getting starting with cabinet and built-ins

[ShawnRussell]

I am very much a hobby woodworker who has built mostly utilitarian items: bed, night stand, tv stand. All of my projects have four sides and sit flat on the floor. I am wanting to get into doing built in: book cases, bench seats, wall closets. However, I am somewhat lost as to where to start. Does anyone have a good book or video they would recommend?

What I find challenging is do you start off level and plum to the floor or to the wall? How much degree of error do you leave for bad framing/drywall? Do you build a full unit and then shim to the floor/wall or do you build a platform first and start building on top of that?  So many questions.

Cheers

 

[jmbfestool]

LoL. And all them questions all depend on what your building and what look you want at the end.

Building a base first is one of the easiest ways to do a built in.   You must get it level all round.

All though  saying that! Some times lets say your building a unit in a recess and the walls are leaning forward or back slighty either side of the built in  you would fit your built in to fallow the wall so making your unit out of plum.  

This is mainly because sometimes its better to LOOK right than it to be right cus if you was to ignore the wall being out and you just made your unit plum it could look bad and actually make it look like your unit is out and not the wall.  

These questions your asking I find a lot of workshop joiners struggle with.   A company I use to work for all the workshop joiners would say we site joiners where butchers!  But the thing is when they came onto the job their quality of work was so poor that a apprentice would of done a better job.  This was because they are not use to things being out and couldn't adapt to the situation.  

Simple things like skirting and hanging doors they couldn't do very well! One even said to the Forman I don't know where to start to hang this door. That was because the frame was a old frame it was out of square and had a slight bow.  I laughed my head off!   But they would hang doors in the work shop prior to sending it out to be fitted for us and do intregate work and moulds and produce good quality work (sometimes).

I found them amusing to watch and I was able to give them my 2cents after they kept telling me and a wood butcher!

Jmb

 

[Tinker]

I don't think I have a level spot on my shop floor.  If i work outside, my yard is all hillside.  If you drop a marble on any floor in my house, it will not remain where you dropped it.  My kitchen that i installed cabinets in about 20 some odd years ago has a floor that is an inch and a quarter out of level from one side to the other. Many of the old houses that i learned my trade in were so far out of level and plumb that you had to shim a glass of water to keep the water in the glass  [doh]

I just make sure i have a flat surface to work on.  all wood is planed flat and square and milled straight and square.  All corners must be SQUARE and sides parallel.  If all that is up to spec, your work will be square and parallel no matter where you put it.

I have run into problems such as with my kitchen installation.  The floor was way out of level and the walls were 3/4" from top to bottom.  when the cabinet maker was measuring for the cabs, I told him the floors were not level and the walls were 3/4" out of plumb.  He told me it made no difference.  Well, i did not argue with him.  I have had lots of experience (a mason by trade) with adjusting to such conditions and making everything look plumb, level and square even tho it is not.  When we got the cabs delivered, my SIL was there to help me with installation.  He put a level on floor and walls and declared we could not install the cabinets.  Well, I did show him how to do it.  A little chopped off of the bottom (the toe space), a hair off of the tile joints, chopping a bit of sheetrock from the bottom of one wall and the top of the far wall, and you cannot tell by looking unless you measure that the cabinets went into uneven space.  But all of the counters are dead level.

Work with what you have.  If your work space is not level, you decide whether you need to install a level floor or>>> how you can work with the problem.  Just give yourself a FLAT surface to work on whether it has to be level or not.
Tinker