How to Build Cabinets from Scratch in 2020 | Norm Abram NYWS (1 of 2)

hi I'm norm Abram welcome to the new Yankee Workshop for the last several years we've had a dream of building an entire kitchen right here in the workshop well the time has arrived and we're going to do it soup to nuts we'll start with kitchen cabinet basics and then we'll move on to specific areas you'll be the hot wall with is the oven and the stove then the wet wall where you'll find the sink the dishwasher and related storage both every kitchen has to have a pantry and then we'll move on to the home office an island and we'll finish up with a bar the final episode will be dedicated to installing the cabinet's themselves now it's going to take several shows we're going to get started today with kitchen basics part 1 funding is provided by Delta the heart of woodworking for over 89 years it may not look like a power tool but Minwax rich wood stains and clear protective finishes are made to give you the power to turn a house into a beautiful home Minwax making wood beautiful for 100 years I porter-cable the soul of woodworking for over 100 years and by here's where we're going to install the dream kitchen once we have it built now this kitchen functions perfectly fine all the appliances are in the right place the architecture is good the windows are in the right place the doors are in the right place and the flow through it is good it was built by the homeowner who was a friend of mine about 30 years ago in his own shop problem is now it's very tired if you take a look at the cabinets you'll see what I'm talking about they look good on camera but if you look at this door which is made out of particle board and covered with laminate which means it's very heavy and these exposed hinges you can see that they've loosened up because screws in particle would never hold very well they could be fixed but it's not going to last very long the drawers have these metal runners they're starting to rust the nylon rollers are all worn out so they're very sloppy the sides are made out of XD a grade plywood and that can be done better today down below the sink where it's always wet and HUD for paint to stay sticking to the surface it's loosened up and even the laminate starting to peel off here there's another issue with the countertops we have varying heights up here we're about an inch higher than this countertop this should be all in the same plane and this post form laminate top that's deteriorated but sink it's going to be hard to improve on that so we're going to hold on to that down here at these base cabinets one of the problems is that they have deep shelves and it's hard to find everything without getting down on the floor and there's a much better way to handle that the upper cabinets we do want glass panel doors however they need to be raised to accommodate these tall appliances another thing that we would like is a plain of cabinets and a refrigerator that's all in the same plane rather than sticking out here about six inches today they make refrigerators that are shallow and that will get pushed back over here a pantry a necessity and any kitchen and we could make some improvements with this as well painted shelves they don't hold up very well they could be placed better and we could take advantage of the inside of this door for some additional storage on this wall we have a desk and it works perfectly fine except that it sticks out into the room too far and these drawers are not quite wide enough to be used as filing cabinets and also in today's kitchen you want to have a good communication center a computer and perhaps a nice flat-screen monitor and also more storage that's always important over here placed in the corner of the kitchen which is the right place for it a wet bar we can make some improvements with this mostly up on the wall here where we could put a cabinet for more storage the bookcase is going to stay the entranceway is good with coat storage as you come in the door but we do have to do something with this island again its access to the storage these doors are way under the overhang it's hard to get to everything we can fix that we can make a better storage area for the wastebasket and maybe it will get a little bit smaller and the top will change to a wood surface so that's our mission over the next several programs next what are we going to need well one thing's for sure you're not going to build a kitchen in place because that means ripping out the old kitchen first and you'll be without a kitchen for weeks if not longer also it's more difficult to build cabinets in place than it is to build them in a shop location now if you don't happen to have a standalone shop like we do how about your garage it means the cards will have to take a vacation outside for a while but just think what you're going to get a brand-new kitchen and you need a fair amount of space you're going to be handling big sheets of plywood four by eight sheets of plywood you're going to have stock in here and once the cabinets a build you're going to have to set them aside and store them till they're all complete and you might even finish them in here also you have to think about time this is not a project you can do in just the weekend it's going to take a long time to build this kitchen and you have to budget that as well as money you don't want to cheat on the quality of the materials you use whether it be the wood and plywood or the hardware itself get the best