but one of the most expensive as well. Plywood Edging Bits - Lee Valley Tools
Yonico and Elite Tools from Canada sell much cheaper sets on ebay.


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## Rpfarm25 (Apr 17, 2012)

Most of where Will have the edgebanding will be covered by the door when its closed will it not? And yeah I should put something bigger for the middle of the doors Ill be cutting a groove the the inside of the rails and stiles for the middle piece to sit in so that should help keep it sturdy.

N'awlins77 I checked out your pics there looking great! Hope mine can look half as good as yours nice job. What Species did you end up going with. Will keep looking through the forums for some ideas


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

Thanks Stephen. I used cabinet grade ply for the carcass, select pine for my face frames and 1/4" oak ply for the backs. For the shelves, I used cabinet grade ply, as well, but I used my cut-offs from the face-frame material as edge banding. I used 1x3's for the face-frames, which, as you know, are actually 2 1/2 wide. So then I cut off a 1/2" to make my face frames 2" wide. I used what was left of that 1/2", minus my thin kerf blade, as my shelf edge banding. This was way cheaper then buying the pine shelf boards as shelves, and plus, because my cut-off edge banding's were a little thicker then the ply shelves, I tacked the edge banding flush at the bottom, so it left a little ridge at the top of the shelf, so if we use contact paper, or anything on the shelves to further protect them, the edges won't show.


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## Rpfarm25 (Apr 17, 2012)

Ah nice right on thanks very much! How about your doors?


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

My door frames are also 2x1 select pine with the 1/4' oak panels. They are built and stained, just waiting to finish the carcass' and make room in the shop to poly them as well, then hang'em. I really wanted to do some type of smoked glass for the tall upper cabinet doors, and if I had known it was going to take me this long (with my delays) I would have ordered them. But at the time, we were still shooting to demo and have the kitchen finished for the holidays. But that aint happenin' now, so I really could have waited to get them in. But oh well, who said I can't make 6 new doors, with glass, at a later date, when the kitchen is finished! ;o)


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## Rpfarm25 (Apr 17, 2012)

Yes good idea I was also thinking of doing the same with one of my uppers. Glass doors with a couple wood grilles running though them. I guess the only other thing I thought of was What is a good way to fasten the carcass together for the majority of the my sides of course they will be hidden by the next cabinet so having exposed screw heads wouldn't be a big deal but thats aggressive framing side of me talking, Im sure there are some better ways to do it for smaller woodworking like this, dowels maybe? What would you recommend?

I appreciate your feedback, will have to keep reminding myself to take a lot of pictures of the project and transformation and keep everyone posted! The snow has hit the ground this morning so Im eager to get started so I can be done before seeding time rolls around in the spring.


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

Kreg Pocket hole scews. Bought the system a few projects before the kitchen cabinets and haven't looked back. I drilled from the outside on sides that wouldn't be exposed (butted with another cabinet) and then on those that would be exposed, I drilled from the inside, then plugged them with the provided stainable plugs. Makes very strong joinery!! On the faceframes, no plugs necessary.


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## Rpfarm25 (Apr 17, 2012)

So today the wife tells me she she wants the color of the cabinets white now, if Im working with say birch plywood and just going to paint it is edge banding necessary? Or can it be filled sanded and painted?


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Filling it might work okay. Birch is very smooth so a good filler sanded smooth might not show a texture change. My favorite wood filler is Durham's. Once mixed with water you have about an hour at most to use it. In some cases it is harder than the wood.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Hi, Stephen; you might want to give the wood grill idea a serious second thought; small detail like that is a grease catcher and a b*tch to clean. Unless you folks _never_ do any frying, you'll likely live to regret installing them.
Our existing cabinets have rolled edge laminate doors/drawers and I hate cleaning _those_!


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## Rpfarm25 (Apr 17, 2012)

Nice thanks for the tip Ill check it out for sure Will probably do a couple rough ones first to see how it looks.


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## Rpfarm25 (Apr 17, 2012)

Ahh ya i guess i never though of that, maybe ill skip the wood grills and just have the frosted glass and be able to pop it out from the back of the door for easier cleaning.


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