How to Build Kitchen Cabinets (In Detail)

building a dream kitchen is the goal of many woodworkers but the overall scope of the project can be a little intimidating after all we're looking at a whole room full of woodworking we have upper cabinets base cabinets doors drawers face frames finish panels okay it can be a lot intimidating but the truth is building your own kitchen cabinets isn't all that difficult we essentially have a big box filled with more boxes our drawers and covered with portions of boxes our doors and finish panels so it's all just boxes and building boxes isn't rocket science we'll build base units and upper cabinets in both traditional face frame and European styles will outfit these with a couple different kinds of drawers and pull outs plus we'll craft beautiful yet simple doors and finish panels to dress up our cabinets so let's go make some cabinets before we build anything there's a few standard sizes you want to keep in mind when making kitchen cabinets all these dimensions are based on organ ah miix or the way our lives and bodies interact with the cabinets we're about to build base cabinets are generally 36 inches tall including countertops this height off the ground puts things in front of us on the countertop at a comfortable level for easy working a little lower and we'd have to bend slightly when chopping vegetables or preparing food at the workspace so you'd end up hunched over and feeling some back pain at the end of the day any taller than that and we'd be on our tiptoes trying to reach what's in our upper cabinets so 36 inches tall is the key height and it's no coincidence that appliance manufacturers use 36 inches tall as their standard as well so dishwashers and ovens and cabinets all sit at the same height in the kitchen for a seamless expansive countertop the depth of base cabinets is generally around 24 inches this really has more to do with materials than anything else when you rip a 4-foot wide sheet of plywood in half you end up with two 24-inch slabs that can be cut into cabinet sides and bottoms base cabinets sit on top of supports or toe kicks that are generally four inches tall and set in three inches from the front of the cabinet this provides enough room to stand at the cabinet without stopping your toes upper cabinets are generally around 12 inches deep allowing us to get four slabs from a sheet of plywood this is a good size to store most of the items we use around the kitchen and provides a good setback so the uppers won't interfere or get in our way when we're working at a base cabinet upper cabinets are usually installed 18 inches above the counter top surface this leaves plenty of room on the counter to work and to put small appliances like coffee makers and mixers plus 18 inches is an easy reach when storing dishes and goods in the uppers there's really no standard height for upper cabinets but 30 inches tall is pretty common that's about as tall as most people would be able to reach without grabbing something to stand on there's two basic types of cabinets out there European and traditional traditional cabinetry is often called face frame cabinetry because the boxes are dressed up with a face frame that's applied to the front of the carcass the face frame adds a distinctive border and style to the cabinet European cabinetry which I'll refer to as euro cabs or frameless cabs don't share that face frame assembly it can often provide a sleeker more contemporary look European cabs do have a slight advantage when it comes to spatial efficiency since there's no face frame to get in the way of anything and take up any more room we're left with a little more storage in each cabinet and saving a few extra cubic inches per cabinet can yield as much storage space as a whole extra refrigerator in your kitchen so which is stronger better well the truth is once they're both attached to your kitchen walls and all lock together neither are going anywhere and both will provide decades of service if you choose to go with traditional cabinets over your old cabs build your face frames first face frames are what you see and they dictate the width of the box behind them it doesn't take a Factory full of equipment in order to build kitchen cabinets if you've got a saw a drill a hammer screwdriver you've got the basics and you can get the job done if your workshop and tool collection has a little more let's say a router pocket jig a stapler it'll make things even easier and you'll be able to tackle more options kitchen cabinets are made from sheet goods and by that I mean plywood's and melamine when buying plywood look for straight and consistent layers in a quality cabinet grade plywood preferably obtained from a plywood supplier avoid plywood with a wavy substrate it could warp melamine is just particle board with a thin plastic coating applied to the outside edges it comes over sized by an inch so a four-by-eight sheet is actually 49 inches by 97 inches it's less expensive than cabinet grade plywood and the slick white surface is easy to clean and reflects a lot of light in an enclosed box we don't use solid wood for our cabinet boxes kitchen cabinets are screwed to the walls of our homes and solid wood expands and contracts and our house is really don't so it's best that we save the solid wood for our doors and our frames of course we'll also need fasteners like nails and screws as well as special cabinet hardware such as hinges and drawer slides or runners at the end of the process