hardware that you possibly can now for design ideas we do you go for those well you could hire an architect or you could work with a kitchen designer there are plenty of shelter magazines out there with pictures where you can get ideas you could go on the internet and search around and you know you can even look at TV shows now for our project we decided to get some inspiration and design ideas by taking a visit to a high-end kitchen hardware manufacturer where they have a number of displays that demonstrate what's available today to builders of kitchen cabinets dynamic space what does that mean to me dynamic space is the concept of kitchens that has cabinets chosen for the storage items and keeps them where you need them while you're in the kitchen I'd like to show me around we'll start off with a pantry that's usually beside a refrigerator keeping your food items okay and these pull out we put roll up roll out up to a certain point with a shelf above those are items that you wouldn't typically be accessing every day I could see everything clearly so you to get a thing how about down below no door it looks like some drives it's all drawers mm-hmm now am I going to get used to seeing my goods from the top rather than the front sure it's a lot easier to see the items from overhead versus looking at a shelf and digging through the layers and I suppose I'd have to stoop down if I was trying to look at the front of things right looking down that's a good idea now what's this I don't think I've ever seen a wall cabinet that looks like this this is called a vent oh go ahead and lift it up oh it's like an overhead door sort of a bifold shape mm-hmm so there's no doors that are opening out correct the reason being when you're emptying a dishwasher you're always dodging that door when you stand up all right and pulls it up now okay I've hit my head on many a door because it doesn't swing all the way around now how about closing give it a nice little push painful emotion opening and closing wait nice and smooth that's great now how about below here what are we storing down here we have cutlery and organized trays that are removable setting the table nice and meat I'll go down here dishes dishes in the drawers dishes indoors go ahead and lift it out you can carry it to the table and easy easier than lifting I got some big dishes the little orange tabs on the side yeah can extend further no they're adjustable mm-hmm and it's a lot easier listening them out of this drug out of a cabinet way up high right it's a good idea now how about under the sink that's usually lost space well we made a new shape thank you are okay so this wraps around the sink and you've got these compartments stainless steel yes we don't have to worry about it rusty that's a great idea now I must say below the sink is usually the most disgusting place in anyone's kitchen I hope you helped us with that yeah we sure did just the bump of the nice key and dumped your trash wait wait a minute you just bumped that with your knee sure did Wow that is neat so you get all the household cleaners in the wastebasket good idea now the corner that's always wasted space in most kitchens and I'm seeing two bang drugs one has to be fake you can't have two working against each other I'll try and pull one out look at that you've made a corner draw yes for all the items that you need for preparation it's actually a lot of storage area in there there is and it closes nice and smooth and the friends will pull in that's great now we're getting over near the cooktop what do you store in here well thinking about prep rate prepping your items and cooking your items spices like this and again these are in a container so you can bring them out to the stove over to the island where you're preparing food how about below that below that we have bottles oils vinegars olive oil but you know they always tend to tend to run and they get to all grimy down there how do I clean that out the bottom stainless steel tray pulled out and goes in the dishwasher like there's another device in here what's this well that's great a place to keep all the aluminum foil and wrapping paper as close to the stove yeah and I'm speaking of the cooktop what do we store into that everything that you need while you're cooking Wow utensils pans covers you have your lids well I must say you have got everything in the right place you know this is a very modern kitchen and we're going to do a face frame kitchen a more traditional look what can you show me on that well we have something upstairs let's take a look right now here's a kitchen that people can relate to a nice hardwood cabinet in this case cherry and does this have the same hardware as the one we saw earlier it does we have a lot of the same solutions for face-frame cabinets that works great on a wood door as well as it did on that very modern one I see you've got an island here and we're going to be dealing with one of those and more drawers this was filled with pens no doors and I guess I'm starting to get used to that concept I like the storage area in these drawers and I like the smooth clothes all of our runners have the BlueMotion soft clothes feature it makes for a quiet kitchen and consumers love a quiet kitchen so this is not driven just by the engineering department you're getting help from the buyers correct we brought real people in we did studies where we we tested how often they act a certain storage items we put a string on them to see how much