STOP struggling to get level cabinets

in a recent video I demonstrated how I prepared and assembled frameless cabinets and the common question that I received from that video was how do I level them or what do I use as a toe kick so in this video I'm going to show you the process that I take in order to ensure level cabinets so I build separate toe kicks that I will place all of my cabinets on for the majority of my projects I find this is much easier because I can take my time leveling the toe kick and not worrying about leveling each cabinet individually the first step that I take is to rip all of my pieces to the width required to achieve the height that I am looking for the construction method that I use is very very easy I build some L's and I build some tees and the L's are used on the ends of the toe kicks and the t's are going to be used anywhere that the two cabinets are touching each other the materials that I use are typically just scrap plywood that is left over from whatever cabinet project I'm working on I don't use any glue and I only assemble them by first using a narrow Crown stapler to hold all of the pieces together until I am able to pre-drill and drive some screws in to hold everything tightly together foreign these don't need to be over built as they are just a platform for boxes that will then be attached to the studs in the wall once I've assembled all of the t's and L's that I mentioned and we'll just call them the supports I will then measure where all of the joints of all of my cabinets are going to butt up against each other these measurements will be used to determine the placement of the supports once those measurements are identified I will then Mark those measurements on my front and back pieces of the toe kick from there I will start assembly of the toe kick following the same procedure of first stapling everything together and then going back and securing everything with screws I will first attach everything to the front stretcher then I can stand it upright and add the back stretcher when using three quarter inch material as I am here I will typically use one and a half inch screws I also just pre-drill everything to avoid splitting of any wood so this right here is going to give you a better visual of the layout of the supports and how they are lined up perfectly with where the separate cabinets meet together these supports are more than suitable to ensure a stable cabinet base and will also give you something to drill into if needed the next part is the installation and leveling process and I start by marking all of the stud locations on the wall that the cabinets are actually going to be going on next I'm going to lay out my toe kick or toe kicks and I say kicks because in this scenario I actually built two because the Run of cabinets is about 14 feet long and for me personally I just find it a lot easier to build two separate ones and then attach them together during the assembly process now I recently installed a floating floor throughout the entire first floor of my home so what I am doing here is marking where my toe kick will sit and then I will actually cut this section of the flooring out this is not necessary for all flooring types however because it is a floating floor I don't want to pin it down and not allow it to move if needed to cut this portion of the flooring out I will actually remove as much as I can with the track saw and then I'm going to finish off the ends with an oscillating multi-tool once cut I can simply remove the pieces and place the two toe kicks back in place before beginning the leveling process I do want to make sure that I have the correct spacing from the walls on both sides this toe kick is the exact length of the cabinets and notice how there is a gap on both sides do not waste your time trying to fit everything perfectly into a space this is exactly what filler strips are for building this way will save you a lot of headaches in the future to level the base my favorite method is using a laser level and this I have just found to be the most accurate way to ensure level once the laser is set to the desired height it is simply a matter of taking your time to shim the base where needed take your time with this step the more time you spend here the more smoothly your box installation will go personally I like to use composite shims yes I know that they are a couple of dollars literally a couple of dollars more than wood shims but I do find them much more enjoyable to work with there isn't really any secrets with this process just add shims where needed until the base is parallel with the laser line after I have one side level I'll then attach the two bases together and I do this by simply driving a few screws from each side while also making sure that I have added shims where needed once attached I just continue down the base shimming when necessary so once I've gone through that whole process and I know that everything is level this is where I'm gonna go and I'm actually going to drive screws through the toe kick through the back side into the studs to secure the base while I do this I do continue to check to make sure that nothing has shifted while screwing it into the studs when I run into an area that there is a gap between the base and the wall which will almost certainly happen I will again use shims to fill that Gap failure to do so will likely cause the base to twist as you screw it into the wall the last thing that I like to do before placing the boxes on top of the toe kick is just secure the shims in place and I wouldn't say that this is absolutely necessary and you don't need to use screws like I'm doing here it's just that little assurance that those shims are not going to move and everything is going to stay nice and level from this point it's as easy as placing all of your boxes on the toe kick and I start by placing my base cabinet and just go down the row as you can see the cabinets are all sitting nice and level across the entire length next I like to attach all of those cabinets together prior to attaching them to the wall this is a personal preference for me and I find that it works quite well I would also like to highlight that this isn't going to work in all situations but in this example it works fine I like to line up the cabinets in the front clamp them together and then I'll always try to drill them together from the side that the screw will not be visible it will not always work out this way but here I have a bank of drawers so nothing will be visible once the drawers are installed and I always add screws to the front and the back after I've attached all of my cabinets together I will then Mark all the stud locations on the actual cabinets for quick reference I will follow the same shimming steps when attaching to the wall and I don't typically attach to every single stud again because the cabinets are all attached together at this point but I will try to attach them still in non-visible locations whenever possible now in the event that you also would like to attach these cabinets to the base this is where the t's and the L's come in handy as you now have something to screw them into on the bottom and that is how you can get Rock Solid level cabinets thanks for watching

Channel: Bent's Woodworking & More

Views: 273,612

Keywords: woodworking, woodworking tips, woodworking tips and tricks, how to, woodworking how to, woodworking channel, instruction, Jason bent, bents woodworking, woodworking tools, beginner woodworking, woodworking for beginners

Id: 4Xh3dmfrrd8

Length: 10min 5sec (605 seconds)

Published: Thu May 04 2023