one last thing I want to mention along with cabinet materials are countertops there are a lot of different types of countertops out there laminates solid surface stone and even concrete they vary tremendously in weight but the cabinet's we're going to build here will be able to support whichever countertop you decide to have installed cabinets take up a lot of room in the shop on a large job I'm a pre cut and stack all of my parts holding off on assembly until just prior to installation this gives me a lot more room to work in the shop and makes assembly and finishing a lot easier but there is a trade-off you end up with a lot of parts floating around so you need to stay organized by labeling all the components and keeping the parts for each cabinet stack together in an area where they won't be in the way or need to be moved I prefer whenever possible to build and stack all the boxes until installation it's nice to have the completed cabinets on hand so that we can measure for doors and drawers and just to keep a visual reminder of what still needs to be done to wrap up the job whether building wall cabinets or base cabinets you always start with the basic box I start by rough cutting full sheets of plywood or melamine into manageable sizes the easiest way to do this is with a circular saw I crosscut sheets once at 32 inches I found this is a great length because it leaves me with a portion of a sheet that it can be used for cabinet sides or bottoms the resulting pieces are light enough to maneuver safely and easily on the table saw now switching over the table saw let's cut the sheets into their final sizes it's important to think about our cutting sequence we want to ensure that all of our pieces are consistent sizes in order to accomplish this I cut all of my sides to height at the same time now adjust the fence for the depth of the box and cut the bottom and sides to death the next step is to size the bottom and the naylors and stretchers to length then cut all the nailers and stretchers to with by following this sequence we're guaranteed that all of the components will be the exact same length for any given access the last part is to size the back cut the quarter-inch-thick back panel one half inch wider than the bottom and one inch shorter than the sides this will ensure that the backs it's properly in the grooves that were about to cut the last stuff at the saw is to cut a few grooves to hold the back panel I've installed a quarter-inch dado blade and raised its height to just a hair over a quarter inch I don't measure to adjust my fence here instead I grab one of the naylors and place it in between the fence and the blade that's the distance I'm looking for it to properly position the back in the cabinet we need to cut grooves in one of the stretchers in both sides and the bottom don't have a dado blade no worries you can do the same thing with a standard blade just by adjusting the fence and making a few extra passes tear outs one of the biggest things that you may have a problem with when cutting plywood if you notice that you're having problems with tear out there's a few things that you can do to reduce or eliminate the problem be sure to use a sharp blade and one that's made for plywood or melamine these blades have more teeth with a less aggressive hook on the blade another way is to use a zero clearance insert in your table saw they help support the wood fibers while you're cutting you can buy one or make your own finally a piece of painters tape on the back side of the cup will help keep the fibers together just remove it after the cut before we assemble our cabinet will need to do something to cover the exposed edges of the plywood we won't want to see these in the finished cabinet and it's much easier to cover them before assembly I cover any edges that will be left exposed in the finished cabinet will apply a preglued edge banding taped to the bottom sides and one of the naylors you can get in a bunch of colors and a variety of wood grains start with a standard household iron set the medium heat for most irons this will be the polyester setting while the iron heats up just measure off a piece of edge banding tape a couple inches longer than the component you're going to band this tape is preglued with the heat activated adhesive applied to the back ice under the tape on the component and work the iron along the edge my first pass holds the tape in place then I work my way back really letting the glue melton adhere next to ensure a good bond I burnish the tape with a block of wood pressing down in the center then applying pressure to the edges use a razor blade to trim the tape to length scoring it from underneath and snapping it off from above then I use a trimmer to flush the edges the trimmer leaves edges a little sharp so to wrap up the full process I use some 150 grit sandpaper to ease the edges with all of our parts cut the size and edge banded we're ready to start assembling our cabinet but before i drive any fasteners at all i like to draw a few lines on the parts three-eighths of an inch from an edge this will help to Center our fasteners and aid in assembly and I use this simple shop made gauge to make the task even faster now that all of our parts are marked we can put it all together all of the joinery in the cabinet are simple but joints reinforced with screws I tap the parts together with one and a quarter inch long staples this isn't structural it just keeps the parts from moving around