they actually walk in the course of preparing a meal and it told us it helped us learn where to store certain items in the kitchen right and so you're giving them exactly what they want we are all right well thanks Debbie Elliot well that was a useful visit and definitely state of the art we'll be using some of those devices in our dream kitchen now you can't build a kitchen without some power tools and for me it starts with this one a good table saw accurately tuned to cut nice and square and true a very accurate rip fence and extension tables to support the sheet goods as they're pushed through the saw a couple accessories a data set that will get used a lot and an accurate miter gauge I also need a jointer as good as the lumber is when it comes from the lumberyard it's not good enough I want to make sure the edges are straight and square and this is the tool to get that done I also want a router table I can make moldings I can cope and stick doors there's a lot of things I can do with this machine and I need clamps a number of clamps because we're not going to use a lot of mechanical fasteners a lot of this is going to be glued and clamped together I need some handheld power tools a plate joiner or biscuit joiner to join the face frames to the caucuses I need a drill driver we're going to be drilling and installing a lot of screws in the caucuses a pocket screw jig for the face frames a dovetailing jig with a router to dovetail all the draw boxes and of course there's going to be a lot of sanding we'll need a few hand tools and a lot of glue now for stock there are a number of choices and here are just a few this is mahogany with a clear finish and as you can see it's beautiful but a little bit pricey here's another choice this is Cypress and it's a little bit softer but we found it with a clear finish it looks very nice actually looks kind of rich now would that doesn't have a lot of grain that's pretty tough is straight grain fur that's what that looks like with a clear finish reclaimed longleaf pine which is hard and actually very nice with a clear finish now you not might not find too much of this but this will make a nice kitchen this is chestnut a little bit of a heavy grain if you're doing sort of an arts and crafts look you might go with this quarter sawn white oak and here's one of my favorites in fact my kitchen is this its cherry and that's just with an oil now here we have maple which you need to be just regular flat grain maple or if you get the tiger effect that's pretty dramatic and in our case we're going to be painting the kitchen so we're going to just use some poplar now for the sheet goods we're going to need some of this a pre-primed plywood and I'll be using this on end panels wherever the cabinet is going to show on the end and that will take paint very well we're going to need this material medium density fiberboard and we'll be using that for draw fronts and for the panels in the doors very stable and it takes paint very well and we're going to use a lot of this material this pre finished white maple plywood it has a factory applied finish that's nearly indestructible and we'll be using that for all the interior components there are any number of styles to choose from and I've mocked up a few that we can build here in the workshop all of these examples are meant to be painted but you could build them out of hardwoods and do a natural finish the same styles here we have a simple face frame no details on the edges square edge cuts rails and styles just join together in a very simple manner the door is known as an inset door so the door sits flush to the face frame it's installed with non mortise hinges and that allows the door to open fully on the inside edge of the door there's this quarter round bead detail and a nice flat pan for the draw front the narrow ones will be a solid surface and down below if there were wide draws they could also be solid or they could have a panel design in the middle very much like the door here I have just the door which could be used in any of these applications except the panel has this bead detail and you can get different types of bead board where the beads would be closer together or further apart whatever your taste would be this one has a rabbited door you can see this 3/8 inch by 3/8 inch rabbet and that partially overlays the face frame the face frame on this example is built the same way the first one was the door however does have the quarter inch bead but a raised panel instead of a flat panel made out of MDF the draw front mimics the panel so we have that same detail sloping back this one's a little fancier and takes a little more work to make the face frame has this pencil bead detail around the edge once again it's an inset door it's on a mortise hinge that swings all the way around and a flat panel with an applied molding it's just a bit proud of the surface of the door the small drawers will be flat the ones down below could be flat or once again mimic this detail in a panel if you decide to build your own kitchen a video of this program will be available and you'll hear more about that before the program ends I want to start with basic cabinet construction and we'll start with the base cabinets here I have two pieces for the sides of a base cabinet there'll also be a fixed top a fixed bottom shelf and a fixed back all made out of three quarter-inch prefinished plywood that's going to give us a nice strong carcass now the typical measurements for