Thread: DIY cabinet making

Welcome to the forum, I hope you get a lot of information out of it.

What woodworking equipment do you have, or intend getting, to make these kitchen cabinets?

Do you intend getting them precut and assembling them yourself?

Kitchen cabinets are most likely the easiest to build. It is basically a box.

The beauty comes from the doors, the bench top and the finishing touches and trims.

If you want to learn how it is done would be to actually build it. At the start of my real working life I used to work for a kitchen manufactuer. Not a full time job but one that I was able learn quite a bit. I never had to build a kitchen just help out every now and then.

Taunton press have a book that can be downloaded called Building traditional kitchen cabinets by Jim Toplin. Once you know how to make a quality cabinet you will be able to then choose the extent to which you want to cut costs and corners and what tools you need to purchase. All the best with it

Just had another idea. Richard Vaughan is in Brisbane and is a first rate woodwork teacher and genuine friendly guy. Give him a call and offer to buy a couple of hours worth of his experience and expertise. Will be money well spent.

Kitchen cabinets these days are made to a rough approximation of System 32.

I say rough approximation as the typical cabinet now is more about using the system 32 components (slides, hinges, connectors) than all the precise measures of the original concept (which was developed after WWII when a lot of rebuilding was needed in Europe).

It's called system 32, as 32mm was (the/a) standard spacing distance on multi-head line boring machines of the time.

The way a true system 32 cabinet works is that you only need one side panel; this panel is suitable as a shelved cabinet side, a drawer cabinet side, an oven cabinet side and so on. With no extra work, it will take two, three, four or more drawers as long as the drawer sizes are a multiple of 32mm.

A reasonable introduction is here: 32mm Cabinetmaking

The most definitive book I've seen was Modern Cabinetry: European Design and Construction Techniques - Jim Christ - Google Books

Hi,

Thanks very much for the helpful replies.

I need to build myself a 3m long office desk similar to the one in 01.jpg attached, but will have shelves, drawers and a filing cabinet underneath.

Where can I get the hardware for these, e.g. the draw runners (see 02.jpg), shelf pins and filing cabinet rails, etc.

Thanks,

Brandon.

If you can't beat'em join'em. Ikea kitchen boxes have 3mm edging & good hardware, just make doors & benchtops.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/ik...tickers-2014-2

or start your own tv show.... oh wait, I think fineboxes has that covered. Onya Steve!


EDIT: What happened to TT's post bagging Ikea & The Block?

http://www.elraco.com.au/

http://www.lincolnsentry.com.au/prod...alogue#/page/1

Originally Posted by Ball Peen

If you can't beat'em join'em. Ikea kitchen boxes have 3mm edging & good hardware, just make doors & benchtops.

3mm edging? I don't think so. 1mm edging is industry standard for white boxes and 2mm for doors/drawer faces and other seen panels.
They do use Blum hardware though, which, IMO, is pretty much the best you can get.

The construction of a standard cabinet is as follows:
The sides are the full height of the cabinet, with top and bottom running between. The back sits over the sides, top and bottom and keeps it all square.
So, the cutting list would be:
Back = height x width
Side = height x (depth - back thickness)
Top/Bottom = (width - 2x side thickness) x (depth - back thickness)
Adjustable shelves should be 1mm shorter than the top/bottom (fixed shelves are obviously the same as the top/bottom) and are generally set back 5-10mm. If they are more than about 800mm long, it's a good idea to have a row of shelf support holes in the middle of the back panel as well as the sides.