as I assemble start with a side and the bottom here the back of the parts are against the bench I'm lining up the front edge of the cabinet and I just tack them together then tackle the other side i'm using a bench dog to keep the cabinet from sliding around it gives me something to press the cabinet up against while i make any minor adjustments to alignment a block of wood clamped to the bench top would accomplish the same thing now roll the cabinet on to its top and place the front structure in position and a few staples hold it in place now set the cabinet on its bottom and slide the back into the groove fit the rear stretcher into position and align it with the top and back a couple more staples secure roll the cabinet forward onto the space and install the two nailer strips press them against the back for a good fit and secure them in place with a few staples the staples do a good job of holding everything together backed just like little clamps but if you don't have a stapler you don't need to run out and buy one a brad nailer or a finish nail or work just as good or you can always just use clamps to hold everything together while you drive the screws in I lay the cabinet on the floor and complete one side at a time grill encounters think a series of holes and then drive in one in 58 inch screws I put two screws in Eddie treacherous Taylor and on the bottoms I'll put five screws in four base cabinets and three steals in for a wall cabinet stay a good inch from the edge in order to avoid splitting material and don't forget about the groove along the back edge flip the cabinet over and repeat the process and that's how to build a basic box we mentioned earlier that base cabinets have an overall height of 36 inches that includes a one-and-a-half inch thick countertop surface and a four inch tall toe kick that leaves us with a box that's 30 and a half inches tall the depth of a base cabinet is 24 inches that's no problem if you use an oversized melamine but you'll never rip to 24 inch pieces from a 4-foot wide deep soil the saw kerf wastes about an eighth of an inch of material per cut the simple solution is just make your cabinets 23 and three-quarter inches deep if you're working with plywood and overall cabinet width will be determined by your needs now if you're planning and combining a drawer with doors in your base cabinet you'll need to cut an additional stretcher we'll use this to separate the drawer from the doors and to give the door something to close against following our basic box strategy cut the parts to size the nailers stretchers and bottom are sized one and a half inches less from the cabinet's over all wet with all the parts cut out apply edge banding to any exposed edges during assembly use a couple of scrap wood spacers to position the drawer separator and ensure it's parallel to the top and bottom the actual height placement will be determined by the size of the drawer you plan to use I prefer applied toe kicks rather than ones that are integral with the cabinet sides it makes box building a little easier and it helps me maximize a sheet of plywood generally I'm making the toe kicks from remnants from the cabinet construction rip plywood to the height of the toe kick orange is tall then crosscut to width you'll need two pieces that are the overall width the cabinet and two pieces that are 19 and a half inches long this will provide the proper setback for the toe kick drill for pocket screws along one edge of each piece staple and screw the kick together then secure the toe kick to the base of the cabinet with the pocket screws here's a tip if your cabinets will be resting on concrete use pressure-treated plywood to make your toe kicks they resist the moisture issues associated with concrete slabs a lot better than standard plywood that was fast and simple now let's take a look at wall cabinets well or or cabinets are built in the same way as our base cabinets except using a solid top rather than a couple of stretchers wall cabinets measure out about 12 inches deep and well there's no standard height 30 inches is pretty common also I generally like to keep wall cabinets less than 3 feet wide because of deflection the bottom of the wall cab acts as a shelf and longer shelves will deflect sometimes noticeably under loads and span cut all of the components out following our basic cutting strategy we're using plywood I adjust my cabinet SAP till 11 and three-quarter inches skip cutting the stretchers we don't want to stare up at a big hole left in the top of our wall cabinets every time we open them so cut an extra bottom which will be used as the top with all of the components cut out applied banning to any edges that will be visible once assembled and installed before assembling the cabinet we'll need to make provisions to support the shelving inside of it my method of choice is adjustable shelf pins with a quarter inch spiral bit chuck in my router I plunge an array of holes along the sides using a template it's important to note the top of the side and always reference the jig to the top so our whole orientation will be consistent and the shelves will sit level mine's aluminum but you can make a simple template like this from half-inch plywood shelf pins can be employed in your base cabinet as well the choice is up to you assembly is the same as our basic box except that I use three screws along the top and the bottom to reinforce the joints our wall cabinets still need some shelves and there's a