Thread: Will these rebates affect the strength of my cabinet?

How much weight will sit on the bottom (or even top) "shelf" of this design? That might prove to be an issue...

I would be more inclined to not include the rebate, and use Domino/Dowels and glue, or chipboard screw and glue.

You could also consider, if you're making a hanging cabinet, to make the sides full height, and the horizontal "shelves" would be "short" so that the screws or Domino/Dowels would be installed horizontally, thus adding to the weight carrying capability. In this way, if you used screws and wanted to hide them, you add a second side to the outside of each end cabinet to hide the joinery method.

Originally Posted by Pearo

So quick rundown. Cabinets are 18mm melamine. Going to be wall hung on french cleat in my shed. Just started to draw it up and I was trying to come up with a way to hide the rebate for the back panel from showing on the bottom, so I added some rebates to the top and bottom panel like so:

The ends dont matter, as I am going to build several of these units to run the length of a wall. My plan was to glue and use chipboard screws in the ends, but this kind of prevents me from using the screws. In my limited experience, I dont think this will be an issue as the strength of the join I assume comes from the glue itself.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Is there a better way to do this?

I used to work at a high end cabinet company in Sydney that produced many wall hung vanities (with doors, drawers, stone tops and basins) with rebates, but the rebated panels were the sides and they were made out of 18mm MDF. The top, back and bottom were 16mm particleboard.
Everything was glued and screwed and to my knowledge, we never had any problems.

I would put them in the sides as it effectively makes the shelf with the rebate only as strong as the thinnest part.

I would design for full height sides with top and bottom narrowed by the width of both sides, screwed together from sides through top and bottom, with a solid back (same material) the size of the opening screwed all round (both sides, top, bottom). If you wished, the back can be set back into the cabinet cavity by the depth of your french cleats, so the back edges sit flush to the wall you are mounting to, or could be set back slightly more to allow for minor scribing in if the walls aren't perfectly smooth and plumb.

I am very suspicious of rebates in mel panels, as there is very little material left once you set a countersunk screw flush with the surface or slightly below.

Thanks for the tips.

This is the way I had planned to do it originally (with dominoes to align and add extra strength)



But I was trying to hide the rebate from the back panel.



Like in the picture above, however I planned to use a dado cutter on the table saw, so the rebate would be visible. However, it just occured to me that I will have to apply edge banding to the cut end anyway, so I can plug the rebate (or not) and it will get hidden by the banding.