Built your own kitchen cabinets?

[tvgordon]

Has anyone built their own kitchen cabinets? 
I had to take down the over the stove cabinet because the new fridge was too tall to fit under it.  Then my wife says she would like a built in dishwasher so that means changing a base cabinet.  The cabinets are old and not to modern standards, so I can't easily remove a base cabinet or just part of one to make room for a dishwasher.  The cabinets we liked at Lowe's were about $100 to $150 a foot.  I would like to build them myself, but I wanted to hear from some of you who have built your own cabinets.
We don't want anything elaborate or exotic wood (we were thinking of using maple), so would it make more sense to build them or buy them?
Are you glad you made better cabinets than you could buy or, if you did it again, would you just buy the cabinets?
Thanks for your help,
Tom.

 

[Eli]

If you think of cabinets as boxes with doors, that sit on a 4" high (or whatever your kickspace is) box with no top or bottom, they are less challenging. If you use 3/4" ply for the boxes, you end up basing your face frame on 1 1/2" (two boxes next to each other, you cover the two box edges with the face frame). Old style is often a face frame for the full run with cleats against the back wall. Dishwashers are rarely in a 'cabinet' of their own, usually the cabinets are built up to them on either side, and they just sit in the hole in the middle, with the counter top spanning the width above them.

If you were going to rip everything out, you might find it a bit of a challenge if you haven't done a whole job, and having no kitchen can be daunting, and even life threatening if your wife is like almost every other wife I've ever met (I noticed you used the royal "We"). It depends on what you want from the experience.

If you want the kitchen up and running quick, and also don't want it to be too expensive, buying a flat pack system from Lowe's or elsewhere, much as I hate to say it, is the way to go. They will beat you in price unless you have access to a lot of free plywood like I did when I built my kitchen. In a hybrid job, you could install their system without doors and make those yourself.

Having said that, I was glad I could point to mine and say "I did those". But now I've sold the house and moved, and if I was to do it again I probably wouldn't. Keep in mind that if you stay in the house, your wife will make you rip them out again in ten years.

Two things to consider with that in mind. Solid wood boxes will last longer, can be painted, and you can always switch doors. But nothing except start over fixes a bad layout.

 

[eweber]

Hi Tom,

I am in the process of redoing my kitchen and I am building all the cabinets myself.
I am making cherry cabinet with face frames.

I break down the sheets with my TS55 but I found out I can't get the accuracy I want with it so I always cut the piece to final dimension on the table saw.
I have been using dado and rabbet joinery for the base cabinets. I found out that it is easier for me to square everything that way, the drawback being that you needs plenty of clamps to achieve the job.

For the top cabinets I have been using domino and rabbet for the back.

I have done the face frames with the help of the Domino. I also use some domino to align the face frame to the cabinet.

I don't know if you are planing to do your doors and drawer but if you do I have found that the toughest part is the finish!!! Getting something that looks professional and is durable has been a daunting task for me.

Hope this helps.

Emmanuel

 

[Qwas]

I bought my MFT-1080, TS-55, and PS-300 to do exactly that, in soft maple. It's been 1 year now and I have the top cabinets done, almost ready to start on the bottoms. I'm saving all my doors for last.

I am just a hobbyist woodworker. I bought a couple of books on kitchen cabinets to help. "Building Traditional Kitchen Cabinets" by Jim Tolpin is probably the best book on the subject but I have found helpful hints in other books.

The TS-55 and guide rails will do the job but a tablesaw does better. Expect to buy alot of tools. router, table router, joiner, planer, pocket hole jig or Domino, sanders, precision measuring tools (Incra rulers) and squares, and lots of clamps. I didn't have any of these and no workshop. It's cost me about $15,000 to get the tools and a workshop. Expensive cabinets!

My results have not been perfect but satisfactory.  It feels great to look at them and know I built it. Unless you're after that same feeling, I would recommend buying the cabinets and then install them yourself.

 

[eweber]

I second qwas on the tool buying experience. As I was building the kitchen my little basement shop turn into a quasi industrial setup.
Couple of my friends carpenter drop by once in a while just to grab a beer and be surrounded with tools. Drive my wife crazy ;D
I will post some pictures some day.

 

[clintholeman]

Building kitchen cabinets is only daunting in the mind before you do it.  Like someone said earlier, it is just a bunch of boxes sitting on a 4" base.  With some trim strips around to make up for the wall irregularities.

There is truly nothing magical about building the carcases, face frames, nor doors and drawers.  And, unlike the cabinets you might get from one of the big box shops:  they will be made likely of solid wood; you can get a new door/drawer front if you happen to break one; and they will look way better.

While it is one of the things I build for a living, my next door neighbor, who has never built anything before is doing it and his stuff is quite beautiful. Also, they will be there for a while.