couple of different ways to make them depending on the load in the span that they'll be subjected to a simple shelf can be fashioned just by banding a slab of plywood cut the slab an eighth inch less than the interior with the cabinet and about a quarter inch less than the depth if you anticipate a heavy load like lots of dishes or canned goods there are ways to make more resilient shelves the method i turned to most often is to apply a solid wood lip banding to the front edge rip a piece of three quarter inch hardwood stock one and a half inches wide and cut it to the same length as a shelf then raise the blade to the same height as the Shelf thickness and adjust the fence to about 11 sixteenth of an inch run the hardwood stock through the saw to create a shallow rabbit now glue and clamp the hardwood strip to the front of the shelf and allow it to cure overnight once dry plane or sand the banding flush to the shelf it may not seem like much but the lip banding acts like a little i-beam and will help the shelf support a lot more weight before deflecting face frames add rigidity to the box but more importantly they impart a traditional furniture look to the cabinet which many people prefer to build a face frames I began with three-quarter inch thick stock ripped into two inch wide pieces cut two sections three-quarter inch longer than the height of the cabinet you plan to use this will provide a nice reveal and detail then cut at least two rails or horizontal numbers four inches shorter than the desired width of the face frame you'll need one each for the top and bottom of the cabinet plus one for each drawer as well for joinery will turn to pocket screws there are fast and easy way to make a strong joint in the face frame application there are a bunch of jigs out there to cut pocket holes but they all work on the same principle of drilling a hole at a steep angle to guide a screw and connect two parts I drill pocket holes in the rails or horizontal members of the frame in line with that pieces grain it's important to remember this because pocket holes placed across a style create a weak point in the style and also caused the screw to grab in the end grain of the rail and grain doesn't have nearly the holding power of long grain when assembling the joint it's important to use the proper length fastener for the application and keep the faces of the frame in the same plane these quick adjusting clamps work great for that to add the drawer separator rather than measure which could be a hair off from side to side I use a spacer block to ensure consistent location of the rails align the completed frame with the top edge of the cabinet and centered along the width you should have a quarter inch reveal on the insides of the cabinet and one inch on the outsides will attach the frame to the cabinet turning again to pocket schemes I've drilled a series of holes along the face of this cabinet prior to assembly spaced about every six to eight inches on center I use these proprietary clamps to hold the face frame to the cabinet while I attach it but any long clamps work to start securing the frame to the cabinet and working it down to the bottom of the case you can check your reveals as you go making sure they're even that ensure your cabinet is square to the frame if you're not in the pocket joinery you can build your face frames using lap joints or mortise and Tenon's and you can always attach the face frame to the cabinet using biscuits or nails a real high-end decorative touch can be added to your cabinets by applying a bead detail to the openings I've made some simple quarter-inch feeding using the router table and I've mitered the ends to fit and now I'm just pinning it in place while the glue sets up here are a few tips I'd like to pass along about integrating face frames into your cabinetry first keep in mind you won't need to apply any banding to the front edge of your cabinets the face frame covers the exposed edges you won't need an extra stretcher for each drawer either our face frame takes care of that separation second remember to reduce the depth of your plywood panels by three-quarters of an inch to make up for the face frames thickness and be sure to drill for your pocket screws before assembling your cabinets it just makes things easier finally but most importantly build your face frames before building your cabinets the layout of your kitchen will dictate the overall width of the face frames the cabinet's behind them will be two inches narrower than the face frames one of the best ways to increase the efficiency of your kitchen cabinet project is by the addition of drawers and pull outs nobody likes to bend over and reach into the back of a cabinet in the middle of cooking dinner so drawers and pull outs just make life easier the difference between a drawer to pull out is just semantics they're both just boxes with a mechanism that allows them to open and close easily before you build any drawer you've got to consider your hardware first commercial drawer slides have certain clearances which must be incorporated into the drawer design for example an undermount slide requires different clearances than a side mount slide there are countless joinery options available for crafting drawers we'll focus on two of them a quick and strong drawer made with pocket screws and a classic dovetail drawer on the pocket screw drawer the screws pass through the front of the drawer and into the sides acting like little tenons that keep