a base cabinet are thirty four and a half inches in height which allows for an inch and a half counter top for a 36 inch finished counter and that's standard in the industry when I add a face frame to the front edge which is 3/4 of an inch that I want the cabinet to finish out at 24 inches that's also a standard in the industry now in a kitchen cabinet on the base you want to have a toe kick you want to have a place for your toes to go it's much easier on the back and that should be four inches high and in this case three and a quarter inches deep first thing I want to do is make those cuts but before I use any power tools I want to talk about shop safety be sure to read understand and follow all the safety rules that come with your power tools knowing how to use your power tools properly will greatly reduce the risk of personal injury and remember this there is no more important safety rule than to wear these safety glasses now I've set up my dado to make grooves for all the panels that will connect the two sides now a groove for the back the top and bottom panels also need a groove to receive the back at the same setting now a sacrificial fence because the next step is to make a rabbet along the top edge of the cabinet the front edge of the bottom shelf is going to be exposed in the final assembly so I want to cover it with a piece of edge bin with a heat-activated glue this series of holes drilled through the grooves will be used to screws to assemble the case this makes it easy to have the hole centered in the groove every joint is going to get glued now the back gets slid in place before the glue sets up I want to check the case for squareness and that looks good the next thing to do is to build a face frame which wraps the carcass that will give me a place to attach the doors and make some draw openings over here I have the parts for our face frame some styles and rails there are several different methods for joining face frame parts here's one half lap joint they get joined with glue and screws here I have a full mortise and tenon takes time to make these but it's a very strong joint another method would be to use dowels with a darling jig and finally pocket screws we're going to use pocket screws for our frame the first step is to drill an angled pocket in both ends of the rail now it's just a matter of a little dab of glue join the pieces together clamp them so they stay nice and flush and then there are these special screws which have a panhead and we drive that home it's a fast method and it's very strong it would hatch the face frame will use biscuits and glue no mechanical fasteners and of course there's a corresponding biscuit slot in the frame I put glue in the slot and now I want to run some in between each biscuit now I just bring all the pieces together and clamp it now in the past I've attached face frames with finish nails but no matter how you fill them and sand them even with paint they tend to show through and on a natural finish it's even more difficult this method is far superior takes a little longer here I'm installing a backer for the toe kick 3/4 inch thick plywood the length is the same as the width of the face frame now when the cabinets are installed there'll be a joint between each cabinet will unify all of that with a single strip probably planted black or an appropriate color and there you have it one base cabinet with a face frame the way I build them today and it only took a few hours quite an evolution from that home built kitchen that you saw earlier that my friend built over 30 years ago instead of fir plywood that had to be painted we have pre finished fly wood that's very tough instead of a face frame joined with half lap joints glue and screws this one is assembled with pocket screws they need to exist 30 years ago and instead of attaching the frame with finished nails this one is attached with biscuits and glue no mechanical fasteners we've come a long way in three decades now let me show you what we're going to do next time next time I'll be showing how to make doors starting with this one a partial overlay that has this rabbit along the edges and features a raised panel I'll also show how to make this inset door which has a flat panel and the corresponding draw front as well as this style of draw front the overlay draw front and those fronts get attached to a box which is made with dovetail joinery and then we'll turn our attention up the wall to a wall han cabinet we're going to have a lot to do that's next time right here in the new Yankee Workshop funding is provided by you Delta the heart of woodworking for over 89 years Titebond wood glues quietly keeping woodworking projects together for over 70 years Porter Cable the soul of woodworking for over 100 years Thompson's WaterSeal when it comes to Dex Thompson's WaterSeal provides America's homeowners with complete protection against water damage and harmful UV rays Thompson's WaterSeal order a home video the project you've just seen please call eight six six five four five nine seven zero eight additional information is available at new Yankee comm

Channel: Les Cizek

Views: 161,381

Keywords: how to build cabinets from scratch, how to build cabinets, how to make cabinets from scratch, how to make cabinets, how to build kitchen cabinets, how to make kitchen cabinets, kitchen cabinets, Cabinetry (Industry), stevinmarin

Id: 2ZrWd0Invno

Length: 26min 41sec (1601 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 21 2014