I find that my FesTool system is more than adequate for building cabinets.  Accuracy is entirely a matter of you doing it.  It isn't necessarily a function of the tool. You don't need a cabinet saw [read finger eater].  And for the price of a decent one, you can get a FesTool system that will do very nicely.

Don't forget, that a HUGE part of making great cabinets is the finish.  Do an OK job on the construction and a great job on the finish and you'll get raves - do an OK job on a terrific construction job and it will look like it.  Fortunately there are many very good and pretty easy finishes that are available today.

My recommendations for a basic FesTool system for cabinets is:  a TS 55, MFT 1080, either a 1400 or 1010 router; Domino, of course; and a couple of the 6" sander [Rotex 150 being one].  I might also get the HL 850 planner if your kitchen is on the large size [or if you plan to do more stuf, which you likely will].

Just don't get in a big hurry and you'll do just great!!  Make sure your wife understands that it may take you a little longer.  And do it in phases - which is what my neighbor did.  And he hasn't had his whole kitchen torn up.

As they say i the commercial - Just Do It!!!!

 

[ccmviking]

You can't really make them better than you can buy them.  Main reason is the finishing.  Take a cabinet as an example.  Better stain and finish quality than any of us can hope to obtain plus they are finished on the interiors without a lot of overspray etc. Even if you don't get full plywood construction the interiors are finished with varigaurd (tm) which is a type of vinyl.  Most custom cabinets are particle board interiors that have to be painted white or they are melamine which all looks pretty crappy.  Another plus is that all the boxes are seperate so you don't get so much bug/rodent transfer if you live in an area where they are plentiful.  One downside to box cabinets is the sizes.  They are only available in 3" (6,9,12,15,18 etc.) increments so design is critical to keep from wasting space with fillers.  The drawer boxes are all 3/4" dovetailed hard wood (usually maple) and can be ordered with different glides including the full extension Blum's with Blumotion.  You can replaced a damaged part a few years down the road and get an almost exact match (depending on what aging the sun/lighting etc. does to them (the finish does have u.v. inhibitors).  There's a lot of fun and pride in building your own but a lot of time and anxiety as well.  I can send you a lot of pictures of installed box cabinet jobs with stacked molding etc.  I install a lot of them plus I also build cabinets.  I can go on and on about the difference but my favorite for most applications would definitely be Kraftmaid cabinetry.

Chris...

 

[clintholeman]

Chris-

I don't really agree with you about the finish.  There are some outstanding finishes available to anyone today.  Lots of them.

As to getting replacement doors and drawers, I get about 1 - 2 calls a week for them from folks who have bought cabs from the big box stores and find that they cannot get a replacement because they simply don't stock "that color" or "that door" anymore.

The cabinets with the Blum slides and hinges and dovetailed drawers are the $150/foot kind either.  Once you are in a quality arena, you are looking at substantially more.

 

[Hotwheels]

I am going to build kitchen cabinets in the near future ... I have to agree with Clint that a durable finish that looks professional is within the reach of the person who wishes to do the work. My wife built some bathroom cabinets in the style we plan to use for the kitchen and then finished them with just water based poly. We sprayed that on using an HVLP unit with good results. Finish is very important and there is some knowlege to acquire to understand the basics. We took a semester class in finishing at our local jr. college and it was of substantial help in understand what to do and how to do it. One of the big take away points was how to lay down a layer of finish and then apply stain between coats to make everything look as we wanted it to.  Our main concern in thinking about building our own cabinets was how to finish so that all the woodwork was not compromised by a mediocre finish. We invested the time and we know can do it.  That is my experience so far....

 

[Mark]

When we had our kitchen remodeled with custom cabinets was that we then had to put these crappy plastic inserts from Storables or IKEA into the drawers to organize the "stuff" that went inside. If you look at the Blum Tandembox Orga-line they seem to have a great system of interior organizer elements that I really covet over our beautiful custom dovetailed drawers (with Blum full extension undermounts of course). What I am getting at is that IF you are going to all the trouble of building custom carcasses and drawers really put some thinking into the "insides" of your kitchen. What I truly admire about IKEA, is that it is all one ecosystem of "stuff" that works together. OK, maybe it won't last very long but like Festool, it is the system of things that really makes their design outstanding to me. Has anyone done a custom system design for things like cutlery holders or knife blocks? I've got two friends that have installed IKEA kitchens and for the price they are pretty darn nice. Of course they aren't staying there forever or for ten years for that matter. I'm sure this will spark a great discussion or "diss-cussing" about IKEA

 

[Dan Clark]

I am going to build kitchen cabinets in the near future ... I have to agree with Clint that a durable finish that looks professional is within the reach of the person who wishes to do the work. My wife built some bathroom cabinets in the style we plan to use for the kitchen and then finished them with just water based poly. We sprayed that on using an HVLP unit with good results. Finish is very important and there is some knowlege to acquire to understand the basics. We took a semester class in finishing at our local jr. college and it was of substantial help in understand what to do and how to do it. One of the big take away points was how to lay down a layer of finish and then apply stain between coats to make everything look as we wanted it to.  Our main concern in thinking about building our own cabinets was how to finish so that all the woodwork was not compromised by a mediocre finish. We invested the time and we know can do it.  That is my experience so far....