the drawer together and transfer the opening and closing stress from the drawer front to the sides I'm using half inspired for this drawer rip a series of draw blanks to hide now cross cut two sections to the desired length in the case of a base cabinet it's 22 inches next cross cut the front and back of the drawer to the desired width minus 2 times the drawer thickness you we'll use quarter-inch plywood for the drawer bottom size the bottom the half inch wider than your drawer front and a half inch less than your through our sides if you're planning to keep real heavy items in this drawer you can always make the bottom out of half-inch fire with a quarter-inch dado blade in the table down cut one quarter inch deep grooves along the edge of each piece to hold the door lock I'm locating the tube about a half of an inch from the edge then make the drill a little more friendly to the time i use the top edges of it or the bullnose bit in the router table you can do the same thing with a roundover bit or even by sanding the edges smooth I had to change my drill depth and my pocket hole jig set up to accommodate the half-inch material and now I'm just drilling a few pocket holes in the outside cases of the drawer front and bash being mindful of the game for the drawer bottom assembly is simple I do a quick dry set and now I'm holding things together with these corner clamps but a standard clamp placed across the drawer will do the same thing just be sure to use the correct length screw for this application so you don't blow out a quick check foursquare and the drawer is done our pockets crew drawer is complete later we'll apply a false front which will cover our pocket screw holes if we were using this as a pullout we could plug those holes just as easily dovetail joints are very strong offering a lot of glue surface and mechanically locking joint plus they're one of the hallmarks of fine craftsmanship when I have a bunch of dovetail drawers to make for a kitchen project I turn to a common half-blind dovetail jig most every woodworking store catalog sells version of this jig and the one you get maybe a bit different but the theory behind them is all the same and so are the tips and tricks I've learned to use them with ease there's no short cutting the set up on these jigs expect to spend some time getting it just right and keep in mind that any change to your router bit height or your stock thickness will change the quality of the joint you cut with one of these jigs but once it's dialed in you can really crank out some drawers cut your drawer component by ripping a few blanks of plywood then cross cut the front and backs to the desired width of the drawer crosscut besides about a half inch shorter than the desired length of the drawer this measurement will vary a bit depending on the setup of your dovetail jig next I stage all the parts on the bench and mark the inside of the drawer and whether it's a side or a front or back I also mark the little reference number on the top edges of the drawer at the dovetail jig install aside in the vertical portion of the jig this will be our tail board and to benefit from the mechanical locking advantage of the dovetail joint tails must always be on the sides the pin board is a front or back and will place that in the horizontal portion of the jig note that I have the insides of the drawers facing up and down and I also have the reference numbers facing towards the outside of the jig I make sure that the drawer parts are positioned against the locating stops and begin routing by making a scoring cut across the side this will help reduce any tear out that may encourage then I just route along the template being sure never to lift the router which would ruin the job some compressed air gets rid of all of the stuff and then I rotate the pieces around over to the other side of the jig again I make sure the reference numbers are facing outwards with everything clamped down throughout the other end of the pieces then just repeat with the two remaining component here's the reason those reference numbers were important if we assemble the joint backwards we end up with a joint that's off center and just doesn't look good so I've got all the reference numbers oriented the same direction and now i'm just going to test the drawer joinery now i'll take a quick measurement for the drawer bottom it's going to be one half inch wider and one half inch longer than the interior of the drawer and that was just a cut from the key supporter acquire we need to cut the groove for the bottom and again I turn to the quarter inch wide data set a hair higher than one quarter of an inch but now a fence adjustment will be dictated by our joinery grab one of the drawer fronts and line up a socket with data link be sure the numbers our favorite place in the group here will hide it from view when we open the drawer I finish up machining the drawer by easing the top edges for assembly just a little dab of glue in each socket does the trick no need to overdo it too much flu just means dealing with squeeze out later I set the front of the back on to one of the sides and I slip the bottom into place now I seat the tape and check for school everything looks good so I just set the drawer aside to dry no clamps are needed as a well-cut dovetail has plenty of mechanical strength to hold things together will the drawer cures you it's time to dress up our boxes by adding doors finish panels and drawer fronts there's a ton of styles out there and the skill required to build them is just as varied for these I'm going to show you how to make an easy stub tenant application with shaker styling doors finished panels and drawer fronts can all be built using frame and panel construction and they're all made the same way frame and panel assemblies are composed of three components the panel and then the frame made up of vertical members called styles and horizontal parts called rails I remember which is which by thinking of a basic railing on a porch or a set of stairs the part I put my hand on is the railing or rail and always runs horizontally to build a stub ton and frame and panel start by ripping frame components to two and a half inches wide then crosscut two styles that are the desired height of the assembly and two rails that are four inches shorter than the desired wet set the saw fence to a half inch from the outside of the blade and raise the standard blade to a hair more than a quarter inch grab the rails and with a miter gauge cut the shoulders which define our stub tenants with a quarter-inch dado blade in the table saw I cut a half inch deep groove down the length of each component will peach pits round and repeat the cut so ensure each groove is perfectly centered a dado blade makes quick work of removing the remaining material from the tenon cheeks here's a tip sneak up on the fit adjust the blade height slowly cutting only at the end of the tenon first until it slips into the groove you dry fit the frame assembly and measure the opening to size the panel add one inch to the height and width of the measurement to accommodate the groove then cut a piece of quarter-inch plywood to this side to make the handle I do one last dri-fit just in case there's any adjustments that need to be made everything fits good so let's do our glue up a little goes a long way when it comes to glue don't apply so much that you're battling with a ton of squeeze out I apply glue to the tenons and along the bottom of the groove then a couple of clamps hold things together until it cures for a little extra insurance you can always pin the back of the joints with finger adds the strength of the stub tendon frame and panel relies partly on the glued into plywood panel which is dimensionally stable don't try this with a solid wood panel which will expand and contract throughout the seasons that wood movement will literally tear your door apart there's two more items I need to mention before moving on the first is when do we start to think about two doors on a cabinet well I usually start thinking about making two doors when my door widths approach 18 to 24 inches I avoid making single doors that are 24 inches wide or more the second item is drawer fronts when they get shorter than about six and a half to seven inches you may want to avoid the whole frame and panel assembly and just go right to a slab front otherwise you end up with a whole lot of frame and no panel at all as a matter of fact you can use slabs to outfit your entire cabinet if you want to now that all the components are built it's time to integrate the hardware to make our doors and drawers functional there are a lot of choices for hinges and drawer runners I usually reach for European hinges and full extension drawer slides they're extremely durable easy to install and offer a lot of adjustment for the perfect fit euro hinges come in a lot of varieties and you get to choose how far the door opens and the overlayer inside of the door regardless of choices they all get put in the same way the installation of European or Cup hinges starts at the drill press with a 35-millimeter Forstner bit I've laid out my hinge cup location on the door with a centerline seven eighths of an inch from the edge and about three inches from the top and bottom set the press to a slow speed and bore about a half inch be mounting offense for the drill press paper will help ensure consistent results if you don't have a drill press there is readily available digs out there to complete this step with a hand drill next use a square to align the hinge on the door and drill a couple pilot holes with a self centering bed secure the hinge with a couple of screws for the case side of hinge installation I locate a centerline a given distance from the front edge of the cabinet this distance may vary depending on your hinge make an application but it should be supplied by the manufacturer line up the door open the hinge arm and place Center marks on the cabinet next grab the mounting plate line it up with the marks and drill a couple pilot holes with a self centering bed the base plate is then secured with a couple of screws then the hinge arm just clips to the mounting plate presto a working door and a couple little rubber bumpers help to keep things quiet for traditional style cabinets the process is the same just add a spacer block to the inside of the cabinet to fill the gap created by the face frame + 4 inset doors you'll also need to add a small stop block so the door has something to close against and keep in mind if you plan to use pull outs you'll need a hinge that opens at least 165 degrees so that the door does not interfere with the pullout hardware installing the drawer slides begins by separating them into two parts the smaller part of the slide attaches to the drawer box I position the height by using a simple shop made locating jig line the tab up with the front of the box and drill a few pilot holes secure the runner with