John,

I'm thinking about an HVLP unit.  Which brand and model gun and compressor did you use?

Thanks,

Dan.

 

[Hotwheels]

Dan,
I bought an Accuspray 240. There are several other models that should work well for a home shop, but this one does what I need. I recently used it to spray Sherwin Williams pro white for a lot of baseboard, crown, and door molding and it worked great. Also used it for applying some lacquer for a bed my wife made and it worked well there too. We invested in the 3m Paint Protection System because it is less hassle and saves some time in cleanup. It is worth looking at if you do various types of finishes. Anyway, you probably know there are various HVLP units that work well for the small shop, but for me the Accuspray was an easy choice because of availability, support, and supplies.
John

 

[Eli]

Blum slides and hinges and dovetailed drawers are the $150/foot kind either.

NOT the $150/foot kind

I've got two friends that have installed IKEA kitchens and for the price they are pretty darn nice. Of course they aren't staying there forever or for ten years for that matter. I'm sure this will spark a great discussion or "diss-cussing" about IKEA

I like IKEA wardrobe and kitchen systems. She can change her mind all she wants, just move shelf slides and change doors. Also, IKEA is 32mm euro system I think, so if you like IKEA stuff Tom, it's a perfect excuse to buy the SYS LR-32!

 

[eweber]

Hi John,

What brand of water based poly did you used? I have exerimented with the General Finish one. It looks very nice but it stains (becomes dull) after using household cleaners (chlorox, dish soap). I want to use water based as it is the only thing I can spray safely in the house.

Emmanuel

 

[Dan Clark]

Dan,
I bought an Accuspray 240. There are several other models that should work well for a home shop, but this one does what I need.

John,

That's one of units I"ve been looking at.  That's a very nice system.  I guess the key issue for me is true HVLP vs conversion systems.  I keep reading conflicting information that one is better than the other.  I'm still wrestling with this.

We invested in the 3m Paint Protection System because it is less hassle and saves some time in cleanup. It is worth looking at if you do various types of finishes. .

This caught my eye a few months ago.  One of the things I dislike about finishing (regardless of method) is cleanup.  Even at the cost of extra materials and supplies, the 3M system looks like it would greatly reduce cleanup hassles and offer lots of flexibility.

Thanks,

Dan.

 

[Eric]

Not trying to hijack the thread.  I'm just trying to find info on the 3m Paint Protection System.

Thanks,
Eric

 

[Dave Rudy]

I'm just trying to find info on the 3m Paint Protection System.

Start here: http://www.finishingequipmentandsupplies.com/

I test drove one at AWFS in Las Vegas and was mucho impressed -- haven't really gotten to use it in the shop yet.  THe PPS system looks phenomenal -- it will work, by the way, with systems other than Accuspray, although they are by reputation the best.

HTH

 

[tvgordon]

Thanks for your input guys!  I actually have most (if not all) the tools needed to build the cabinets.  I've built wall cabinets that matched the cabinets that were already in the kitchen.  I would like to get a TS55 or 75 to break down the plywood for the sides of the cabinets.
The cabinets in the kitchen are painted white, so I didn't have to stain or apply a clear topcoat like I want to do if I build cabinets now.  I don't own spray equipment and I currently don't have room in my shop to set up a spray area, so what are my choices for a good looking a durable finish?  A wipe on poly maybe?  Also, if I remember right, I read an article by Frank Klause (is that right?) and he said he used an oil finish on his cabinets.  I was wondering about the durability, but he said they it was an easy to clean and easy to repair finish.  I'll have to find and read the article again.
Eli, I'm not in a hurry on the kitchen.  I just need to get one cabinet done soon so I can install my microwave.  I'll probably just build a few cabinets at a time and store them until they are all completed and can be installed.  I've never looked into the IKEA products.  I don't think there is a store near me and I haven't visited their website.
Tom.

 

[Eli]

Sounds like you should and will build them yourself. ;D

 

[eweber]

My first finish experimentations for the cabinets were with wipe on poly.
It is very easy to apply but it takes forever to cure. No matter what I tried I always got dust nib on the finish 

Emmanuel