three or four screws along its length then repeat the process on the other side of the drawer these small screws can strip easily so i use a hand driver rather than a power drill the larger portion of the slide attaches to the cabinet side I use a scrap of wood rip to a specific width as a locating jig then just lay the slide in place drill a few pilot holes now check how you made out the drawer runners should fit into one another and slide in and out of the cabinet effortlessly to mount drawer slides in a face frame application install a quarter-inch shim to eliminate the reveal behind the frame and position the front of the slide assembly at the back edge of the face frame then just pre-drill and secure with a few screws that's it our doors and drawers are installed and remember you'll need to add a spacer to fill the gap in the cabinet in face frame applications we're in the home stretch now we'll apply a durable finish install any remaining panels and install our knobs and poles when finishing kitchen cabinets I look for something that's easy to apply in a home shop it needs to enhance the beauty of the woods and our craftsmanship and most importantly it has to protect our cabinets and what's actually a very harsh environment our finish must be able to resist water grease alcohol and some really aggressive cleaners luckily common oil based polyurethane can accomplish all of that begin by wiping down all of the surfaces with alcohol this will help remove any of the air and grease and waxes left from transport or manufacturing which could interfere with our Finnick next Sam thoroughly I start sanding bare wood at 100 grit and work my way up to 180 grit on plywood's with their thin veneer faces I generally start my sanding at 150 grit the shot of compressed air removes the Baltics and you can vacuum it off as well oil-based polly's straight from the can is kind of a pain to work with so I like to doctor it up a little bit I make a simple wipe on poly that a lot of woodworkers refer to as three two one three two one gets its name from the ratio we mix the components in take three parts paint thinner or mineral spirits two parts polyurethane and one part boiled linseed oil and mix well to apply 3 2 1 you can just flood it on with a foam brush and I rub it in with an abrasive pad this creates a little bit of a sanding slurry which fills in the grain as well after its had a chance to soak into the wood wipe the remainder off with a rag now the first code will take a good day or so to dry but once it has go ahead and apply a second coat just like the first subsequent coats can take as little as three or four hours to dry depending on the weather I apply a minimum of four coats it's a thin finish so you have to build it up but once you do you'll be left with a silky smooth finish which will withstand virtually all kitchen hazards keep in mind three two one is an oil-based finish and your wet rags can pose a fire hazard spread them out and allow them to dry thoroughly applying our finished panels and drawer fronts is a simple process we just add spacers as necessary fasten with the image from the inside of the cash mounting a drawer front in a phase frame cabinet means positioning it just right to get a nice even gap around the perimeter using a few shims the same thickness as the desired gap makes the job a lot easier once positioned I got a couple Brad's through the drawer boxes hold things in place that'll make us permanently with a few screws from behind the only thing left to do to complete our cabinets is to install any knobs or poles for our doors and drawers the choices in selection out there are endless and prices have no limits either the biggest hurdle to overcome with installing the knobs and poles is to remain consistent and uniform in their location to accomplish this I use a simple jig to laying them out you can buy jigs for this at most home centers or you can make your own they're really simple with the center's marked drill holes for the fasteners and attach the knobs and that's it building kitchen cabinets really is that simple we started making our basic boxes using accepted and time-tested construction methods we chose to either use face frames or go with the European look then we made some shelves and drawers to store stuff we learned a simple method to make stylish doors and finish panels and we apply to foolproof finish to protect our work all that's left is to enjoy your dream kitchen

Channel: Mark Allan

Views: 1,695,121

Rating: 4.9268799 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, cabinets, building, instructions, how to build kitchen cabinets, face frames, european style cabinets, cabinet maker, cabinet making, comprehensive, Building Kitchen Cabinets, how to make kitchen cabinets, DIY, dove tails, european cabiinets, cabinet finishing, making kitchen cabinets from plywood, making kitchen cabinets with kreg jig, making kitchen cabinets from scratch

Id: AzRdAXo2xpM

Length: 57min 55sec (3475 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 21 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Parttimewoodworking]

He’s really good! There’s a fine woodworking video workshop (behind their paywall I think) of Greg building a coffee table that is also excellent

[u/KDdeTX]

Watched the whole video. Very informative. Thanks for posting it

[u/slowandexpensive]

It's a good video with a lot of useful information. I wish my cabinet build videos would show up in search. People may like them.